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ART. III. Indian Antiquities: or, Differtations, relative to the ancient ge graphical Divifions, the pure Syftem of primeval Theology, the grand Cyde of Civil Laws, the original Form of Government, the widely-extended Commerce, and the va rious and profound Literature, of Hindoftan: compared, throughout, with the Religion. Laws, Government, and Literature, af Perfia, Egypt, and Greece. The whole intended as Introductory to, and Illuflrative af, the Hiftory of Hind flan, upon a comprehenfive Scale. Volume VII. and Final. 8vo. White. 1800.

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THROUGHOUT the whole of this extenfive investigation into the antiquities of India, and of the great empires of Afia connected with it, we have uniformly endeavoured to do juftice to the views and plan of the author in undertaking it; and a regular and correct analyfis, as well of his Indian Hiftory, as of the prefent work, will be found in our preceding volumes. We applaud the induftiy and perfe verance that have enabled him to complete them; and it is no fmall gratification to us, to find the voice of public approbation, fo decidedly fanctioning the opinion, which, at the very commencement of our labours, we ventured to give concerning the utility, and, indeed, the neceffity of fuch a publication, in times like the prefent, to counteract thofe principles, which it is the conftant endeavour of infidelity to found upon perverted reprefentations of eallern hiftory and mythology.

To fill up the outlines which Mr. Maurice had fketched for the conduct of this now volumineus work, a differtation on the literature, and the arts and fciences anciently flourithing in India, and another on the jurifprudence of that country, were wanting. With thefe, and with another curious differtation on the treafures in bullion and coined money, amafled in the ancient world, the public are here prefented; and Mr. M.'s own account of the plan purfaed by him in difcoting thofe fubjects, will perhaps be the beft introduction the reader can have to the frictures contained in the volume. It is dedicated to two gentlemen, who land defervedly high in the line of their profeilion, Mr. Plumer and Mr. Dallas, to whom the author acknowledges to have been under confiderable obligations at his entrance upon the field of Oriental literature. In apology for engaging at all in legal difcuffion, Mr. M. urges, that a Differtation on Indian Jurifprudence formed a part of his original proposals, published long before Sir William Jones had favoured the learned

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Maurice's Indian Antiquities. Vol. VII.

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world with the tranflation of Menu's Inflitutes, which is now in the hands of moli profetfional men.

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Though that circumftance," he adds. "has enabled me greatly to curtail my difquifitions on that curious head of Indian literature yet it by no means releases me from the obligation I am under to the general clafs of my readers, who may not be in poffeffion of the work in queftion. The concife obfervations which I have ventured to offer on the legiflatue of India and that fingular code, compofed of fuch heterogeneous ingredients, that jargon (for fo 1 muft call it) of defpotifm to men and benevolence to brutes, of fenfe and abfurdity, of the fublime and the puerile, are the refult of confiderable attention to the fubject, founded partly on what I have been able to collect from ancient claffical writers, and partly from the few genuine Hindoo documents as yet in our poffeffion,"

Mr. M. then proceeds to explain himfelf on the other topics difcuffed in this curious final volume of his Antiquities, and clofes the Dedication in the following manner:

"The legal Differtation, though the laft in order of thofe that oc of this final volume, I have introduced first and more pages cupy the particularly to your notice, Gentlemen, becaufe it is the one in which you will probably find yourfelves molt interested. It contains two others, intimately connected with Indian commerce and literature, to which I beg permiffion to make thefe dedicatory pages fomewhat introductory.

When the Arabian chiefs, in the feventh century of the Chriftian æra, poured their myriads into the plains of Hindoftan, they found there fuch fuperabundant wealth, the tribute of all nations for innume rable ages, as occafioned the writers of that country to invent the romantic fiction that, among other rarities peculiar to India, a tree was discovered there of pure gold, and of enormous fize, fpringing na turally out of the foil, thus realizing Milton's fable of the vegetable gold that grew in the delightful paradife of his fancy. According to writers, however, hereafter referred to, of fomewhat better authenticity than thofe fablers, nothing could equal, in the ancient periods that preceded their irruption, the aftonifhing magnificence displayed in the The lofty roofs and columns of those flupendous edifices pagodas. are reported to have been entirely covered with that beautiful metal; the high-raifed altars blazed with a profufion of gems; the breafts and veftures of their monftrcus idols were covered with ftrings of the lovelieft pearl, while their eyes fparkled with the borrowed luftre of emeralds and rubies. I thought it could not fail of being peculiarly interefting to that very large and refpectable portion of my readers who are commercially connected with India, to trace to their fource, in the vaft, but now probably exhaufted, mines of Africa and Afia, the ftreams of that amazing wealth, by way of appendix to the Differtation on the ancient commerce of India in the fixth volume of thefe

"See Orme's Hindoftan, vol, i. p. 9.”

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Antiquities. The picture, it must be owned, is extremely gaudy and magnificent, but I truft it is not overcharged.

"The arts and fciences of India, which I have confidered under the general head of its literature, were carried, in periods of the most remote antiquity, to fo high a point of excellence as opens to the European scholar an immenfe field for reflection. In this inftance also I have endeavoured to do the ancient Indians ftrict justice with-out exaggeration; but, on fome points principally relating to their unparalleled advance in mechanical fcience, confiderable difficulties arifing, and there being fuch a deficiency of written materials in EuHope for proving the points contended for; to fubftantiate thofe points I have had recourfe to the following, plan of investigation and decifon, in which, if my author Sir William Jones was, as I have every reafon to think, correct in his original pofitions, I could scarcely fail of being alfo correct in my deductions.

"By a train of forcible arguinents, ftrengthened by an ingenious. aftronomical calculation, that equally zealous and judicious explorer into the genuine antiquities of Afia has fixed the period of the first promulgation of Menu's Inftitutes to that of the eftablishment of the first monarchies in Egypt and Afia, which could not have taken place many ages pofterior to the deluge; and their first publication, as a code of written laws, to about the year 1280 before Chrift. Now when we read in that code of the engraving and piercing of gems, and particularly of diamonds, an art only recently known in Europe, we know they must neceffarily have had the ufe of thofe fine steel inftruments without which that operation could not poffibly have been performed, and confequently that they must have been very excellent metallurgifts as early after the deluge as can well be conceived. Again, when, in the fame book, we read of a particular caft, or class, whofe fole occupation it is to attend filk-avorms, we can afcertain, however difputed in favour of the Chinese at a later date, the very early period when filk-weaving flourished in India. To the fame decifion we are irrefiftibly led in refpect to the art of making pottery and porce lain, which induced me to conclude that the ancient Murrhins were not cryftal or agate, but a fine kind of porcelain, and I rejoice to find that fo good a judge of the fubject as Dr. Vincent confirms the fact contended for. A variety of fimilar proofs may be brought of their having been, in thofe ancient periods, good chemifts, aftronomers, architects, geometricians, and even anatomifts, an affertion fo often and ftrenu oufly denied; and, for thefe proofs, I refer the reader to the parts of the Differtation that relate to thofe facts.

"Such, Gentlemen, is the fpecies of entertainment which I have endeavoured gratefully to provide for yourfelves and the indulgent public in the prefent volume of Indian Antiquities; and, while I take a final adieu of a fubject that has engroffed fome years of my life, moft tervently do I hope that my humble effays may only be the forerunner

* An ingenious Frenchman, however, in the Mem. de l'Inftit. Literature, tom. ii. p. 133, contends, and feems to prove, that it was a fpecies of Chalcedony, called in French Girafol, or cacholong. Rev.

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of fome grander effort more fully and effectually to difplay them, fince my mind is eternally impreffed with the conviction from which, indeed, I have uniformly acted, that every additional research into their early annals and history will ultimately tend (not to weaken and fubvert, as the fceptic vainly prefumes, but) to ftrengthen and fupport the Mofaic and Chriftian codes, and, confequently, the highest and best interefts of MAN."

The Differtation on the treafures amaffed, in gold and filver bullion, and in coined money, in the ancient world, and particularly in India, the refult of its vaft commerce in every age, exhibits an astonishing difplay of wealth; and the golden current is traced down, by various channels, from Sofala, one great fource of the riches of Tyre and Sidon, through Lydia, Babylon, and Judea, first into the overflowing treafury of the all-conquering Alexander, and his Greek captains; and then into the prodigious vortex of Rome, flourishing in the zenith of its power, its rapacity, and its luxury. The account of the effect which the accumulation of wealth that fucceeded the conqueft, by Cyrus, of the Lydian and Babylonian empires had on the Perfian character, and the confequent magnificence affumed by the princes, his fucceffors, is given in the warm and vivid colouring, not unufual in the pages of this writer. It contains the fubftance of what has been delivered on this head by the claffical writers of antiquity, and is as follows:

"Never was there a more fudden change effected in the manners of a nation than that which took place in Perfia, after the conquest of Babylon. The honourable indigence, the ftrict regimen, and laborious exercises, in which from infancy they had been trained, were now fucceeded by an oftentatious magnificence, a luxurious diet, and an indolent effeminacy. With the wealth, they caught the habits of the Lydians, and wallowed in all that unbounded voluptuoufnels for which the former are branded in the page of hiftory. During the life of Cyrus, indeed, his example and authority kept up in the army fome remains of the fancient difcipline; but the princes and nobles delighted rather to follow the example of Crofus, and were plunged in exceffes of every kind. The fucceffors of Cyrus on the throne of Perfia feemed to think the dignity of that throne was better fupported by fplendor than virtue, and aimed to fecure the abject obedience of their fubjects, by dazzling them with a glory that feemed more than human; fo devored indeed were they to the fhameless gratification, at any price, of their licentious and ftimulated appetites, and fo far had they exhaufted every fource of known terreftrial enjoyment, that one of them, it is well known, was not afhamed, by a public edict, to offer a fplendid reward to any perlon who should invent a new pkafure.

"Ancient writers fpeak with rapture of the beauty of imperial Sufa, and the magnificence of its fumptuous palace, fo highly diftin

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guifhed, as to have been the refidence, during three months of the year, that is, during the fpring feafon, of the great Shah-in-Shah, as Ecbatana was, during the fummer. The walls and ceilings of this palace were overlaid with gold, ivory, and amber, exhibiting the nobleft defigns, wrought in the moft exquifite tafte. Its lofty throne of pure gold was raifed on pillars refulgent with jewels of the richest luitre. The monarch's bed, alfo of pure gold, we have already noticed, as fhaded with the golden plane tree and vine prefented by Pythias, on whofe branches hung clusters of emeralds and rubies. He -repofed his head on a cafket containing five thoufand talents of gold, which was called the king's bolster; and his feer refted on another, containing three thoufand talents of the fame metal. Every province of his vait empire daily furnished one difh, loaded with the richest rarities produced in it. He drank no water, but the pure cold wave of the Choafpes, carried with him in filver veffels, whitherfoever he went. His bread was made of the fineft wheat in Phrygia; Egypt fupplied him with falt; the rich high-flavoured wines of Damafcus alone fparkled in his cup; the fofteft, fweeteft melodies foothed him during the banquet; and the lovelieft women of Afia beguiled his hours of domeftic retirement. When he marched to battle, the pomp of the proceffion was to the laft degree fplendid and folemn; and has been minutely defcribed by Herodotus, Arrian, and Curtius; of whofe various relations the following is the refult.

"It commenced the moment the fun appeared above the horizon. At that inflant, a trumpet, founding from the king's pavilion, proclaimed the appearance of its beam, and a golden image of its orb, inclofed in a circle of cryftal, was difplayed on high in the front of that pavilion. The Perfian banner, which was a golden eagle, the eagle of the fun, with its wings expanded, being alfo elevated, a body of Magi carrying on filver altars the facred and eternal fire, believed to have defcended from heaven, advanced firft. Then followed another band of Magi, chanting hymns in honour of the fun; and 365 youths, to reprefent the number of the days of the reformed year, clothed in flame-coloured vefts, and bearing a golden rod, the fymbol of his ray. After thefe, marched a large body of horfe and men, bearing fpears with their points downward. Ten confecrated horfes, of furpaffing magnitude, bred on the Nifean plains, and caparifoned with furniture that glittered all over with gold and gems, preceded the chariot of the fun (for fuch it was, though called by Herodotus that of Jupiter) empty, and drawn by eight white horfes, the equerries attending them clothed in white vefts, and alfo hearing in their hands golden wands. Next came the Perfian band, called immortal, ten thousand in number, all wearing collars of pure gold, and arrayed in robes of gold tiffue. Next came the male relations of the fovereign, habited in purple vetts, fringed with precious ftones and pearl. The king followed immediately after, in a chariot drawn by Nifæan horfes, a living mine of gold and rubies, and darting from his own perfon a glory fcarcely lefs refplendent than that of the fun, whom he reprefented. He appeared feated on a throne, elevated above the chariot that bore him, and fuftained by coloffal figures of the Genii of the Perfian mythology, caft in pure gold. The chariot was of gold, and from the centre of the

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