We must now complete the dreadful picture of Indian penance which we are exhibiting, by introducing the reader to the ancient Gymnofophift, or modern Yogee. The YOGEES, or ancient Gymnofophifts, are, as their name, derived from yuuvos, nudus, and coços, fapiens, implies, abfolutely divested of all covering, as well to shew how contemptible, in their opinion, the body is in comparison of the divine gueft that inhabits it, as for convenience; fince Dindamis, one of them, in his fpeech to Alexander, acutely enough obferved, "that is the most fuitable habitation for a philofopher which is the least encumbered with furniture." Of all the ancient writers on India, Strabo perhaps is moft to be depended upon; fince he profeffes to have acquired his information, relative to India, from those who had been ambassadors at Palibothra, the prefent Patna. Strabo gives us two remarkable inftances of the voluntary feverities which two of these gymnosophists inflicted upon themselves: the first, far advanced in years, hoped to obtain heaven by lying conftantly extended upon the hard ground without any covering, expofed to all the fer vours of a tropical fun, and without any shelter from the drenching rains, which, at particular X X X 4 1 particular feasons, defcended in torrents.* The fecond, who was more in the vigour of life, laboured to obtain the fame immortal boon by standing on one leg for a whole day, and bearing aloft, at the fame time, with both his erected arms, an immenfe piece of wood.+ Pliny acquaints us, that fome gymnosophists would fix their eager and ftedfast eyes upon the fun from the time of his rising till his setting; while others, at the fame time, would stand on one foot, alternately varying the foot on which they stood, for a whole day, in the midst of burning fands, without shrinking or complaining. The original in Pliny is as follows: "Philofophos corum, quos gymnofophiftas vocant, ab exortu ad occafum perftare, contuentes folem IMMOBILIBUS OCULIS, ferventibus arenis toto die alternis pedibus confiftere." He might have added the epithet of nudis to pedibus; for, the gymnofophifts, as the name implies, entirely reject every fort of covering for the body, even that which decency requires. Cicero, fpeaking of the gymnofophifts,' warmly commends their invincible patience and undaunted fortitude. These men, fays that P. 491. * Strabo, lib. xv + Ibid. that eloquent writer, with equal firmness endure the feverity of the fnows of Caucafus while they live, as they brave, when life verges on expiration, the fire that terminates their life of torture.* Alluding to the fuicidal flames in which Cadmus and Zarmanochagas perished. This particular fubject of their fometimes confuming themselves, while yet living, on the funeral pile, and the general custom in India of burning their dead, I shall make the laft article of confideration in this extensive and final chapter of the Indian Theology. Arrian, fpeaking of this fame race, obferves; These people live naked. In winter they enjoy the benefit of the fun's rays in the open air; and, in the fummer, when the heat becomes exceffive, they pass their time in moist and marshy places under large trees; which, according to Nearchus, cover a cir cumference of five acres, and extend their branches fo far, that ten thousand men may eafily find shelter under them.† Porphyry enters into the fubject more extenfively, and makes a juft difcrimination between the Brachmans and Gymnofophifts, or Sa maneans, Tufc. Quæft. lib. v. † Arrian, lib. vii. p. 275, edit. Gronovii, and confult the engraving here annexed. maneans, as he calls them. He fixes very accurately the place of refidence of the former, fome on the mountains, by which he probably meant the old college at Naugracut, and fome on the Ganges, at Cafi and Patna. Those on the mountains, he says, feed on fruits and cows' milk, congealed with herbs (probably curds, or ghee); thofe on the Ganges eat the abundant vegetables and wild barley that grow in its neighbourhood. In refpect to the Samaneans, or Sarmans, as Clemens calls them, he characterises them very juftly as men voluntary depriving themselves of all worldly wealth and advantages, fhaving their heads and beards, and refolutely quitting their wives and children for the defert. He defcribes them as living there upon herbs and water alone, ast reluctantly bearing the load of life, and, inflamed with the hope of tranfmigrating into a better state, as impatiently panting for the hour of their departure.* There is no neceffity to cite farther the fentiments of the ancients on the fubject of these rigid devotionists. Let us turn to the more authentic accounts of the moderns, and exemplify the train of general obfervations preceding 1655 Porphyry de Abftinentia, lib. iv. p. 167, edit. Cantab. preceding by particular inftances of individuals, who have been seen, by modern travellers, in the act of fuffering the almostincredible feverities alluded to above. One of them, whofe veracity may be depended upon, has illuftrated the fubject with a very curious print of YOGEES in various attitudes of penance; and, fince that print reprefents fo ftrikingly both thofe devotees and the great banian-tree of India, of which fo ample an account was inferted in a preceding volume, I have had it engraved, by a very correct artist, for the inspection of those, whose curiofity may have been excited by the detail of their fufferings in this volume. It would have been inconfiftent with propriety, though not with the delicacy I could wish to have been preferved, to have given any covering to deluded wretches, whofe glory it is to have caft off every vestment, and with it the very sense of thame: the figures, I truft, are upon too smale a scale to excite any difguft in the reader. It was to avoid giving offence that I forbore to have engraved, as it merited, upon a larger plate, that mighty tree, under whose fhade they dwelt, and which may be truly called the monarch of the vegetable world.* • Confult the defcription of it, vol. iii. p. 492. One |