A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations/Hindoos

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.

This doctrine, so universally prevalent in Asia, that man is a fallen creature, gave birth to the persuasion, that by severe sufferings, and a long series of probationary discipline, the soul might be restored to its primitive purity. Hence oblations the most costly, and sacrifices the most sanguinary, in the hope of propitiating the angry powers, forever loaded the altars of the pagan deities. They had even sacrifices denominated those of regeneration, and those sacrifices were always profusely stained with blood.

The Hindoos suppose that the vicious are consigned to perpetual punishment in the animation of successive animal forms, till, at the stated period, another renovation of the four jugs, or grand astronomical periods, shall commence upon the dissolution of the present. Then they are called to begin anew the probationary journey of souls, and all will be finally happy.

The destruction of the existing world by fire is another tenet of the bramins.

The temples, or pagodas, for divine worship in India, are magnificent; and their religious rites are pompous and splendid. Since the Hindoos admit that the Deity occasionally assumes an elementary form, without defiling his holiness, they make various idols to assist their imaginations, when they offer up their prayers to the invisible Deity.

Besides the daily offerings of rice, fruits, and ghee, at the pagodas, the Hindoos have a grand annual sacrifice, not very unlike that of the scape-goat among the Hebrews. They inculcate various and frequent ablutions, which are intended as means of purifying their souls from sin.

The Hindoo religionists are divided into a great variety of sects, but ultimately branch forth into two principal ones; those of Vishnu and Siva, the worshippers of the Deity in his preserving and destroying capacities.

There subsists to this day a-among the Hindoos a voluntary sacrifice of too singular and shocking a nature to pass unnoticed; which is that of the wives burning themselves with the bodies of their deceased husbands. These women are trained from their infancy in the full conviction of their celestial rank; and the belief that this voluntary sacrifice is the most glorious period of their lives; and that thereby the celestial spirit is released from its transmigrations, and the evils of a miserable existence, and flies to join the spirit of their deceased husbands in a state of purification.

In a particular district of Bengal, religious veneration is paid to the cow; in former times it was universal through Hindostan. This animal is venerated in a religious sense, as holding in the rotation of the metempsychosis the rank immediately preceding the human form; and in a political sense as being the most useful and necessary of the whole animal creation, to a people forbidden to feed on any thing which has breathed the breath of life.

From the earliest period, the people of India, like the Chinese, seem to have maintained the same religion, laws, and customs. The religion of the Hindoos, though involved in superstition and idolatry, seems to have been originally pure; inculcating the belief of an eternal and omnipotent Being; their subordinate deities, Brama, Vishnu, and Siva, being only representatives of the wisdom, goodness, and power of the supreme Brahme, Whom they call "The Principal of Truth, the Spirit of Wisdom, and the Supreme Being;" though others think them emblematic of the mysterious doctrine of the trinity, as believed by the ancient Hebrews.

It is a singular circumstance that there is a striking similarity between the sacred rites of the Hindoos and those of the ancient Jews; for instance, between the character of the bramins or priests, and the Jewish levites; between the ceremony of the scape-goat, and a Hindoo ceremony, in which a horse is used for the goat. Many obsolete customs, alluded to in the old testament, might also receive illustration from the religious ceremonies of the Hindoos. They are perfectly indifferent about making proselytes or converts to their religion, alleging, that all religions are equally acceptable to the supreme Being; and that his wisdom and power would not have permitted such a variety, if he had not found pleasure in beholding them.

Mr. Halhcd, in his code of Gentoo laws, has translated an extract from a preliminary discourse to their code, which represents the Gentoo as the most tolerant of all religions. According to this extract, "the diversities of belief among mankind, are a manifest demonstration of the power of the supreme Being. For it is evident that a painter, by sketching a multiplicity of figures, and by arranging a variety of colours, procures reputation among men; and a gardener gains credit by producing a number of different flowers. It is, therefore, absurdity and ignorance, to view in an inieriour light, him, who created both the painter and gardener". Our author goes on to infer, from the varieties in created things, that the supreme Being has appointed and views different forms of religious worship with complacency. It has, however been said, that even the tolerance of which the Gentoo religion boasts, is confined to the diversities among themselves. But Sir Wm. Jones thinks, that the reason christianity is not more readily received among them—is, that they confound their own religion with it, and consider the advent of Christ, as nothing more than one of the incarnations of Vishnu.

The baptist society, which was founded in 1792, for evangelzing the heathen, first sent two. of their ministers;, viz. Mr. J. Thomas, and Mr. W. Carey, to this country: and all their communications, as well as the testimonies of many others who have made particular inquiry into these things, fully confirm the above remarks.

For seven years Mr. Carey and his colleague, with another who joined them, seem to have laboured without any real success. But in the latter end of the year 1800, after the arrival of four more missionaries, and when they had formed a settlement at Serampore, in the vicinity of Calcutta, success began to attend their labours. The new testament, which had been translated into Bengalee, was now printed; and several of the natives, who, it had been said, would never relinquish caste, cheerfully made this sacrifice, and were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. From that time to this they have been gradually increasing; and the scriptures have been translated into several of the eastern languages; missionaries have also been sent from other societies.