Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/325

THE DOCTRINE OF TRANSMIGRATION 273 this last was not permitted to the Bramines, it was allowed to the Soudraes; the which was manifest from the heathen governor Sinanna, who, in the time of my residence at Paliacatta, ruled the city in the name of the king of Carnatica, who had married his brother's daughter. The heathen of Siam and Pegu also differ much herein from the heathen on the coast of Coro- mandel, since they may also wed with their father's brother's wife, which these may not do.' ' The belief of the Hindus,' continues Eoger in an- other chapter, ' is that more or less punishment doth befall the wicked after this life, and that some are to be punished in this world after their death, and some outside this world. And in what fashion all this is to take place we shall now set forth. They believe that it is because of sin that the souls of some pass from their bodies into another body so soon as they die. These heathen agree herein with Plato, who likewise was of the opinion that the soul of one migrateth to another, and not alone into the body of another man, but also into the bodies of beasts. This hath Plato believed, who was a marvel among the heathen in his time; this hath his disciple, Plotinus, also held to be good. But this hath displeased Porphyry, who hath thought that after death the souls of men migrate only into the bodies of men, and not into the bodies of beasts. And the reasons that moved him to make changes in the belief of his master were that he held it shameful for the soul of a mother to migrate into a mule and draw her own son. But he did not take into consid-