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Art. III.—Account of the Wáralís and Kátodís,—two of the Forest Tribes of the northern Konkan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2011

John Wilson
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Extract

That India is not the cradle of the Brahmanical faith, may be a proposition startling to many who are not acquainted with its ancient literature. To the orientalíst of the humblest pretension, however, it needs no proof. The predecessors of the Brahmans, it is admitted by all who hare considered their records and traditions, were first associated together as a religious fraternity in a country beyond the Indus, or exterior to the Himálaya mountains. Our greatest men are divided in their opinions as to the country from which they came. Sir William Jones brings them from Iran, or Central Asia; Adelung from a similar locality; Klaproth, from the Caucasian mountains; Kennedy, from the plains of the Euphrates; and Schlegel, from the borders of the Caspian Sea. The theories of these scholars are all plausibly supported; and they generally agree in this respect, that they take it for granted, that the Brahmans in ancient times were found in the territories immediately north of India. The occurrence of about three hundred Sanskrit words in the Persian language, the Hindú notion of the northern position of the residences of the gods, the situation of the Manusarovar, or Lake of Intelligence, still a celebrated place of religious pilgrimage, and the source of the river Brahmaputra, whose etymological meaning, the “son of Brahma,” is similar to that of the usual designation of the priestly class to whom I refer, are in favour of this agreement. After the Brahmans entered India, they continued for a considerable time to inhabit its northern territories. The “Holy Land” of Manu, which is of no great extent, lies between the Drishadwatí and Saraswatí. On the banks of the latter river, according to some authorities, lived Vyása, the reputed compiler of the Vedas and Puránas. In the north are to be found the shrines, junctions of rivers, and lakes, esteemed most sacred by the Hindús in all ages.

Type
Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 7 , Issue 13 , January 1843 , pp. 14 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1843

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References

page 14 note 1 See Kennedy, on the Affinity of Languages.Google Scholar

page 14 note 2 Manu, ii. 17.Google Scholar

page 14 note 3 See H. H. Wilson's preface to his Translation of the Vishnu Purána.

page 15 note 1 The country intermediate between the Taptí and the Daman-Gangá.

page 15 note 2 This is evident from the numerous cave-temples, and other monuments of tha Bauddhas, and the edicts of Asoka, and other princes, the patrons of their faith, which are found throughout India. It is a curious fact, that a few months after I put into the hands of the late James Prinsep, Esq., the fac-simile of the Bauddhist inscriptions of Girnár, procured for me after my visit to that celebrated mountain by my friend Captain Lang, the exact counterpart of what is most important in them, though in a less perfect state, was found by Lieutenant Kittoe so far distant as Dhaulí in Kattak.

“The opinions of the learned,” I have said in another place, “are divided as to the superior antiquity of the Buddhist and Brahmanical systems. The extensive geographical distribution of the Bauddhas, giving to Hindúism an almost insular situation, has formed the most plausible plea on their behalf; but it is entirely destroyed when it is borne in mind, that the Singhalese, Burmese, Chinese, Tibetans, &c., as Mr. Hodgson remarks, point to India as the father-land of their creed, have all their ancient books in the language of that country, and set forth the founders of their faith merely as reformers, or improvers, of Brahmanism. How far Hindúism, in its most ancient forms, may have countenanced them in their speculations and practices, it is difficult to determine. In their controversial works, they point to numerous precedents and authorities to be found in the Hindú Sástras. They are decided fatalists in their notions, teaching the eternity both of matter and spirit, while the Hindús, as spiritual pantheists, deny the reality of matter. From their first appearance as sectaries, they have had a great aversion to animal sacrifices, and a lore of the monastic life.”—Memoir of Mrs. Wilson.

page 18 note 1 O is a Gujaráthí termination of a masculine noun, and á, a Maráthí, The village of Rakholí is intermedíate between Gujarat and Máhárashtra.