The Arian Witness

The Vedic sacrifices, as reviewed in the last chapter, were doubtless curious and peculiar iu themselves. They were not intended merely for the gratification of particular gods or supernatural powers having a relish for the fumes of fat burnt offerings. They seem to have had a higher object in view. The limb of the victim ss it was thj-own into thft Fire was accosted aa the armulmeni of sin — not only the sacrifieer'a own sins, but the sins of all gods and men — that ia to say, of the whole world. And along with this, we have the self-sacrifice of Prajapati, the Lord of creatures, the Purusha, begotten in the beginning of the world, out of whose limbs, as the body was cut up, sprang the different orders of, men of wbich Indian society was composed.

Legends such as these naturally suggest the question of the origin of such conceptions in the Arian mind. Doubtless we recognize in them a hazy representation, a distorted view, of the great mystery of Christianity, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and of the church, which was his body, the house-

. hold of God, the spiritual society comprehending all believers. But how came the Ariana to have got any insight into such a mystery so eajly as the age of the Vedas?

Abel's and Noah's sacrifices were accepted — the former having been so, by reason of the saerijieer^i faith, and of the latter it is recorded that the Lord smelt a aweei savour. The last words are parallel to the concluding expressions in Eph. v. 3 " As Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an ofiering and a sacrifice to God for A sweet smelun<j SAVOUR." It is inconceivable that Abel's and Noah'g sacrifices should be described as we find them to be, unless they were typical, of the great Sacrifice mentioned in the text just cited, and unless both sacrificers were cognizant, to some extent at least, of the mystery of the Lamh slain from the foundation of the world. And there is no reason to suppose that either of them would put his candle under a buehel. Whatever they may have learnt by divine revelation on the subject would be naturally communicated to their cbildreu and contemporaries, and thus the teaching might somehow be transmitted to the ludo-Arian family — subject of course to such errors and distortions as were unavoidable under the circumstances. The stream of Truth is always liable to be tainted and coloured as it flows over the soil of human tradition.

Instead therefore of attributing the self-sacrifice »nd the immolation of the Purusha, to the barbarous custom of human sacrifices, of which there was hardly any trace among the Arians at so early an age, and which could not in any case account for all that is said on the subject, a better and more generous, as well as a more complete and consistent course it would be, to refer them to traditions of such divine disclosures as we have already mentioned.

Those traditions have no doubt been overlaid in India with many puerile additions, and tinctured with many arbitrary speculations, betraying a morbid fancy and a predilection for indecent and even obscene figures and images, by which their truthfulness and purity have been seriously affected.

The gold has become dim by the alloy which has been mixed up by unholy and impure hands. As far, however, as the original Vedas refer to the selfdevotion of the "Lord of creatures," "begotten in the beginning," and to the primeval institution of sacrificial ceremonies as a typical " reflection" thereof, in which the sacrificer was himself the victim, they may be held, apart from subsequent concretions, to be evidences of ideas, originally pure, but afterwards debased under the corrupt suggestions of a wild imagination, in the absence of corrective influences^ There are words and phrases among the citations made in the last chapter which cannot be accounted for, except as indications of something which underlay all sacrifices, such as those which Noah and Job had acceptably offered — something which related to Him-. toho gave Mia life a ransom for many, and who was Himself the victim and Himself the priest. And so fcir th& original legends of the Indo-Arians are in their pristine purity strongly confirmatory of a fundamental principle of Christian doctrine.

The overlaid impurities are doubtless as gross aa they are numerous, but that only proves that the ■writers of the Vedas failed to place their traditional doctrine on the right foundation. That "other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ,'" is not the dictum of an exclusive enthusiast. It is replete with most important lessons to mankind. A sound structure requires a sound foundation. The mystery of the faith must be held in a pure eonsdienee.* The best of doctrines will fail in the hands of bad characters. True principle requires a true personality As its basis. The doctrine of the Lord of creatures' Self-devotion, — of the sacrifice of Purusha " begotten in the beginning," could not be safe where the Lord of creatures and the Puruaha were identified with false personalities. Purity cannot subsist with impurity. The Brahmins have not dared to attribute to Brahm&, or any other god, with whom they afterwards identified Prajapati, the self devotion and the primeval sacrifice recorded in the Vedas. Brahm& lost his credit in the Hindu pantheon for an attempt at incest, and the original teaching of the primeval sacrifice was foigotten. Like the sacred initial of the riftme of king Ahaz,' when he fell into idolatry, it was perhaps abandoned under an intuitive feeling of reverential awe. This is a suggestive warning to all who concoct religions. We have often heard of men instituting a religion, or forming a religioaa p»jrfej^-^a society claiming to be the household of GaiJ.. No such fabrication can have the sanction of TrutU. It is as impossible for man to fabricate a hoMigelipld of God, as to make a god himself. The one i# as gyoae idolatry as the other.

The sacrificial ceremonies of the Vedas when tJjeir original principle was placed on a wrong fQ))nda> tion soon became languid. They dwindled sf i^hin a short time into mere mummeries. The life, which they may have possessed in the beginning, becsJUQ extinct under the deleterious influences of polyth^pj and idolatry. The pantheon itself showed the instability of the whole system. Agni lost his position, as the doctrine of sacrifices became debased. Indra and Varuna, the great divinities of the Vedas, were superseded by other upstart gods, and the Vedas were neglected, as later compositions, written in language more popular, rose in Brahminical estimation. The Brahmins became the arbiters of society. New Sastras were concocted to enhance their dignity. Their aspirations after worldly power naturally led to contests between kings and priests. The former trusted to tlieir bow and arrow, the latter to supernatural powers which, in that ignorant age,, even royalty admitted and quailed under. The Brahminical hierarchy relying on the popular dread of maledictions uttered by priestly lips, hurled defiance against the sovereignty of princes, whenever the latter proved disobedient and refractory. The anathema of Brahmins would haunt the priest-ridden minds of Khet- triyas by day and by night, if ever they incurred sacerdotal wrath. The legend of Haria Chandra who had consented to sell his queen and his only son, the -heir-apparent of his throne, and had also submitted his own self to the vilest of servitudes, merely to avert the consequences of a priest's resentment, bears conclusive evidence of the extent to which Brahminlcal ascendancy had risen.

But, to borrow an idea from our indigenous poets, there is always a limit to rise and fall in all worldly affairs, as in the motion of a chariot wheel. As a spoke or a point in the tire ascends by that motion, it can only attain a certain height, and then it must tend downwards. The moon herself verifies this maxim by her phases. She wanes after wasiog to her fulness. The Brahminical ascendancy was no exception to this rule. In the very royal line to which Haria Chandra had himself belonged, a prince at length arose, determined to dissolve the spell by which the popular mind was bound in servitude to the Brahmins. *' S'akya Muni imposed on himself the task of reforming the religion of his country. He cared not, like Vis'wamitra, for promotion to the Brahminical College-— nor, like Janaka, for occasional participation in their exclusive privileges — nor yet for inflicting such temporary humiliation on the priestly order, as was implied in E&machandra's triumph over Parusa'r&ma. -Disgusted, when young, with the evils of disease and death, he renounced the pleasures of dignity and royalty, and went about preaching every where on the necessity of seeking for Nirvana, or releasefrom transmigrations, as the only remedy for the evils of life. He pronounced the rites and ceremonies of the Veda to be idte sports, and the exclosive priyileges arrogated by the Brahmins, to be empty pretensions. He assailed the authority of the very books on which those pretensions were founded. He declared that the division of castes was a mere human invention, and invited all ranks to assemble under his banners on a footing of equality. The Brahmins add that he also denied the immortality of the soul, and pronounced the expectation of a future world to be a vain reverie.* Whether Buddhism was really liable to the charge of materialism preferred against it by the Brahmins, or not, it certainly had no divine revelation to plead for its support, nor oonld it appeal to any tradition in its favour. It could only stand on its rational pretensions. The study of philosophy and metaphysics was therefore absolutely needed for its very existence. So long as men believed in the infallibility of the Veda, they could appeal to its texts for the decision of controversies and the solution of doubts. But when revelation was ignored, disputes could only be settled by the verdict of reason. The necessities of Buddhism rendered the cultivation of logic and metaphysics absolutely indispensable, and thus were the first attempts at philosophy called forth in India. Hence it was that the terms Baituka and ffetu-8'd»tra were applied to heretical aptema." (From the author'a Dialoguea on the Hindu PMlosopky, p. 47.)

Buddhism was, however, a mere negative system. Its strong weapons were those of opposition to Brahminical tenets which had fallen into disrepute. It inveighed against the purposeless doctrine of sacrifices, as it then presented itself in the forgetfulnesa of its original principles. It condemned the wanton des* truction of animal life which the ceremonies involved without any redeeming feature in their objects. Its declamation against caste found an echo in the hearts of men, whose aspirations after social progress and personal advancement had been cheeked by it. Buddhism prospered for a time owing to the rebound of the popular mind against Brahminical ascendancy.

The Brahmins, however, by timely concessions on some points, and opposing logic to logic in other points, managed adroitly to regain their ascendancy, and by stigmatizing their adversaries as unprincipled infidels and atheists who only fomented disaffection^ but had nothing new to inculcate in their teaching^ succeeded in ridding the country of their formidable rivals. Their consummate policy in complimenting the founder of Buddhism as an incarnation of Vishnu, destined for the inciUcation of heresy among the Daitias, or open opponents of the gods, succeeded in quietly banishing the enemy from Indian territory to regions where they cared not to pursue him. But Buddhism, though expelled from India, left unmistakeable traces of its anti^-vedic rationalism on the field it abandoned. It had so successfully infected the Brahminical mind lieelf) that the wdffe of d^iriidti6n it had itiitlflted 'vrtks, after its fiterthrow, briskij O&tried 6ft by champions of oribOdoxy themselTes. The seed it bad sowuy btofid cast, bad falteti k^gfely in the Bfabmin*8 own camp, afld were besting the fi-uits vbioh S'dkya MqdI bad bimeelf deeiderat^d. Bfabm!fis Veto indedd still respected, bsoausetbffif' took pkins tt> maintain theit peraonal credit, but their teaching wS4 logpifed, not by allegiance to the Vedaj but by a epitit of treason against its ritttal^^fdf teote darig'ei'ouS thaii Bftddbism itself, because deeidedly tafirti insidious. fievereDCe there wad but Httle fbf the Sastra, Wbil^ its oereifionies were demouneed sis fi-^itleEis Bhams, gtid the enemy's own dogma of " NirvSna," or the ^uirimitM homim, was openly propounded as the highest object of sentient bdngs* The only difference was that the Brabmius taught absorption into firahma, wh^e^^ the Buddhists bad inouloated absorption into Buddhjti The bulk of the iieioe lofn classes, hoWever, eould not comprehend the transcendental logics by which " Nirvana," or annihilation, as th^y understood the term, was argued out as the chief end of huttiaii nature. They had been long accustomed to a thdo* logy, which with all its imperfections, had at least clearly laid down the practical duties expected from its followers. They conld not therefore now rest safis^- fied with the dogmas of a Philosophy which deanO' lished everything, buttaughtnothing, and only araflsed the fancy with hair-splitting subtleties leading to ii<j intelligible results. And in reality they saw no appreciable difference between Buddhism and the

' Siva, t)ie god of destruction, ^b reprj^seBted aB acknowledging to his wife that he had himself, in the disguise of a Brahmin, iii~ cnlcated, for the destruction of the worid, the different Bjat^ma of Hindu phiioBophj, which were all undilalated Buddhism under » false gwb. These were wholly intended to promote at^i^ au4 the abolition of sacrificial nte@ and cerepioniee. Tl^ua:

The new phase which Indian theology preaented was that of a personal divine ohjeetivity. The lituaHstic phase was that of ceremonies gone through according to prescribed forma with or without reference to any personal object. The presence of a god could not be necessary for ceremonies which were declared to have been in* stituted before the generation of Devas. Prajdpati initiated the Sacrifice prior to the Creation, and Crea' tion was itself anterior to the production of gods. Those ceremonies, again, were practised by Rishijt who openly denied or doubted the very existence of A Supreme Being.

This ritualistic blank was by no means remedied by the aphorisms of the Schools of Philosophy which depreciated all ceremonies in the lump, as inferior means of grace, and directed attention to transcendental notions, but ill adapted to the hopes and wants of human nature. The disappearance of Buddhism from the plains of Hindustan did not therefore tranquillize the Indian mind at all. It rather produced fresh groanings for the satisfaction of mental cravings, fresh aspirations, for something better than "sushka tarka," or pointless logic and dry speculation. This waa attempted to be supplied by the founders and leaders of separate religious Sects among the followers of lirahminism.

Spiritual cravings had even reached the Sudrtis or the servant class. The Brahmins had debarred them from all religious privileges, and had gone the length aS questioning the propriety of their attending to any other duty than the service of the three other classes, and of denying their fitness for religious exercises of any kind. That this was not a mere speculative theory, is proved by the sad case of Sambuca, a Sudra who was engaged in certain devotional performances, on the bank of a river, in the reign of Rama, after his return from Lanka, It is said that the whole kingdom was placed under the bann of divine displeasure, because of a serfs audacious attempt to get admission to the society of the gods. Untimely deaths began to take place even among the children of Brahmins, for which the king himself was held officially responsible. The son of Daaaratha could not gainsay the ethical logic of the age by which the head of the State was held answerable for national calamities, supposed to proceed from national sins, known or unknown. He went out, eword in hand, to explore the cause of the public calamity. He soon found it in the religious exercises performed by Sambuca in the open air, and in vindication of the law to which society was subject, and as an expiation of the national offence involved in the transgression of that law by the offending Sudra, struck off his head by a single blow.

But Buddhism had laid upon all classes the obligation of religious duties, and consequently accorded to the Sudras their much coveted liberty of engaging in religious exercises. This was a franchise which the servant class was now unwilling to surrender. The religious franchise virtually involved secular freedom. The founders of religious sects, under Brahminical auspices, accordingly received all men indiscriminate- ly OB members of their spiritual guildi. These were principally devoted to Vishnu, Siva or Sakti. The most popular guild was that of Vishnu."

These religious guilds proclaimed faith and devotion to their respective deities as the all-absorbing duties of mankind — the shortest, if not the only, path to eternal salvation. It was the guild of Vishnu that attracted the greatest notice, and it was Kriahnacultus that mustered the largest number of devotees. So that the original ceremonies of the Vedas led, step by step, to the worship of Krishna as the consummation of Arian ideals.

The personal character of the presiding god of the Vaishuava guild, however, was not such as an educated and intelligent community may be proud of. In fact with men of position and social distinction, however devoted they may externally appear to Krishna, the policy generally is, less said about his character, the better.

Foreigners have not, however, been so prudent. They have boldly rushed into grounds which devout Hindus have trembled to tread. A divine exaltation has daringly been argued for Krishna, such as his intelligent votaries have not themselves attempted, nor any native scholar that cares for the reputation of an

• TlieBrfthinma, without sorrendering their own dignity or entirely rescinding the caste obligations of Sudiaa, absolved thoae who might attach themselvea to the Vaishnava guild. Ttfjgj ^vv ^T^- educated man of the nineteenth century. A French writer^ faas actually maintained that the Bible was but a piracy of the Hindu Sastraa, and Christ a caricature of Krishna. Had such ideas been broached under the responsibility of a Hindu author of any literary reputation, it would have been incumbent on us to discuss the question in detail. But we are unwilling to take up a French gauntlet, and wade through the mire of 5a/- Krishna's feats as described in works like the Sribh&gavata and Jayadeva's songs. Such a task might bring us under the penalty of the law for the conservation of public decency, and it would amount to a gross unprovoked assault on Vaishnava feeling itself. We cannot acknowledge M. Jacollet as the plenipotentiary of the guild of Vishnu, unless he can produce his credentials. We proceed, however, to remark generally on the sects or guilds of especial divinities, and to trace the origin of Krishna-cuUtis, according to the representations of the Hindu records themselves. Without going into the merits of M. Jacollet's speculations, we shall simply put forth a,plea in. bar, by attempting to show that those speculations are historically inadmissible.

The sects established by the followers of special deities, and, in particular, by those who maintained the worship of Krishna, bear curious testimony to the Christian doctrine of faith as opposed to ceremonial works. But this testimony is somewhat different in its features from the confirmatory evidence of th&

Vedas to facts in Sacred history and to the primitire institution of Sacrifices — indicative of the Lamb slain Jrom the foundation of the world. These are independent Arian testimonies to facts disclosed by a prime- Tal revelation, the heritage of all mankind alike. Such facts were preserved in the traditions of the nation itself, without borrowing them from without. We cannot say that when Rishis laid such stress on the performance of sacrifices as TBEgreat duty, ftt^i ^dJt they owed the idea to Mosaic, instruction. There is no evidence for holding that the Brahmins had ever gone to Palestine for religious tuition, or that Jews had travelled to disseminate their doctrines in Ariana. The Brahmins knew of it, like the pre-Mosaic fathers named in the Bible, as a relic of unwritten primitive Bevelation. They had received it as a national heritage, having heard of the doctrine traditionally — and. therefore was it that they used the word " Sruti," or hearing, as a general term for such primitive unwritten Revelation. The four Vedas into which the Sruti was afterwards classified, and written down, became the recognized Scriptures of the country. We have no reason to doubt that parts of those Scriptures were the correct Smritif or recollections, of the original Sruti or traditional report of a real primitive Revelation — the common inheritance of all mankind, faintly disclosing the future dispensations of the Divine Ruler of the Universe.

But the Hindu testimonies to the doctrine of faith are of another kind. The dispensation of ceremonial works was revealed from the beginning, and although glimpses of the dUpeoBation of Faith were doubtless also shared in by those who had got a conception of the god-man Saviour, to appear in due time and dwell among men for the destruction of the devil and his works, yet the doctrine of Faith in an ishta^devata is one of later development, according to the confession of the Sastras themselves. Long had our forefathers patiently kept up the primitive institution of sacrifices and other ceremonies. But those practices had not satisfied their spiritual longings. Buddha arose, and, by persistently decrying those ceremonies, did much to impair their credit. But the doctrines and precepts which he inculcated were simple negations, and the result was the promotion of a subtle spirit of metaphy* sical discussion which could impart to the mind no more of relief or tranquillity than the efiete sacrifices themselves. Some &esh impetus, some iresh movement must have taken place in order to produce results which shall now speak for themselves as apparent from the Hindu Scriptures.

The first point to which we are desirous of directing attention is an anecdote or adventure of the divine sage, N&rada, the son of BrahmA, who figures prominently in all later Hindu Saetras. The anecdote is found in the Mah&bh&rata, introduced by a question which Yudishthira puts to Bhishma: " Tell me, revered father, what gods must a person serve who wishes to attain perfection of bliss — whether he be a householder, or a student, an eremite, or a mendicant?

Who is the god of gods and the father of fathers?

Who again is superior to him — (i, e. supreme above all)? Bliishma replies, " You ask me a question concerning a mystery which cannot be unravelled by argument or logic, even if discussed for hundreds of years, nor without the comprehension of knowledge through divine grace can this deep mystery be unfolded to you."" Bhishma then refers to a dialogue between the incarnate Narayana and Narada, in which the latter had inquisitively remarked, " We do not know what god or father you worship."^

N&r^yana then speaks of the supreme Spirit, ineffable and incomprehensible, adding that those who contemplate Him with fixed minds as the one object of meditation become unified with Him. Narada, under divine direction, goes to Mount Mem for a vision of that supreme Spirit. " Looking to the

north-west of that mountain he obtained that wonderful vision. To the north of the ocean of milk, at a distance, as poets make out, of more than 4,56,000 miles from Meru, there was a large continent, by the name of " White."... There lived white people without sensuousness, without food, without twinkling, being themselves of well-perfuming savour, and freed from all sin, whose very sight takes away the eyes of sinful

men (by their dazzling brightness).'"" It ia repeated in an address from the same god to other Rishis: *' You, full of devotion, desire to know where you may get a sight of the Lord? North of the ocean of milk is a continent called " White." The men of that place, resplendent ae the moon, are votaries of Narayana. Single-minded, they are devoted to the most Excellent Purasha (person). Those men, inhabitants of the White continent, are called Ekantins, (or monotheists). Qo there, ye Rishis — there is our spirit manifested.""

The " Excellent purusha" was no other than Krishna. He is in this very anecdote identified with the son of Vasudeva. We do not, however, pretend to such familiarity with geography as might enable us to identify the locality of the White continent at the alleged distance from Mount Mem. We leave it to learned savants to fix its situation on the globe, and to determine the number of ciphers in the given distance to be carried to the account of poetic license. As for Mount Meru itself, we may make bold to say, that the geography and topography of no place are at this moment more familiar to the foreign offices of both

European and Asiatic states, than those of Merv. But our business is with N^rada and the glorious vision of the Supreme Being of which he had a glimpse from the heights of Mem. We therefore turn now to his interview with the author of the Puranas and Vedant philosophy, presumably after his return from Mem.

In the Sribhagavat, which according to Professor Wilson, was written in the 12th century of the Christian era, its author is introduced sitting, pensively, in the shade of a noble peepul tree, on the bank of a river, one lovely morning, when the delicate breeze and the beauteous scenery were regaling every heart but his. There the divine sage Narada, in whose ken had etcam the fair land of the " White continent," encountered the author of the eighteen Puranas and of the Brahma Sutras, in a sad disconsolate posture, at a time when everything else was gay and cheerful. He inquired aflfectionately after the cause of his pensiveness: " Your wonderful researches have all succeeded. You have composed the Mahabharata, replete with great objects of investigation. You have studied and inquired of the eternal Brahma. And yet, O Lord, you are grieving your soul as if you had failed in your pursuits l'""

Vyasa accepts the compliment, appreciates the kindness of the inquiry, confesses his uneasiness, protests his ignorance of the cause, and asks if N^rada could give the diagnosis of his melancholy."

Narada replies: " You have almost ignored the unspotted glory of the Lord. That Darsana or philosophy, which is not grateful to Him, I count for nothing. You have not celebrated the glory of the son of Vasudeva in the same manner as you have described Dharma or ritualistic ceremonies.'"*

If human language have any meaning, the foregoing statement ia an admission that down to the 12th century of our era (certainly not earlier than the 8th century) the glory of Krishna, the son of Vasudeva, had not been duly celebrated, nor the doctrine of faith as opposed to ceremonial observances introduced. Narada, who had been vouchsafed a vision of the Lord in the Fair land of the Wkites, at a considerable distance north-west of Mount Mem, now warns the founder of the Vedant School, and the author of the Brahma Sutras, of the futility of philosophical speculations, which are not grateful to the Lord, the Saviour of the world, and moves him to recount His acts which accordingly he did in the Sribhagavata.

Again in a work of great authority called after that very sage, the *' Narada Panchar^tra," written, perhaps, about 800 years after Christ, the same Vyasa i/9 mtroduced telliog hui son Suka-Deva that N&rada was on one occasion practising some austere devotion, when suddenly he heard a voice &om heaven:

" if Hari (Krishna) is worshipped, what is the nse of austerities? If Hari is not worshipped, what is the use of austerities? K Hari is within and without, what is the Qse of austerities? If Hari is not within and without, what is the use of austerities? Stop, stop, O Brahmin! Why do you engage in austerities? Oo, O Brahmin! do go quickly to Siva the ocean of knowl(?dge. Get, oh get, matured iaith in Hari, as described by the guild of Vishnu, the splitter and snapper pf the fetters of the world.""

We are thus led to the very genesis of the doctrine of faith in Hinduism. It was admittedly not an excogitation of the Brahminical mind itself. N&rada had brought it from the land of Whites where be got an insight into Vishnu, the Saviour, (identified with Krishna) which was not attainable elsewhere. He then persuaded the author of the SribhSgavata to recount the Lord's acts, and that work we actually find to be conspicuous for its history of Krishna, and enforcement of fajth in his divinity — and we have again a voice from heaven, directing NArada to give up all ceremonial works,, and betake himself to the Faith as it is in Hari — which means the taker away ofains. Change the name, and it.is almost prime Christian doctrine.

Few will impugn the inference that, however small the element of historical veritableneas may have been in the story of the " Ekautins," north-west of Mount ' Meru, it certainly appears to have had some modicum of truth for its basis. Fewer still will deny that the religion of that people was a form of Christianity which might be called " Ekantin," without reference to the strict orthodoxy of the form. And thus we have the Hindu Sastras themselves'teaching the reverse of their Gallic champion's position. Not that the Bible was a piracy of the Indian Scriptures, but that the Vaishnava sastras by their own acknowledgement have accepted light from Christian sources, and used the same in brightening the colour imparted to their personation of Krishna as some compensation for the dark hue of his Braj'a-Ula.

This inference is further confirmed by the ascertained fact that the first Vaishnava sect arose in the South of India, under the leadership of Edm^nuja, who had his seat at Conjeveram, (or " Kanohipur" as we of Northern India call it), and that in the very South of India, Christianity was introduced at an early period, probably by some pious ecclesiastics of Syria.

We do not say, we have no right to say, that the Syrian Christians in the South, now certainly in a very degenerate condition, have ever produced any influence on their Hindu neighbours. But human experience will concur with the Scriptural adage, that " the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is bom of the Spirit." We can only observe and mark results. We have seen (1) that the vision of " Purushottam," identified with Krishna, and still the prevailing designation in Orissa of " Jagarnatha," appeared in a land of white people, a glimpse of it being vouchsafed to N&rada on the heights of Mem, (3) that Vyltsa had not sung Krishna's praises until long after the beginning of the Christian era, and then only on the expostulation of N&rada, (3) that the doctrine of Ibtth, as opposed to ceremonial works, was equally unknown in India, until, according to a Vaishnava Sastra of high repute, it was communicated, at a much later period than the rise of Christianity, by a voice from heaven addressed to N^rada, (4) that the first sect adopting Krishna-cultus and the same doctrine of faith appeared at a still later period in the South of India, and (5) that it was in the South of India itself that Christianity was in an early age introduced by Syrian ecclesiastics. These are facts. W"e do not prescribe any deduction from these facta. We only chronicle the facts. We leave the deduction in the hands of the reader.