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with architectural beauty, abutting into the river, are deserted and left to the swift devastations of the climate. In a very short period, the whole of this magnificent fabric will become a heap of ruins, and then some mean and tasteless edifice will be erected in its place. The great dislike which Europeans entertain to a residence within the precincts of a native city has probably prevented the civilians attached to Ghazeepore from selecting this palace for their abode. It might, however, be rendered subservient to some public purpose, and could be put into repair at a small expense by men zealously desirous to preserve so interesting a relic, as the workmen would be furnished from the neighbouring prison.

The place of confinement for felons of all descriptions at Ghazeepore is large, strong, airy, and commodious, and usually crowded with delinquents of all castes and denominations: refractory Moosulmans incarcerated for various offences, and fanatical Hindoos, whose crimes are in most instances connected with their religion. Not content with starving themselves to death, in order to revenge themselves upon their adversaries in another world, they are sometimes known to murder a member of their own family, in the belief that the blood of the victim will rest upon the heads of their adversaries. A memorable illustration of this occurred at Ghazeepore, where an old man, who conceived that he had a right to a piece of land which had been adjudged to his neighbour, brought his wife to the spot, an elderly personage, who could be easily spared, and forcing her, with the assistance of his friends and relations, into a hut made of straw, set it on fire, and burned her to death, in the expectation that the soil would be accursed and refuse to yield its fruits to the enemy who had triumphed over him.

The punishment of death is not often adjudged by the criminal courts to the natives of India. The law by which they are tried renders it very difficult to prove murders, however openly committed, and the usual sentence is hard labour upon the roads during a certain number of years, or for life, according to the enormity of the crime. The convicts work in irons, and are sometimes employed in weeding the paths round the houses of people of distinction. A stranger seated in a drawing-room of an officer of very high rank was much amazed by the "qui hi? punkah tannah!" (who waits? pull the punkah') being answered by a felon, fettered and manacled, who, with the utmost coolness squatted down upon the floor, applied himself to the rope, and pulled away vigorously, his chains clanking in harmony all the time. Such an exhibition did not seem to strike the family as any thing extraordinary; they appeared to think that, provided the punkah was set in motion, the character and condition of the operator were of very little consequence: a proof amongst many others of the utter disregard of consistency manifest in an Anglo-Indian establishment.

In visiting persons of consequence in the Mofussil, travellers in their griffinage are exceedingly astonished by the appearance of the verandahs leading to apartments furnished with costliness and taste, they being generally made to resemble old clothes'-shops, or pawnbrokers'-stalls; servants and sepoys of the guard are usually permitted to hang up their garments

upon the pillars and bamboos, and to spread their beds under the awning. More attention is paid to appearances in Calcutta; but the basement-story of many of the houses frequently exhibits symptoms of carelessness and neglect, choked up with unseemly articles, which native servants never deem to be out of place in the most conspicuous situations.

The houses of the civilians attached to Ghazeepore are spacious and well-built, surrounded by good gardens, and occupying picturesque situations, amid tame but luxuriant scenery, where the green lanes, flowering hedgerows, and receding glades, bring the most cultivated portions of England to mind. The bungalows of the military residents are frightful; the huge thatched roofs, common to such edifices, being exchanged for still more ugly tiles of glaring red. They are fortunately well sheltered and somewhat concealed by intervening trees, and the interiors are commodious though overrun with rats and mice, which few of the European residents are at the trouble to destroy, notwithstanding the dirt they engender and the havoc which they commit in wardrobes, larders, and furniture. It is not difficult to exterminate this sort of vermin; but Indian servants, if not enjoined to keep the houses clean, will allow them to swarm in every apartment, and habit reconciles many persons to the intrusion. Those who entertain a disgust to such unclean animals are most cruelly annoyed by the multitudes which approach them whenever they pay their visits to friends.

The races of Ghazeepore are some of the best in India, and attract sporting characters from all the adjacent provinces; the horses are superior to those started for mere amusement by less ambitious members of the turf at other stations, and are frequently the subject of heavy bets. Commodious stables have been erected, which are occupied by the favourites, and the result of each meeting excites very general interest all over the country. The annual fair at Hadjeepore, held at an inconsiderable distance, and the occasional visits of families from Mirzapore, Chunar, Buxar, Sultanpore, and Benares, places situated within an easy journey, render Ghazeepore a very lively residence. The military cantonments are honoured by retaining the mortal remains of a soldier, eminent for the conquest of some of the fairest portions of the Honourable Company's territories, the great Cornwallis, who, after his glorious exploits upon the other side of India, died during a journey from the upper provinces, and is buried near the paradeground of Ghazeepore. The mausoleum, which has been raised over his dust, is little worthy of the magnificent spirit which sleeps beneath, and shews to great disadvantage after a visit to the Moosulman tombs so profusely scattered over the neighbouring plains. The architects disdained to take a hint from the chaste and beautiful specimens of monumental remains which the country affords, and have erected a nondescript building, at a great expense, after a model of the far-famed sybil's temple, but deformed by mean pillars and a cumbrous attic story disproportioned to its support. It is built of excellent materials, free-stone, which promises great durability, and the dome, which, though it has been compared to the cover of a pepperpot, is the best part of it, makes a good appearance from the river, and

will look still better when shadowed by the trees which are planted in the back-ground. The mausoleum forms a point of attraction to the station; the military band, always an appendage to a King's regiment, plays near it of an evening, and the whole population of the different lines come forth in carriages, on horseback, or on foot, to enjoy the fresh cool breezes and the society of their acquaintance. A few European shopkeepers are settled at Ghazeepore, which is well-supplied with foreign and native products; the sugar-cane is extensively cultivated in the district, but its manufacture is not so celebrated as at Kalpee on the Jumna, where the natives produce immense quantities of the finest descriptions. The best kind of sugar in India is crystallized, and sold in the shape of baskets, somewhat resembling those made of alum, which are constructed by ingenious young ladies in England. These have a pretty appearance when placed upon a tray, and always form a portion of the presents composed of dried fruits and

sweetmeats.

AN EPITAPH.

Peace, good reader, do not weep,

Peace, the lovers are asleep,

They, sweet turtles, folded lie

In the last knot that love could tie.-CRASHAW.

LONG they journey'd on together
Through life's sad and stormy weather;
Long their weary feet did roam
O'er the earth without a home.
But the wintry night is past,
And the spring-time come at last.
Pale-eyed Want will lead no more
Slow-footed Sorrow to their door.
Now they dwell 'neath silver trees,
Where the chilly autumn breeze,
Messenger of grief, comes not-
Rain and storm are both forgot.

What had they to earth to bind them?
They have left no friends behind them!
Peace no more her sweet lamp lighted-
Wherefore, through the world, benighted,
Should they wander on alone,

When each familiar voice was flown?

Then, peace, good reader, do not weep;

Let the weary mourners sleep

Toss'd in sorrows without number,

Death hath rock'd them into slumber!

THE ASIATIC RESEARCHES.

No. II.

WE resume our notice of Mr. Wilson's very valuable paper on the religious sects of the Hindus, where he commences a description of the miscellaneous sects, which owe their institution to individual enthusiasts or ascetics.

The Saurapatas, or Sauras, worship the sun-god (Suryapati) only. The Ganapatyas are particularly devoted to Ganesa or Ganapati. The Nának Sháhis, or Sikhs, a sect which has attained considerable political importance, are classed under seven distinctions, all recognizing Nának Sháh as their primitive instructor, and professing to follow his doctrines. These seven sub-sects are the Udásís, the Ganj Bakhshis, the Rám Ráyis, the Súthreh Shahis, the Govind Sinhis, the Nirmalas, and the Nagas.

The first of these, the Udásís, established by Dharmachand, grandson of Nának, may be regarded as his genuine disciples; they are purely religious characters, and are usually collected in sangats, or convents, and also travel, in bodies, to places of pilgrimage. They profess poverty, though they never ask alms, and although ascetics, generally pay attention to dress and appearance. They are usually the ministrant priests, but their office consists chiefly in reading and expounding the Sikh scriptures, namely, the Adi Granth, or First Book,' and Das Padshah ki Granth, or Book of the Tenth Teacher,' who was Govind Sinh. Many of the Udásís are wellread in Sanscrit, and are able expounders of the Vedánta philosophy, on which the tenets of Nának are mainly founded. "The doctrine taught by Nának," observes Mr. Wilson, " appears to have differed but little from that of Kabir, and to have deviated but inconsiderably from the Hindu faith in general. The whole body of poetical and mythological fiction was retained, whilst the liberation of the spirit from the delusive deceits of Máyá, and its purification by acts of benevolence and self-denial, so as to make it identical even in life with its divine source, were the great objects of the devotee. Associated with these notions was great chariness of animal life; whilst with Nának, as well as with Kábír, universal tolerance was a dogma of vital importance, and both laboured to persuade Hindus and Mohammedans that the only essential parts of their respective creeds were common to both, and that they should discard the varieties of practical detail, or the corruptions of their teachers, for the worship of one only supreme, whether he was termed Allah or Hari." The Govind Sinhis form the most important division of the Sikh community, being, in fact, the political association to which the name of Sikh is applied, or to the Sikh nation generally. "Although professing to derive their national faith from Nának, and holding his memory in veneration, the faith they follow is widely different from the quietism of that reformer, and is wholly of a wordly and warlike spirit. Guru Govind devoted his followers to steel, and hence the worship of the sword, as well as its employment against both Mohammedans and Hindus."

Very ample details of the religious and political institutions of the Sikhs may be found in Sir C. Wilkins' and Sir John Malcolm's papers in the As. Res. (vols. i. and ii.), and in Mr. Ward's View (vol. iii.).

Mr. Wilson has devoted fifty-five pages to the Juins, although he professes to confine himself to a few observations on their peculiar tenets and practices, their past history and actual condition, reserving "an extended inquiry" to some further opportunity. He has pointed out a variety of works in which the subject of the Jain religion has been treated, especially the papers of Mr. Colebrooke, Major Delamain, Dr. Hamilton, Col. Francklin, and Col. Tod, in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, which, Mr. Wilson observes, contain "the latest and most detailed accounts." The view of Jain literature given by Mr. Wilson himself, in the catalogue of the Mackenzie MSS., is comprehensive. The Jain works included in this catalogue, however, are confined to southern India, and are written in Sanscrit or the peninsula dialects; whereas their most authoritative writings are in Prakrit or Mágadhí; and it is principally in Rajputana and the west of India that the Jains are found in considerable numbers.

Mr. Wilson has given a pretty copious list of Jain works, with a short description of some of them, from which it is evident that there is rather a redundancy than paucity of original authorities as to the creed, practices, and legends of the sect.

The leading tenets of the Jains are, "first, the denial of the divine origin and infallible authority of the Védas; secondly, the reverence of certaint holy mortals, who acquired, by the practice of self-denial and mortification, a station superior to that of the gods; and, thirdly, extreme and even ludicrous tenderness for animal life." The tenets of the Jains are nearly the same essentially as those of the Bauddhas; and the Jain legends are evidently of Bauddha origin. As a specimen of the legendary history of the Jainas, or deified mortals, Mr. Wilson introduces that of Mahavira, the twenty-fourth, or last, tirthankara, that is, one who has crossed over the ocean of the world,' which is a wild medley of supernatural adventures and matters scarcely intelligible, in the manner of the history of Párswanáth detailed by Major Delamain.* The followers of the last tirthankara appear scarcely to fall short of the train of the preceding. The principal, scene of his adventures appears to be Behar. He is represented to have died about five hundred years before the Christian era.

"An eternal and presiding first cause forms no part of the Jain creed, nor do the Jains admit of soul or spirit, as distinct from the living principle." All existence is divisible into two heads,-life, or the living and sentient principle; and inertia, the various modifications of inanimate matter: both are uncreated and imperishable. According to the acts done or suffered, in each condition of vital beings, the living principle migrates to an inferior or a superior grade, till it is emancipated from body altogether. Besides inertia, there are seven other tatwas, or categories of existence, namely, punya (good), pápa (ill), ásrava (the source from

* Trans. R.A.S., vol. i. art. 23, p. 428.

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