OCR Text |
Show 194 HINDOO AND CITINESE comparatively small extent of the territory ov01~rnn h! the ~or·ccs of Alexander, and oven of Scleucus and Dcmotnus, h1s Synan au<l Bactrian successors. (Tbo 'Punjnb remained undor the nominal sway of tho Mncodoninns for about ton yoars, whon this supremacy wns thrown off by S11ndrncottus ( Ohandragupla), about 317 D. o. ; whon Solouous of Syria found it wiser to mo.ko poi\Co with tho robol IIindoo rajiL, 11nd to give him l1is daughter in marringo. Tho Grook Icings of Daotrin, from Demetrius to MonMHlcr nnd Apollodorus,-tbat is to say, for o.bout ono contUJ·y-woro likewise suzerains of tho country on tho Indus untill20 D. o. Still, thoy resided in ll1t0tria; and thoro is no traoo of Grook mythology, and consequently of Greek art intimately connected with it, nnywhoro in tho Punjab: on tho oontmry, tho Daotrian kings put tho rop•·oscnt11tion of the lliudoo Shiva and of his bull Nandi on their "coin~ struck for tho Indi1Ln dominions. IIollenism, thoroforo, did not spread along tho Indus, but it bad to yield to llindooism. Aftor tho Maoodonian visit, IIindosta\n remained for more thnn a thousnnd yotLrs undisturbed by foreigners; outliving tho fiet·eo contest between Buddhism and Drnhmnnism; civilizing by tbo former tho Mnlny peninsula, and extending its moral influonco to Tbibot o.nd Chinn, whilst tho latter converted Java about A. D. 800. Two oonturios aftor tbnt event, Shah Mo,hmoud, of Ghuzni, tho monothoi~tio fanatic, oallod "tho destroyer of idols," overran the north of Hindoetun, burning tho towns, sacking tho temples, and breaking tho imngos; and settled his Pntt(Ln nnd Affghi\n followers in this fortilo country. Evor sinco his time, northern Turnnitm conquerors found no dilftculty to invade Imlin,, either for pillage or for conquest. Timur, lhber, and Nadir Shah, flooded tho country with their followers, in succession; and planted a numerous 1\Iohammcdnn populo.tion, and Isln,mito dyMstios, among tho effeminnto Tlindoos. At·ab morchrtnts spt·oad, at tho same time, ovor all tho coasts and islands, and converted Malay-Java (which hnd previously o.cocptod tho civilization nnd religion of tho V dna) to Iala\m; about A. D. 1400. Still, tho bulk of tho population of tho peninsula remained unshaken by tho puror religion nnd socio.l institutions of the Mohammedan conquerors. Enroponn inv!Ldors Cllmo n~xt. Moro aystomioally than their Mussulmn,n prodocossors, thoy broko up the lognl institutions o.nd tho tr1Lditions of indigenous administ.ration. l'hoy swopt away tho old nristoomoy and gontry of tho country; but tho charaotor of tho llindoo, nnd his viows of God an<lttaturo, of lo.w and society, remain unohangod. The population lives o.mong, but doos not intermix with, their former rulers, tho Mussulmnns; nor with their present European lords-who (to uso n gcologicn,l simile) nro in Indin tho two nowest strata of rocont date; covering the primary formations mechn.nicnlly, but failing to transform ohemico.lly tho old plutonic rooks of Buddhism and Drnhmo.niam.] With the IIindoos, religion, institutions, and art, are (as everywhore amid aboriginal races) in tho most intimate connection with tho physical features of tho country. IIm·e the exuberant power of tropical vegetation, equally gigantic in creation and in destruction, subdue tho energies of man. The sudden changes of temporature,tbe tropical rains which, in the course of a few hours, swell the t·ivulet into a groat strcam,-tho snowy mountain-peaks and mighty river , -tho jungles that, with their lofty bamboo, encroach upon every inch of ground left nneultivated,-the strange trees, of which every branch becomes a new stom,-thc powerful animals, from the elephant, and tiger, down to the white ant dangerous to the works of CIVILIZATIONS AND ART. Hl5 human indnHLry by its enormous numbors,-in short, all nature appcar·s in sueh ov rwholming features, that tho Hindoo gives up tho continuous stmgglc with it, and finds his reward not in activity but in passive contemplation. His imagination soon g •ts tho upper hand of his understanding; and in mythology, ar-t, and f:!eie.~tco, takes an unrestrained flight into the transcend ntal, tho monstrous and sha.pcless. Tho IIindoo adores "nature," as well its d structivo as its cr ativo power; he r~cognisos a sou] in cv ry Jiving ·r·caturc; 110 bc!icv sin tho transmigration of the soul; and thorei(>t·o throws th corpse of his beloved into tho Ganges or into the fil'c, the sooner to be dissolved into its original atoms by tho pure clements. 'l'ho "Nirvana," with tho ancient Buddhist , and tho "Yoglta" with tho Brahmans, that is to say, the losing of tho individuality in contemplation-a deathlike statc-boin()' wiLh him tl1o noblest aim of Jif and tho hi~rhost degree of sanctity, death has no terrors for him :-he flings himself uod01· the wheels of tho triumphal car of hiva at Jaggornaut, and the widow willingly ascends the pile with th corpse of her husband. In tho nature around him, destruction being always followed by immediate rcgeuoration, he believes creation to be an uninterrupted cycle of one aud. the same lifo, only changing its form; and his poets sing, that "Like as men throw awny old gnrmcntA, and clotho thomsolvos in now attire, 1-'bus the soullenvos tho body w.nd migrates into o.nothor." Nature being to tho IJindoo the incarnation of Godhead, he has a deeply reverential fooling for it; and adoms his works of art with flowers in such a profusion, that man and his actions become often ouly ac cssorics of this adommcnt. Still, it is not in an arbitrary way that he shod~:~ his flowot·s on poetry au<l sctllpture; they always have a deeper, symbolical meaning. During the inundations, when the valley of Bengal is nearly ]ost under tho waters, tho petals of the Lotus flower alone swimmino- on tho waves, bear ovidcnc that tlro vital powers of nature havo not boon destroyed by tho floods. This £lowct· b camo, th reforc, tho symbol of life and of creation: it is tho throne of all tlw Gods, and. especially of Brahma tho creator. The ro1 rescntation of Kama, the God of Love, is one of tho most gracefully symbolical- though entirely u nplastic, specimens of IIindoo imagination. It is a smiling child with bow an<l arr·ows, riding ou a parrot. The bow is a bent sngar- ·an adornc<l ·with :fiowors, tho string is formed by a row of .flying b 'OI:!, and tho anow is a lil.y. Thus the Uindoo tl'ies to represent th g ntlcncss and inconstancy, tho impudence and tho innocence, the sweetness and tho stings, of love, in one and the same imago. |