Polygamy; its baneful effects seen in Hindoo families,.... Marriage after the death of the first wife in eleven days,... A number of old maids married to an aged koolēēnŭ bramhŭn, " to take away their reproach," as his friends were carrying him to the Girls substitute prayers to the gods for courtship-seldom happy in ib. Each one rears his own hut, and pays land-rent, 208-Hindoo money, Superstitious usages-astrologers-dainus or witches-incantations, 209 Proverbial sayings and descriptions illustrative of manners, Specimens of letters, viz. invitation to a festival, 253—from a mother to her son, with the answer, Specimens of songs, 256-Account of musical instruments, .... Account of deaths and funeral ceremonies,...... Conversation with a dying man lying on the bank of the Ganges,.. Instances in which koolēēnus have married many wives, A perplexing case,.... Dying in the house considered as a great misfortune,. Lamentation of a mother over a grown-up son-of a daughter over a ....... Bodies thrown into the river as an act of interment, Consequences removed of dying under an evil star,.. Burying of the dead by the weavers and voishnŭvŭs,. Remarks on the deficiency of the education of the male population, .... 279 on the exclusion of women from the social circle,...................... ib. on the degradation to which women are reduced, 280-the Remarks on cruelty to widows in burning them alive, or reducing them ..... ..... ib. on the liberality of the rich to learned brainhŭns, on forming pools of water for public use, building flights of steps, and houses to shelter the sick, on the banks of rivers-hospi- tality to guests-the planting of orchards-giving water to travellers Agreements of friendship between persons of different casts, Reflections on the moral condition and character of the Hindoos, as Comparison between the Hindoosystem and Christianity, as productive ......... Testimony of C. Grant, Esq., on the Hindoo character,. ib. ib. ib. PREFACE. IT must have been to accomplish some very important moral change in the Eastern world, that so vast an empire as is comprized in British India, containing nearly One Hundred Millions of people, should have been placed under the dominion of one of the smallest portions of the civilized world, and that at the other extremity of the globe. This opinion, which is entertained unquestionably by every enlightened philanthropist, is greatly strengthened, when we consider the long-degraded state of India, and of the immense and immensely populous regions around it; the moral enterprize of the age in which these countries have been given to us, and that Great Britain is the only country upon earth, from which the intellectual and moral improvement of India could have been expected. All these combined circumstances surely carry us to the persuasion, that Divine Providence has, at this period of the world, some great good to confer on the East, and that, after so many long and dark ages, each succeeding one becoming darker and blacker than the past, the day-spring from on high is destined again to visit these regions, containing the birth-place of humanity, filled with all that is magnificent and immense in creation, made sacred by the presence of patriarchs, prophets, and the Messiah Himself, as well as the theatre of the most remarkable revolutions that have ever been exhibited on earth. To form a just conception of the state of darkness in which so many minds are involved as are comprized in the heathen population of India, a person had need become an inhabitant of the country, that he may read and see the productions of these minds, and witness the effects of the institutions they have formed, as displayed in the manners, customs, and moral circumstances of the inhabitants. A more correct knowledge of this people appears to be necessary when we consider, that their philosophy and religion still prevails over the greater portion of the globe, and that it is Hindooism which regulates the forms of worship, and the modes of thinking, and feeling, and acting, throughout China, Japan, Tartary, Hindoost'han, the Burman empire, Siam, Ceylon, &c., that is, amongst more than 400,000,000 of the human race! |