departed soul to join the spirits of his ancestors. Marriage-contracts are formed at an early age, but not commonly concluded till maturity: the female may annul the contract and choose for herself. The nuptial ceremonies are invariably accompanied with riot and drunkenness.

The original languages of Bhot are current only in verbal intercourse, as scarcely an individual is to be found capable of reading or writing the Tibet; while of the Darma dialect, it does not appear that any characters were ever in use.

Some valuable details respecting the revenue of Bhot are given by Mr. Traill. Its only manufactures are woollens; the yarn is prepared by the males, and the weaving is performed, by the females of all ranks, in a simple manner: one end of the web is fastened to a stone, or stake fixed in the earth, the other secured by a strap to the body of the weaver sitting on the ground.

Trade forms the primary object of the Bhotias. A commercial fair takes place annually, in September, at Gartokh, the residence of the Lhassan viceroy, which is attended by traders from Hindustan, Ladakh, Cashmer, Tartary, Yarkhand, Lhassa, and Siling, or China proper. The trade of Híundes (snow-country') is an exclusive system of monopoly and restriction, chiefly under the influence of the Chinese; the intercourse to which the Bhotias are admitted is tolerated only, and a formal permission is required for its annual renewal. The whole system of trade is one of monopoly, which extends even to individual dealings, and every trader has his privileged correspondent, with whom he alone has the right to barter. These individual monopolies are considered as hereditary and disposable property, and from successive partitions of family property and transfers, this right has been gradually sub-divided, so that many Bhotias collectively possess a single correspondent.

Mr. Traill concludes his account of these Mehals with a notice of the principal exports and imports, and some remarks upon the former and pre-` sent state of the commerce of Bhot.

Of the Trans-Himalayan state of Híundes Mr. Traill could procure but little authentic information, owing to the watchful care with which the entrance of Europeans is prevented, the extreme precautions with which natives of India, not Bhotias, are admitted, and the jealous restrictions to which even Bhotias are subjected. The province is termed Nari by its inhabitants; at Ladakh and westward, Chang or Jhang tang, which is said to be nearly synonimous with Hiundes: it is subject directly to the Lama at Lhassa. The chief government is entrusted to two officers conjointly, called garphans, who reside at Gartokh, and are relieved every three years. Under them, the internal administration in each district is similarly confided to two officers, the deba and the vazir. The only regular military force in the province is said to consist of 200 horse; but each town and village has its enrolled militia, liable to be called upon when its services are required. The provincial and district lamas control exclusively the religious institutions, and appear to influence considerably the local civil administration. From the concurrent testimony of the Bhotias, it

would appear that the Híuniyas are grievously taxed and oppressed under their theocratical government.

This is a curious and valuable paper.

عيون الحساب powers, as shown in the

The next is an "Essay on the Extraction of the Roots of Integers, as practised by the Arabs;" by Dr. John Tytler. This is an elaborate inquiry into the method by which the Arabians extract the roots of integer Ayoun-ul-Hisab, or Fountains of Arithmetic.' The essay comprehends, 1. A general demonstration of the extraction of the roots of all powers; 2. An example of this operation after the common European method, exhibiting its conformity to the demonstration; 3. A similar example after the Arabian method; 4. An extract from the Ayoun-ul-Hisab, containing the rule, with a translation and remarks. The Arabian method, though considered by Dr. Tytler, "a deserving monument of Arabian ingenuity," is extremely laborious and complicated, and, as he observes, we may hence form some judgment how much the old arithmeticians must have been perplexed and retarded till the great discovery of logarithms. It is, of course, impossible to epitomize this able paper.

The third article is one of great value and interest, from the pen of the late secretary, Professor Wilson, "Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus," being the sequel of a paper published in the preceding volume. That paper contained an account of the different classes of the numerous worshippers of Vishnu; the present is devoted to the followers of Siva and Sakti, and the miscellaneous and less orthodox sects.

The worship of Siva, Mr. Wilson observes, in the districts along the Ganges, would appear to be the most prevalent and popular, to judge by the number of shrines dedicated to the Linga, the only form in which he is reverenced; but these temples are not much resorted to, and the adoration of Siva has never assumed, in Upper India, a popular form. No legends are recorded of this deity of a poetic and pleasing character, and no work whatever exists, like the Rámáyana or the Bárttá, in any vernacular dialect, wherein the actions of Siva are celebrated, except in the south of India. Corresponding to this absence of multiplied forms, and this want of works, the Saivas can scarcely be said to be divided into sects, any further than as they assume different religious mendicants for their spiritual guides. They have no teachers of ancient repute, except Sankara Acharya, whose doctrines are too philosophical and speculative to be popular. The worship of Siva continues, in fact, what it appears to have been from a remote period, the religion of the Brahmanas. The different classes into which the Saivas may be distinguished, as distinct from the mass of Brahmans, are the following.

Dandis and Dasnámis. These customarily form but one division. The Dandís, properly so called, and the Tridandis of the Vaishnavas, are the only legitimate representatives of the Sanyasis of Menu: the Dandí is distinguished by carrying a small dand, or wand, and subsists upon food obtained from the houses of Brahmanas. The genuine Dandí, however, is

not necessarily of the Saiva or any other sect; the practical Dandís worship Siva, or Bhairava. Any Hindu of the three first classes may become a Dandí, or a Hindu of any caste may adopt the life and emblems of this order. The Dasnámi Dandis, who are regarded as the descendants of the original members of the fraternity, are said to refer their origin to Sankara Acharya, of whose biography Mr. Wilson has supplied some scanty particulars, deduced chiefly from works current in the south of India *

Most accounts agree in making Sankara a native of Kerala, or Malabar, of the tribe of Namburi Brahmans; according to other traditions, he was born at Chidambaram, and transferred his residence to Malabar. He is said to have divided the four original castes in Malabar into seventy-two, assigning them their respective rites and duties. All accounts concur in representing him as leading an erratic life, and engaged in controversy with various sects. In the course of his peregrinations, he established several maths, or convents, particularly one still flourishing at Sringeri, near the sources of the Tungabhadrá. Towards the close of his life, he repaired to Kashmir, and after triumphing over various opponents (his career seems to have been one of perpetual collision), he seated himself on the throne of Saraswati. He next went to Badarikásrama, and finally to the sacred Kedarnath, in the Himalaya, where he died at the premature age of thirty

two.

Local traditions confirm these events in his life: the pitha, or throne of Saraswati, on which Sankara sat, is still shewn in Kashmir; and at the temple of Siva, at Badari, a Malabar Brahman, of the Namburi tribe, has always been the officiating priest. The most eminent of his writings are his Báshyas, or Commentaries on the Sútras or Aphorisms of Vyása; a Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita is also ascribed to him, and one on the Nrisinha Tapaniya Upanishad; the Saundarya Lahari, a cento of verses in praise of Durga, is likewise said to be his, as well as the Amru Sataka, a collection of amatory stanzas written in the name of Amru, a prince whose dead body Sankara is fabled to have animated, that by becoming familiarized with sensual enjoyments, he might argue upon such topics with the wife of Madana Misra. "Although no doubt of Sankara's existence, or of the important part performed by him in the partial remodelling of the Hindu system, can be entertained," observes Mr. Wilson, yet the exact period at which he flourished can by no means be determined." In the preface to his Sanscrit dictionary, he expresses his belief that he may have existed about the eighth or ninth century.+ The spiritual descendants of Sankara originated the Dasnámi, or 'ten-named,' the greater proportion of which ten classes of mendicants have failed to retain their purity of character. Amongst the most respectable of the real Dandís are to be found very able expounders of the Vedanta works, and other branches of Sanscrit literature owe important obligations to this sect. Others are sturdy beggars and impostors. The Atits, of whom Colonel Tod found some super-human or sub-human specimens in the high places

* The Sankara Charitra, the Sankara Kathd, the Sankara Vijaya or Sankara Digvijaya, and the Kerala Utpatti, or description of Malabar, sometimes attributed to Sankara himself.

† Mr. Colebrooke has assigned the same date.-Trans. R. A. S., vol. ii. p. 6

of Rajasthan, belong to the Dandí sect. The philosophical tenets of the Dandís are, in the main, those of the Vedanta; but they generally superadd the practice of the Yoga, as taught by the followers of Patanjali.

The Yogis, or Jogis, are properly followers of the Yoga, or Patanjali school of philosophy, so well expounded by Mr. Colebrooke. Amongst other tenets, this school maintained the practicability of acquiring entire command over elementary matter, by certain ascetic practices, chiefly long suppressions of breath; respiring in a particular manner; sitting in different attitudes; fixing the eyes on the top of the nose, and endeavouring by force of mental abstraction to unite the vital spirit in the body with that which pervades all nature, and is identical with Siva: hence the Yogi acquires supernatural faculties. The perfect fulfilment of the rites to be accomplished by the Yogi, requires a protracted existence and repeated births, and is declared to be unattainable in the present age. Individuals, however, disregard the prohibition, Mr. Wilson tells us, and aim at attaining an omnipotence over matter, by means of attitudes, gesticulations, suppressions of breath and fixation of thought, whereby the excited brain bodies. forth a host of crude and wild conceptions. The air-sitter at Madras, a year or two back,† was supposed to have attained this faculty by Yogi penances in the Travels of Ibn Batuta a variety of miraculous feats are attributed to Yogi performers.

In referring to the origin of this (the Yoga) system (observes Mr. Wilson), we must, no doubt, go back to some antiquity, although the want of chronological data renders it impossible to specify the era at which it was first promulgated. That it was familiarly known and practised in the eighth century, we may learn from the plays of Bhavabhúti, particularly the Málati and Mádhava, and from several of the Saiva Puránas, in some of which, as the Kúrma Purána, we have a string of names, which appear to be those of a succession of teachers. The cavern-temples of the South of India, in the subjects of their sculptures, and the decorations of Siva and his attendants, belong to the same sect; whilst the philosophical tenets of Patanjali are as ancient, perhaps, as most of the other philosophical systems, and are prior to the Puránas, by which they are inculcated in a popular form. The practices of the Yoga are also frequently alluded to and enforced in the Mahábhárat. There is little reason to question, therefore, the existence and popularity of the Yoga in the early centuries of the Christian era; but whether it was known and cultivated earlier, must be matter of vague conjecture alone.

The term Jogi, in popular acceptation, is almost of as general application as Sanyasi and Vairági; the Jogis, indeed, are distinguished from other mendicants by adding more of the mountebank to the religious character. All classes and sects assume the character, and Musulman Jogis are not uncommon. They are all errants, fixed residences of any Jogis (except of the Kánphatas) rarely occurring: a remark applicable, perhaps, to all the Saiva sects.

The Jangamas are worshippers of the Linga, and hence called Lingayets and Lingawants. The worship of Siva, under the type of the

See Annals of Rajasthan, Personal Narrative, Vols. 1. 731, II. 702.

t Asiat. Journ. Vol. xxvii. p. 596.

Linga, Mr. Wilson remarks, almost the only form in which he is worshipped, is also, perhaps, the most ancient object of homage adopted in India, subsequently to the ritual of the Védas, which was chiefly, if not wholly, addressed to the elements, and particularly to fire. It is doubtful how far it is authorized by the Védas, but it is the main purport of several of the Puranas. It was universal at the Mohamedan invasion of India : the idol Somanáth, or Súmnát,, destroyed by Mahmud of Ghizní, which was a block of stone four or five cubits long, was nothing more than a linga.* "Notwithstanding the acknowledged purport of this worship, it is but justice to state," adds Mr. Wilson, "that it is unattended in Upper India by any indecent or indelicate ceremonies, and it requires a rather lively imagination to trace any resemblance in its symbols to the objects they are supposed to represent.† The absence of all indecency from public worship and religious establishments, in the Gangetic provinces, was fully established by the Vindicator of the Hindus, the late General Stuart; and in everything relating to actual practice, better authority cannot be desired."

The essential characteristic of the Lingayets is the wearing the emblem, in copper or silver, on some part of the person, either suspended in a case round the neck, or tied in the turban. In the South of India, the Lingayets are very numerous, especially in Mysore and ancient Kanara and Telingana; they are also known there by the name of Vira Saiva. Mr. Wilson has cited a legendary account of Básava, Báswana, or Báswapa, the restorer, if not the founder, of the faith, from this Mackenzie collection, derived from the Básava Purána, which records a variety of marvellous exploits performed by Básava, who was the son of a Brahman. The Purána is also addressed to the Jainas, to show the falsehood of the Jain faith; and it is said that, in order to convert the Jains, one of Básava's disciples, like a certain saint, cut off his head in their presence, and then marched five days in solemn procession through and round the city, and on the fifth day, replaced his head upon his shoulders: the Jain pagodas, it is said, were thereupon destroyed by the Jangamas. These fables cannot plead even high antiquity for their excuse, for the real events recorded in the work may be placed with confidence in the early part of the eleventh century.

In Rajpootana, Colonel Tod tells us,§ Siva, who is the tutelary deity of the Mewaris, and was formerly the sole object of Gehlote worship, is adored under the epithet of Eklinga ('one linga'), the symbol being a single cylindrical or conical stone.

The Paramahansa is the most eminent of the four kinds or gradations of Sanyásis, according to the Dwádasa Mahávákya, a Dandi work;

* This fact, which is attested by Mohamedan historians, completely disproves the story related by Mr. Mill (and adopted amongst our popular errors), after Dow's inaccurate version of Ferishta, about Mahmud's knocking off the nose of the idol, then bursting open its belly, from whence issued a vast treasure of diamonds, rubies, and pearls.

The reader may satisfy himself as to the form of this phallic symbol, by looking at the plates in Mr. Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus, Pl. 33.