Part 3 (2/2)

Apuleius is not alone in his respect for the Brahmins. Many of the Greek writers speak of them under the names of Brahmins or Gymnosophists, but always with great respect.

Strabo states, on the authority of Megasthenes (who it will be remembered was Amba.s.sador from Persia, and lived for some years at Palibothra, about 307 B.C.), that ”there were two cla.s.ses of philosophers or priests, the Brachmanes and the Germanes, but the Brachmanes are best esteemed.” Towards the close of his account of the ”Brachmanes” he says:--

”In many things they agree with the Greeks, for they affirm that the world was produced, and is perishable, and that it is spherical; that G.o.d, governing it as well as framing it, pervades the whole; that the principles of all things are various, but water is the principle of the construction of the world; that besides the four elements there is a fifth, nature--whence heaven and the stars; that the earth is placed in the centre of all.

”Such, and many other things are affirmed of reproduction and of the soul. Like Plato, they devise fables concerning the immortality of the soul, and the judgment in the infernal regions, and other similar notions. These things are said of the Brachmanes.”

Clemens Alexandrinus, after saying that philosophy flourished in ancient times amongst the barbarians, and afterwards was introduced amongst the Greeks, instances the prophets of the Egyptians, the Chaldees of the a.s.syrians, the Druids of the Gauls (Galatae), the Samauaeans of the Bactrians, the philosophers of the Celts, the Magi of the Persians, and the Gymnosophists of the Indians. The Greek authors distinctly speak of the Brahmins as the chief of the castes or divisions of the Indian people from the time of Megasthenes, who wrote of them in the fourth century B.C.

Sir William Jones, in a paper on the philosophy of the Asiatics, pointed out that ”the old philosophers of Europe had some idea of centripetal force, and a principle of universal gravitation,” and affirms that ”much of the theology and philosophy of our immortal Newton may be found in the Vedas.”

”That _most subtle spirit_ which he suspected to pervade natural bodies, and lying concealed in them, to cause attraction and repulsion, the emission, reflection and refraction of light, electricity, calefaction, sensation, and muscular motion, is described by the Hindus as a _fifth element_, endowed with these very powers; and the Vedas abound with allusions to a force universally attractive, which they chiefly ascribe to the sun, thence called 'Aditya, or the attractor,' a name designed by the mythologists to mean the child of the G.o.ddess Aditi. But the most wonderful pa.s.sage on the theory of attractions occurs in the charming allegorical poem of 's.h.i.+'ri'n and Ferhai'd, or the Divine Spirit, and a human soul disinterestedly pious,' a work which, from the first verse to the last, is a blaze of religious and poetical fire.

”The whole pa.s.sage appears to me so curious that I make no apology for giving you a faithful translation of it:--

”_There is a strong propensity which dances through every atom, and attracts the minutest particle to some peculiar object; search this universe from its base to its summit, from fire to air, from water to earth (the four elements!), from all below the moon to all above the celestial spheres, and thou wilt not find a corpuscle dest.i.tute of that natural attractability. The very point of the first thread in this apparently tangled skein is no other than such a principle of attraction, and all principles beside are void of a real basis: from such a propensity arises every motion perceived in heavenly or in terrestrial bodies; it is a disposition to be attracted which taught hard steel to rush from its place and rivet itself on the magnet; it is the same disposition which impels the light straw to attach itself firmly on amber; it is this quality which gives every substance in nature a tendency towards another, and an inclination forcibly directed to a determinate point._”

In Sir W. Ainslie's Materia Medica of India the opinion of an old Hindoo author is given as to the qualifications required in a physician.

”He must be a person of strict veracity, and of the greatest sobriety and decorum: he ought to be skilled in all the commentaries on the 'Ayur-Veda,' and be otherwise a man of sense and benevolence: his heart must be charitable, his temper calm, and his constant study how to do good.

”Such a man is properly called a good physician, and such a physician ought still daily to improve his mind by an attentive perusal of scientific books.

”Should death come upon us while under the care of a person of this description, it can only be considered as inevitable fate, and not the consequence of presumptuous ignorance.”

The knowledge of the Hindoos may be all said to be contained in their sacred books called the Vedas, which, although perfect as a whole, are actually divided into four parts, each in itself const.i.tuting a separate Veda under a special t.i.tle. These are the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda (white and black), the Sama-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda, or Ayur-Veda.

Although the last is admitted to be as a whole not so ancient as the other three, still there are portions of it that are probably as old as any of the others. Even in the oldest epic poems of the Hindoos mention is made of four Vedas as already in existence and as of great antiquity.

Sir William Jones estimates the date of its compilation as certainly not after B.C. 1580.

These Vedas are considered by the Hindoos to contain the groundwork of all their philosophy, as well as of their arts and sciences, and they contain treatises on music, medicine, the art of war, and architecture.

Sir William Jones, in referring to the Ayur-Veda, says that, to his astonishment, he found in it an entire Upanishad on the internal parts of the human body, enumerating the nerves, veins, and arteries.

The Ayur-Veda was considered by the Brahmins to be the work of Brahma--by him it was communicated to Dacsha, the Praj.a.pati, and by him, the two Aswins, or sons of Surya--the sun--were instructed in it, and thus became the medical attendants of the G.o.ds. A legend that cannot but recall to our mind the Greek myth of the two sons of aesculapius and their descent from Apollo.

In the case of immortal G.o.ds the practice was confined to surgery, in treating the wounds received in the conflicts which were constantly described as occurring amongst the G.o.ds themselves, or between the G.o.ds and the demons. Of course they performed many miraculous cures, as would be expected from their superhuman character.

Professor Wilson published in the _Oriental Magazine_, in 1823, some notices on early Hindoo Medicine, and he points out that the tradition is, that the above ”two Aswins instructed Indra in medical and surgical art, that Indra instructed Dahnwantari; although others make Atreya, Bharadwaja, and Charaka prior to the latter:--Charaka's work, which goes by his name, is extant. Dahnwantari is also styled Kasi-rajah, or Prince of Kasi, or Benares. His disciple was Susruta, his work also exists.”

The Ayur-Veda, as the oldest medical writings of the Hindoos are collectively called, was divided into eight divisions. These are described by Professor Wilson as follows:--

”1st. _Salya._--The art of extracting extraneous substances, violently or accidentally introduced into the body, with the treatment of the inflammation and suppuration thereby induced.

”The word _Salya_ means a dart or arrow, and points clearly to the origin of this branch of Hindoo science.

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