1825.]

23. Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay. With Engravings. Vol. III. 40. pp. 554.

F India be intended to form an in

no documents can be more important than those of the kind now before us. Indeed, nothing is a more plain want of policy, than the neglect of having any country intended for a permanent possession regularly mapped, and staistically investigated. A General or Commander-in-chief then knows what are the proper spots for cantonments of cavalry, what for infantry, where are the prospects of the enemy's recruiting, and so forth. When Pichegro commanded the troops in Flanders, paper placards, like those of the London street hawkers, were posted in different parts of the line of encampment, even so simple as observations of the barometer," It will freeze tomorrow, It will thaw to-morrow," and so forth. Fas est et ab hoste doceri. And we are solemnly of opinion, that if a statistical survey is not immediately made, where the nature of the conquest renders it practicable, an omission ensues of serious moment to the lives and property of garrisons, settlers, merchants, &c. Indeed, a General, by false or defective information, may be led into measures which absolutely insure defeat. He may be carried into swamps and woods, defiles, mountainous countries, in short, into situations where, for want of previous knowledge, he is not provided with the proper tactical application of his forces. The absurdity is evident. He is required to march into a country of which he has no geographical details; perhaps to march from London to Edinburgh as the crow flies, as if his passage was through the air. In India in particular, where troops are precions, maps and statistical investigations are imperiously necessary, as to the line at least of military roads Gin India we believe there are none), the practicability of passage, and the possibility of provision. Street roads should be cut from one end of British Ita to the other, with vicinal GENT. MAG. August, 1825.

branches, and every thing possible should be known of the state, and manners and customs of the country. It is evident that wisdom which sup poses superior reason, points out all these things with regard to every foreign possession whatever, annexed to the Crown of Great Britain. There is, therefore, a branch of knowledge which we would call Governmental; and as there are two dissertations in this volume, viz. the account of the Township of Lony (p. 172 seq.) and the statistical account of the Pergunna of Jumbousar, (p. 331 seq.) which ought to have been rendered unnecessary, by Governmental publications under authority, like the Ordnance Surveys. We have thus spoken out, with the pure intention of doing good, that of enabling St. George ever to overcome dragons, not for the purpose of inducing party snakes to coil around him in his sleep, and poison him.

Such are the sentiments which the present volume has suggested to us in particular, over and above the usual interest which the publications of learned Societies ought to excite in the friends of Literature.

We shall now proceed to the con

tents.

I. Remarks on the state of Persia, from the Battle of Arbela in A. C. 331, to the Rise of Ardashir Babegan in A.D. 226. By Major Vans Kenne ly.

This paper is intended to show that the Parthians were not a distinct people from the Persians, and that the former had not attempted to overthrow the religion of Zoroaster; that Alexander's conquest of Persia was only attended by a change of the Govern ment, inasmuch as the lands of the vanquished were not divided amongst the principal leaders of the victorious army, nor was even the country occupied, and its possession maintained, by large bodies of troops; that the prac tice of the Parthian warrior taking his unerring aim, while his horse was carrying him from his enemy, is an usage which has always been as common to Persian as to Tartar tribes (p. 22); that there is no ground whatever for

supposing

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supposing that the Parthians ever were a Scythian people (p. 23); that no information is to be got from Muhamedan writers, because there is no reason to suppose that any ancient historian was ever translated into either Arabic or Persic, and such writers are therefore extremely ignorant of all events which have taken place in foreign countries (p. 25); that the two ceremonies of the Magi, viz. the Barsam, or holding small rods of the tamarisk in their hands, while sacrificing or reciting prayers, and their covering their mouths while standing before the sacred fire, were never practised in any other religion than that of Zoroaster (pp. 35, 51); and in sum, that Arsaces or Arshak, who founded the Monarchy known by the name of Parthian, seventy years after the Macedonian occupation, was a Persian, and that his troops and the inhabitants of the conquered country were Persian also. P. 44.

Thus it appears that the object of the paper is to establish the identity of the Parthians and Persians. The authors used are Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Justin, Tacitus, Pliny, and Poly

bius.

Concerning this position we have only to observe, that Parthia was never considered by the Greeks and Romans to have been any other than a province of Iran (Persia) proper, which province was bounded on the North by Hyriania, on the W. by Media, on the S. by Carmania, and on the E. by Aria; but that the inhabitants were not of an Aboriginal race, but Scythian emigrants. (See Sir Will. Drummond's Origines, i. 301.) Sir William further observes, that Parthia was the present Erak Agem, a name signifying a country of barbarians, which appellation was not only due to the ancient Parthians, but is now in a greater degree to their modern descendants. (Id. 334 --336. He further thinks, that in the early ages of the world Iran and India formed only one nation. (p. 361.) Major Vans Kennedy will not admit that the Parthians were Scythians, (see the Memoir, p. 18 seq.) and very justly complains that the term Scythian is the opprobrium of antient writers, as from its vagueness and latitude of application, it never conveys any distinct information." (p. 18.) Sir Will. Drummond lays to the charge of Isidore (Orig. 9. 2) the Scythian origin

[Aug.

of the Parthians (p. 301); but Isidore is plainly supported by Strabo and Justin: nor do we think that Major Vans Kennedy has made out his conclusion in this point," that there are no grounds whatever for supposing that the Parthians ever were a Scythian people" (p. 23); because we think that the ancients only meant that they were not aboriginal, but were of that country which they called Scythia, and which perhaps we should with the same licentiousness call Russia, though the nations composing that immense empire are evidently distinct tribes.

II. Account of a bed of native subcarbonate of Soda found in Malwa. By Capt. John Stewart.

III. Notes respecting the principal remains in the ruined City of Bejapoor, with traditional accounts of their Origin, &c. By Capt. W. H. Sykes.

The

These ruins take date between the years 1500 and 1672 of our æra. kingdom terminated in 1685, A. D. Arungzebe taking prisoner the last of its Kings, Secunder Adil Shah. The ruins consist of innumerable domes, spires, and buildings. The dome of the Sooltan Mahomed Shah's tomb transmits sound like that of St. Paul's. (P. 57.)

"Over the South door of the tomb, and suspended by a long chain, is one of those meteoric stones, the occasional fall of which has produced so much surprise and discussion; the natives call it vijlee puttur (lightning stone), and suppose it possesses the property of preserving the building from being struck by lightning. It hangs too high to be distinctly examined; but viewed with a glass, it has the appearance of a grey metallic stone." P. 58.

It is needless to observe, that specimens of these aerolites may be seen at the British Museum and elsewhere.

At the tomb of Ibrahim Pad Shah,

"The windows, instead of lattice or fretwork, are composed of Arabic sentences, cut out of stone tables, the space between each letter perforating the stone, and admitting the light......What is very curious in this tomb is, that the ceiling is quite flat, made of square slabs of stone without apparent support over this is a room with a convex ceiling, but the curvature so slight raised the admirably proportioned dome." as to render it almost flat; upon this is

P. 58.

"From the angles of the Maitree Kujoos [a gateway and mosque] hang massy stone chains, which must have been cut out of

1825.]

On one lower is a gun of iron bars thirty feet long. The ascent is by a winding ramp outside the tower. P.61. At the tomb of Buree Ali, "the rising Sun and Moon are badly painted on the walls amidst clouds; doubtless being typical of some event in the King's life.

Aurangzebe's brass gun, mounted on a tower near the Mecca gate, is a great curiosity. Four men were put into it, and made to sit bending their heads. It would require an iron ball weighing upwards of 2500 pounds. Some stone shot were lying near, and they reach higher than the knee of a tall man. It is called Malik-i-meiden (the King of the Plain). Although nearly fifteen feet long, its diameter is such as to give it the appearance of a vast howitzer. The gun was once fired; but it threw down so many buildings, and frightened so many pregnant ladies into premature labour, that the use of it was interdicted for the future. It was cast by order of Aurangzebe, in commemoration of his conquest of Bejapoor, and is covered with Arabic sentences in relief, explanatory of that event. P. 62.

The Caravanseras are of curious construction, consisting of long lines of lateral arches" placed in the manner in which the arches of a bridge are, built up at one end, but open at the other to the street." P. 62.

IV. An Account of the origin of the Living God at the village of Chincpore Rear Poona. By Capt. W. H. Sykes. This is a legend of miraculous nonsense, evidently fabricated for the purpose of recommending senseless superstition, without even the interest which a writer for the nursery would think necessary to introduce into legends. Offended gods, it seems, punished the contumacious, by giving them the belly-ache (sic) (p. 67), a sort of unpicturesque revenge, which has not the poetical merit of our fairies in their Cinderillas and other wonderful things which the laughing eyes of the pretty prattlers on our knees relate with so much glee. What a fine specimen of the Bathos! Papa, the fairy turned Tom Thumb into the Monument, King Arthur into St. Paul's, and his Queen into Westminster Abbey! But this story ends in their all having the stomach-ache. Some pearls, however,

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perhaps mock ones, may be scratched out of this mere heap of rubbish. It seems that the sanction of the god was shewn "by a conical stone arising out of the earth, and that people of extraordinary sanctity buried themselves alive in a sitting position." (p. 67.) That our Druids were modified Budhists, has been often asserted, and we catch like drowning men at straws, at any assimilation of stone worship, and the frequent sitting posture of skeletons in barrows, though we admit that the instances quoted are very little to the purpose.

V. On the institution and ceremonies of the Hindoo Festival of the Dusrah, with a short account of the Kurradec Brahmins. By Major-general Sir John Malcolm, G. C.B. and K.L.S.

This paper gives us an insight into what might have been the real mythology of the eras of the Tower of Babel, and may serve to convince us that Bryant's system, which has laid the foundation of a new school of mythology, has no archetype in history. It appears that the Sami tree was endowed with miraculous properties. Sir John Malcolm says, "The Sami re-. lieves from sin; the Sami destroys foes. It is the bearer of the vow of Arjoon, the beloved object received by Roma."

"In one of the learned Wifford's papers in the Asiatic Researches, the name of Semiramis is stated to be partly derived from this tree. It is conjectured to be a compound of Sami and Rama, or "he who sports in the Sami tree," and he adduces indeed from the Pooranas authority for the etymology. P. 75.

We refer our readers to various oriental writers concerning the miraculous properties ascribed to trees. It is too trite to require further observation.

The Dusra, says Sir John (a writer whom we hold in high respect for judgment and strength of mind),