DECORATION OF AN INDIAN SADDLE-COYER.

finding a few specimens of these arts in the disinterred palaces of Assyria , or on the sculptured monuments ofPersia , we should be unable to judge, and unwilling to admit, the high perfection to which many of thesearts had attained in very ancient times. So in the case of China , if it had not been for the researches ofscholars, we should have disbelieved the high antiquity in that country of the manufacture of porcelain andof paper, a knowledge of silk, of gunpowder, of various metallurgical compounds, and of the mariner’s compass.But in all these countries India is referred to, in the earliest times, as an object of admiration or of desire;and though we may disbelieve in the conquest of any part of India by the Egyptian Sesostris, or the AssyrianNinus, or in the expedition of the Indian Bacchus, yet the very prevalence of such traditions in the earliesttimes of which we have any record, seems to prove that the country was famed for. the richness of its products,and for the early civilisation of its inhabitants. We know, moreover, that Alexander the Great found themso more than 2000 years ago, and we find them now hardly differing from what his historians described themto be in his time. The Chinese , moreover, derived their most popular religion, and one class of their sacredbooks, from India .”

The authors who have most deeply investigated the particular question of the antiquity of the Hindoowritings, have been inclined to date those singular documents, the hymns of the Vedas, at least as far backas the year 1000 b.c. Those venerable records prove that the Hindoos were then not only an eminentlyagricultural people, but, as Professor Wilson observes, a manufacturing people also; “for,” he remarks, “theart of weaving, the labours of the carpenter, and the fabrication of golden and of iron mail, are alluded to:and, what is more remarkable, they were a maritime and mercantile people.” The latter observation is stronglyborne out by the view taken by that great German student, Heeren, who, from very different premises, arrivesat the same conclusion. In investigating the nature of the products which are reputed to have formed theprincipal elements in the trade of Persia and Phoenicia , that learned author has expressed his belief that manyof them emanated from India .

Referring to the extensive trade carried on by Solomon, Dr. Royle has observed (in his “Essay on theAntiquity of Hindoo Medicine”) that, from the different products described as brought to the court of thatmonarch—“ especially ivory, apes, peacocks, and pearls—it is evident that only southern countries, whether Africaor India , could have been the object of the voyage. But cinnamon, and cassia, nard, calamus, and onycha,having been shown to be peculiarly Indian products known to ancient commerce, there can, I conceive, be nodoubt that the west coast of India, and probably also the island of Ceylon , were reached, even in those earlytimes.”

Dr. Royle, in his “ Lecture,” proceeds to state that “ the philosophical Heeren appears to have justlyascribed the flourishing state of many of the cities of Egypt , as well as of Babylon, and of such places asPalmyra and Petra, to their trade with India . Many of the products which formed articles of commerce,were such that they could not have been obtained from any nearer locality. Being ourselves situated in aremote corner of Europe , we contemplate the difficulties of these journeyings and voyages from an insularpoint of view, and consider how we could have undertaken them at those early times; forgetting that thepeople of Persia and Affghanistan would have found no great difficulty in crossing into India, nor the Phoenicians of the Persian Gulf even in reaching the mouths of the Indus. The Arabs of the Red Sea , even before thediscovery of the regularity of the monsoons, might easily have coasted to the Persian Gulf , and gone as faras, or beyond the Phoenicians, to the ancient Barygaza , and been carried from thence to the western or theMalabar coast of India , which is the nearest point where pepper, cassia, and other such spices, could havebeen obtained. There is nothing impossible in these ancient wanderings; in fact, we know that they musthave taken place: for the philosophical investigations into the structure of languages have shown a greatsimilarity between the Sanscrit, Persian, Greek, Latin , Teutonic, and Celtic, which are now usually calledIndo-Germanic , but of late Aryan languages, because this appears to be the oldest name by which the nationsspeaking them called themselves. It is curious, as has been observed, that the Indo-European languagesall exhibit the most striking coincidences in words expressive of the first peaceful arts of mankind, while theterms connected with the chase or war are mostly peculiar. Consequently, there appears to me nothingimprobable in the people of India having been as early civilised as any of the nations I have mentioned.”

We hope to pursue these interesting inquiries in a future article.