Types of mankind, or, Ethnological researches, based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history / illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz, W. Usher, and H.S. Patterson ; by J.C. Nott and Geo. R. Gliddon.

  • Nott, Josiah C. (Josiah Clark), 1804-1873.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Types of mankind, or, Ethnological researches, based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history / illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz, W. Usher, and H.S. Patterson ; by J.C. Nott and Geo. R. Gliddon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    771/800 (page 715)
    HINDOO. CHRONOLOGY — HINDOO. “ Originally this [Universe] was naught hut Son: nothing else existed active [or passive]. Hb had this thought — I will create worlds. It is thus that He created these [divers] worlds, the water, the light, the mortals, and the waters. This water is the [region] above the sky, (365) which the sky supports; the atmosphere contains the light; the earth is mortal; and the regions beneath are the waters.” — (Vedas, “ Aitareya A’ran’ya” — Pauthier : Liv. Sac., p. 318.) Although, in our Table of Alphabetical origins, we have dealt as sternly with unhistOrical Indian documents, as with the metaphysical fables of all other nations, it may be well to say a few passing words upon Hindoo chronologies ; lest it be supposed that we are not pre- pared to reagitate that which, to us, is no longer a “vexata quaestio.” Referring the reader to the citations from Wilson, Tumour, and Sykes, therein adduced, we repeat, that there is no connected chronology, to be settled archteologically by existiug monuments, throughout the whole Peninsula of Hindostan, of a date anterior to the fifth century b. c. That vast centre of creation swarmed with varied indigenous and exotic populations, from epochas coeval with the earliest historical nations; but, if any of these Indian phi- losophers ever composed a rigidly-chronological list of events, we have lost the record; or, what is more probable, the chronological element was wanting in the organism of Hindoo minds, until the latter received instruction (from Chaldaean magi scattered by Darius) through the Persians;—tuition greatly improved after contact with the Bactrian Greeks during the third century b. c. In any case, the extract subjoined will show that the antiquarian dreams of Sir W. Jones and of Colebrooke are now fleeting away. “Whether safe historic ground is to be found in India earlier than 1200 b. c., according to the chronicles of Kashmere (Radjtarangini, trad, par Troyer), is a question involved in obscurity; while Megasthenes (Indica, ed. Schwanbeck, 1846, p. 50) reckons for 153 kings of the dynasty of Magadha, from Manu to Kandragupta, from 60 to 64 centuries; and the astronomer Aryababhatta places the beginning of his chronology 3102 b. c. (Lassen, Ind. Alterthuvisk., bd. I., s. 473-505, 507, and 510).” From Humboldt (566) we pass on to Prichard; whose Hindoo prepossessions of 1819(567) have not only been nullified by Egyptian discoveries, but, with the learned ethnographer’s usual candor, have become greatly modified by his own later reflections.(568) The inquirer can judge from the perusal of the passages referred to whether he can make out a fixed chronological idea, in India, prior to the age of Budha in the sixth century b. c. Lepsius (569) contents his objects (confined to a general review of the world’s chronolo- gical elements) by mentioning, that the Hindoo astronomical cycle kali yuga falls on the 18th Feb. 3102 b. c. ; that the Cashmeerian king Gonarda I. is supposed to have reigned about B. c. 2448; and that king Yikramaditya’s era is fixed at b. c. 58. But he also shows that the 4th-5th centuries b. c. comprise all we can depend upon, arcliaeologically, in Hindoo history. However, by opening the excellent work of De Brotonne, (570) the reader will easily perceive how the Chaldaean astrological cycle of 432,000 years became extended by later Brahmanical pundits to one, equally fabulous, of 4,320,000 years: and inasmuch as this fact merely invalidates Sanscrit hallucinations the more, we are fain to leave Hindoo chro- nology in the same “slough of despond” in which we found it. Reader! — the task proposed to myself in the preparation of these three svpplementary Essays here ends. It was assumed under the following circumstances:— (565) This is the same cosmogony as that of CoSMAS-Indicopleustes, herein-before described. Indeed, the notion was universal; and, in theography, is so still. (566) Cosmos; transl. Otto; 1850; ii. p. 115. (567) Analysis of Mythology. (568) Researches into the Physical History of Mankind; 1844: iv. pp. 98-130. (669) Chronologie; i. pp. 4-5. (670) Filiations; i. pp. 238, 239, 414-433.