'Collections of travels through Turky into Persia, and the East Indies. Giving an account of the present state of those countries, as also a full relation of the five years wars, between Aureng-Zebe and his brothers in their father's life time, about the succession. And a voyage made by the Great Mogul (Aureng-Zebe) with his Army from Dehli to Lahor, from Lahor to Bember, and from thence to the Kingdom of Kachemire, by the Mogols, call'd, the Paradise of the Indies. Together with a relation of the Kingdom of Japan and Tunkin, and of their particular manners and trade. To which is added a new description of the Grand Seignior's Seraglio, and also of all the Kingdoms that encompass the Euxine and Caspian Seas, being the travels of Monsieur TavernierBernier, and other great men.' [‎107] (778/1024)

'/ he Gentiles of ■ Ittdoftan.
they have done. I (hall therefore content my felf to fay fomething in General to you
of their Studies and Sciences^ not indeed in that good order which poffibly you might
exped, but juft as I have learnt, it, and as ’tis probably found in their Books i I mean
by fragments, and without coherence.
The Town of Benares , which is feared upon the Ganges in a very fine and rich Coun
try and place, is the General School, and as ft were the Athens of the Gentry of the
Indies i where the Bradmans and the Religious fthofe that addidhhemfelves to ftudy)
come together. They have no Colledges nor Claffes ordered as with us, me thinks
ftis more after the way of the School of the Antients s the Mafters being difperfed
over the Town in their Houfes, and efpedally in the Gardens of the Suburbs, where
the great Merchants do fufter them, Of thefe Mafters fome have four Difciples i o-
thers fix or feven ; and the moft famous, twelve or fifteen at moft, who fpend
tenor adouien years with them. All this ftudy goeth on very cooly, becaufe moft In^
dians are of a ftow and lazy humour, to which the heat and diet of the Country contri
butes much i and becaufe they are not animated to induftry as we, by that great emu-
f lation, and by the great hopes we have of coming thereby to great preferment. They
ftudy leafurely, and without much tormenting themfelves i eating their Kicheryot mix
ture of Legums, which the rich Merchants caufe to be dreffed for them.
Their firft ftudy is of the Han ferity which is a Language altogether different from the
common Indian, and not, kno wn but by the Pendets. And this is that Tongue, of which
Father Kircher hath pubhftit the Alphabet received from Father Koa. It is called Hanfcrit,
that is, a pure Language i and becaufe they believe this is to be the Tongue, in which
God, by the means of Brahma, gave them the four Betbs^ which they efteem Sacred
Books/they call it an Holy and Divine Language. They pretend alfo, that it is as
antient as Brahma, whofe Age they do not reckon but by Lecqttes, or hundred thoufands
of years, but i would gladly have a warrant for fuch an extraordinary Antiquity*
However, it cannot be denied that ftis very old, in regard that the Books of their Re
ligion, which certainly is very antient, are written in this Tongue, and befides that,
it hath it’s Authors in Philofophy and Phyfick in Verfes,and fome other Poems, and ma
ny other Books , of which I have feen a great Hall quite full in Benares.
After they have learned the (which is very difficult to them, becaufe they
have no Grammar worth any thing) they commonly apply themfelves to read the Fa
rm, which is as it were the interpretation and fum of the Beths, which are very large, at
leaft if thofe be they which were ftiewed me at Benares : and befides they are fo very
rare, that my Agab could never find them to be fold, what induftry foever he ufed in it.
And they keep them very fecret, for fear leaft the Mahumetans ftiould lay their hands
ort them and burn them, as they have already done feveral times.
After the fome fall upon Philofophy, wherein certainly they go not far. I
nave already intimated, that they are of a flow and lazy temper, and are not excited
by the hopes to obtain feme good place by their ftudy.
Among (heir Philofophers there have principally been fix very famous, who make
fo many dirferentSedfs > which caufeth alio a difference and an emulation among the 1
Pendets or Dodtors: For they know, that fuch an one is of rhisSed, another of ano
ther, and every one of them pretends his Dodrine to be better than that of others, and
niore conform to the Beths. There is indeed another, a feventh Sed, which is called
Pme whence do proceed twelve other different Seds j but this is notfocommonas the
odiers , the Votaries of it being hated and defpifed as a company of irreligious and
atheiftkal people, nor do they live like the reft.
All thefe Books fpeak of the firfi principles of things, but very differently. Some fa}',
that all iscompofed of little Bodies that are indivifible, not by reafon of their folidity,
hardnefs, and rcfiftance> but fmalnefs} adding divers things which approach to the
opinions of Democritm and Epicurus, but with fo much confufion that one knows not
where to [alien, all feeming like a rope of fand : which yet may be as much or more
the fault of the Pendets, which feem to me very ignorant, then of the Authors.
Others fry, that all is made up of matter and form > but not one of them explains
tmfeif clearly about the matter, and lefs about the/mw. Yetfo much I have found,
t at they underftand them not at alias they arc wont to be explained in our Schools, by
oucingrhe form out of the power of the Matter: For they always alledge Exam
ples of things Artifickil, and among them that of a Veffel of foft Clay, which a Pot-
ter and fliapes divers ways*
e , ft' Others