Volume 2

The East-India gazetteer; containing particular descriptions of the empires, kingdoms, principalities, provinces, cities, towns, districts, fortresses, harbours, rivers, lakes, &c. of Hindostan, and the adjacent countries, India beyond the Ganges, and the eastern archipelago; together with sketches of the manners, customs, institutions, agriculture, commerce, manufactures, revenues, population, castes, religion, history, &c. of their various inhabitants / By Walter Hamilton.

  • Hamilton, Walter, M.R.A.S.
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The East-India gazetteer; containing particular descriptions of the empires, kingdoms, principalities, provinces, cities, towns, districts, fortresses, harbours, rivers, lakes, &c. of Hindostan, and the adjacent countries, India beyond the Ganges, and the eastern archipelago; together with sketches of the manners, customs, institutions, agriculture, commerce, manufactures, revenues, population, castes, religion, history, &c. of their various inhabitants / By Walter Hamilton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    guage, there are the relics bf Hin- dooism still adhering to them, the traditions that exist of their ancient belief, and the temples and idols pe¬ culiar to the Hindoo superstition, with inscriptions in the sacred lan¬ guage of that faith. The penances and austerities of the Hindoo ritual are still occasionally practised by the Javanese, and their virtue in con¬ ferring supernatural power over gods, men, and the elements, still serious¬ ly believed in. By all connected with the royal blood, and by them only, the flesh of the cow is religious¬ ly abstained from. There is scarcely any reason to believe that the insti¬ tution of castes (the grand Brahmini- cal distinction) ever prevailed among the Javanese, from which, and from other circumstances, it is probable that the predominant religion of Java was Buddhism; yet the temples and inscriptions found in various parts, furnish sufficient evidence, that the doctrines of Brahma had also ob¬ tained a footing. The remains of numerous small stone temples, collected in groups, and each occupied by a single statue, are found at Brarnbanan, vaguely termed by the natives the “ thou¬ sand temples.” At Boro Budor is a remarkable solid pyramidical tem¬ ple, and many ancient Hindoo pagodas of brick are found in the eastern quarter, more especially near to Mojopahit, the last Hindoo capi¬ tal, destroyed by the Mahomedans in A.D. 1478. The stone temples, in point of materials, solidity, and neatness of execution, are very ad¬ mirable structures. Genuine Hindoo images, in brass and stone, exist in such variety, that there is hardly a deity of the Hindoo pantheon that has not his representative, more es¬ pecially Siva, the destroying power, and his family, such as Durga, Ga- nesa, Surya, the bull Nandi, the Lin- gam and the Yoni. The most nume¬ rous description of images, however, is those of Buddha, the same in all countries professing his doctrines; the legs bent, and the soles of his feet turned up. But these are never seen in the great central temples, but al¬ ways in the smaller surrounding cha¬ pels, apparently in the character of votaries worshipping Siva. To the east of Surabaya, and on the range of hills connected with Gunung Desan, partly in Passaruan and partly in Probolingo, called the Tenggar mountains, a remnant of people called Bedui, following the Hindoo mythology, is still to be found. They occupy about forty vil¬ lages, scattered among the hills, the houses of which differ in construction and other circumstances from those found elsewhere in Java, but their language, except being strongly gut¬ tural, does not differ much. The ag¬ gregate population of these sectaries is about 1,200 persons, and the lo¬ cality^ of the community singularly beautiful and romantic. The tem¬ perature of the air is also remarkably cool, the thermometer being fre¬ quently seen so low as 42°, while alpine fruits and plants of a Euro¬ pean climate flourish in luxuriance. These Bedui are supposed to be the descendants of the Hindoos that es¬ caped into the woods after the fall of Panjajaran, the western capital in the fifteenth century, who would not alter their religion, but remained faithful to Prabha Seda, the last Hindoo prince of Panjajaran. The predominant religion is that of Mahomed, adulterated by many superstitious notions and observ¬ ances, retained from the religion of their ancestors. In A.D. 1406, Sheik ibn Molana, or Ben Israel, an Ara¬ bian who had largely contributed to the propagation of Mahomedan faith in the neighbouring islands, came to Java, and became both a powerful sovereign and venerated apostle of that religion. The kings of Bantam and Cheribon claim him for their an¬ cestor, and pilgrimages are still per¬ formed to his mosque and mauso¬ leum near the latter, and an edifice that may rank among the most cu¬ rious and magnificent antiquities of the eastern isles. At present, how¬ ever, of all the Mahomedans of the Archipelago, the Javanese are the