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OF THE HINDUS.
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among them are inclined to inquire, and think, and determine for themselves. That they offer a favourable soil in which to implant the seeds of Christianity has been lately shewn by the conversion of the inhabitants of several villages in the vicinity of Krishúaguh, who had for some time past seceded from the prevailing practices, and under teachers of their own had adopted a theistical belief.
There is still another and a very important division of the Hindu religion to be noticed, so far is it from being a consistent and homogeneous system. The history of this is very obscure, and the origin of the authorities on which it rests is unknown. Tradition is silent as to the authors of the Tantras—they are mythologically ascribed to Siva, and are generally in the form of a colloquy between him and his wife Párvatí. They are very numerous, and some are of considerable volume: but they are not included in any of the ordinary enumerations of Hindu literature, and were, no doubt, composed after that literature was complete in all its parts. They are specified in some of the Puráúas, to which they must be therefore anterior *. They have been but little examined by European scholars, but sufficient has been ascertained to warrant the accusation that they are authorities for all that is most abominable in the present state of the Hindu religion.
The great feature of the religion taught by the
* [Lassen, Ind. Alt.. IV, 633 f. Wilson, Rel. Sects, p. 245 tf.]
