Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 465

WRITING ATTRIBUTED TO BRAHMA
425
throw a good deal of light on questions still shrouded in
uncertainty.
I have not the slightest pretensions to having
discovered any new origin of written language, nor have
I the vain presumption of depriving the Phoenician Cadmus
of the glory of having invented the elementary principles
of—
De peindre
Et par les
Donner de
Cet art ingenieux
de parler aux yeux
traits divers de figures tracees
la parole et
la couleur et
du corps aux pensees.
think myself fortunate enough if what I am about
worthy of the attention of the learned,
and if it present some points of interest to those who are
fond of discovering traces of primitive times in the usages
that still exist.
The Hindu books attribute the credit of this invaluable
invention to the great Brahma, the creator of men and the
sovereign arbiter of their destinies. The serrated sutures
to be seen on a skull are, they say, nothing less than the
handwriting of Brahma himself and these indelible charac-
ters, traced by his divine hand, contain the irrevocable
decrees regulating the destiny of each individual of the
human race. It may be urged that this Hindu belief is
a mere myth, and, as such, cannot be regarded as the basis
of any reasonable conjectures.
I am of the same opinion
but it must also be admitted that it is one of the oldest
myths of India, and it proves at any rate that when it was
invented the knowledge of writing already existed. Other-
wise how could the Hindus of those remote times have
discovered traces of writing in these marks on skulls %
Another fact, or another myth, if one prefers to call it so,
may be said to corroborate this. The four Vedas are
considered to be the work of the god Brahma, who wrote
them with his own hand on leaves of gold. These books,
which contain the ritual of the idolatrous ceremonies
practised by these people, are held by them in great venera-
tion, and their high antiquity is nowhere called into ques-
tion.
Other books, too, many of which are undoubtedly
very old, speak of the Vedas as of a far earlier date. More-
over, the language in which they are written has become
unintelligible in many places.
The Vedas, indeed, by
p 3
I shall
to say be considered
;
;