03-25-2007, 01:43 PM
Voltaire was part of the 'enlightenment' philosophes in which the discovery of indic philiosophies bySchopenahauer and other played a large part. see the ful article by Jyoti Mohan, part of it excerpted here
<b><i>Fragments sur l'Inde consists of roughly two sections. One traces the history of French activities in India until the loss of most of the French Indian territories during the Seven Years War. It deals with the establishment, expansion, and decline of French trade in India, from François Martin to Lally. The second part of Fragments sur l'Inde is a compendium of all of Voltaire's thoughts and ideas on India, which he put together from various articles, letters, and communications regarding the discovery of Hinduism in India. Voltaire was also sufficiently interested in India to include sections on Vedic religion, the Brahmans, and Mughals in his complete works. 5
He drew his material from a wide selection ranging from ancient Greek writers such as Strabo and Pliny in his description of the high scientific achievements of the ancient Indians to accounts of medieval and early modern travelers such as François Bernier, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, and the accounts of Jesuit missionaries, which were collected and published as Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, as well as contemporary English and French accounts of India, including those of Holwell, Halhed, and Alexander Dow.6 As an exercise in historical reconstruction, his selection of sources is interesting in itself because he seems to have deliberately chosen certain sources and ignored others. Focusing on the Orientalist works on India, Voltaire chose to minimize the information about India that was sent back by missionaries, even though he had access to it. It seems that missionary accounts were included in his work only as bridges to what he perceived as gaps in the knowledge about India provided by Orientalist scholars. While missionary accounts naturally tended to harp on the backwardness of India and the need for conversion, the Orientalists were the new breed of scholars who glorified Indian civilization. In effect, Voltaire's choice of sources made his opinion about India as a highly developed society a foregone conclusion. From his sources, Voltaire skillfully created an "India" that represented the Enlightenment ideal of an accomplished land, worthy of emulation in many ways. I will refer to the manner in which he interpreted and used his sources several times in this article, to demonstrate the process by which he skillfully created "India." 6
Voltaire constantly emphasized the antiquity of Indian civilization through its ancient learning, the arts, literature, and the gradual evolution of the caste system. Debating the relative antiquity of the Indian and Chinese civilizations, he finally came to the conclusion that the Indian one was older. "It is probable that the Brahmins existed long before the Chinese had their five kings; and what gives rise to this great probability is, that in China the antiquities most sought after are Indian, and that in India there are no Chinese antiquities."7 7
The other evidence for the superior antiquity of India, according to Voltaire, was the "Shasta" and the discovery of the "Ezour-Vedam" which proved, by their theological ideas, to be older even than the Chinese religion.8 Incidentally, the notion of the "Shasta" was derived from Holwell, while the Ezour Vedam appears to have been some sort of commentary on the Vedas, which Voltaire claimed was of the greatest antiquity.9 8
This antiquity of Indian civilization gave rise to a unique and sought-after morality.
Those ancient Brahmins were doubtless as bad metaphysicians and ridiculous theologists as the Chaldaeans and Persians, and of all the nations that are to the east of China. But what a sublime morality! According to them life was only a death of some years, after which they were to live with the Divinity. They did not confine themselves to being just towards others, but they were rigorous toward themselves. Silence, abstinence, contemplation, the renouncing of all pleasures, were their principal duties. Likewise, from the sages of other nations, they were to learn what was called Wisdom.10
This description of the Brahmans of ancient India was a classic Enlightenment view, one that exoticized asceticism and glorified the notions of self-control, frugality, and discipline. The Brahman was the antithesis of the corrupt Christian clergyman and the epitome of the new ideal of detachment and meditative living. He was perceived as the living repository of the philosophy of ancient India. Looking for a civilization that predated the Greek and for a link to the theological and philosophical ideas of the ancient Greeks, Voltaire believed that this missing link was India. Drawing upon ancient Greek accounts of India, he described the Indians as
remarkable for their mildness as our northern race for their roughness.... In general, the men inhabiting the south East part of the globe have received from nature gentler manners than we who dwell in the western hemisphere. Their climate naturally disposes them to abstinence from strong liquors and meats, foods which inflame the blood frequently to a degree of madness; and although the natural goodness of their dispositions may have been corrupted by superstition and the repeated irruptions of foreigners, yet all travelers agree that these people have nothing of that petulance and sourness in their nature which had cost so much pains to control in the people of the North.
There being so great a physical difference between us and the natives of India, there must undoubtedly have been as great a moral one. Their vices were in general less violent than ours.11
This was an image of an ideal people, who possessed few faults and a sweetness and mildness of disposition that was praiseworthy. What in Voltaire's account was seen as mildness was described by missionaries as "weakness" and "insinuating." Where other accounts described Indians as indolent, given to every form of vice, and utterly lazy, Voltaire describes them as mild, abstinent, and possessing far fewer and less-offensive vices than Europeans. In this description of India, Voltaire chose to focus only on ancient Greek accounts of thriving trade and industrious people. Despite his obvious knowledge and use of later writers such as Bernier and Tavernier, he did not mention them or, in fact, their criticism of the superstitions of the common people. In all justice, he tried, in all his essays on India, to isolate what he believed to be indigenous, leaving out all external influence that may have changed Indian civilization. Containing none of the rhetoric that denounced Indians as a class of lazy idlers and drunken degenerates as voiced especially in the missionary accounts of India, Voltaire in fact suggested that many of the current ills of Indian society were imported into India with the constant stream of foreign invasions and were totally unnatural to the disposition of the Indian. </i></b>
<b><i>Fragments sur l'Inde consists of roughly two sections. One traces the history of French activities in India until the loss of most of the French Indian territories during the Seven Years War. It deals with the establishment, expansion, and decline of French trade in India, from François Martin to Lally. The second part of Fragments sur l'Inde is a compendium of all of Voltaire's thoughts and ideas on India, which he put together from various articles, letters, and communications regarding the discovery of Hinduism in India. Voltaire was also sufficiently interested in India to include sections on Vedic religion, the Brahmans, and Mughals in his complete works. 5
He drew his material from a wide selection ranging from ancient Greek writers such as Strabo and Pliny in his description of the high scientific achievements of the ancient Indians to accounts of medieval and early modern travelers such as François Bernier, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, and the accounts of Jesuit missionaries, which were collected and published as Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, as well as contemporary English and French accounts of India, including those of Holwell, Halhed, and Alexander Dow.6 As an exercise in historical reconstruction, his selection of sources is interesting in itself because he seems to have deliberately chosen certain sources and ignored others. Focusing on the Orientalist works on India, Voltaire chose to minimize the information about India that was sent back by missionaries, even though he had access to it. It seems that missionary accounts were included in his work only as bridges to what he perceived as gaps in the knowledge about India provided by Orientalist scholars. While missionary accounts naturally tended to harp on the backwardness of India and the need for conversion, the Orientalists were the new breed of scholars who glorified Indian civilization. In effect, Voltaire's choice of sources made his opinion about India as a highly developed society a foregone conclusion. From his sources, Voltaire skillfully created an "India" that represented the Enlightenment ideal of an accomplished land, worthy of emulation in many ways. I will refer to the manner in which he interpreted and used his sources several times in this article, to demonstrate the process by which he skillfully created "India." 6
Voltaire constantly emphasized the antiquity of Indian civilization through its ancient learning, the arts, literature, and the gradual evolution of the caste system. Debating the relative antiquity of the Indian and Chinese civilizations, he finally came to the conclusion that the Indian one was older. "It is probable that the Brahmins existed long before the Chinese had their five kings; and what gives rise to this great probability is, that in China the antiquities most sought after are Indian, and that in India there are no Chinese antiquities."7 7
The other evidence for the superior antiquity of India, according to Voltaire, was the "Shasta" and the discovery of the "Ezour-Vedam" which proved, by their theological ideas, to be older even than the Chinese religion.8 Incidentally, the notion of the "Shasta" was derived from Holwell, while the Ezour Vedam appears to have been some sort of commentary on the Vedas, which Voltaire claimed was of the greatest antiquity.9 8
This antiquity of Indian civilization gave rise to a unique and sought-after morality.
Those ancient Brahmins were doubtless as bad metaphysicians and ridiculous theologists as the Chaldaeans and Persians, and of all the nations that are to the east of China. But what a sublime morality! According to them life was only a death of some years, after which they were to live with the Divinity. They did not confine themselves to being just towards others, but they were rigorous toward themselves. Silence, abstinence, contemplation, the renouncing of all pleasures, were their principal duties. Likewise, from the sages of other nations, they were to learn what was called Wisdom.10
This description of the Brahmans of ancient India was a classic Enlightenment view, one that exoticized asceticism and glorified the notions of self-control, frugality, and discipline. The Brahman was the antithesis of the corrupt Christian clergyman and the epitome of the new ideal of detachment and meditative living. He was perceived as the living repository of the philosophy of ancient India. Looking for a civilization that predated the Greek and for a link to the theological and philosophical ideas of the ancient Greeks, Voltaire believed that this missing link was India. Drawing upon ancient Greek accounts of India, he described the Indians as
remarkable for their mildness as our northern race for their roughness.... In general, the men inhabiting the south East part of the globe have received from nature gentler manners than we who dwell in the western hemisphere. Their climate naturally disposes them to abstinence from strong liquors and meats, foods which inflame the blood frequently to a degree of madness; and although the natural goodness of their dispositions may have been corrupted by superstition and the repeated irruptions of foreigners, yet all travelers agree that these people have nothing of that petulance and sourness in their nature which had cost so much pains to control in the people of the North.
There being so great a physical difference between us and the natives of India, there must undoubtedly have been as great a moral one. Their vices were in general less violent than ours.11
This was an image of an ideal people, who possessed few faults and a sweetness and mildness of disposition that was praiseworthy. What in Voltaire's account was seen as mildness was described by missionaries as "weakness" and "insinuating." Where other accounts described Indians as indolent, given to every form of vice, and utterly lazy, Voltaire describes them as mild, abstinent, and possessing far fewer and less-offensive vices than Europeans. In this description of India, Voltaire chose to focus only on ancient Greek accounts of thriving trade and industrious people. Despite his obvious knowledge and use of later writers such as Bernier and Tavernier, he did not mention them or, in fact, their criticism of the superstitions of the common people. In all justice, he tried, in all his essays on India, to isolate what he believed to be indigenous, leaving out all external influence that may have changed Indian civilization. Containing none of the rhetoric that denounced Indians as a class of lazy idlers and drunken degenerates as voiced especially in the missionary accounts of India, Voltaire in fact suggested that many of the current ills of Indian society were imported into India with the constant stream of foreign invasions and were totally unnatural to the disposition of the Indian. </i></b>