PINJRAPOL. IIIND. In India, an hospital for sick animals. The account given by Pietro de In Valle, who visited India 1614-1E23, shows how very ancient this asylum is. ' The same day of our arrival,' says he, ' after we had dined and rested a while, we caused ourselves to be con ducted to see a famous hospital of birds of all sorts. The next morning we saw another hospital of goats, kids, sheep, and wethers, either sick or lame.' The Jains are the great protectors of animal life. They, together with the Buddhists, are pre-eminently tender on this point, not only on the score of humanity, but from their belief in the doctrine of metempsychosis, which teaches them to regard the brutes as of their own kin, the tenements not improbably of the souls of their ancestors. The celebrated king Asoka flourished about 250 years B.C. His capital was Palibothra, at the junction of the Sone and Ganges. The inscriptions on the palaces of Dehli and Allababa,d, on the rocks in Afghanistan and Girnar in Cuteh, refer to the events of his reign. On one of these tablets, Asoka proclaims that though until then hundreds of thousands of animals had been killed daily for the royal kitchen, from thenceforth the practice should be discontinued, as he had become religious. On another, it is proclaimed that throughout his dominions, trees for the shade ' and shelter of men and animals, and wholesome and nutritious vegetables for their consumption, shall be cultivated. It is considered probable that the Jains and Buddhists set their faces against animal suffering, as a contrast to the cruelties at the time practised by the Brahmans, and that they to some extent succeeded in shaming them down. It appears from the Ramayana that the Brahmans of those days made offerings not only of flowers and plants, but of slaughtered horses, hogs, and sheep ; the sacred cow herself being occasionally offered on the altar. At their feasts both butcher meat and intoxicating liquors were freely indulged in. The Brahman hermit, Bharad
waja, gave a magnificent entertainment at Allah abad to Charat and his army, where venison, the flesh of the wild boar, mutton, peacocks, and partridges, with abundance of strong drink, fur nished forth the repast. Menu considers the feast in honour of a dead relation incomplete unless where animal food is present We have no authoritative information as to when the present protective system crept in ; that it is not counten anced by the sacred books of the Hindus or the customs of antiquity, and is a matter comparat ively of yesterday, is apparent. We are still more in the dark as to the introduction of hospitals for aged and diseased animals. Of one of these at Surat, Ovington gives an account as he saw it In 1689, Hamilton describes it as he saw it in 1772 ; Heber speaks of that at Broach in 1821. There is nothing that can be adduced in their support either from the sacred works of the Hindus, the Asoka inscriptions, or the institutes of Menu. more than may be inferred from the proverbs of Solomon that the merciful man is merciful to his own beast.' The homage to brute animals, origin ally confined to the Jain* and Buddhista, and not even making its appearance amongst them until a comparatively recent period of their history, slowly extended itself amongst the Brahman*, and in the early part of the 19th century had 1 infected the Parsecs. This comparatively enter prising and enlightened race, so far front being exempt from the degrading superstitions of the Hindus, as has been asserted, seem to have picked up some rags from the superstition of every sect and denomination with which they have come in contact, and patched it on to their own comparat ively simple creed. The superstition of the Banians, like themselves a great trading com munity, seems to have been peculiarly attractive to them, and the pinjrapol being their pet institution, speedily secured the sympathies of the Zoroastrians.