Indian Antiquary Vol 03

SR No.: 032495
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 420
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 382

522
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1874.
than the other natives of India of the same rank of For long wo were accustomed to consider them the date with theinseires; and their physiognomy descendants of a portion of the Israelites who were seeins to indicate a union in their case of both the removed from their homes and carried captive to Abrahamic and Arabic blood. Their dress is a Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and Nabar-Gozan, and modificatiou of that of the Hindus and Musalmans other places in the neighbourhood of Mesopotamia, among whom they dwell. They do not eat with by the Assyrian kings Pal, Tiglath-pelneser, and persons belonging to other communities, though Shalmanezer (see 1 Chron. v. 26; 2 Kings, xvi. 6). they (rink from their vessels without any scruples But the communication of those Israelites with of caste. 'They have generally two names, one of the tribes of Judah and 'Benjamin after their which is derived from the more ancient Israelitish captivity under Nebuchadnezzar, as certified by personages mentioned in the Bible, and the other Josephus, and with the body of the Jews resid. from Ilindu usage. Their social and religious ing on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, and ilincipline is administered by their elders, the chief in Persia, as implied in the book of Esther, and a of whon in the principal villages in which they intimated by the historians of Alexander the Great reside are denominated Kulis, or judges. They and his Seleukidan successors, and later narraare all circumcised according to the law of Moses; tives, seem almost to forbid the use of such lan. ind, though they have no manuscript copy of the guage as the "Lost Ten Triles," and the exl'entateuch, or other books of the Bible, they pectation that any bodies of Israelites isolated receise the whole of the Old Testament as of di- from them in general religious communion are vine authority. When they began, about fifty
still to be found. The observance by our Beni years ago, particularly to attract the attention of Israel of Jewish festivals and fasts commemoour countrymen, they were found combining the rating events connected with the later Jewish worship of Jehovah with divination and idolatry,
history, and even the destruction of Jerusalem, serving other gods whom neither they nor their
have at the same time appeared to us hostile fathers had known, even wood and stone. From the to the theory of their being a distinctive porArabian Jews visiting Bombay, they hul received tion of these Ten Tribes. We are now disportions of the Hebrew Liturgy of the Sephar
posed to believe that they came to India from dim for use in their humble synagogues, or | Yemen, for Arabia Felix, with the Jews or I s. places of assembly. They denominate themselves
raelites of which province,-for they have both Beni. Israel, or Sons of Isracl; and till lately
desiguations,--they hare from time inninemorial they viewed the designation of Yehudi, or Jew, as had much intercourse, and whom they much reone of reproach. They have been settled in India
semble in their bodily structure and appearance. for many centuries. The Jews of Cochin state, ac- These Israelites of Arabia have a very remarkable cording to the authority of Dr. Claudius Buchanan history. The remnant of Judah, after the captir.
history. The remnant of Judah. After in his Christian Researches,t that they found the ity effected by Nebuchadnezzar, was placed under Beni-Isruel on their arrival at Rajapuri in the the care of Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, who was Konkan, where many of them still reside. The
murdered by Ishmael the son of Nethaniah. It Beni Israel themselves say that their fore
afterwards adhered to Johanau the son of Koreal. fathers came to Indiat from the west or north by and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, who with the sea, that is, either from Arabia or the Persian Gulf.
other captains were besought by the prophet • The Hebrew names current among the men are the follow
+ pp. 204-221. ing: Abraham, Leaac, Jacob, Reuben (which is said to be most prevalent), Joseph, Naphtali, Zebulun, Benjamin, Their ancestors, they say, were seven men and seven Sanson, Mosbe, Aaron, Eliezer, Phinehus, David, Solomon, women, who were saved from shipwreck Dear Chaul. Klijal, Hexkiel, Daniel, Sadik, Haim, Shalom, and Na. about 30 milen mouth-east of Bombay, and they found a shim. The name Judah, it is to be remarked. is not to refuse at Navaganw.-Lands of the Bible, vol. II. We found among them. The Hindu names by which they
p. 667. are most commonly known among the natives, aro-Saku, Jitu. Ráma, Bapu, SavandobA, Tân, DhondA, Abau,
9 Jos. Antiq. lib. xi. Bandu, Nathu, Dada, Dhambá, BALA, BAA, Vita or Yethu, On the disposal of the Ten Tribes, see the History of Phakira, Yeshu, Satka, Apå, Bhiu, Bapab, Gauria, Pits, the Jeres by Basnage, bk. vi. chap. 4, etc. Benjamin of Bawi, Anandia, Káma, Jangu, Aba. Among these there Tudela, in his travels in the twelfth century, found several are only a few that correspond with thuse of the heathen
bodies of Jews in Persia and its confines, who professed to a. Sarab, Rebecca, Rachel, Leah, Saphira, Milcah, belong to the twelve tribes; but they were all in religions Zilchab, Miriam, and Hannah are the Hebrew names communion with the Israelites of other parts, with Rabbis viven to the women. Esther, the favourite Jewish
from Aleppo and other places presiding over them. 11. me, does not occur among them. The names derived From the Hindus, which are found among them, are
Yemen, literally, the right hand' (the spectator Bulku, Abli, Ama, Yeshf, Zaitu, Tánu, Hfau, Luli, Bain looking to the rising sub), as opposed to 3 h&m, the left, is Aká, Riuu, Bayuwa, Bai, Nanu, Raju, Thaku, Kålabi, applied to the country south of the Hejfe; Sh Am in the Maka, Saku. Gowaru, Dadi, Sal, Samá, and Bhiku, Pithu, same relation referring to that lying to the north, of which Wohu, Dhakulu. The Hebrew names are first conferred Damascus is considered the capital. The " South-Country un the occasion of circumcision; and those of Hindu origiu seems to have been an ancient name of Arabia Felix; for shoat month after birth.-Wilson, Lands of the Bible, in the Gospels the queen of Sheba, in this district, is called I. II. p. 8, 6€9.
the "queen of the south.'