Nevertheless, the existence of an alphabet, an architecture, a coinage, and an algebra at a period which no scepticism puts much later than 250, B.C., is so undoubted, that they may pass as ethnological facts, _i.e._, facts sufficiently true to be not merely admitted with what is called an _otiose_ belief, but to be classed with the most unexceptionable _data_ of history, and to be used as effects from which we may argue backwards--_more ethnologico_--to their antecedent causes; the appreciation of these requiring a philosophy and an induction of its own. We cannot detract from the antiquity of Indian civilization without impugning its indigenous origin, nor doubt this without stirring the question as to the countries from which it was introduced. These have been Persia, Assyria, Egypt, and Greece; the introduction being direct or indirect as the case might be. In this way are contrasted the views of the general ethnologist, with those of the special orientalist, in respect to the great and difficult question of Indian antiquity. Yet, how far does the scepticism of the former affect our views concerning the descent of the Hindús, the Mahrattas, the Bengali, and those other populations, to the languages whereof they applied? Not much. Whichever way we decide, the population may still be Tamulian; only, in case we make the language Sanskritic, it is Tamulian in the same way as the Cornish are Welsh; _i.e._, Tamulian with a change of tongue. The doubts, too, as to the antiquity of the Sanskrit literature unsettle but little. They merely make the introduction of certain foreign elements some centuries later. Whatever may be the oldest of the great Hindú creeds, that of the _Sikhs_ is the newest. Its founder, Nanuk, in the fifteenth century, was a contemplative enthusiast; his successor, Govind, a zealous man of action; himself succeeded by similar _gúrús_, or priests, who eventually, by means of fanaticism, organization, and union with the state raised the power of the _Khalsa_ to the formidable height from which it has so lately fallen. _Truth_ is the great abstraction of the Sikh creeds; and the extent to which it is at once intolerant and eclectic may be seen from the following extracts.[48] They certainly present the doctrine in a favourable light. I. The true name is God; without fear, without enmity; the Being without death; the Giver of salvation; the Gooroo and Grace. Remember the primal truth; truth which was before the world began. Truth which is, and truth, O Nânuk! which will remain. By reflection it cannot be attained, how much soever the attention be fixed. A hundred wisdoms, even a hundred thousand, not one accompanies the dead. How can truth be told, how can falsehood be unravelled? O Nânuk! by following the will of God, as by Him ordained. II.