[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Travellers (1500–1858)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel) › [Histoire de la dernière révolution des États du Grand Mogol](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier) › [Travels in the Mogul Empire (Constable)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable) › 6.4.5 # Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 6.4.5 Travels in the Mogul Empire (Constable) 6.4.5 - **Language:** English ### [6.4.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable.6.4.5) I confess that this gross superstition filled me, on my first arrival in Hindoustan, with amazement. I knew not what to think of it. Sometimes I should have been disposed to consider the Fakires as remnants, if not as the founders, of the ancient and infamous sect of Cynics, could I have discovered anything in them but brutality and ignorance, and if they had not appeared to me vegetative rather than rational beings. At another time, I thought they might be honest though deluded enthusiasts, until I found that, in fact, they were, in the widest sense of the word, destitute of piety. Again, I reflected that a life of vagrancy, idleness, and independence may have a powerful and attractive charm; or that the vanity which intermingles itself with every motive of human action, and which may be discovered as clearly through the tattered mantle of a Diogenes as under the comely garb of a Plato, was probably the secret spring that set so many strange engines in motion. - [Previous: 6.4.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable.6.4.4) - [Next: 6.4.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable.6.4.6) - [Up: 6.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable.6.4) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable.6.4.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.bernier~en-constable.6.4.5) · Pramāṇa