NON- CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS

SYSTEMS.

H I N D U I S M.

MONIER WILLIAMS, M.A.

FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGEHON. DOCTOR IN LAW OF THE UN IVERS ITY OF CALCUTTA

HON . MEMBER OF THE ASIATIC SOCIET IES OF BENGAL, BOMBAY, AND

AMERICABODBN PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OX FORD.

W ITH MAP .

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CONTENTS.

CRAP.

L— INTRODUCTORY

I I ._THE VEDIC HYLINSI I I .—THE BRXHMANAS AND THE SACRIFICIAL Sy s

—Tm: UPANISHADS AND BRAHMANICAL m

V.—BRZ.HMAN1CAL LAW, DOMESTIC USAGES, AND

CASTEVL—Tm:BUDDH ISTIC MOVEMENT, AND ITS INFLU

ENCE ON BRXHMAN ISM

VIL—DEVELOPMENT OF H INDGxSM,AND THE Doc

TRINE OF TRIPLE MANIFESTATIONVI I I .—DEVELOPMENT OF ’

SAIVI SM,VAISHNAVISM, AND

THE DOCTRINE OF INCARNATIONIX .

—THE DOCTRINE OF FAITH, AS DEVELOPED IN

THE PURZNAS AND TANTRASx .—MEDIEVAL AND MODERN

X L—MODERN CASTESX I I . —M0DERN IDOL - WORSH IP, SACRED OBJECTS,

HOLY PLACES AND TIMES

APPENDIX

s r m cu vn FEATURES OF THE Sxx SCHOOLS o rr

PH ILOSOPHY

ECLECTIC SCHOOL—THE BHAGAVAD-GITAJAINI SMTHE CKRVAKAS

INDEX

H I ND U I SM .

C H A P T E R I .

INTRODUCTORY.

THAT par t of the gr eat Aryan race which immigratedfrom Central Asia, throug h the mountain passes intoI ndia, settledfirst in the distr icts near the r iver Sindhu

(now called the Indus).The Per smns pronounced thlS word H indhu, and

named their Aryan brethren H indfis. The Greeks,who probably gained their first ideas of India fromthe Per sian s, dropped the hard aspirate, and called

the H indfis’

I v30l'

.

After the H indfi Aryans had spr ead themselvesover the plains of the Ganges, the Per sian s gave thename Hindfistan, or abode of the Hindas,’ to thewhole distr ict between the Panjab and Benares, andthis name is commonly used, especially by the

Musalmé‘

ms, for a still more ex tended r egion, as far

as the Vindhya mountains, and even, less cor rectly,for other par ts of India.

The classical name for India, however , as usuallyemployed

'

in Sanskr it literature and recog nized by the

whole Sanskr itic races, is B/zc’

i r ata or B/zd'

r ata- var ska

(sometimes B /zd'

r ata-k/zaquga or Kumd’

r z’

kfi-Mazzqfa) ,

H INDU ISM.

the country of Bharata,’— a king who appear s to

have ruled over a large ex tent of ter r itory in ancienttimes. Manu

’s name for the whole central r egionbetween the Himalaya and Vindhya mountains isfiry ziw r fa, abode of the Aryans,

’and this is also a

classical appellation for that par ticular por tion of

India. A nother name for the whole of India, occurr ing in Sanskr it poetry, is jaméu-a

’

vipa . Str ictly,however , this last is mer ely a poetical name for thewhole ear th , of which India was thought to be themost impor tant par t.The population of India in 1 88 1 amounted to

So immense»an assemblage of being sdoes not, of cour se, form one nation . India is almosta continent, like Europe. From the ear liest times itsr ichness has attracted successive imm igrants and

invader s from over - populated and poor er r egions,

Asiatic and European. Its inhabitants differ as muchas the var ious con tinental races, and speak languagesequally distinct.Fir st came the pr imitive immigrants— some Scy

thian, some Mongolian in their or igin— and all fallingunder the general head ofwhat are called Turan ianr aces,who, migrating from Centr al Asia and the steppesof Tar tary and Tibet, en tered India by successiveincur sions many of them through the passesadjoin ing the Panjfib in the Nor th-west, and other sthrough those Nor th - eastern mountain- ravines whichmark the cour se of the r iver Brahma- putra.

The gr eat Dr i viclian race of the South of India(probably symbolized by the Ravanas andVibh ishanasof epic poetry) represents the most powerful of these

H INDU ISM.

3

ear ly immigrants, and must not be confounded withthe more uncivilized abor iginal tr ibes, inhabiting thehills and the jungles of India, and symbolized in

poetry by monkeys .Nex t descended on the plains of H indfi stan the

first overflowing s of the m ighty tide of Aryan imm i

g r ation , caused by the rapid growth and expansion of

that pr imeval family, who called themselves Arya, ornoble

,

’and spoke a language the common sour ce

of Sanskrit, Prakr it, Zand, Per sian, and Armenian inAsia ; and of the Hellenic, Italic, Keltic, Teuton ic,and Slavon ic languages in Europe. Star ting at a

later pe r iod than the pr imitive Turan ian races, but,l ike them ,

from some par t of the tableland of CentralAsia— probably the r egion sur rounding the sources ofthe Oxus, near Bokhara— they separated into distinctnationalities and peopled Europe, Per sia, and India.

The H indfiAryans, after detaching themselves fromthe general body of emigrants, settled themselvesdown as agr icultur ists (probably at some per iodbetween 2000 and 1 500 year s B C.) in the distr ictssur rounding the Indus, the five r iver s of the Pan

jab, and the sacred Sarasvati— these seven r iver sbeing called Sapta Sz

’

rzd/m ( in Zand, Hapta M fl du).Thence, after a time, they over ran by successiveir ruptions the plains of the Ganges

, and spread themselves over the region called Aryavar ta, occupyingthe whole of Central India, and either coalescingwith , and, so to speak, Aryan izing the pr imitiveinhabitants they found ther e, or dr iving all who

r esisted them to the south and to the hills. Theywer e the fir st promoter s of that moral and intellectual

4 HINDUISM.

progr ess and civilization in India, of which the

Dr i viclian immigrants wer e the pioneer s.But India

,even after its occupation by the gr eat

Aryan race, yielded itself up an easy pr ey to everypowerful invader . According to Herodotus, it wassubjugated by Dar ius Hystaspes. This conquestprobably occur r ed about 500 year s B.C. It musthave been very par tial, and did not ex tend beyondthe plains of the Indus, including the Panjaband Sindh . It was probably followed by considerable subsequent trade and traffic between Per sia and

India and to this commercial intercour se may bedue the introduction into India of many new ideasr eligious and philosophical— and perhaps, also, of

the Phoen ician alphabet, with which that of someof the As

'

oka edicts and inscr iptions (about 250 R C. )is n ow generally thought to be connected.

The expedition of Alexander the Great to thebanks of the Indus, about 3 27 R C , is a betterauthenticated fact. To this invasion is due the firsttrustwor thy information obtained by Europeans con

cern ing the nor t’

a-wester ly por tion of India and the

r egion of the five r iver s, down which the Gr eciantroops wer e conducted in ships by Nearchus. Me

g asthenes, who was the ambassador of Seleukos

Nikator (Alexander’s successor , and ruler over the

whole region between the Euphrates and Indus,B.C. 3 1 2) at the cour t of Candra- gupta (Sandrokottus), m Pataliputra (Patna, or I IaMBo a ), dur inga long sojourn in that city collected fur ther information , of which Strabo

,Pliny, Ar t ian, and other s

availed themselves.

H INDU ISM . 5

The nex t immigrants, after a long interval, wer e thePar si s. This sma ll tr ibe of Per sians wer e dr iven fromtheir native land by the Muhammadan conqueror sunder the Khalif Omar in the seventh century of ourera. Adhen ng to the ancien t r eligion of Per sia, whichr esembled that of the Veda (viz. the wor ship of one

God, symbolized by and man ifested in the elements,especially fire), and br inging with them the r ecordsof their faith, the Zand-Avasta

'

t l of their prophet Zor

'

oaster , they settled down in the neighbourhood of

Sur at about 1 1 00 year s ag o, and became gr eat mer

chants and shipbuilder s . For t wo or thr ee centur ieswe know little of their history. Their r eligion pr e

vented them from making proselytes, and they nevermultiplied within themselves to any ex tent, nor didthey amalgamate with the Hindu population

,so that

even now their number on ly amounts to about seven tythousand. Never theless

,from their busy, enterpr ising

habits, in which they emulate Europeans, they forman impor tant section of the population of Bombayand Western India.

Then came the Muhammadan s (Arabs, Turks, Afghans, Mog uls, and Per sians), who enter ed India at differ ent times. They now number for ty -one millions, orabout one- six th of the entir e population ; but a lar ge

More proper ly Avastd -Z and, tex t and commentary. The

term Zand, which meant commentary, was afterwards applied tothe lang uag e in which the Farsi sacred books wer e wr itten.

This l and lang uag e is only separated by a short inter val fromthat of one set of the cuneiform inscr iptions, which ag ain was

closely followed by Pahlavi .

6 H INDUISM.

number of them are descendants ofHindus conver tedto Islam . Although they became politically supreme,they wer e never able to supplant the Hindus, as thesehad done their pr edecessor s . Mor eover , it was thepolicy of the Muhammadan conqueror s to bend inmany points to the pr ejudices of their Indian subjects.Hence the Muslims of India became to some ex tentHinduized, and in lang uage, habits, and character tookfrom the Hindus more than they impar ted.

Nor has the Hinduelement lost its ascendency inIndia, notwithstanding the accession of European i11

g redients from Por tugal, Holland, Denmark, France,and finally England . Albeit the English have spreadthemselves over the whole country, and achieved a

political supr emacy gr eater than that which once belonged to the Musalrnans, yet they have blended farless with the inhabitants. Oil and water do not keepmor e distinct than do the ruler s and the ruled at pre

sent in India. The great bulk of the population isstill essentially Hindu, and the moral influence of

what may be called the Indo-Kryan race is still par amount. Never theless, this race by no means formsone un ited nation . Differ ences distinguish it, as gr eatas those which once divided and still distinguishEuropean Aryans .Many causes have combined to produce such di

versities. The Indo-Aryans enter ed India by suc

cessive incur sions, so that the ear lier ar r ivals differfrom the later as widely as Gr eeks and Roman s fromKelts and Teutons . Then

,var iety of climate has had

its effect in modifying character . Mor eover , contactwith the non-Aryan abor iginal races and with Mu

urx nmsr r. 7

hammadans and European s has affected the Aryansvar iously in differ ent par ts of India.

As to the non-Aryan races, these also present g reatd ifl

'

erences. They are now generally divided in to thetwo classes of Dravidian s and Kolar ian abor igines,both of which races belong to the division of thewor ld’s inhabitants loosely called Turan ian ; but thefirst, as alr eady hinted, ar e by far the most impor tant,from their having attained an independent civilization,and from their having become either wholly or partially Hinduized in r eligion , manner s, and

‘usages ,

while the Kolar ians continue still in their uncivilizedabor iginal condition.

Reckon ing, therefor e, Arya ns and 11011 -Aryans, andtaking difl

'

er ence of speech as marking and perpe

tuating separation of populations, though not as ne

cessar ily determining distinction of race, we ar e ableto distinguish four teen separate peoples in India,constituting what might almost be called four teenseparate nationalities. The following are the four teendifferent lang uages which mark them

1 . Ifi'

ndi, which we may calculate as spoken by

about one hundred million per sons in H industanproper , including the High Hindi and the Muhammadan form of it (mixed with Per sian and Arabic,called H industani ), and var ious other Hindi dialects,such as Braj , Kanauj i , Mewar i , Old Pfirbi , Awadhi ,Bhojpur i , and the Marwar i of the distr ict of Jodhpur

(the most extensive of all the Rajput states), whichlast dialect is perhaps chiefly deserving of notice.

2. Bmg r'

i li , spoken by about thir ty-n ine millions inBeng al.

8 H INDU ISM .

3 . Mar c'

ifiz‘

,spoken by about seventeen millions in

Maharashtra in the Dekhan , including a dialect of itin the Konkan , known as Konkan i .

4 . Guja r ci ti , spoken by about n ine millions and a

half in Gujarat.5 . Panjdbz

‘

,spoken by about four teen m illions in

the Panjab .

6 . d mi r i,by near ly two m illions in Kasmi r .

7. Sz’

na’

lzi , spoken by about two million s in Sindh .

8. Or zjfa, spoken by about seven m illions in O r issa.

The for egoing eight belong to distinct divisions ofthe Aryan r ace, which may be called Indo-Aryan .

Nex t,taking the non -Aryans, we have six other differ

ences of race, which we may also mark by the namesof their languag es. I n the fir st place, the four greatDravidian races (number ing near ly for ty- six millionper sons), as follows

9 . Tamil, spoken by about thir teen m illions, beginn ing with the nor thern por tion of Ceylon, and ex tending from Cape Comor in nor thward along the south

of Travancore, and what is called the Kar natic thatis, along the southern par t of the Coromandel coastto about a hundred miles nor th ofMadras .

r o . M alay c'

z'

lam,almost a dialect of Tamil, spoken

by near ly.

five m illions in Travancor e and along the

southern por tion of the Malabar coast.1 1 . Telug u, called from its softness the Ital ian of

India, spoken by about seventeen m illions, from a linenor th of Madr as, along the nor ther n par t of the C01 0mandel coast, or Nor thern Circar s, and over par t ofthe Nizam’s ter r itory.

1 2 . Kanar ese, spoken by rather more than eight

HINDUISM. 9

m illions in Mysore,in the southern por tion of the

Bombay Pr esidency, in Kanara, and par t of the

Malabar coast.Ther e are two sem i- cultivated Dr i vigi ian dialects,

viz. the Tulu,spoken in a small distr ict of Kanara,

and the Koorg or Kodag u, spoken by onlyper sons in the hill distr ict to the west of Mysor e,which scarcely mer it enumeration as languages .Then comes the chief uncultivated Dravidian lan

guage, viz.

1 3 . Gary], spoken by near ly two million abor i

g ines,l divided into clans, some of whom ar e almost

savages ; while other s ar e comparatively civilized,inhabiting Gondwana in the central provinces. Thelang uage of the Gond race has been lately systematized and expr essed in Devanagar i character s.The other uncultivated Dravidian dialects, viz.

Or i on,Rajmahal, Khond, Toda and Kota

,belong

to insig nificant tr ibes rather than to races.Lastly come the wholly uncultivated and barbarous

non-Aryan and non-Dravidian dialects,called

,

1 4 . Kolar ian , belonging to the Kols, inhabitingthe plateau of Chota Nagpur and number ing mor ethan three m illions. They speak about seven rudedialects, of which the best known are those of theKols

,the Juangs (the most pr imitive tr ibe in all

India), the Santals, the Mundas, and the Hos .In the above enumeration are not r eckoned the

I t does not follow that the Gonds are Dravidian becausethei r lang uag e is so, any more than that the Cornish people areof the Eng lish race because they have adopted our languag e.Dr . Caldwell is my author ity for most of these numbers.

l O HINDU ISM.

lang uages which belong, so to speak, to the outerfr inge of India proper , ag . the Pashtu or Pakhtu of

Afg hanistan , the Nepali or Nepalese of Nepal, theAsamese of Asam,

the Burmese of Br itish Burmah,and the Sinhalese of Ceylon besides almost countless dialects spoken by tr ibes inhabiting the mountainsof Nepal, Bhutan, and Asam (some of them com ingunder what are called the H imalaic fam ily, and moreor less connected with Tibetan), making, according toMr . Cust, no less than 539 languages and dialects ,cultivated and uncultivated, in the whole of Indiaand its border ing r egions.But, besides the separation caused by difference of

race and language, the divisions and subdivisions

of the classes of society within each of the mor ecivilized and cultivated of these several populationscrystallized more rapidly in India than in Europe, andwith far harder lines of demarcation . Even in dis

tr icts wher e the Hindus are called by one name, andmake use of one speech, caste r egulations have operated to break them up into an infinite number of

independent communities, each pr iding itselfon maintaining its individuality and exclusiveness.The question then ar ises how such differences of

race, language, and social usages have affected reli

g ious creed. It is r emarkable that with all theirdiver sities, the Hindu populations throughout Indiahave a r eligious faith which, preserved as it is in one

language and one literatur e, fur n ishes a good evidence of the or ig inal un ity of the Indo-Aryan immi

g rants, while it faithfully reflects the pr esent diver sified character of the vast country in which it prevails.

HINDU ISM. l I

It is a creed based on an or iginal, simple, pantheisticdoctr ine, but branching out into an endless var ietyof polytheistic super stitions. Like the sacred fig - treeof India, which from a single stem sends out nu

merous branches destined to send roots to the groundand become tr ees themselves, till the parent stock islost in a dense for est of i ts own ofl

'

shoots, so hasthis pantheistic creed r ooted itself firmly in theHindu mind, and spread its ramifications so luxur ian tly that the simplicity of its r oot- dogma is lost inan exuberan t outgrowth ofmonstrous mythology.

That we may at once br iefly formulate this leading dogma, we cannot do better than give its own

formula of three words, as stated by its own philoSopher s, thus,— Ekam cw aa

’

m'

tzjyam, There is butone Being, no second nothing r eally ex ists but theone Univer sal Spir it called Brahman, and whateverappear s to ex ist separately from that Spir it is mer ei llusion . This is the uncomprom ising creed of trueB rahmanism. This, according to the or thodox Hindu

philosophy, is the only true Veda. This,at least

according to the belief of the generality of educatedHindus, is the only true knowledge to which the Vedaleads .Popular Hinduism, on the other hand, though

supposed to accept this creed as the way of trueknowledge (jmi na -mc

’

i rg a) which it admits to be thehighest way of salvation, adds to it two other infer ior

waysr st. Belief in the efficacy of sacr ifices, r ites

,

penances, and auster ities, which is the Kar ma -md’

rg a,

way of works .’

l 2 H INDU ISM.

and. Devoti on to per sonal deities, which is the

B izakti -mdr g a, way of love and devotion (the termMaktz

'

cor responding to theUpasanaoftheUpanishads).Mor eover , to account for its polytheism

, idol -worship, and system of caste distinctions, popular H induism supposes that the oneUniversalBeing amuseshimself by illusory appearances ; that he man ifestshimself var iously, as light does in the rainbow ; and

that all visible and mater ial objects, good and bad,

including gods, demons, demi- gods, good and evilspir its, human beings and an imals, are emanationsfrom him

, and are ultimately to be r eabsorbed intohis essence .

Hence it may easily be surmised that the road con

necting the true knowledge and the popular doctr inemust have many windings. And it may with truth beasser ted that no descr iption of Hinduism can be ex

haustive which does not touch on almost every r eli

g ious and philosophical idea that the wor ld has everknown .

Star ting from the Veda,Hinduism has ended in

embracing something from all r eligions, and in pr esenting phases suited to all minds . It is all- toleran t,all- compliant, all- comprehensive, all- absorbing. It hasits spir itual and its mater ial aspect, its esoter ic andexoter ic

,its subjective and objective, its r ational and

ir rational, its pur e and its impur e . It may be compar edto a huge polygon, or ir r egular multilateral fig ure. Ithas one side for the practical

,another for the sever ely

moral, another for the devotional and imaginative,another for the sensuous and sensual, and another

for the philosophical and speculative. Those who r est

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

1 4 H INDUISM.

of the Hindus are faithfully reflected and (ii we maybe allowed a four th metaphor ) the only quar ry whencethe r equisite mater ials may be obtained for improving the vernacular s, or for expr essing impor tant r eli

g ious and scientific ideas.In Europe literatur e changes with language. Each

modern dialect has its own literature, which is thebest r epresentative of the pr esent r eligious, social, andintellectual condition of the people. To know the

I talians, we need not study Latin , when their modernl iteratur e is at our command. But the literatur e of

the Hindu vernacular dialects (except, perhaps, thatofTam il) is scarcely yet deserving of the name. In

most cases, it consists of mer e r eproductions of theSanskr it. To know the Hindus, to under stand theirpast and present condition

,to reach their very hear t

and soul, we must study Sanskr it literatur e. I t is, intruth, even more to India than classical and patr isticliteratur e was to Europe at the time of the Reformation . It gives a deeper impr ess to the Hindum ind,so that every Hindu, however unletter ed, is unconsciously affected by it.Ther e are, however , cer tain por tions of Sanskr it

literature which are, par ex cellence, sacred, and thesefall under the two grand heads of Sr utz

’

and

Shm’

that which is directly heard or r evealed’

— includes the thr ee por tions of the Veda, viz . Man

tra, Brahmana, and Upan ishad, the last being the

sour ce of the Darsanas or systems of philosophy.

It is equivalent to direct r evelation, and is believedto have no human author .

Szzzp’

tz’

, that which is remember ed and handed

H INDUISM. 1 5

down by tradition,’ though believed to be founded on

this direct revelation, is thought to have been deliver edby human author s . In its widest acceptation Smr itimay be said to denote almost the whole of Post—Vedicliteratur e, under four heads : (A) the six Vedangas

(via , 1 . the Kalpa, or Sr auta- sz’

i tr as, which ar e rulesfor applying the Mantra and Brahmana to Vedicsacr ifices 2 . Szlés/zd

‘

, or the science of pronunciation ; 3 . C izana

'

as, or metr e ; 4 . M'

r ukta, or exposi

tion of the Veda ; 5. Vfl ikam gza, or grammar 6 .

fioflk/za, or astronomy) ; (B) the Smar ta- sutras, underthe two divisions of G( iizya - si itr as, or rules r elatingto domestic r ites ; and Sd

'

maydfdr zka- sfitm r, r elating

to conventional usages ; (c) the Dharma-sastras, or

Law—books,’ especially the laws of Manu, Yajna

valkya, and other so- called in spir ed lawgiver s, supposed to have grown out of the Smar ta- s

‘

utras (D) theBhakti- s

‘

astras, including the or legendarypoems,

’viz. , the gr eat epic poem called Maha

bharata, and the other great epic called Ramayana

(though the latter is rather a Kdrg'

a by a knownhuman author , than an I tihz

‘

tsa, attr ibuted to superhuman author ship) and including also the eig hteenPur drgas, or ancient legendary histor ies, with theirtrain of eighteen Infer ior Puranas (Wapur dnas), andsubsequent Ta/ztr as.

Although it is not par t of our present plan todescr ibe in detail all these div1sions of Sanskr it literature, yet to under stand the var ious phases throughwhich Hinduism has passed, it is essential to havesome knowledge of the pr incipal works under fourdepar tments— viz. , I . The three por tions of the Veda,

1 6 11 1 11 0 1115 11 .

Mantra, Brahmana, and Upan ishad. II . The Darsanas, or system s of philosophy. III . The Dharmasastras. IV. The Bhakti- sastras. The pr incipalworks under these four heads are the best exponentsof the different pen

'

ods of development through whichthe H indu r eligious mind has passed, and which ,together , make up Hinduism . The hymns of theVeda ar e the expr ession of that ear ly stage of r eligions progr ess which may be called physiolatry the

Brahmanas r epresent r itualism and sacr ifice ; the

Upan ishads and Darsanas r epr esen t rationalistic andpantheistic philosophy Manu, Yajnavalkya, and thelaw-books r epr esent caste and domestic usages the

I tihasas, Pur i nas, and Tantras r epr esen t the pr incipleof love for and devotion to per sonal gods. No ao

count of Hinduism can be satisfactory which is not

accompan ied with translations of occasional passag esfrom some of these representative works.

H INDUISM. 17

CHAPTER I I .

THE VEDIC HYMNS (Illantm s).

THE word Veda (mean ing‘knowledge ’

) is a termapplied to divine wzwr z

’

flm knowledge, i 111 ag ined tohave issued like breath from the self- ex istent Beingcalled B r afiman

, and thought to be itself self- ex istent.Hence the Veda is not unfrequently itself calledB r afimcm, which word may mean either the uni

versally difl'

used essence,’

or else ‘the spir it of devotion permeating the human m ind or divine spir itualknowledge. ’

This divin e knowledge was also connected withSabda, or ar ticulate sound (thought to be eter nal),and hence sometimes r egarded as an eternal voice

(71a?) heard by cer tain holy men called Rishis 01 ,

again, as eternal words actually seen by them as wellasheard.

l By them the Divine knowledge— thus supernaturally r eceived through the ear and eye—was transmitted, not in wr iting, but by constant oral r epetition,through a succession of teacher s, who claimed tobe its r ightful r ecipients, and were thence calledB r i fimam'

, that is to say, the r epositor ies both of

the divine word, and of the spir it of devotion or prayer .

Hence Rishi is said to be for Drishi , which is from the r ootd( i i

'

,

‘to see.

’ Of course, this is a mere fanciful theory. The ‘

poets themselves frequently hint that the Mantras are their owncomposition

1 8 H INDUISM.

Be it noted that we have her e a theory of inspiration higher even than that advanced by Muhammadin explain ing the or igin 01

°

the Kuran . We may alsonote that this idea of an ex ernal supernatural r evelation is at the very root of Hinduism, and is, indeed,ingrained in the whole Hindu system .

‘

The fir stidea, however , was not that of a w r itten or book

revelation . It is very true that r evealed knowledgewas ultimately wr itten down, but even then thereading of it was not encouraged.

Our first step, therefore, in attempting a descr iptionof Hinduism must be to give some notion of the contents of the Veda . To clear the ground, we begin byseparating it into the following three quite distinctsubdivisions, all thr ee coming under the general headof S m tz

’

, that which is heard or r evealed.

’

1 . Mantr a, prayer and praise, embodied in tex tsand metr ical hymns.

2. B r é /zmaqm, or r itual istic pr ecept and illustration wr itten in prose.

3 . mystical or secr et doctr ine, appendedto the afor esaid Brahmana, and wr itten in prose andoccasional ver se.

To beg in with the Mantra por tion . By Mantr a

(literally, the instrument of conveying thought ’) ismeant any inspir ed speech or sacred tex t.The term is usually applied to those prayer s, iny o

cations, and hymns which wer e addr essed to cer tain

deifications of the forces of nature, and ultimatelyar ranged in five Samhitas or collections. Thoughsome of the hymns wer e the proper ty of the Aryan

race befor e they separated, they must have been

H INDU ISM.

collected and handed down to us from a per iodafter the Indian branch of the great Indo- Europeanr ace had finally settled down in the Panjab and

Nor thern India. Sanskr it literatur e, embracing as itdoes near ly every branch of knowledge, is entirelydeficient in one depar tment. It is wholly destituteof trustwor thy histor ical r ecords. Hence, little or

nothing is known of the lives of ancient Indianauthor s, and the date of their most celebrated workscannot be fixed with cer tainty. A fair conj ectur e,however , may be ar r ived at by compar ing the mostancient with the mor e modern compositions, and

e stimating the per iod of time r equir ed to effect thechanges of structur e and idiom observable in thelanguage. In this manner we may be justified inassuming that the hymns of the Veda wer e probablycomposed by a succession of poets at differ ent datesbetween 1 500 and 1 000 year s B.C.

Though very unequal in poetical mer it, and con

tain ing many tedious r epetitions and puer ilities, theyare highly inter esting and impor tant, as embodyingsome of the ear liest r eligious conceptions of theHindus, and throwing light on the ear liest historyand social condition of the Indo-Aryan race.

They ar e compr ised in five pr incipal Samhitas, orcollections of Man tras, called r espectively Ric, Yajus

(contain ing two Sarnhitas, Taittir iya andVajasaneyin),Saman , and Atharvan . Of these, the Sar nhita of theme or Rig- veda, contain ing 1 0 1 7hymns, is the oldestand most impor tant. It is a collection ofsongs in pr aiseof the personified elemen ts. It is not arranged for

any r itual purposes, and it includes hymns, many of

20 HINDUISM.

which may have been sung by our Aryan for efathersbefor e they settled in India.

The Atharva- veda, on the other hand, is generallyheld to be the most r ecent, and is, perhaps, the mostinteresting collection . Though some of its hymnsar e mer e repetitions of those in the Rig—veda, itdeserves to be called a separate or iginal collection .

It had its or ig in in the growth of a super stitious beliefin the power of evil demons, and its ver ses, includingthose in troduced from the Rig- veda, are used in the

pr esent day as magical spells and incantation s forimprecating or aver ting evils.The t wo so—called Samhitas or collections of the

Yajur - veda or Sacr ificial Veda (viz . the Taittir iya andVajasaneyin or Black and White Yajus), bor rowlar gely from the Rig- veda

, and ar e merely hymns andtex ts ar ranged for use at sacr ifices, the necessity forwhich arose after the complicated sacr ificial systemhad been elaborated.

The Sama-veda again is merely a r eproduction of

par ts of the Rig—veda, tran sposed and arranged forthe Soma cer emon ies per formed by pr iests calledUdg atr is, as the Yajur—veda was for the sacr ifices

performed by Adhvaryu pr iests . 1 The greatest number of its ver ses ar e taken from the n inth Mandalaof the Rig- veda, which is in praise of the Soma plan t .

Manu, iv. 1 23, says The B ig - veda has the g ods for itsdeities the Yajur -veda has men for i ts objects the Sama-vedahas the Pitr is or spir its of depar ted ancestors, ther efore its soundis impure. ” This semblance of impur ity is said to be the r esultof its association with deceased p ersons, and its r epetition at a

time ofmourn ing .

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2 z H INDUISM.

ing to the special atmosoher ic influences to which

par ticular localities were exposed, or according to the

seasons of the year when the dominance of each was

to be prayed for or deprecated.

This was the r eligion r epr esented in the Vedas, and

was probably the pr imitive creed of the Indo-Aryansabout twelve or thirteen centur ies befor e Chr ist. Thefir st forces deified seem to have been those manifested in the sky and air . These wer e at first generalized under one simple but rather vague person ifica

tion, as was natural in the ear liest.

attempts at givingshape to r eligious ideas. In the Veda this unitysoon diverged into var ious ram ifications. Only a fewof the hymns appear to contain the simple conceptiono f one divine self- ex istent Being, and even in thesethe idea of one God present in all nature is somewhatnebulous and undefined. Perhaps the most ancienta nd beautiful deification was that of Dyaus, thesky,

’as Dyaush

-pitar , Heavenly Father ’

(the Zeus-or Ju- piter of the Gr eeks andRomans). Then, closelyconnected with Dyaus

, was a goddess Aditi, the

I nfinite Expanse,’ conceived of subsequently as the

mother of all the gods. Nex t came a developmentof the same conception called Varuna, the InvestingSky,

’ said to answer to Ahura Mazda, the Ormazd of

the ancient Per sian (Zand) mytholog y, and to the

Gr eek Obpa r éc, but amor e spir itual conception, leadingto a wor ship which rose to the nature of a belief inthe gr eat Ha r fmfund

'

w 6 Er m fg obpa vo'

i g . This Varuna,again, was soon thought of in connection with anothervague personification called Mitra the Per sianflh

’

ikr a), g od of day.

’ After a time these imper

e nursm. 23

sonations of the celestial spher e wer e felt to be toovague to suit the growth of r eligious ideas in ordinary minds. Soon, ther efore, the gr eat investingfirmament was r esolved into separate cosmical entities with separ ate power s and attr ibutes. First, thewatery atmospher e, person ified under the name of

Indra, ever seeking to dispense his dewy treasures,though ever r estrained by an opposing force or spir itof evil calledVr itra : and, secondly, thewind, thoughtof either as a single per sonality named Vayu, or as awhole assemblage of moving power s coming fromevery quar ter of the compass, and imper sonated as

Maruts, or Storm—gods . ’ At the same time theonce pur ely celestial Varuna became r elegated to a

position among seven secondary deities of the heavenlyspher e called Adityas (afterwards increased to twelve,and r egarded as diversified forms of the sun in theseveral months of the year), and subsequently to a

domin ion over the water s when they had left the airand r ested on the ear th .

Of these separately deified physical forces by farthe most favour ite object of adoration was the deitysupposed to yield the dew and rain . Indra is theJupiter Pluvius of ear ly Indian mytholog y, and heis the pr incipal divinity of Vedic wor shipper s, if, at

least, the mere number of prayer s and hymns ad

dr essed to him is to be taken as an indication of hissuper ior ity.

What, however , could rain efi'

ect without the aid of

heat —a force the intensity of which must have im

pr essed an Indian mind with awe. Hence, the secondgreat god ofVedicwor shipper s and the most important

24 H INDUISM .

in connection with sacr ificial r ites, is Agn i (Latin ,the god offir e.

’ Even Surya, the sun (Gr eek,fiMog ), who is generally the first and most impor tantgod in all Pagan systems as the supposed source ofheat, generation, and growth, was sometimes r egardedby the Hindus as another form offire, a man ifestation

of the same divine energy in the heavens.These thr ee, Indra, Agn i, and Surya constitute the

Vedic chief tr iad of gods.Another deity, U shas,

‘goddess of the dawn ,’ the

fiche of the Greeks, was naturally connected with thesun , and r egarded as daughter of the sky. Two

other deities, the Asvins, were fabled as twin sons ofthe Sun (by his wife Asvin i ), ever young and handsome, tr avelling in a golden car , and pr ecur sor s ofU shas the dawn . They are sometimes called Dasras ,as divine physicians destroyer s of diseases ’ ; sometimes Nasatyas, as never untrue.

’ They appear tohave been personifications of two luminous poin ts orr ays, imagined to pr ecede the break of day.

And her e, it should be stated, that the ear th, underthe name of Pr ith ivi

,the broad one,

’r eceives a

cer tain shar e of honour as one of the pr im itive goddesses of the Veda

, beiné thought of as the motherof all beings. Moreover , var ious deities wer e r egardedas the progeny r esulting from the fancied un ion of

earth with Dyaus, heaven,

’ just as much of thelater mytholog y may be explained by a supposedblend ing of the male and female pr inciples in natur e.But it is r emarkable that as r eligious worship becameof a mor e selfish character , the ear th, being mor eeviden tly under man ’s control, and not seeming to

H INDUISM . 25

need propitiation so urgently as the mor e uncer tain

air , fire, and water , lost impor tance, and was rar elyadored in prayer or hymn .

I f to the for egoing enumeration of the gods of theVeda be added the name of Yama, the god of de

par ted spir its, and afterwards the "

appointed judge

of the dead,the pr incipal deities to whom the

Mantras of the Vedic hymns were addr essed, will

then have been stated.It should be observed that the native commenta

r ies on the Veda often allude to thir ty- thr ee gods,which number is also mentioned in the Rig—veda

( I . 34, 1 1 ; I . 45, This is a multiple of three,which is a sacred number constantly appear ing in theHindu r eligious system .

1 It is probable, indeed,that althoug h the Tr i -murti is not named in the Vedichymns, yet the Veda is the r eal source of this Tr iadof per son ifications, afterwards so conspicuous inHindu mythology. This much, at least, is clear ,that the Vedic poets exh ibited a tendency to groupall the forces and energies of nature under threeheads, and the asser tion that the number of the godswas thirty- thr ee, amounted to saying that each of thethree leading per sonifications was capable of elevenmodifications. Ther e can be no doubt that a changeof name in H indu mytholog y does not necessar ilyimply the cr eation of a new deity . Indra, Vayu,the Maruts and Rudras, appear to have been all forms

For example, there are three Vedas, three Marg as or wayso f salvation , thr ee Gunas or fetter s of the soul, thr ee pr incipalcastes, three eyes in g iva’s forehead, three objects of humanpursuit, thr ee worlds, &c.

26 urnnursu.

and modifications of each other , and these with different names in the later mythologywer e gather edinto the one personification g iva. Similar ly

,Surya,

the sun, had var ious forms, such as Adityas and

one of these, named Vishnu, in the Rig- veda, ledto the second member of the Tr i-mur ti

,while Agni,

fire or heat, the gr eat generator of life,who is

called in the Rig—veda ‘father of the sacr ifice,’and

is himself said to have a tr iple essence, andwas appar ently often identified by his wor shipper s with theSupr eme Being, easily passed into the first memberof the Tr i-mfirti, Brahma, or when the wor ship of

Brahma seemed to give place to that of Si n ,in to

one aspect of this latter deity .

The following are free translations (from myIndian Wisdom of por tions of the most r emarkablehymns in the Rig- veda. The first (Mandala, x . 1 29)attempts to descr ibe the mystery of creation thusIn the beg inn ing ther e was neither noug ht nor aug ht ;Then there was neither sky nor atmospher e above.\Vhat then ensh rouded all this teeming un iverse ?I n the r eceptacle of what was it containedW'

as i t enveloped in the g ulf profound of water ?Then was there neither death nor immor talityThen there was neither day, nor n ig ht, nor lig ht, nor darkness,Only the Ex istent One breathed calmly, self- contained.

Noug ht else but he there was—noug ht else above, beyond.

Then first came darkness hid in darkness, g loom in g loomNex t all was water , all a chaos indiscr ete,I n which the One lay void, shrouded in nothing ness.Then turn ing inwards, he by self-developed forceOf inner fervour and intense abstraction, g rew.

First in his mind was formed Desir e, the pr imal g ermPr oductive, which the Wise, profoundly sear ching , sayI s the first subtle bond, connecting EntityWith Nullity.

HINDUISM. 27

In this hymn we per ceive the first dim outline ofthe r emarkable idea that the Cr eator willed to produce the un iver se through the agency and co- operation of a female pr inciple— an idea which afterwardsacquir ed mor e defin ite shape in the supposed marr iag e of heaven and ear th before alluded to. Thesame idea assumed a character of its own in theSankhya philosophy (as we shall see her eafter ), andgather ed such strength subsequently that every pr incipal deity in the later mythology has his femin inecounterpar t, who shares the wor ship paid to the malegod, and who sometimes r eceives the gr eater homageof the two. That this idea is not fully developed inthe Rig- veda is proved by the fact that with the

exception of Aditi,U shas, and Pr ithivi , most of the

g oddesses are insig n ificant. The wwes of the chief“

gods, such as Indrani , Ag nayi , A'

s'

vin i, Varunani ,

&c., are not associated with their husbands as objects

of wor ship, and even Lakshmi and Sarasvati , thoughnamed, are not adored.

l

The next specimen is from the 1 2 r st hyn1n of ther othMandala. Like the preceding, it furnishes a goodargument for those who maintain that the or iginalfaith of the H indus was monotheistic

What g od shall we adore with sacr ifice ?H im let us praise, the g olden child that roseIn the beg inn ing , who was born the lord

I n the Satapatha-brahmana, x iv. 4 . 2. 1 . and Brihad-aranyaka

Upanishad, iii. 1 . the idea ismore fully expressed He felt notdelig ht, being alone . H e wished another . He caused his ownse lf to fall in twain, and thus became husband and wife. He

approached her and thus were human being s produced.

’

D

28 11 1 11 131115 1 1 .

The one sole lord of all that is—who madeThe earth, and formed the sky, who g ivethme,Who g iveth streng th, whose bidding g ods r evere,Whose hiding -

plaee is immortality,Whose shadow, death who by his mig ht is kingOfall the breathing , sleeping , waking wor ld.

Where’er let loose in space, the mig hty watersHave g one, depositing a fruitful seed,And g enerating fir e, ther e 11: aroseWho is the breath and life of all the g ods,Whose mig hty g lance looks r ound the vast expanseO fwatery vapour—sour ce of energ y,Cause of the sacr ifice—the only GodAbove the g ods.

Her e follow portions of other hymns to Varuna,and to the Vedic tr iad, Indra, Agni, and Surya

The mig hty Varuna, who rules above, looks downUpon these wor lds, his king dom, as if close at hand.

W hen men imag ine they do oug ht by stealth, he knows i t.No one can stand, or walk, or softly g lide along ,Or hide in dark r ecess, or lurk in secr et cell,But Varuna detects him, and his movements spies.

Two persons may devise some plot, tog ether sitting ,And think themselves alone ; but he, the king is thereA third—and sees it all. H is messeng ers descendCountless from his abode, for ever traversingThis world, and scann ing with a thousand eyes its inmates .

Whate’er ex ists w ithin this earth, and all within the sky ,

Yea, all that is beyond, king Varuna per ceives.The winking s ofmen’s eyes ar e numbered all by h imHe wields the un iverse as g amester s handle dice.

Indra, twin -brother of the g od offire,When thouwast born , thy mother Aditi,Gave thee, her lusty child, the thrilling draug htOfmountain -

g rowing Soma—sour ce of lifeAnd never -dying vig our to thy frame.

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30 HINDUISM.

Burn ing our bodies with their load of g uilt,But bear ing our eternal par t on hig hTo luminous abodes and r ealms of bliss,For ever ther e to dwell with r ig hteous men.

Behold the rays ofDawn , like heralds, lead on hig hThe 8 1111 , that men may see the g reat all-knowing g od.

The stars slink off like thieves, in company with Nig ht,Before the all- seeing eye, whose beams reveal his presence,Gleaming like br illiant flames, to nation after nation .

Sii rya, w ith flaming locks, elear - sig hted g od of day,Thy seven ruddy mares bear on thy rushing car .

With these thy self-yoked steeds, seven daug hters of thy char iot,Onward thou dost advance. To thy r efulg ent orb,Beyond this lower g loom, and upwar d to the lig htWould we ascend, 0 Sun , thou g od among the g ods.

We may add a few ver ses from the celebratedPurusha- sukta, one of the most r ecent hymns of

the Rig- veda (Mandala, x . It will serve toillustrate the gr adual sliding of Hindu monotheisminto pantheism, and the first foreshadowing of theidea of sacr ifice, as well as the institution of caste , l

which for so many centur ies has held India in bondag e

The embodied spir it has a thousand heads,A thousand eyes, a thousand feet, aroundOu every side enveloping the ear th,Yet filling space no larg er than a span .

H e is himself this very un iverseHe is whatever is, has been, and shall beHe is the lord of immor tality.A11 creatures are one- four th of h im,

thr ee- four ths

This hymn (g enerally admitted to be a comparatively moder nproduction) is the only hymn in the Big -veda which alludes tothe distinctions of caste.

HINDUISM. 3 1

Are that which is immor tal in the sky.

From him, called Purusha, was born Vir ij,And from Vi rajwas Purusha produced,Whom g ods and holy men made their oblation.

With Purusha as victim, they performedA sacr ifice. When they divided him,

How did they cut him up What was his mouthWhat were his arms ? and what h is thig hs and feetThe Brahman was h is mouth, the king ly soldierWas made his arms, the husbandman his thig hs,The servile éfidra issued from his feet.

Be it observed, in conclusion, that the above ex

amples would,if taken alone, encourage a very false

estimate of the mer its of the Vedic Mantras. Althoughthe major ity of the H indus believe that the sever alSamhitas of the Veda, and especially that of the B igveda, contain all that is good, gr eat, and divine, yetthese collections of hymns will be found, when takenas a whole, to abound mor e in puer ile ideas thanin stri king thoughts and lofty conceptions. Nor willthey be found to suppor t any of those obj ectionablepractices, super stitions, and opin ions of the presentday for which they wer e once, through ignorance of

their contents, supposed to be an author ity. TheVedic hymns contain no allusion to the doctr ine of

transmigration of souls, which is a conspicuous character istic of the H indu cr eed in the later system.

Nor do they afl'

ord any sanction to the prohibitionof widow- mar r iages, the encouragement of childmar r iages, the ir on rules of caste, and the interdictionof foreign travel. Nor is ther e in them any evidencethat the personifications of the forces of natur e wer erepresented by images or symbols carved out ofwood

32 umnursm.

or stone. Oh the contrary, it may be taken as almostcer tain that ther e wer e no idols and no temples tohold images in Vedic times.That the social condition of the people was by no

means low, and that they had attained to somedegr ee of civilization, may be infer r ed fr om var iousallusions in the hymns. It is evident that the chief

r iches of the newly- ar r ived Indo-Aryans consisted inflocks and herds that they under stood the pr inciples

of agr icultur e ; that they wer e able to build townsand fortified places that they had some knowledgeofvar ious ar ts and sciences and ofworking in metals ;that they engaged in philosophical speculations ; thatthey had ruler s that they wer e separated into classes,though they wer e not yet divided 08

“

by hard lines ofcaste that polygamy ex isted, though monogamy wasthe rule ; that they killed an imals for sacr ifices thatthey were in the habit of eating an imal food, and didnot even object to the flesh of cows ; that they werefond of gambling, and indulged in intox icatingbeverages.We may also gather that just as the childr en of

Israel found the land of Canaan pre- occupied by

H ittites, Per izzites, and Philistines, so the immigrating Aryans, when they advanced in to India, foundthe soil held by Scythian and abor iginal races, var iously called Dasyus, Anaryas, N ishadas , and Dravidas,who, from long exposur e to the Indian sun , and per

haps from intermar r iage with even more pr imitive and

(as some believe)M g n‘

to abor ig inal tr ibes, had becomealmost as dark- complex ioned as Afr icans.

H INDUISM. 33

CHAPTER III .

THE BRAHMANAS AND THE SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM .

HAVING thus endeavour ed to explain the natur e of

the Vedic hymn s, we now turn to the second divisionof the Veda called Brahmana, which, in r elation tothe r ise of Brahman ical author ity, the elaborationof the idea of sacr ifice, and the developmen t of ther itual, is mor e impor tan t than the Mantra por tion .

What, then, are the Brahmanas PThey ar e in tended, as their name implies

,for the

Brahmans, and especially for their use in conductingthe complicated sacr ificial cer emon ies. Just as theMantras ar e the r epr esentatives of the natur e-wor shipof the Rishis which was developed in the Panjab, sothe Brahmanas ar e the exponen ts of the r itual ism of

the Brahmans, developed when they had settled inNor th-western Hindustan .

Their chief aim is to serve as guides or director iesfor the employmen t of the Mantr as at sacr ifices. But

they do mor e than this . They speculate as to the

mean ing and effect of using par ticular ver ses and

metr es,and give explanations of the or igin , impor t,

and conduct of the sacr ifices, fr equently intermix ingillustrations in the shape of legends and old stor ies.The rambling discur siveness of these compositions

(the oldest of which may have been wr itten in the

34 HINDUISM.

seventh century BC . ) made them practically uselessas dir ector ies to the r itual until they themselves werefur nished with guides in the form of Sfitras or aphor istic rules.

l

Each of the Samh itz‘

i s, or collections of Mantras

,

has its own Brahmanas. Thus the Rig- veda has theAitareya

—brahmana (perhaps the oldest) and the Kau

shi taki (or éankhyayanaybrahmana. The two colleetions of the Yajur - veda have the Taittir iya- brahmanaand the S

'

atapatha-brahmana

, which last, belongingto the Vajasaney i- samhita, is perhaps one of the mostcomplete of these productions . The Sama-veda haseight Brahmanas, of which the two best known ar e

the Praudha Panca- vinsa, Tandya) and the Shadvinsa. The Atharva- veda has the Gopatha—brahmana.

Though much of the matter of these tr eat i ses lslittle better than the silliest sacerdotalism, yet theyfurn ish valuable mater ials to any one inter ested intracing the r ise and progr ess of B rahman ism, and thedevelopmen t of its sacr ificial system .

We may observe that the division of the peopleinto the four gr eat classes of B r éfimazzas, pr iests ;

These wer e called Kalpa or Srauta - sutras. Others, whichwer e g uides to domestic ceremonies, wer e called Smar ta or

Grihya- sutras (see p. The word Sutra is der ived from

the root 1 571 , to sew,

’and means a str ing of rules.

’A S i tra

should pr oper ly be expressed with the utmost possible br evi ty.I t is fr equen tly nothing but a few sug g estive memor ial wordsused like alg ebraic sig ns, and unintellig ible without a key. I n

later times, Sutra works are merely collections of formulatedprecepts, adapted to ser ve as manuals to par ticular systems ofteaching , whether in r itual, philosophy, law,

or g rammar .

HINDUISM. 35

Kr lzatrbras, soldier s Vaz’

b'ar

, agr icultur ists and

S&a’ms, servants,— as for eshadowed in the Purushasi

‘

1kta of the Rig- veda (see p.— was at this per iod

mor e thoroughly established, though the rules of

caste as laid down in the laws of Manu (see p. 57)wer e not yet generally in force. It may be noted,too

,that the Brahmanas express belief in a futur e

state mor e positively than the Mantras. They asser tthat a r ecompense awaits all beings in the nex t wor ldaccording to their conduct in this. But the doctr ineof transmigration, which became afterwards an essential element of Hinduism, is not yet fully developed, though hinted at in the Satapatha-brahmana

(x i . 6 . 1 .

One of the most remarkable ideas to be found in theBrahmanas is that the gods wer e merely mortals tillthey ex tor ted immor tality from the Supreme Being bysacr ifices and auster ities. This is expressed in thefollowing fr ee translation of a passage of the Satapatha- brahmana

The g ods lived constantly in dread ofDeathThe mig hty Ender— so with toilsome r itesThey worshipped and r epeated sacr ifices

Till they became immor tal. Then the EnderSaid to the g ods, As ye have made your selvesImper ishable ; so will men endeavourTo fr ee themselves from me what por tion thenShall I possess in man The g ods replied,Hencefor th no being shall become immor talIn his own body ; this his mor tal frame

Animals and plants are descr ibed as r eveng ing , in a futurestate of ex istence, injur ies inflicted on them by men in this life.

36 H INDUISM.

Shalt thou still seize this shall remain thy own.

He who throug h knowledg e or relig ious actsHencefor th attains to immor talityShall first pr esent h is body, Death, to thee. ’

And again in the Taittir iya-brahmana, By mean sof the sacr ifice the g ods obtained heaven .

’

But a still mor e r emarkable conception is that firstfound in the Purusha- sukta of the Rig—veda, alr eadyquoted, which r epr esen ts the gods as sacr ificingPur usfza

, the pr imeval Male, supposed to be coevalwith the C reator .

This idea is even more r emarkably developed inthe Tandya- brahmanas thusThe lord of cr eatur es (pr ajd-patz

’

) ofi'

er ed himselfa sacr ifice for the gods . ’

And again , in the Satapatha- brahmana, He who,

knowing this, sacr ifices with the Pur us/za—med/za, or

sacr ifice of the pr imeval male, becomes everything.

’

Sur ely, in these mystical allusions to the sacr ifice ofa r epr esentative man, we may per ceive traces of theor iginal institution of sacr ifice as a divinely—appointedordinan ce typical of the one gr eat voluntary sacr ificeof the Son of God for the sin s of the wor ld.

1

Whether they point to the actual sacr ifice ofhumanbeings as par t of the ear ly Indo-Aryan system, admitsof question . Doubtless the practice of human sacr ifice was eventually introduced and both childr en

Professor Banerjea (p. 204 of his Ar ian W itness thinksthat it would not be easy to account for the g enesis of such anidea, except on the assumption of some pr imitive tradition of

the Lamb slain from the foundation of the wor ld.

’

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38 HINDUISM.

that it did not long r etain the dir ect sanction of the

BrahmansThe g ods killed a man for their victim. But fr om him thuskilled, the par t which was fit for a sacr ificewent out and enter eda horse. Thence, the horse became an animal fit for beingsacr ificed. The g ods then killed the horse, but the par t of i tfor being sacr ificed went out of it and enter ed an ox . The

g ods then killed the ox , but the par t of itfit for being sacr ificed

went out of it and enter ed a sheep. Thence it entered a g oat.The sacr ificial par t r emained for the long est time in the g oatthence, it became pre- eminently fit for being sacr ificed 1

This passage indicates that whatever the actualpractice may have been— the desir e of the Brahmanswas to abolish human sacr ifice, and substitute in itsplace the sacr ifice of an imals, four kinds ofwhich ar e

enumerated— hor ses, oxen, sheep, and goats,— in theregular order of their fitness for immolation— according to some inher en t efficacy in each class .

1 It isr emarkable that in Vedic times, even a cow (calledamular azzi ), was sometimes killed,

2and goats, as is

well known , are still sacr ificed to the goddess Kali .In the Rig-veda

,the Afva-med/za or hor se- sacr i

fice,’ is made an impor tant cer emony, and hymn s 1 62

and 1 63 in Mandala I . wer e used at this r ite, whichwas r egarded as the chief of all an imal sacr ifices.

Indeed, it is essential to a clear comprehension of

Brahmanism andHinduism, that the exact natur e and

I n the Vajasaney i - Samhita of the White Yajur -veda twohundred and ten differ ent kinds of victims for sacr ifice ar e

enumerated. I n Manu, v. 42, it is stated that animalsduly sacr ificed are conveyed to heavenly mansions.

The killing of a cow and burn ing i t with the body of a deceased person is descr ibed by As

'

valayana.

H INDUISM. 39

meaning of sacr ifice, as employed by the Hindus,should be impr essed on the mind at the very outset.The idea of the need ofsacr ificial acts of some kind, isingrained in their whole system. I t is one of the ear liestthat appear s in Indian r eligiousworks, andno literature— not even theJewish—contains so manywords relatingto sacr ifice as Sanskrit. But the oldest form ofVedicsacr ifice was not piacular . It consisted in the merededication of offer ings of food to the gods. This wasg enerally done by oblation s of butter , &c. , in fire, or

by pour ing out libations of the juice of the Soma plant,which wer e supposed to nour ish and exhilar ate thedeities, especially Indra.

l In fact, one object of aHindu’s sacr ifices and oblations, whether in Vedic or

post-Vedic times, has always been , and still continuesto be, the supposed actual nour ishment of the gods,by the ar oma or essence of the substances ofi

'

ered 9

food being r egarded as a necessity of their being.

3

Thus, in the Vishnu-purana we r ead, By sacr ifices

the gods ar e nour ished.

’

There are two Sanskr it r oots for to sacr ifice bu (=an

older dfiu=0v) and yaj. The first is restr icted to oblations ofclar ified butter in fire the latter , which means to worship, ’ isapplied to sacr ificing g enerally. Besides these two roots, theroot m is used for offer ing libations wi th the juice of the Soma.

The Spir its of departed ancestors are also supposed to ber efreshed and nour ished by libations of water , and offer ing s offood (Manu, iii.Sleep seems also necessary to them. From a par ticular

day in the month Ashadha to a par ticular day in Kar ttika theg ods are supposed to sleep . Vishnuwakes up on the eleventhday of the lig ht half ofKarttika. Indra is said to r ise on thenew moon of Asvina, celebrated as rs

‘

aé r ortlici na and beforeDurg a is worshipped at the autumnal Durg a-

puja she must be

40 HINDUISM.

But the idea of expiation was gradually intr oducedeven in Vedic times. The sacr ificer was mysticallyidentified with the victim, which was r eg arded as

the ransom for sin, and the in strument of its annul

ment. In the Tandya-brahmana, we r ead,

0 thou limb of the victim now consig ned to the fi r e, thou ar t

the expiation for sins committed by the g ods, by the fathers(our deceased ancestors), by men , by ourselves. Whatever sinwe have committed, sleep ing or waking , knowing or unknowing ,thou ar t the expiation for that.

And her e we have to note a thir d obj ect of sacr ifice.

Besides the wi sh to nour ish the gods with the savourof the mater ial substances ofi

'

ered, and besides thedesir e for expiation , r esulting from substituted sufi

’

er

ing , the sacr ificer might have a third aim. It wasbelieved possible by sacr ifice to acquir e super - human

power , and to wr est from the gods any desir ed boon ,or object of ambition , however difficult of attainment.

This could also be effected thr ough the practice of

auster ities, but wealthy individuals who had large re

sources in money and pr iests at command, r elied moreon the efiicacy of par ticular sacr ifices (such as the

Jyotishtoma, Ag n ishtoma,Vajapeya, elaboratelyconducted by Brahman s with the punctilious observan ce of a complicated r itual, and the distr ibution of

largesses to the officiating pr iests . According to the

popular cr eed, a hundr ed hor se- sacr ifices so conducted,

exalted the sacr ificer to the rank of a powerful deity,and even entitled him to displace Indra himself from

awaked, and a ceremony called Bodbana, arousing of the

g oddess, ’ takes place. Ou the other hand, one of the character istics of the g ods is said to be that they never wink .

nmnursu. 4 1

the dominion of heaven. Hence, the very gods forwhose nour ishmen t and propitiation sacr ifices were

intended, were thought to be jealous of over - zeal dis

played by pious individuals in multiplying sacr ificial

ri tes, and were even said to put impediments in their

way. Nevertheless, in spite of such supposed oppo

sitiou to excessive piety, the number of sacr ificers and

sacr ifices of all kinds, incr eased in India.

In fact, for thewhole Brahmana per iod ofHinduism

(probably from 800 to 500 the need of pro

pitiatory ofl'

er ing s through the oblation of food in

fire and immolation of an imals r emained a central

doctr ine of Brahman ism . Thousands of an imals werekilled every day . The land was saturated with bloodThe gr eater the number of the sacr ifices and the moreelaborate the r itual, the g r eater the need for a mor ecomplete organization of pr iests. In this manner thewhole Brahman ical sacr ificial system, of which the

Brahmana por tion of the Veda is the expression and

exponent, was overdone. People became wear ied anddisgusted with sacr ifices, sacr ificer s, and sacr ificingpr iests.

Then, about five centur ies befor e our era, the

r eformer Buddha appear ed, and about contempor

aneously wi th him var ious Brahman sages, stimulatedby his example and perhaps by that of other s whopr eceded him,

l thoug ht out what ar e called the orthodox systems of Hindu philosophy. The bolderreformers found r eady listeners when they began to

There is no reason for supposing that the Buddha was thefirst fr eethinker and philosopher that India produced . He him

self taug ht that other Buddhas had pr eceded him.

4 2 H lNDUlSM.

preach the impossibility of vicar ious suffer ing the

transmigration of souls the necessity that every manshould sufl

'

er himself, and in his own per son, for hisown sins, either in this or future lives ; the un ity of

all being ; the identity of the human soul with theDivine, and the consequent absurdity of caste-distinc

tions. All idea of the need of propitiatory sacr ificewas by them r ejected ; for when every man was

believed to be a par t of God, what necessity was ther ethat God should propitiate Himself? I f a por tion of

the One Un iver sal Soul chose for a time to ignoreitself, to enclose itself in a body, to fetter itself withactions and their ‘ inevitable r esults, the consequentsufi

'

er ing could only be borne by itself in its passagethrough numerous ex istences, and ther e could be nor elease— no final emancipation— till action ceased,and

the consciousness of iden titywith the one univer sal soulreturned. Hence the gr adual diminution of animalsacr ifices throughout India, except at the altars of

the neree goddess Kali or Durga, who is supposedto delight in blood, and, if satiated by the immolationof goats and bufi

‘

aloes, to abstain from causing fur therdestruction . But at no other temples are victims nowkilled, and even such propitiatory slaughter ing of

an imals is utter ly r epugnant to the pr esent feelingsand opin ions of the educated Hindus. Such wasthe great r evolution effected by Buddha and theBrahman philosopher s together .It will be necessary to give fuller consideration to

the new ideas thus introduced in to Brahman ism. But

befor e descr ibing them more in detail, we must first

glance at the third or Upanishad por tion of the Veda,which was r eally the source whence they sprang .

CHAPTER IV.

1 11 1: upamsnans AND BRAHMAN ICAL PHILOSOPHY.

T11 13 third division of the Veda is called Upamklzaa’

,

which implies something that under lies the surface.The doctr ine contained in these treatises does in fact

lie under the whole Hindu system. Not only are the

Upan ishads as much Sw tz'

, or r evelation as the

Mantra and Brahmana por tion of the Veda, but they

are practically the only par t of the Veda much studiedand appealed to by educated Hindus in the pr esentday .

To under stand this, we must bear in mind thatIndian author ities separate the Veda into two divisions.The fir st is called Kar rna -kdzzda, the depar tment ofworks. ’ This embraces both Mantra and Brahmana,and is for that vast major ity of per sons who are unableto conceive of r eligion, ex cept as a process of layingup mer it by prayer s, sacr ifices, r ites, and auster ities .For these the one God assumes var ious forms, to anyof wh ich wor ship may be addr essed and honour paid .

The second is called jnd'

na-kiizzq’

a the depar tment of knowledge. ’ This is taught in the Upan ishads,and is for that select few who are capable of understanding the true doctr ine.We have alr eady seen (p. 1 1 ) that the cr eed of the

man who is said to possess the true knowledge issing ular ly simple. He believes that ther e is but one

a

q 4 H INDUISM.

r eal Being 1n the un iver se, which Being also constitutes

‘

the univer se.This pantheistic doctr ine is everywher e traceable

in some of the mor e ancient Upan ishads, though often

wrapped up in mysticism and allegory. A l ist of

about 1 50 of these treatises is given , most of whichar e wr itten in pr ose with occasional var iations in ver se.

The absence of histor ical r ecords in India makes itimpossible to fix the date of any of them wi th morecer tainty than that of the Man tras. Their style is,however , less ar chaic, and not very differ ent from thatof classical Sanskr it. Some of the mor e ancien t ar eprobably as old as the six th century BC . Theseare appended to the Aranyakas— cer tain chapters ofthe Brahmanas, so awe- inspir ing and profound, thattheywer e r equir ed to be r ead in thesolitude of for ests.Proper ly each Brahmana had its Ar anyakas 3 but thephilosophical ideas they contained wer e so mix ed upwith ex tr aneous subjects, that the chapter s calledUpan ishads wer e added with the object of investigating mor e definitely such abstruse problems as the

or igin of the un iver se, the natur e of the deity, the

natur e of the human soul, and the r eciprocal connex ion of spir it and matter .

The names of the ten most impor tant Upan ishadsar e the [fa (actually attached to the 4oth chapter ofthe Vajasaneyi Kw a

, and C’lzd'

na’

ogya tofthe Sama- veda), and Kari m, P r afmz, Muzzdaka, Mazr

q’

ukya (of the Athar va- veda), B rz'

lzad-d’

r azzyaka (at

I was told by a g reat Pandit that thiswas the only Upauishad entitled to be called apaurusfieya, i . e. not wr itten bymen .

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4 6 H INDUISM.

systems of philosophy. These are not r egarded as

par t of Sruti or Revelation .

They are sometimes called the Shat gastras or Six

Instruments of True Teaching,’ sometimes the Shad

Dars‘anas

, or Six Demonstrations ofTruth .

’They hadnot shaped themselves into separate schools at the

per iod when we may suppose the pr esen t ver sion of

Manu’s law-book to have been drawn up in the fifth

cen tury B.C . As, however , the si x Dar éanas gr ew dir ectly out of the Upan ishads, and as most of theirdoctr ines preceded, or wer e contempor aneous withthe compilation ofManu

’s laws, the names of the six

schools may her e be enumerated.

They ar e,— 1 . The M dy a, founded by Gotama.

2 . The by Kanada. 3 . The Sa‘

nk/zy a, byKapila. 4 . The Yog a, by Patanjali . 5 . The5725 13, by Jaimin i . 6 . The Vedc

'

inla, by Badarayanaor Vyasa

They wer e deliver ed in Sutras or aphorisms, whichare held to be the basis of all subsequen t teachingunder each head (see note p.

The date of the composition of these aphor ismscannot be settled with cer tainty. Nor is it possibleto decide when the six schools wer e finally systematized, nor which of the six preceded the other . Someot them are dualistic (affirm ing the co ex istence of

two eternal pr inciples) some non -dualistic ( insistingon the un ity of all being). Their distinctive featuresare explained in the Appendix . Our pr esen t concernis with those lines of metaphysical speculation which

pr eceded the formulation of distinct philosophicalcr eeds.

11 115 11 11 15 11 . 47

It seems tolerably cer tain that about five or six centut ies befor e the commencement of the Chr istian era,

a mighty stir took place in thinking m inds throughoutthe then civilized wor ld. Thus

,when Buddha arose

in India, Gr eece had her thinker s in the follower s of

Pythagoras, Per sia in those ofZoroaster , China in thoseof Con fucius. Men began to ask themselves earnestly

such question s as— What am I P Whence have Icome PWhither am I going ? How can I explain myconsciousness of per sonal ex istence ? What is ther elationship between my mater ial and immater ialnatur e P What is this wor ld in which I find myself? How can I explain the deepest mystery of

natur e— the history of cr eation ? Did a wise, g ood,

and all- powerful Being cr eate the wor ld out ofnothing ?or did it evolve itself out of an eternal germ or didit come together by a for tuitous concur r ence of eter nalatoms P I f cr eated by a Being of infin ite wisdom , how

can I accoun t for the inequalities of condition in itgood and evil

,happiness and misery? Has the cr eator

form, or is he formless ? Has he any qualities or none PCer tainly in India no satisfactory solution of ques

tions such as these was to be found in the prayer s andhymns of the ancient Indo—Aryan poets, which, thoughca lled Veda or

‘knowledge by the Brahmans, didnot even profess to furn ish any r eal knowledge onthese points, but mer ely gave expression to the first

g r opings of the human m ind, searching for truth bythe uncer ta in lig ht of natural phenomena.

Nor did the r itualistic Brahmanas contr ibute anything to the elucidation of such topics . They merely

encourag ed the gr owth of a super stitious belief in the

48 11 1 15 1311 15 11 .

efficacy of sacr ifices, and foster ed the incr easing

dependence of the multitude on a mediator ial casteof pr iests, supposed to be the constituted medium of

commun ication between men and gods. Still thesemomentous questions pressed for solution , and the

minds of men finding no r est in mer e traditionalr evelation

, and no satisfaction in mere ex ternal r ites,turned inwards, each thinker endeavour ing to thinkout for himself the gr eat problems of life by the aidof his own r eason . Hence wer e composed the mystical Upan ishads alr eady descr ibed. Be it r ememberedthat these tr eatises wer e not r egarded as antagon isticto revelation , but rather as complemen tar y of it. Theywere held to be an in tegr al por tion of the Veda, andeven its loftiest utterance— the apex to which all

previous r evelation tended. Probably the simple factwas, that as it was found impossible to pr eclude theKshatr iyas and other infer ior classes from rationalisticinquiry, the Brahman s , with their usual astuteness,determ ined on making it their own , and dign ifying itsfir st developmen t in the Upan ishads with the title ofVeda.

Brahman ism and rationalistic philosophy,ther efor e

,

advanced hand in hand. Any Brahman m ight becomea philosopher , provided he gave a nominal assen t tothe Veda. But if a Kshatr iya fr ee- thinker

,like Buddha,

asser ted that any one might be a teacher of philosophy,or might gain emancipation for himself

,ir r espectively

of the Veda or of the Brahmans,he was at once

denounced as an infidel.

Such unbelieving free- thinker s soon became numerous in India. For , in truth, a process of action and

11 11111 11 15 11 . 49

r eaction has marked the whole cour se of Hinduism .

The her etical Buddhistic movement (mor e fully descr ibed in chapter vi . ) was nothing but a naturalr eaction from the tyranny of Brahman ism and caste.It was like the r eturn swing of a pendulum to whichan impulse was given by one gr eat and enlightenedman . It was a r ebound from excessive in tolerance tothe broadest tolerance. It was the name for unfetter edr eligious thought asser ting itself without fear of consequences.

The or thodox schools of philosophy, on the otherh and, wer e the homes of those rationalists whosacr ificed honesty at the shr ine of Brahman icalr espectability. These schools went through the formof acknowledging the author ity of the Veda. Yet

two at least of the six , which taught the eternaldistinctness of spir it and matter , viz . the Vazls‘es/zz

'

ka

and Sdnk/zya, proceeded almost to the same lengthwith Buddhism,

even to the practical ignor ing of a

supr eme in telligent cr eator .

Leaving these poin ts to be explained more fully inthe Appendix , let us br iefly trace the common linesof philosophical thought growing directly out of theUpan ishads. This common creed is clear ly indicatedin Manu

’s law-book, and even at the pr esen t daymay bedetected under lying the faith ofmost thinking Hindus,to whatever sect or system they may nom inally belong.

This common philosophical creed, then, asser ts1 . The etern ity of the soul, both r etrospectively

and prospectively.

Soul is r eg arded as of two kinds : 2 . the supreme universalsoul (va r iously called Par amdtman , B r ahman , Pur usfza , 61 V. )

50 11 11113 11 15 1 1.

6. the per sonal individual soul of living be ing s, called ? ivfi tman .

I f any entity is eternal it can have had no beg inn ing or 1t must

have an end. Hence souls bothun iversal and individual, whetherthey be r eg arded as different or identical, have always ex istedand must ever ex ist.

2. The eter n ity of the matter or substance out of

which the un iver se has been evolved.

Note that this evolution may take place, according to somemater ialists, from g ross par ticles of matter or , as in the

Vedanta system, from soul itself when over spread by illusion .

This is a r esult of that fixed dog ma of a Hindu philosopher’

s

belief— nd’

var tzm o var tusz'

dd/zié , ex n ihilo nihilfit,— nothing canbe produced out of nothing .

3 . The soul, though itself abstract thought and

knowledge, can only ex ercise thought, consciousness ,sensation , and cognition ,

and indeed can only act andwi ll when connected with ex ternal objects of sensation,invested with some bodily form,

and joined to mind

For obser ve that m ind is an internal or g an of sense, a sort ofin let of thoug ht into the soul, belong ing only to the body,and quite as distinct from the soul as any ex ternal org a n of the

body.

4 . The union of soul and body is productive of

bondage, and, in the case of human souls, of misery.

For note that the soul, so un ited, becomes conscious ofpersonalex istence and individuality, and is capable of r eceiving impressions pleasur able or painful . Then i t commences acting ; but allaction, g ood or bad, leads to bondag e because it entails a con

sequence, according to the max im Aw fyam a m b/zoktavy argz

kg'i/argz kar ma fub/zdi

‘ubbam

, When an action , g ood or bad, hasbeen committed, its fr uit must of necessity be eaten .

’ Hence.

1 1 111 131115 11 . 5 1

i f an act be g ood it must be r ewarded, and if bad it must be

punished.

5 . In order to accomplish the working out of theconsequences, or r ipen ings of acts (kbrma -wpdka),the soul must be r emoved to a place of r eward or

pun ishment, which r eward or pun ishment,however , is

neither full and effectual nor final.

For observe that the heavens of the H indfi system are onlysteps on the r oad to final beatitude, and the hells, thoug h placesof ter r ible tor ture,‘ar e merely temporary pur g ator ies.

The soul must leave these and r eturn to corporealex istence

,migrating into higher

,intermediate

, and

lower forms, according to its shades of mer it or demer it, and as it prog r esses towards eman cipation fromseparate ex istence, passing through the four stages ofbliss called sdloky a , living in the same heaven withGod

,siz

'

mipya, nearness to God, sdn7py a , assimilationto the likeness of God, till the g r eat end of sdy ujya,or complete un ion with the Supr eme, has been

attained .

6 . The transmigration of the soul, through an

innumerable succession of bodies,2 is the true ex

planation of the ex istence of evil in the wor ld.

For note that m1sery, disease , depravity, inequality of for tune,and diver sity of character , g ood or bad, are simply the conse

quences of acts done by each soul of i ts own free will in former

Twenty - one in number . See note 2 to p. 66 of ‘IndianWisdom.

’

(Allen Co. )The popular theory is that every being must pass throug h

e ig hty- four lakhs of births, a lakh being one hundred thousand.

52 H INDUISM.

bodies, which acts exer t on that soul an ir resistible power , verysig n ificantly calledA (111211411 , because felt and not seen.

’ Hencethe soul has to bear the consequences of its own actions only,being tossed hither and thither by a for ce set in motion by itself,but which can never be g uarded ag ainst, because its operationdepends on deeds committed in former lives quite beyondcontr ol, and even unremembered.

From a consideration of the above six essentialelements of Brahmanical philosophy we find that itsone gr eat aim is to teach men to abstai n from action of

everykind, good or bad as much from lik ing as fromdisliking, as much from loving as from hating

, and

even from indifi'

erence. Actions are the fetter s of theembodied soul

, which when it has shaken off, it willlose all sen se of individual per sonality and r etur n tothe condition of simple soul . This constitutes P r am ?or true knowledge ; this is the summum bonum of

Brahman ism this is the on ly r eal bliss— the loss ofr epeated separate ex istences by complete absorption(seiy ujya ) into the on ly r eally ex isting Being

, who is

wholly unfetter ed by action, and without qualities of

any kind and called saf- éz’

zl-d’

nanda} because he is pur e life (with nothing

,however

,to live

for ), pur e thought (with nothing to think about), pur ejoy (with nothing to r ejoice about).

This is the tr inity of Brahman ical'phi1050phy.

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54 11 111D111 5M.

man s,who, to giveweig ht and dign ity to the collection,assigned its author ship to the mythical sage Manu.

Without attempting to determine the real author shipor to settle the exact date of the pr esent compilation,we may safely affirm that the well-known collection

of precepts commonly called ‘the code of Manu’ is

perhaps the oldest and most sacr ed Sanskr it workafter the Veda and its 8rauta- 5 1

'

1tras . Althoughstanding in a manner at the head of s

'itz'

,or post

Vedic literatur e,it is connected with the Veda through

these Sutras, as the philosophical Darsanas are throughthe Upan ishads. Even if not the oldest of post-Vedicwr itings, it is cer tainly the most inter esting, both as

presenting a pictur e of the usages, manner s, and intellectual condition of an impor tant par t of the Hindurace at a r emote per iod

,and as revealing the exag g e

rated natur e of the rules bywhich the Brahmans soughtto perpetuate an organ ized caste- system in subordination to themselves. At the same time, it is in otherr espects perhaps one of the most r emar kable booksthat the literatur e of the whole wor ld can offer , andsome of its moral precepts ar e wor thy of Chr istian ityitself.The compilation as now presented to us is an i r re

gular compendium of rules which wer e probably inforce in a par ticular par t of India for a long per iodof time, andwer e handed down orally. It is tolerablycer tain that the whole of India was never under onegovernment. Some fewpowerful monar chs are knownto have acquired sover eignty over very ex tensive ter r itor ies

,and were then called C’akra-var tins ; but we

must not suppose that the term Code,’as applied to

11 111 1311 15 11 . 55

Manu’s law-book

,is intended to denote a systematic

arrangement of laws actually prevalent over the wholeof such ter r itor ies. In later times it became the basisof Hindu jur isprudence, but it was long befor e itworked its way to acceptance with the entir e Hinducommun ity ; and although this law-book has now

secur ed for itself a degr ee of r everence throughoutthe whole of India, on ly second to that accorded tothe Veda, it was, without doubt, or iginally a mer elocal collection .

It will be found that, after elim inating the purelyr eligious and philosophical pr ecepts, the g r eaternumber of its rules fall under the following fourheads

1 . immemor ial p ractices, ’ which ar e descr ibed as

Sad-ci éci r a , appr oved practices, ’ sanctioned by the Veda and bySmr iti , if they are those which prevailed between the two sacr edr ivers, Sarasvati and Dr ishadvat

‘

i,in the r eg ion called Brahma

varta. These, in fact, mclude all the Obser vances of caste, r eg arded as constituting the hig hest law and hig hest relig ion .

2. Vy aw iu‘

im , practices of law and g overnment, ’ embr acing the procedur e of leg al tr ibunals, rules of judicature and

civil and cr iminal law.

3. Pr éy af—Ez

’

tta, pen itential exer cises, ’ compr ehending rules

of expiation .

4 . Kar ma -pfiala , consequences of acts, ’ especially as involving r epeated bir ths thr oug h number less ex istences, until theattainment offinal beatitude .

Since the precepts under these four heads wer eframed by men who wer e Brahmans of the Manavaschool

,it is only natural that they should have especial

reference to the life of Brahmans, the r egulations for

which engr oss six books, and are besides introduced

56 H INDUISM.

everywher e throughout the other 5 1x . But as the Brahman could not be supported in his pr etension s withoutthe strong arm of the Kshatr iya, or militar y class, alarge por tion of the work is devoted to the defin ition of

the Kshatr iya’s duties and an exaggerated delineationof the kingly char acter and othee while the Vaisyasor agr icultur ists, and Sudras or servan ts

,thoug h

essen tial to Manu’s C'dtumamya or four fold social

system,as well as the mix ed classes, are little noticed.

Her e is an epitome of the twelve books

After an account of the cr eation of the wor ld in the fir st

book, the four stag es of a Brahman’s life are the only subjects

tr eated of in r eg ular order in the second, third, four th, fifth,and six th books, four books being devoted to the duties of ther eli g ious student and mar r ied householder , and the sixth booktreating of the last two stag es of anchor ite and r el ig i ous mendicant.The seventh and eig hth books propound the rules of g overn

ment, pr incipally, of course, for the g uidance of the secondg r eat class or Kshatr iyas, from which the king was chosen . Then inth book contains precepts on the subject of women, husband and wife, their offspr ing and the law of inher itance anddivision of proper ty , w ith additional rules for king s, and a few

pr ecepts r elative to the two r emain ing pr incipal castes. I t alsodescr ibes the employments to which the several classes are

r estr icted, and states the occupations perm itted to Brahmans,Kshatr iyas, Va1syas, and S’t

‘

idras in times of ex ig ency and distr ess. The eleventh book g ives rules of exp iation, both for thesins of the present life—especially °

sins ag ainst caste—and for

the eflects of offences commi tted in pr evious bodies, as sho

in cong enital diseases, &c. The twelfth continues the subjectof the r ecompenses or consequences of acts, g ood or bad, as

leading to reward in heaven or pun ishment in vari ous hells, andto tr iple deg r ees of transmig ration. I t closes with directions asto the best means of obtaining final beatitude and absorptioninto the universal essence.

11 1NDU15 11 . 57

The simplicity of Manu’s organ ization of classes, if

it be not merely theor etical, bear s witness to the g r eatan tiquity of a por tion of the code. According to

Book X 3 , 4 , ther e ar e only four pur e classes, as

The Brahman, the Kshatr iya, and the Vaisya constitute thethr ee twice- bor n classes (as r eceiving a second spir i tual bir ththr oug h investitur e with the sacred thread) ; the S'iidra is onceborn, and constitutes the fourth class ther e is no fifth class.From pr ior ity of bir th, from super ior ity of on g in (in beingsprung from the mouth of the Cr eator), fr om possession of the

Veda (zi t . fr om the r ig ht of r epeating , teaching , and expounding it), and fr om a distinction in the reception of the sacr ificial

thread (as the most important of the ,twelve Sanskaras or pur i

ficatory r ites) the Brahman is the lord ofall classes .

A Brahman , whether learned or unlearned, is a mig htydivin ity, just as fire is a mig hty divinity, whether consecrated orunconsecr ated (ix .

In the tenth book , however , we have a more developedsocial system depicted, and a number of mixed castes are descr ibed as resulting from the intermar r iag e of the pure classes.

They. have a var iety of names, such as Mfird/za'

var zié ta , Md

fii rfiy a , Kar agza or Kdya - slba , Ambarfif/mor Vaidya , Ey og ava,Dfiz

‘

g wgza , Pukkasa, Cagzq’d‘

la, and are r estr icted to par ticular

occupations.

The super ior ity of the Brahmans in the Hindulawyer’s scheme is the hinge on which the wholesocial system turns.The Brahman s are supposed to constitute the gr eat

cen tr al body, ar oundwhich all other classes and ordersof beings r evolve like satellites. Not only ar e theyinvested with divine dignity, but they ar e boundtog ether by the most str ingent m les while the otherthr ee classes of soldiers, agr iculturi sts, and servants

58 11 11 11311 15 11 .

are made power less for combined r esistance by equallystr ingent r egulations, one class being separated fromthe other by insurmountable bar r ier s.It was found indeed necessary to conciliate the

Kshatr iya class . The most exalted eulog ies wer elavished on kings but Brahman s were to act as theiradviser s, and to have much of the judicial author ityand in terpr etation of the laws in their own hands

, and

wer e always theor etically super ior in rank— a circumstan ce which led in the end to jealousies, feuds, andbloody contests between the first two classes . Cer tainpr ivileges also naturally fell to the Vaisyas, and boththey and the Kshatr iyas wer e equally with the Brahmans entitled to the appellation Dw

’

y’

a,twice born .

’

Their whole status,however , depended upon var ious

domestic r ites,to the due conduct ofwhich the super

intendence of Brahmans was indispensable.

In shor t, the distinction of caste and the inher en tsuper ior ity of one clas s over the thr ee others wer ethought to be as much a law of nature and a matterof divine appointment as the cr eation of separ ateclasses of an imals, with insurmountable differ ences of

physical constitution , such as elephants, lions, hor ses,and dogs.When the incr ease of the Brahman ical class com

pelled the secular ization of many of its member s,they were allowed to engage in the occupation s of

the other classes. Practice and theory then becamevery different, and in later times caste distinctionsseparated the Brahmans themselves, so that separatetr ibes adopted separate usages. It is essential, however , that the or iginal theory of the life of a Brahman

H INDUISM. 59

as laid down by Manu should be clear ly under stood.

It may be descr ibed as followsEvery Brahman had to pass through four Asrarnas,

or conditions of life that is to say, his life wasdivided into four per iods according as he becamesuccessively,— 1 . Unmar r ied student (br a/zma -Zci r z

’

n )2 . Mar r ied householder (g n

'

lza 3 . Anchor ite

(vé napr ast/za) 4 . Religious devotee (545.21 t or pa

r ivn'

i/hka or

As unmar r ied student the young Brahman was tor eside with his preceptor until he had gained a

thorough knowledge of the three Vedas. Verynotewor thy are the twelve Sanskaras or ‘pur ificatoryr ites,

’which pur ify a man from the taint of sin

der ived from his parents, and ar e enj oined with cer

tain var iations on all the three first classes alike .

They are as follow

1 . Gar bkddfidna or g arMa - Iamb/za rza , cer emony on con

ception’

; 2. Pumavana , on the first indication of a livingmale’s conception ; 3 . Sz

'

mantonnay ana, ar rang ing the par tingof the mother ’s hair in the four th, six th, o r eig hth month ofpreg nancy ; 4 . fita -karman , touching an infan t’s tong ue withhoney and g ki

'

thr ice at bir th ; 5 . Ndwa -kar azza, g iving a

name on the tenth or twelfth day after bir th 6 . M irfikr amagza ,taking out the child in the four th month to see the sun

7. Anna -pr d'

fana, feeding it with r ice between the fifth and

eig hth month ; 8. C or Eaula, tonsur e of the hair ,ex cept one lock, on the crown of the head, in the third year

,

9. Upanay ana, induction into the order of a twice -born man byinvestiture with the sacred cord ; 1 0 . 1126 11111 , cutting off the

hair , performed on a Brahman in h is six teenth year , on a Ksha

tr iya in his twenty- second, on a Vaisya in his twenty- four th1 1 . Samdw r tana, solemn r eturn home after completing a course

I“

60 11 1 11 130 15 11 .

of study with a pr eceptor ; 1 2. Vivd'

lm , mar r iag e, which com

pletes the pur ification and reg eneration of the twice - born.

Of the above r ites— r , 2 , 3 , and 1 0 , are littleobserved. The other eight ar e mor e wor thy of

attention 8 and 9 ar e of con siderable legal im

por tance even in the pr esen t day, and 7 is stillpractised ; 7 and 1 2 ar e said to be the only r itesallowed to Sudras, and the 1 2th,

‘marr iage,

’

is a r eligious duty incumbent on all per sons alike.

Other Sanskaras practised in some parts of India, ar e mentioned, such as Kama - z'edlza ,

‘bor ing the ears and occasionally the impar ting of the Savi tr i or sacr ed Vedic tex t, commonly called Gayatr i , which oug ht to be performed at Uparro

ya r m, is r eserved for a separate cer emony four days later .

One of the most impor tan t of the above Sanskarasis cer tainly Upanay amz, induction in to the order of

a twice-born man by investitur e with the sacr ed cord.

’

This r ite is enjoined for a Brahman in his eighthyear , for a Kshatr iya in his eleventh, and for a Vaisyain his twelfth, though the time may be ex tended ineach case.

The sacr ed cord,which is g enerallya thin coil of thr eethr eads, commonly called Yajnopavi ta, is worn overthe left shoulder , and allowed to hang down diagonally across the body to the r ight hip. The wearing of it by the three twice-bom classes is the markof their second spir itual bir th Ther e was somedifference in the kind of thread worn , according tothe class of the wear er , thus :

The sacr ed cord of a Brahman must be of cotton 50 as to be

put on over his head in a coil of three thr eads ; that of a

Kshatr iya, of hemp that of a Vaiéya, ofwool.The cer emony of induction begins by the youth's

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6 2 11 1ND111 5 1 1 .

The young Brahman is then a B r a/zma - e'ti r i , or

unmar r ied bachelor , and is supposed to r eside withhis preceptor till he has acquir ed a knowledge of theVeda. He is every day to bathe to offer oblations ofwater to the gods, holy sages, and depar ted ancestor sand to feed the sacr ed fire with fuel. But he isforbidden to per form the regular Sraddha offeringsto deceased per sons till his studentship is completed .

He is to abstain from meat, perfumes, unguents, sensuality, wrath, covetousness, dancing, music, gambling,detraction of other s

,falsehood, impur ity of all kinds,

and is never to injur e any being. At the end of hisstudentship the young Brahman is to per form theproper Sanskara cer emony called Samc

'

ivar tana withthe pr escribed ablution5 (.1mi na) on the occasion ofhissolemn r eturn to his own home ; 1 soon after which heis obliged to take a wife and to become a householder

As to mar r iage, the following dir ectionsare given by Manu

Eig ht forms ofmar r iag e ar e enumerated, Daz’

va,

A r r /za , P r djb'

patya , 21mm ,Gdnd/za r va , d r lzara , and

Of these, the fir st four ar e the most appr oved for a Brahman ,but the first is practically the only one now in use . TheGandhar va mar r iag e from afl

'

ection w ithout any nuptial r iteand Rakshasa mar rying a g ir l car r ied off as a pr ize in warwer e allowable for Kshatr iyas ; tl1e Asura and Paisaéa wer eprohibited.

I n modern times mar r iag e cer emonies last for several days,

I n the pr esent day the residence of the young Brahmanwith a preceptor is not enfor ced, so that the cer emonies of

Upanayana and Sam'

avartana are made to succeed each otherwi thin a day or two, or may even take place on the same day .

H INDUISM. 63

and are accompan ied with g reat festivities . They cannot becommenced ti ll the fiotzirl u

‘

, or family astrolog er , has fixed theauspicious day and hour . The br ide is g iven away by herfather or his repr esentative at her own home. Perhaps the mostimportant par ts of the cer emony ar e the Saptapadi

'or the

leading of the br ide three times r ound the sacred fire— eacht ime in seven steps— the offer ing of the burn t oblation (I mma)by the br ideg r oom, the binding tog ether of the br ide and br ideg room by a cord passed r ound their necks, and the tying tog ether of their dresses. The r ite is of cour se commenced by thewor ship of the g od Ganes

’

a, who wards oil“

the obstacles bywhichall under taking s are liable to be thwar ted throug h the maliceof evil demons.

After mar r iage, which, as we have already seen, isone of the twelve Sanskaras, and a religious duty incumben t on all

, the mar r ied Brahman is to per formevery day all the domestic duties of a householder ,and especially the five Maha- yajnas

, or gr eat acts ofwor ship viz.

1 . B r aé ma -

y ajna ,‘worship of Brahman , ’ per formed by t e

petition of the Veda ; 2. F itz'i -y ajna ,

‘wor ship of departed

ancestors by daily offer ing s ofwater and by per iodical S'

raddhacer emonies 3 . Dwa -

y ajna , worship of the g ods ’ by morn ingand evening oblations in fire, &c. 4 . Bbz

'

i ta -

y ajna , worship of

all being s, ’ including g ood and evil spir its, an imals, &c. , byscatter ing r ice g rains, &c. , on the g round outside the door foran imals to devour 5 .Manmky a

-

y ajfza , worship ofmen , ’ performed by hospitality to g uests .

Some of th ese must be per formed at the three Sandhyas, or

pr ivate rel ig ious ser vices at sunr ise, m id-day , and sunset.

See ‘Indian Wisdom,

’

p . 1 99.

This ofl'

er ing is called bali , and is made with a par ticularmantra, part of which is as follows Om to the Vis

'

vadevas,

to the universal g ods, to men , beasts, birds, r eptiles, the

64 11 11 1130 15 1 1 .

In all Hindu systems diet is a most impor tant subjcet, for food is supposed not only to affect the blood,but the whole character , moral and r eligious. Thefood a man eats must be cer emonially (not chemically) pure, or he instantly becomes degraded. Thisdoctr ine has been carr ied to such a point in moder ntimes, that the pr eservation of caste depends in g r eatpar t on str ict adherence to the rules laid down on the '

subj ect of food, its pr epar ation, and the per sons inwhose company it is eaten (see chap. Manu

’schief dir ections ar e as follow

The eating of flesh and of fish by twice-born men is, as a

g eneral rule, prohibited, the dr inking of Spir ituous liquor isincluded among the five g reat sins (the other four being thekilling of a Brahman , stealing g old fr om a Brahman

, adulterywith the w ife of a r ehg ious teacher , and association with anyone g uilty of these cr imes), and many other kinds of food, suchas g ar lic, onions, leeks, mushrooms, and carnivorous birds ar e

forbidden . But i t is a pr oof of the antiquity of Manu’s codethat it permits t he eating of meat, and even the dr inking of

wine on certain solemn occas ions (Mann, v. and that i tdir ects flesh meat to be eaten at par ticular S'raddhas (iii . 1 2, 3iv.

With r egard to the householder’s wife and the condition ofwomen as depicted by Mann, wemay observethat their position is one of en tir e subordination ,

Siddhas, the Yakshas, the Daityas, Pr etas, P isacas, trees, andwhoever desires to have food r eceive this balz' from me. Cm,

may the ants, worms, insects, and whoever are hung ry, beingimpr isoned in corporeal frames, r eceive this food offered by me.

Om to the Bhi‘

rtas and all being s, be satisfied with the 621iscatter ed by me. Om to the crows, to the twin dog s, S'yamaand S'avala, to the dog s, to the Candi las, &c.

Some tr ibes of Brahmans are now permitted to eat fish.

11 1 11 1311 15 11 . 65

amounting in theory to a complete abnegation of

what in these days would be called ‘women’s r ights . ’

A Brahman who has been in succession a B r a/mza»

fai r ! and Gn’

lzastha ought proper ly to pass throughtwo other stag es of ex istence as a Vi napr ast/za or

hermit, and as a t lé s/zu or Sanny ei sz’

n z'

. e. a r eli

g ious devotee who has given up all wor ldly con

nections. But these are not now obligatory.

As to death, the filial piety of the H indfis is notably man ifested in the impor tance attached to funeralr ites and to Sraddhas . These must be distinguishedfrom each other . Funeral r ites ar e aman

g ala, inauspicious,’while Sraddhas are mang ala,

auspicious. ’ To under stand this it should be bornein mind that when a man dies , his st/zzi z

'

a - sar z‘

r a , or

‘g ross body,

’ is burned 1 (this being in tact the4 1106

-

13211, last sacr ifice offer ed in fir e), but his soulcannot quit the gr oss body without a vehicle of somekind. This vehicle is the lz

'

rzg a- far z

’

m or subtilebody,’ sometimes descr ibed as angm /zt/za—md

’

tm, of

the size of a thumb,’ invested in which the deceased

man r emains hover ing near the burn ing-gr ound. He

is then in the condition of a simple individual soulinvestedwith a subtile body

,and is called apr eta, ti t .

a depar ted spir it or ghost. He has no r eal bodycapable of enj oying or suffer ing anything, and isconsequently in a restless

,uncomfortable plight.

Mor eover , while in this condition he is held to be an

Infants under two year s old, however , must be bur ied, notbur nt.— See ‘Indian W isdom ,

’

p. 302. Great asceti cs (Sannyi si s) and holy men (S i dhus) are also g enerally bur ied, and

their tombs called Samadhis.

66 11 111131115 11 .

impure being, and all the r elations who celebrate hisfuneral r ites ar e held to be impur e also until the fir stSraddha is per formed. Fur thermore

,if he dies away

from his kindred,who alone can perform the funeral

cer emon ies, and who are perhaps unawar e of hisdeath, and unable ther efor e to perform them

,he

becomes a pz’

d a,or foul wander ing ghost, disposed

to take r evenge for its misery upon all l iving cr eaturesby a var iety of malignant acts.The object

,then

, of the arzty eslztz’

, or funeral r ites,which ar e celebrated for ten days after death

,is not

on ly to soothe or give fdm‘i by libations of cousecrated water to the troubled spir it, but to furn ish the

pr eta with an intermediate body,between the ling er or

‘subtile ’and the 1 111 1214 or g ross body

’— with a

body, that is to say, which is capable of enjoying or

suffer ing, and which is composed of gr oss par ticles,though not of the same kind as the ear thly grossbody.

In this manner on ly can the pr etax obtain g a i t"

, or

progr ess ’ onward, either through the temporaryheaven , or else through the temporary hells (whichas we have seen ar e not places of eternal pun ishmen tbut mer ely purgator ies) to other bir ths and ultimateemancipation . The following is a br ief account ofthe mor e modern funeral cer emon ies and subseq uentSraddhas.

Ou the first day after death apz‘

gufa , or round ball (g enerallyof some kind of flour or of r ice andmilk) , is ofier edwith libationsof water , &c. , on which the pr eta is supposed to feed, andwhich endows i t with the rudiment or basis of the r equisitebody, whatever that basis may be. Nex t day another p t

'

zzq'

a is

offered with water , &c. , which g wes it, perhaps, limbs, such asarms and leg s. Then it r eceives hands

,feet, &c. This g oes

11 1 11 13U 1s1 1 . 67

on for ten days, and the offer ing of the pz'

gzgi a on the tenth dayg ives the head. No sooner does the pr eta obtain a completebody than it becomes a pitrj, when, instead of being r eg ardedas impur e, it is held to be a da m, or

‘deity, ’ and pr acticallyworshipped as such in the fr dddlza cer emon ies, the first ofwhi chtakes place on the 1 1 th day after death. Hence, a s

'

r i ddha is

not a funeral ceremony, but api tq i -yajzza , or worship ofdepar tedancestors, whi ch worship, however , is something different frompfijii to a g od. I t is performed by making ofi

'

e r ing s of roundballs of r ice, flour , &c.

, with accompaniments of sacred g rass,flower s, and spr inkling s of water

,and w ith r epetitions of

mantras and tex ts fr om the Samaweda, the whole ceremonialbeing conducted, not in a temple, but at any sacr ed spot, suchas the marg in of a r iver , or even in pr ivate houses. The ceremony is continued at stated per iods with a view to acceleratethe g aff or

‘pr og r ess

’oi the pitn

’

r onwards to heaven, and thenthr oug h the var ious stag es of bliss before descr ibed (see p.

The efficacy of S r a'

dd'

has, performed at Gaya (see pp.

is this, that wherever in this p rog r ess onwards departed r elatives may have ar r ived, the S'raddhas take them at once toVai lruntha, or Vishnu’s heaven.

The depar ted relatives especially entitled to benefitby the Sraddha r ites are as follows

1 . Father , g randfather , g r eat g r andfather ; 2 . Mother ,mother ’s father and g randfather ; 3. Stepmother , if any ; 4.Father ’s mother , g randmother , and g reat g randmother ; 5 .

Father ’s brothers ; 6 . Mother ’s brothers ; 7. Father ’s sisters ;8. Mother ’s sisters 9. Sisters andbrothers 10 . Fathers- in - law.

Ah eleventh person is sometimes added, viz. the fam ily spir itualtm her (g ur u) .

Sraddhas are of var ious kinds, and performed at

var ious times, such asM yra, regular Prim azza, at par ti

culat changes of the moon ; Ekoddtk/zta , on specialoccasions and with reference to par ticular per sons.These ceremonies with those at bir th (see p . 59) and

death, at investitur ewith the sacred thr ead (uparzay ana)and mar ri ag e (vivd

’

lza) already descr ibed, constitute

68 11 11 1n 11 1s11 .

in the present day the most impor tan t r eligious r itesamong the Hindus.Some Sraddhas— especially those first performed

after the term ination of the funeral r ites — ar e ac

compan ied with much feasting and costly gifts to theBrahmans invited to assist at their celebration , andsome are actually commuted for this feeding and

feasting of Brahmans.

l

The per formance of the first Sraddha is morepar ticular ly marked by largesses of all kinds, and

sometimes,it is said, costs a r ich man a sum eq uiva

lent to several thousand pounds. It should take placeon the eleventh day, or the day after mourn ing exp ir es,and then at least once a month for twelve successivemonths, this monthly (mdsz

‘

ka) ceremony being calledbyManuAmzdfzc

‘

z‘

ry a. Afterwards it must be performedannually (Sdfgzvatsar z

'

ka) on all ann iver sar ies of a

fathe1’s death . The following should be noted

The offer ing of the Pinda, or ball of r ice, &c. , to deceasedfathers at a S’raddha is of g r eat importance in r eg ard to theH indfilaw of inher itance. I t furn ishes the pr incipal evidenceof kinshi p, on whi ch the title to par ticipate in the patr imony isfounded, no power of making wills being recog nized in Manu,

or any other author itative code of H indii jur isprudence. The

Many S'raddhas cer tainly appear to have mor e r efer ence tothe living than to the dead, and others seem to be performed bya process of feeding and fee ing Brahmans (B r afima rga -santar

parga ), who ar e supposed to repr esent the Pitris. Some of theseare called H ar ta -fr da

’

dfia , s agzy a -fr d'

ddlm, Amdnna -fr a‘

ddba,

Dad/zi - fr ddd/za , The last is a homag e paid toancestors befor e performing such joyous ceremonies as marri ag e,investitur e with the sacred thr ead (upafiay ana) , and .

birth ceremon ies.

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70 11 111130 15 11 .

Vir tue alone stays by him at the tomb,And bears him thr oug h the dreary trackless g loom

(iv. 240,

Depend not on another,rather lean

Upon thyself trust to thine own exer tions.Subjection to another ’s will g ives painTrue happiness consists in self- r eliance (iv.

Str ive to complete the task thou hast commenced ;Wear ied, r enew thy efl

'

or ts once ag am ;Ag ain fatig ued, once mor e the work beg in ;So shalt thou earn success and for tune win ( ix . 300)

There are at least n ineteen other well-known codes 1

besides that of Manu. Of these the best- known isthat of Ydinaw lkya, which, with its most celebratedcommen tary the M z

’

ld'

kr lzar d’

by is nowthe pr incipal author ity of the School of Benares andMiddle India. It seems or iginally to have emanatedfrom a school of the White Yajur - veda in M ithila or

Nor th Behar,just as we have seen that the code of

the Mananvas did from a school of the Black Yajurveda. Book i . 2 makes the author sayThe chiefofdevout sag es (Yajnavalkya), dwelling in M ithila,having r eflected for a moment, said to the Mun is, Listen to

the laws which prevail in the country where the black antelopeis found.

’

(ci . Manu, ii.

The following may be noted concern ing Yajnavalkya

’s work

I t is much mor e concise than that of Manu, being all comp r ised in thr ee books instead of twelve, which cir cumstanceleads to the inference that it has suffered even mor e curtailmentat the hands of successive r evisers of the or ig inal tex t than theCode of the Manavas. Like that code it seems to have beenpreceded by a Vr iddha and aVr ihat version, and like that code,

See Indian Wisdom,

’

p. 21 1 , 304.

11 111 130 15 11 . 71

the whole work, as we now possess i t, is wr itten in the ordinary S loka metr e. The first book is chiefly on social andcaste duties (552m ) the second is mainly on administrativejudicature and civi l and cr iminal law (wy aw lzdr a ) the third ispr incipally on devotion , pur ification, expiation , penance (pn iy af.Zitta), &c. The Mitakshara commentary follows the samear rang ement, and is divided also into thr ee par ts.

Although Yajnavalkya’s code must have repr e

sented the customs and practices pr evalent in a distr iet (Mithila) situated in a mor e easter ly par t of

India, yet near ly every pr ecept in the first book, anda great many in the second and third, have theirpar allels in similar pr ecepts occur r ing throughout thecode of the Manavas.

Never theless, it r epr esents a later stag e of H indi'

i development. I ts ar rang ement is much mor e systematic . I t pr esentsfewer r epetitions and inconsistencies, and less confusion of t e

lig ion, morality, and philosophy, w ith civil and cr iminal law .

As to the date of Yajnavalkya ’

s law- book, it has been con

jecturally placed in the m iddle of the first century of our era.

The per iod of its first compilation cannot, of course, be fixedwith certainty, but inter nal evidence clear ly indicates that thepr esent r edaction is much mor e r ecent than that of Mann’slaw-book.

Two ver ses from Yajnavalkya’s code literallytranslated are her e subjoined as specimens

The success of every action depends on destiny and on a

man’s own cfl

'

or t but destiny is evidently nothing but (the

r esult) of a man’

s act in a former state of ex istence ( i . 348 ;ci . Manu, vi i.

Some expect the whole result from destiny or from the inberent nature (or for ce of a thing ) some expect i t from the lapseof time ; and some from a man

’s own effor t other persons of

wiser judgment expect i t from a combination of all these(i

72 11 1 11130 15 11 .

CHAPTER VI .

THE BUDDH ISTIC MOVEMENT, AND ITS INFLUENCEOH BRAHMANISM.

A BRIEF account of the contact and conflict of Bud

dhism with Brahman ism,and of the introduction of

Buddhistic ideas into the r eligious cr eed of theBrahmans, is essential to an accurate delineation of

Hinduism . And her e we ar e able to feel thatchronologically at least— we are not g roping our waythrough a r egion of mer e conjecture. We seem at

last to have planted our feet on a firmer standpoint. Our story assumes mor e of the character ofhistory. The date usually fixed for Buddha’s deathis 543 B.C. Whether this pr ecise year for one of

the gr eatest epochs in the r eligious history of thehuman race can be accepted is doubtful, but it istolerably cer tain that Buddhism arose in Behar andEastern Hindustan about five centur ies B.C. , and

that it spr ead with gr eat rapidity, not by for ce of

arms, or coer cion of any kind, like Muhammadan ism,

but by the sheer per suasiveness of its doctr in es.The first tolerably trustwor thy date in Indian his

tory is the era of C'andra-gupta (=Sandrokottus 1)

The minister of C'andra- g upta was the celebrated and

crafty Brahman C'i nakya, the author of many well-known

pr ecepts of g overnment and polity. In the political drama

11 1 11 130 1 5 11 . 73

the founder of the Maurya dynasty, who, after makinghimself master of Pataliputra (Palibothra, Patna) andthe kingdom ofMag adha (Behar ), extended his domin ion over all Hindustan , and pr esented a determinedfront towards Alexandef s successor Seleukos Nikator ,the date 01 the commencement of whose reign was

about 3 1 2 B.C. When the latter contemplated invading India from his kingdom of Bactr ia, so efi

'

ectual

was the r esistance offered by C’andra- gupta that the

Gr eek thought it politic to form an alliance with theH indfi king, and sent his own countryman Megasthenes as an ambassador to reside at his cour t.To this cir cumstance we owe the first authentic

accoun t of Indian manner s, customs, and r eligioususages by an in telligent observer who was not a

native, and this nar rative of Meg asthenes, pr eservedby Strabo, furn ishes a basis on which we may founda fair inference that B rahman ism and Buddhismex isted side by side in India on amicable terms inthe four th century B.C. Ther e is even gr ound forbelieving that K ing C'andra—gupta himself was insecr et a Buddhist, though in public he paid homageto the gods of the Brahmans ; at any rate, ther ecan be little doubt that his successor Asoka did forBuddhism what Constantine did for Chr istian ity

g ave an impetus to its progress by adopting it as hisown cr eed. Buddhism

,then

,became the state r eli

g ion, the national faith of the whole kingdom of

called Mudra- rakshasa, Sig net- r ing Rakshasa, ’ he is r epr e

sented as having effected the death of King Nanda and secur edthe accession of C'andra-

g upta to the throne .

74 11 1 11 130 15 1 1 .

Mag adha, and therefor e of a great por tion of

India.

This Asoka is by some r egarded as identical withC’andra-gupta at any rate, their character s andmuchof their history are sim ilar . He is probably the sameas K ing Pr iyadarsi, whose edicts on stone pillar senjoin ing D/zarmar, or the practice of vir tue and un iver sal benevolence, are scattered over India fromKatak in the east and Gujarat in the west to Allahabad, Delhi, and Afghanistan on the nor th -west.What then is Buddhism ? It is cer tainly not Brah

man ism,yet it arose out of Brahman ism,

and fromthe first had much in common with it. Brahman ismand Buddhism are closely interwoven with each other ,yet they are very differ ent from each other . Brahman ism is a religion which may be descr ibed as all

theology, for it makes God everything, and everythingGod. Buddhism is no r eligion at all, and certain lyno theology , but rather a system ofduty, morality, andbenevolence, without r eal deity, prayer , or pr iest.The name Buddha is simply an epithet mean ingthe per fectly en lightened one,

’or rather one who,

by perfect knowledge of the truth, is liberated fromall ex istence and who, befor e his own attainment of

Nirvana, or ex tinction of wor ldly ex istence,

’r eveals

to the wor ld the method of obtain ing i t.The Buddha with whom we are concerned was the

last of a ser ies of Buddhas who had appear ed inpr evious cycles of time, and four th of the present cycle.

He was born at Kapz’

la -vastu, a city and kingdomat the foot of the mountains of Nepal

,his father

S uddboa’

ana being the king of that country, and his

11 1 11130 15 11 . 75

mother Mdyd- a’evi being the daughter of King Su

p r abua’dfza . Hence he belonged to the Kshatr iya

c lass, and the name of his tr ibe was Sakya, whilehis name of Gautama (or Gotama) was that of hisfam ily. H e is said to have ar r ived at supr eme knowledge under the Bodhi tr ee, or tr ee of wisdom ’ 1

(fam iliar ly called the B0 at Gaya, in Behar(Mag adha). The year 588 B.C. ,

usually given for thisevent

,cannot be trusted. He probably commenced

propagating the new faith at Benares about 500 B.C.

We have already pointed out that Buddhism was a

protest against the tyr anny of Brahman ism and caste .

According to the Buddha, all men are equal . Allmen , too, he taught, must suffer in their own per sonse ither in the pr esen t life, or in futur e lives, the conse

q uences of their own acts . All aton ing sacr ifice, ther efor e, became mean ingless and useless. The penaltyof sin could not be transfer red to another— it couldonly be bor ne by the sinner himself, just as the r ewardof vir tue could only be enjoyed by the vir tuous manh imself. To this end men m ight be degraded to thecondition of the lower an imals, of in sects, and eveninanimate objects, or they m ight r ise in the scale ofbeing, and thus expiate or be r ecompensed for theiracts. Hence, of cour se, all infl iction of sufi

'

er ing on

animals was prohibited. I n the edicts of Asoka the

This tr ee —aPi pal— still ex istsbehind the oldBuddhist templenear Gaya or , rather , a tr ee which is said to be the actual tr eeis perpetuated ther e by constantly planting new tr ees in the decayed stem of the old . I saw the tree myself‘in the beg inningof 1 876 . Some of the Burmese Buddhists who had come tog reet the Pr ince ofWales

,wer e then meditating under the tr ee.

G

76 1 1 1110015 11 .

greatest tenderness towards them was enjoined, evento their medical tr eatmen t, if sick or diseased.

Moreover , as actions, good or bad, lead to repeatedex istences, the great end and object of every man wasto attain non- ex istence by self-mortification,auster ity (tapas), and the suppression of all action .

Her e, then, we have five marked featur es of Buddhism 1 . disregard of all caste distinctions ; 2 . abo

lition of an imal sacr ifice and.

of vicar ious suffer ing ;3 . great str ess laid on the doctr ine of tr ansmigration

4 . gr eat impor tance assigned to self-mor tification,auster ity, and abstract meditation, as an aid to thesuppr ession of all action ; 5 . concentration of all

human desires on the cessation of transmigration.

There is still a six th, which is the most notewor thyof all: that the Buddha r ecogn ized no spir it or soul asdistinct from mater ial organ ization, and no Supr emeSpir it the Hindugods were merely order s of beings.A Buddhist, ther efor e, never r eally prays, he only

meditates on the perfections of the Buddha and thehope of attain ing N irvana ; though practically he issubject to an all- powerful god— a god to be got r id of

as soon as possible— in Karman act.’

Nor can he have any theological creed. His onlyconfession of faith is, I have r ecour se to (or taker efuge with Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha — tothe Buddha, the Law or Doctr ine, and the Commun ityof Monks. These thr ee are sometimes called thethree gems

, and constitute a sort ofBuddhistic tr in ity.

With r egard to Dharma, or Doctr ine,we may r emarkthat convocations or assemblies of monks seem tohave formulated the teaching of ear ly Buddhi sm.

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78 11 1 11 00 15 11 .

as divided into two classes ; the first, who ar e stillattached to a wor ldly life, are called Updrakas or

laymen .

’ The second, who by self-mor tification are

bent on being deliver ed from it, ar e called S’r amazzas,

ascetics,

’

or‘monks,

’and, if they wander from place

to place, B l u'

ks/ms or Par z'

vr éfakas, r eligious mendicants. ’ They are only pr iests in the sense of beingteacher s. Of pr iests in the str 1et sense the Buddhistr eligion has none 3 for wher e there is no god, ther e canbe no need of propitiation, or even of prayer , thougha shor t form of words is r epeated, or wr itten downand turned in a wheel, 1 as a kind of charm againstdiseases and malignant demons, and as having, likeother acts, a kind of mechan ical efii cacy. Bothclasses of men— laymen and ascetics—must equallypractise D/zarma, the law,

’ to avoid gr eater m isery,either in futur e bir ths

,or in one of the 1 36 hells ;

for the passing through r epeated bir ths, even in themost degraded forms of life, is not sufficient pun ishment for the efl

'

acement of demer it, without theendurance of ter r ific tormen ts in numerous hells .Ther e ar e ten negative prohibitions, and eighteenpositive injunctions . Of the prohibitions nve are for

all ; viz., Kill not. Steal not. Commit no adultery.

Lie not. Dr ink no str ong dr ink.

The other nve are for ascetics or monks viz.,Eat

no food, except at stated times . Abstam from dances,theatr es, songs, and music. Use no ornaments or

perfumes. Use no luxur ious beds. Receive no goldnor silver .

One form is 001 mam'

paa’me luim , Om ! the j ewel in the

lotus ! Amen Or else Amitdy a 0m, Cm l to the im

measurable One .

’

11 1 11 00 15 1 1 . 79

Of the eighteen positive injunctions ther e ar e six

perfections of conduct c'

i r ah u’

td‘

fl l incumbent onall, viz

1 . Char ity or benevolence 2 . Vir tue or moral g oodness (5 1a) . 3. Patience and forbear ance 4 . For titude 5. Meditation 6 . Knowledg eOf these that which especially character izes Buddhism is the

per fection of benevolence displayed towards all living being s.

Even self- sacr ifice for the good of animals and

infer ior cr eatur es of all kinds is a duty.

It is r ecorded of the Buddha himself, that in formerex istences he fr equen tly gave himself up as a sub

stituted victim in the place ofdoves and other innocentcreatures

,to satisfy the appetites of hawks and beasts

of pr ey and on one occasion meeting with a famishedtig r ess unable to feed her cubs, he was so over comewith compassion that he sacr ificed his own body tosupply the starving family with food.

Besides these six positive injunctions for all ther eare twelve other s incumbent on ascetics, viz .

1 . To dress only in coats of r ag s. 2. To have a coat inthree pieces sewn tog ether w ith the owner ’s own hands. 3. Tocover the coat of rag s with a yellow cloak . 4 . To eat only onemeal daily. 5. Never to eat after noon. 6 . To live only onfood collected from door to door in a wooden bowl. 7. Tolive for par t of the year in woods and jung les. 8. To have noother shelter but the leaves of trees. 9 . To have no other furn iture but a carpet. 10. To si t, and not to lie down , on th iscar pet dur ing sleep . 1 1 . To sit with no other suppor t than thet runk of a tree . 1 2. To fr equent cemeter ies' and bur ningg rounds every month for meditation on the vanity of life .

Leading to the shor e ofN i rvaha.

80 11 1 11 00 15 1 1 .

These rules of conduct include .many secondary

pr ecepts ; for instance, not only is untruthfulnessprohibited, but all bad language not only is patienceenjoined, but the bear ing of injur ies, r esignation underm isfor tune

,humility, r epentance

,and confession of

sin to one another . This last was r equir ed to bepr actised by all pr iests or ascetics twice a mon th, and,it is said

,that K ingAsoka enjoined on his subj ects a

gr eat quinquenn ial expiatory cer emony for the practice of confession and almsg iving .

l

Ther e r emains the question— what has been the

probable influence of the Buddhistic movement onBrahman ism ? The answer is— Brahman ism has

taken from Buddhism the abolition of sacr ifices, gr eattenderness towards an imal life, gr eat intensity of

belief in the doctr ine of transm igration, and in the

efficacy of tapas or self-mor tification as a sour ce of

power in accelerating progr ess towards final emancipation .

2

It has even r eceived from Buddhism a tendency tor ecognize - caste as an evil, or at least as an imperfection to be got r id of under cer tain cir cumstances andon cer tain occasions. It is an admitted fact that

,

One of these g r eat cer emonies waswitnessed by the Chinesepilg r im and traveller , H iouen Thsang , at Naandi ' . SeeWheeler ’s ‘History of India, ’ vol. i ii. p. 275. (See also theRev. J. Robson’s Hinduism,

and its Relations to Chr is

H indii ism has bor r owed ideas fr om Buddhism in manyminor points, such as the veneration for the footpr ints of divineand holy personag es. Notably, too , it has fixed its Ti rthas atmany places held sacr ed by the Buddhists, such as Gayi .

11 111 0015 11 . 8 1

although caste in the end has always r easser ted itself,vari ous Vaishnava and Saiva r eformer s 1 and founder sof sects, have imitated Buddha in r equir ing theirfollower s to drop caste-distinction s and it is wellknown that at the meetings of S dktas or 75710166111 ,

(see p. 1 22) and at cer tain sacr ed places of pilgr image

(such as Pur i in Or issa, and Tr ipati), caste, so far at

least as the eating of food is concerned, is for a timeen tir ely la

'

ul aside .

2 In shor t,Brahman ism and Bud

dhism appear to have blended, or as it wer e, meltedinto each other , after each had r eciprocally par tedwith something, and each had impar ted something. At

any r ate it may be questioned whether Buddhism was

ever for cibly expelled from any par t of India by dir ect

per secution , ex cept, perhaps, in a few isolated centr esof Brahman ical fanaticism , such as the neighbourhoodof Benar es. Even in Benar es the Chinese travellerH iouen Thsang , found Brahman ism and Buddhismflour ishing amicably side by side in the 7th centuryof our era.

3 I n the South of India the Buddha’sdoctr ines seem to have met with acceptance at an

ear ly date ; and Ceylon was probably conver ted as

The Ling aits of the South of India have theor eti cally nocaste among themselves. They say we all belong to a fifth

caste . The same may be said of the Vaishnavas of Beng al,followers of Caitanya, of var ious order s of asceti cs and othersects. See Chapter X .

In some par ts of India the very name for caste is Ekr am,

er ror , ’ and the temple of Jag annath is a temple ofConcord forall wastes.

At Ellora the thr ee ser i es of Buddhistic, Brahmani cal , andJain caves all run into each other , as if they co - existed.

82 11 1 11 00 15 11 .

ear ly as B.C . 240 , soon after the third Buddhist councilheld under King Asoka. I n other par ts of Indiather e was probably a per iod of Brahman ical hostility,and perhaps ofoccasional per secution but eventuallyBuddhism was taken by the hand, and drawn backinto the Brahman ical system by the Brahmans themselves who met it halfway, and ended by boldlyadopting the Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu.

This has always been the astute policy of the Brahmans of India. They have perceived the power ofcompromise, and overcome opposition bywise concessions and par tial adaptations. It is thus that they havealways enticed dissenter s back to their caste- systemIt was thus

,

that they became Buddhists to the

Buddhists that they m ight win the Buddhists . Only asmall section of the Buddhist commun ity r esisted all

conciliation,and these are probably r epr esented by

the pr esent sect of Jains (see p. 2 2 1 of the Appendix ).Be the actual state of the case as it may, nothing

can be clearer than the fact that Buddhism has disappeared from India (the island of Ceylon beingexcepted), and that it has not done so without havinglargely contr ibuted towards the moulding of Brahman ism in to the H indfiism of the pr esent day .

11 1 11 00 15 11 . 83

CHAPTER VI I .

DEVELOPMENT or 11 1 1100 15 11 AND THE DOCTR INE

or TRIPLE (Tr zimzi r tz) .

THE per iod marked by the disappearance of Buddhismout of India is sometimes called the Revival of Brahman ism .

’I f this term be adopted

,then Sankaraéarya,

oneof the str ictest and most learned of Brahmans,and a noted philosopher who flour ished in the Southof India about the end of the seventh or beginn ingof the eighth century,1 ought to be called the gr eatRevivalist preacher . Brahman ism, however , never revived in its pur ity, and long befor e the time ofSankarahad degenerated. The term Brahman ism is mor eproper ly restr icted to the pur ely pantheistic and not

necessar ily idolatrous system evolved by the Brahmansout of the half-monotheistic, half-pantheistic religionof the Veda.

This system which was fully developed in theVedanta philosophy, and is commonly called Adm itaNou- dualism,

insists, as we have seen, on the un ity ofall being.

But it has also other character istics . It may bedescr ibed as in one sense the most self-

‘

ann ihilating

He is said to have r evived the wor ship of S'iva, and is descr ibed by some as an incarnation of S'iva. Others deny hispreference fo r the g od S

'iva, and make him out to have beenrather a Vaishnava in his relig ious proclivi ties.

84 HINDUISM.

system in the wor ld, for it asser ts that ther e can be

no r eal self (5 1mm ) ex isting separately from the one

self- ex istent Supreme Self, called Par améz’

tman or

B r almzan (nom . case, Br ahma), and that when by theact of that Self the individuated spir its of men are

allowed for a time an appar ent separate ex istence, theaim of such spir its should be to be blended once more

with the one Eternal Self in en tire self- ann ihilation .

A Brahman who holds this doctr ine thinks the r eligion of the Chr istian , who is conscious of severancefrom God, and yearns for r eunion with Him, and yetdoes not wish his own self- consciousness to be mergedin God, a very selfish kind of cr eed, compar ed withhis own . It is evident, however , that there may bemor e r eal selfishness in the self-ann ihilating creed.

For whatever may be said about the bliss of completeun ion (séy ujya) with the Stipreme Spir it, the trueaim of Brahman ism, pur e and simple, is not so much

extinction of self, as of repeated bodily ex istences forthe sake of r elease from the tr oubles of life

,and from

the consequences of activity .

The term H indfiism , on the other han d, best expr esses Brahman ism after it had degenerated— to wit,that complicated system of polytheistic doctr ines andcaste -usages which has g radually r esulted out of themix tur e of Brahman ism and Buddhism, with the nonAryan creeds of Dravidians and abor igines. HenceH indfiism is somethingverydiffer ent fromBrahmanism,

though the one is der ived from the other . H indfiism

is like a huge ir r egular structur e which has spreaditself over an immense surface by con tinual additionsand accretions. Its present aspect is that of an ancient

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86 H INDU ISM

of Buddhism ex cept its atheism,its den ial of the eter

n ity of soul , and its levelling of caste- distinction s.Of cour se it will be held that in investigating the

causes of the development of Hinduism,and its capa

city for almost un iver sal adaptation , we ar e bound infairness to examine it from the standpoint of the H indus themselves we ought to g o to the Hindu

’s ownauthor ities we must appeal to the Veda, the Upan ishads and the philosophical works founded on them .

What then have we alr eady lear nt about the creedsinculcated by these books PWe know that they teachpantheism pure and simple. But they do more, theypropound a most subtle theory of evolution and

development .Their doctr ine is, that the one sole, self- ex isting

Supreme Self, the only r eally ex isting Essence, theone eternal Germ of all things, delights in infin ite ex

pansion , in infinite man ifestations of itself, in infinitecr eation , dissolution , and r e - cr eation , through infin itevar ieties and diver sities of operation .

This is, so to speak, the pr eamble of Hinduism ,and

it is stated with gr eat poetical power in a celebratedhymn of the Rig- veda, par t of which has been transtated at page 26 .

The very name Brahman (neut. from r oot brz’

lz,to

g r ow’

) given to the Eternal Essence, is expressive ofthis g r owtlz, this expansion, this un iver sal developmentand

Hence, all visible form is an emanation from God ,and hence, to begin with the lowest visible objects,stones, r iver s, mountains, plants, tr ees, an imals, andmen— these ar e but steps in the infin ite evolution of

H INDUISM . 87

his being. Hence, also a ser ies of higher forms of

ex istence, such as demigods, good and evil spir its,infer ior gods, super ior gods, is traceable upwards inan ascending scale from man ,

till three pr incipaldivine per sonages, each associated with a consor t, toshow that male and female, man and wife, are everindissolubly united as the sour ces of r eproductionare r eached . These thr ee gods ar e thefirst and highestmanifestations of the Eternal Essence, and are typi

fied by the three letter s composing the mystic syllable0M or AUM They constitute the well- known Tr imfir tz

'

or Tr iad of divine forms which character izesHinduism .

It is usual to descr ibe these thr ee gods as Cr eator ,Pr eserver , and Destroyer , but this gives a very inadequate idea of their complex character s . Nor doesthe concepti on of their r elationship to each otherbecome clearer when it is ascer tained that their func:tions are constantly inter changeable, and that eachmay take the place of the other , according to thesentiment expr essed by the gr eatest of Indian poets,Ki lida

’

s a (Kumara- sambhava, Gr iffith , vii. 44)I n those thr ee Persons the one God was shownEach first in place, each last— not one aloneOf S'iva, Vishnu, Brahma, each may beFir st, second, third among the blessed Three.‘

Nor does the doctr ine of Tr i -mz'

i r tz’

der ive much

Ther e is a well-known Tr i -mfir ti sculptur ed out of the r ockin the caves of Elephanta, at Bombay. Thr ee majestic headsare r epr esented spr ing ing out of one body. The tr iang le ( Tr iéogza ) is used by the Hindus to symbolize this tr iune coequality.

88 H INDU ISM.

elucidation from the mystical explan ation given of it

by Indian philosopher s, who asser t that the Eternal,se lf- ex istent Spir it willed to invest himself with the

thr ee Gums, or binding qualities of matter ; to wit,with that of activity (r ajas) in order to become a maleper son, B r almzci (nom. case, masc. ) the Cr eator ,— withthat of goodness (saliva), to become Vzlrlzzm, the Pervader , Maintainer , and Pr eserver of the un iver se whencr eated,— with that of darkness (tamas), to becomeRudra, the Destr oyer of the same un iver se when dissolved;1 these thr ee divine per sonages being themselvessubject to the un iver sal law of dissolution at the endof a Kalpa or aeon of time

,when they all thr ee ag ain

become simple Soul (Kwalzitman).In r eal fact the idea ofa Tr i -m ii r ti or tr iple per son i

fication was developed gr adually, and as it gr ew,

r eceived numerous accr etions. It was first dimlyshadowed for th and vaguely expressed in the Rig- veda,where

,as we have seen a tr iad of pr incipal gods,

Agn i, Indra, and Surya (see p. is r ecog nized,Indra being often identified or associated with Vayu,and with Rudra, and with the Maruts or storm -gods.Besides these, a god Vishnu is sometimes named

in the Veda, as a man ifestation of the solar energy ;and the point which distinguishes him from theother s is his str iding over the seven wor lds in thr eepaces (see p.

As Vishnu appears to be connected wi th th e day, sun , andlig ht, so S’iva in some of his attr ibutes seems to be associatedwi th the close of day, the moon, and darkness. See the ac

count of the thr ee Gunas under the descr iption of the Sankhyaphi losophy in the Appendix at the end of this volume (p.

H INDUISM. 89

Subsequen tly he takes a foremost place amongthe twelve Z dz

'

tyas, or distinct forms of the sun in the

twelve months of the year (see p. In the

Brahmanas he is identified with sacr ifice ( Yajna),and once descr ibed as a dwarf (Vamana Satapathabrahmana x iv. i . 1

,6,i . 2, 5

In Manu’s law- book, on the other hand, which

stands at the head of Smr iti (see p . there i snothing to suppor t the theory of a tr iad of personaldeities ; although Brahman, the un iver sal Soul, isr epresented as unfolding his essence in the form of

Brahma, the cr eator of all things ; and other visibleman ifestation s of the Deity are r ecogn ized as in the

Veda. Vishnu and Ha m Siva) are cer tainlymentioned once (xi i . but only as pr esent in thehuman body, the former impar ting movemen t to itsmuscles, the latter besto

'

wing str ength.

Probably the second phase of the doctr ine of

tri ple man ifestation was about contemporaneous wi ththe progr ess of the Buddhistic

‘

movement. The

Vedic Agn i,the personification of cr eative heat, wi th

a little ex ten sion of his attr ibutes and functions,passed into the god Brahma, the creator ; while thesun -god

,Vishnu

,and the storm-god, Rudra, with a

slight change in their functions but without chang ein their names, became r espectively the worldupholder an d wor ld- dissolver . At first, however , thedoctr ine was not sufficiently developed to satisfy thecravings of the human hear t for a r eligion of faith

and love— of faith in a per sonal God, and of r espon

sive love for a God sympathizing with and loving his

cr eatur es. Nor was ther e sufficient to meet the

0 H INDU I SM.

demands of two other constituent par ts of man’s

complex natur e,— for a r eligion of wor ldly activity onthe one hand, and of auster ity and self- suppression on

the other .

The idea, ther efor e, of Brahma the creator wassoon expanded. He was r egarded in other aspects ,both as a person ification of all man ifested matter ,

l

and as the Lord and Father of all beingsI n this latter character he is r epr esen ted in the Vedaas having sacr ificed himself for the good of his cr eatures (see p. and it is r emarkable that, althoughBrahma is now only wor shipped in one pr incipal place ?

in India (Pushkara, near Ajmi r), yet many places ar eheld sacred because supposed to be consecr ated bysacr ifices performed by him after the act of creation .

But this was not all. H e was made to possess a

double nature, or , in other words, two character s

one quiescent, the other active The active was

called h is' éakti, and was per sonified as his wife, orthe female half of his essence. The Sakti of thecr eator ought proper ly to r epr esent the femalecr eative capacity, but the idea of the blending of themale and female pr inciples in creation seems to havebeen transfer r ed to Siva and his Sakti Parvati . Brahmawith his four faces was then connected with the utterance of the four Vedas

, and the wor ship which washis due was transfer r ed to the Brahman s, r egarded as

his peculiar offspr ing and, as it wer e, his mouth- pieces

To denote the g ravity -of matter , the Vahana, or vehicle onwhich the g od Brahma is supposed to r ide, is aHausa or g oose .

I was told, when travelling in India, that ther e is one othe rplace (Idut ) wher e homag e is paid to Brahma.

H INDUISM. 9 1

while his consor t Sarasvati , once a r ivc

er -goddess, wasr egar ded as the goddess of speech and learn ing, andinventress of the Sanskr it language and letter s . 1

Again , the idea of a separ ate divine per sonVishnu— whose functions wer e those of pervading,upholding, and pr eserving, was also . soon expanded,and easily spr ead into numerous ramifications. Itwas from this idea that the doctr ine of incarnation ,

to which we shall r efer at gr eater length in the nex tchapter , was ultimately evolved. Mor eover , a S

'aktz

’

,

or wife, called Lakshm i , goddess of good for tune, wasassign ed to this second per son of the Tr iad.

Thirdly.— Inasmuch as destruction necessar ily leads

to r e - creation and r eproduction,the idea of the god

Rudra was also easily ex tended, so that a gr eatvar iety of names, attr ibutes, and functions

,proper ly

belonging to other deities, were gather ed under thisthird per son of the Tr iad.

2

The r iver Sarasvati was to the ear lier H indus what theGang es was to the later : she was infused w ith divinity , andher influence pe rmeated the wr iter s of the Vedic hymns she is

sometimes identified w ith the Vedic g oddess, VdE, speech, andinvoked, as the patroness of science . Sa r aw ali -pzijd

‘

is per

formed on the S'r I -pan éamz

‘

, the name of a festival kept on thefifth of the lig ht half ofM i g ba, on which day books and wr itingimplements ar e held sacr ed, and not used (see p .

He has cer tainly a few mor e names than Vishnu, one thousand and eig ht being specified in the 69th chapter of the

S'iva -

purana, and in the 17th chapter of the Anusasana-

par van

of the Maha-bharata. The latter book, however , also g ives athousand names of Vishnu. Of course many of the names ofS'iva are mer ely epithets descr iptive of h is attr ibutes ; e,g . ,

Vifvefya r a ,‘lord of the un iver se ’ ; Tr i - loZ'ana , ‘three - eyed ’

;

A'

z‘

lmkagztfia, blue- throated, ’ his neck being blue, throug h theH

92 H INDUISM .

He has, at least, three quite distinct character s, eachofwhich has a female or active energizing counterpar t

(S akti ).In the first place

,as Rudr a, or Mahakala, he is the

destroying and dissolving power of natur e when heis either a personification of all matter r esolving itself

into its constituent elements, or of Kala, Time,’

the gr eat Dissolver l ; the mor e active pr inciple of

destruction being assigned to his con sor t Kali .Then

,in the second place, as S

’z’

va, Sadi —fz’

va ,

S'arzkam , S

'amb/m— the eternally blessed one, or

causer of blessings—he is the eternal r eproductivepower of natur e, perpetually r estor ing and reproducingitself after dissolution , under which myster ious cha

r acter he is often identified with the eternal cr eativeessence2 and even with the gr eat eternal Supr em eBeing, as the one gr eat God (M alta Jew ) and supr emeLord (l fzxam )

3. Hence in this char acter he i s

rather r epresented by a symbol (the ling er and y am

combined‘) than by an y human person ification 5 and

stain of the poison produced at the churning of the ocean, andswallowed by him K apdlz

'

n , wear ing skulls C'

andr a

fekfiar a,‘moon - crested lord of the hills ’

Gang a

d/zam ,

‘suppor ter of the Gang es, ’ which was supposed to issue

from Vishnu’5 foot on the matted locks of Siva, who thus brokeits fall befor e i t descended on the Himalaya.

At the caves of Ellora, which I have lately visited, his formis wonder fully car ved to r epresent the skeleton fig ur e of Death .

Sometimes S'iva is said to manifest himself under eig htforms—ether , air , fir e, water , ear th, the sun, the moon, and thesacr ificing pr iest.

3 When the word I s’vara occurs at the end of a compound, itg enerally denotes S’iva.

Pr obably reproductive ener g y is denoted by his vehicle orcompan ion the bull.

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94 H INDUISM .

memory of whose per sonal example as a self- denyingascetic they sought thus to neutralize . I n thischaracter of the r epresentat ive ascetic, as in that ofthe Reproducer , he is also sometimes called theBlessed one (Siva).There ar e yet two other character s of the third

per son of the Tr iad, which seem to have been as

signed to him by the Brahmans to satisfy the religiousinstincts of the abor iginal tr ibes

,and serve as substi

tutes for their wild demon iacal gods . In the first ofthese, which is a modification and adaptation der ivedfrom his first character of dissolver of the un iver se,he is the ter r ible destroyer (s aim aa) delighting indestruction for its own sake

,though it should be

noted that this malignant char acter is mor e connectedwith his wife Kali

,than with himself. In this

character he is also called Bhutesvara, lord of spir itsor demons,

’and is depicted as haunting cemeter ies

and burn ing- grounds wear ing serpents for gar lands,and a str ing of skulls for a necklace ,

l sometimessur rounded with troops (g ram) of imps and spir its

(Mata), and sometimes trampling on r ebellious demonswho have acquired too great power .His fifth character is the entir e r ever se of ascetical

In this he is a sor t of r epr esen tative free- liver , a wildjovial god

,fond of dancing and dr ink, living in the

Sometimes he has a tig er ’s skin , and he is often associatedwith a tig er , as his wife Dur g a is borne on that animal .Sometimes he has an elephant’s skin on his shoulders, wh ichonce belong ed to a demon said to have been killed by him.

He is also associated with an antelope, and sometimes car r iesa kind of drum called damaru, and a staff with a skull at thetop called Khatvi ng a.

11 1 11 11 11s . 95

H imalaya mountains with his wife, often dancing withher the Tandava dance, and sur rounded with dwarf

ish, bufl'

oon - like troops (g am) of attendan ts, who, liketheir master , are excited by dr inking. This is thecharacter in which he is worshipped by Tantr ikas .And here we may observe that in every one of his

characters the consor t of Siva is not only h is counterpar t

, but generally represents an intensification of hisattr ibutes.As destructress she is Ki li , as r eproducer she is

symbolized by the Yom’

, or she is the type of beautyin Umc

'

i , or she is the mother of the un iver se in

[ag an-mdtri . She has also her forms as a femaleascetic as a malignan t being delighting inblood (B izaz

'

r avi Dmg d), and as a mountaineer

(Pdrw tl).We have thus made good our asser tion that the

third member of the Tr i-mfirti,and his consor t do

,in

fact, r epresent the gather ing together , and un ifying inone per sonality numerous attr ibutes, proper ties, and

functions belonging to var ious deities and var iousdivine forces.The destructive ener g ies of the atmosphere exhi

bited in wind and storm, and person ified in the Vedaas Vayu, Rudra, and the Maruts the all- consumingpotency of time the fer tilizing proper ties pr esent indew and rain ; the almighty agencies operating increation once person ified asBrahma the same agenciesOperating in re cr eation and r eproduction the power ofasceticism once exhibited in the Buddha the graceof perfect beauty supposed to be specially present inSr i or Lakshm i the myster ious efficacy ofmagic andillusion the ter r ific agencies and operations

~

96 H INDUISM.

of demons and spir its, and finally the all-pervadinginfluence of the imper sonal soul of the un iver se— all

these have been collected and central ized in one

god, whose chief name is the Blessed onewhose per son is supposed to be half male and halffemale

, and whose tr iple eye and tr ident probablysymbolize his combin ing the attr ibutes of the Tr iadin himself. 1

These may denote his tr iple character of Destroyer , Reproducer , and Contemplative Ascetic, as the five faces withwhich he is sometimes r epresented may denote his fivefoldcharacter . Or may these five faces be connected with the fiveSamhitas of the Veda ? Some think his thr ee eyes r efer to time,pr esent, past, and futur e, the cr escent moon on his head alsosymbolizing his power over the measur ement of time.

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98 H INDUISM.

on their for eheads, made with red, yellow, and whitepigments the mark of the Vaishnavas being two per

pendicular strokes meeting below in a curve, whichdenote the footpr int of Vishnu, while that of the

Saivas con sists of thr ee hor izontal lines, made withwhite or gr ey ashes The Vaishnava markis called (7r d/zw -pzmq

'r a, the Saiva is called Tr :

pundm .

Although the wor ship of Siva is prevalen t everywhere throughout India, no temples being so commonas those which enshr ine his symbol (the lz

’

ng am), andalthough all classes of the Hindus, and especially theSaktas, or wor shipper s of the female pr inciple (S ak i ),pay h im the highest r espect as husband of the goddess ,var iously called Kali , Durga, Jag ad-dhatr i , Matr i , &c.

,

yet those who select the male god Siva as their chosendivinity— that 18 to say, the divin ity 1n whose mantr athey are in itiated, and to whom they look for specialaid in the attainmen t of salvation— ar e comparativelyinsig n ificant in number .

1 They are chiefly religiousmendican ts, Yogi s, Gos

'

ai ins, or Gosavins, Sannyas‘

is,or , as they are often improper ly called, Faki rs.

I n fact, the third member of the Tr i-mur ti, whetheras Destroyer , or as Reproducer and Creator

, or as

chief of ascetics, is too imper sonal and too sever e a

g od for the multitude . He occupies too lofty a position above ordinary mor tals. He is a ster n divin ity,

Dr . Rajendralala Mitra, in h is ‘Antiquities of Or issa (p .

1 37 says that it is the office of the Guru to in itiate a

disciple in the secret Mantr a of the particular g od he elects forh is salvation , and that ther e is scar cely one in a hundred Gur uswhose vocation is to impar t the Mantr a of S'iva.

HI NDUI SM. 99

to be approached with awe, and propitiated with r ever ence and fear

,rather than with faith

,trust, and love .

This will be clear from the descr iption in the pre

ceding chapter . It is also shown by the sor t ofwor shipperformed at his shr ines.In all the temples of Vishnu, Kr ishna, and Rama

the chief daily cer emony, after washing and dressing the idol, and burning lights and incense befor e it, consists in offer ing it food of some kind

,

boiled r ice, gr ain cooked and uncooked, sweetmeats,

fruit, &c., on the essence of which the deity is sup

posed to feed,as if he wer e in need of nour i shment

like a human being, while the r emains (calledp r asda’

a

or ma/zd-pr asda'

a) are consumed by his wor shippers.

Moreover,the idols of these gods ar e constan tly deco

r ated with flowers and costly or naments, especially onfestive occasions . But in the case of Siva, who, inone of his character s, is the chief of ascetics, no foodis generally offer ed (except, perhaps at some centresofwor ship

,such as those of Benar es and Bhuvanes

vara). The daily cer emon ials are of an auster elysimple kind. Water from a sacr ed r iver is pour edon his symbol

,with perhaps a few oblations of flowers,

but often ther e is nothing presented by wor shipper s but the Vilva leaf ; 1 and it is r emarkable thateven in cases when food is offer ed to this divin ity itis not allowed to be eaten by his votar ies, accordingto the Brahman ical rule, leaves, flowers, fruit, and

The leaf of the Vilva or Bel tree is typical of S'iva’s attr i

outes, because tr iple in form . This plant is also said to be

pervaded by the pr esence of his wife Dur g i .

00 H INDUISM.

water become unfit to be consumed after being consecrated to Siva.

” 1

It is clear , ther efore, that a more per sonal, and soto Speak, human god than Siva was needed for themass of the people, - a god who could satisfy the year nings of the human hear t for a r eligion of faith (blmktz

’

)— a god who could sympathize with and condescendto human wants and necessities. Such a god wasfound in the second member of the Tr i—mur ti. Itwas as Vishnu that the Supr eme Being was supposedto exhibit his sympathy with human tr ials, and hi slove for the human race.I f Siva is the gr eat god (Maizé -dwa) of the Hindu

Pantheon to whom adoration is due from all indiscr iminately, Vishnu is cer tainly its most popular deity .

He is the god selected by far the g r eater number ofindividuals as their saviour , protector , and fr iend, whor escues them from the power of evil, interests himselfin their welfar e, and finally admits them to his heaven

(Vazkuzzglza). But it is not so much Vishnu in hisown per son as Vishnu in his incar nations, that effectsall this for his votar ies.Hinduism is like a drama in which the plot is clear ly

traceable, but in which the acts are numerous, and inwhich each succeeding act is mor e diversified and

sensational than that which precedes . In the act

which has now Opened upon us, the scenes are con

tinually shifting. We have, in fact, ar r ived at thatphase of Hinduism when the doctr ine of Tr i -mfi rt i isalmost lost sig ht of in the prominence given to the

Ag r afiy am S iva -naz’

wdy ampattr am puskpamplzalamjalam.

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I 02 H INDUISM.

images, and pictures as Narayana in human form,

r eposing on the thousand-headed serpen t Sesha, andfloating on the waters.

l

But whether Vishnu be connected with light, withheat

,or with water , it is evident that the idea conveyed

is that of a divine Pervader , infusing his essence forspecial functions into created things, an imate and inan imate 5 for example, into r iver s, such as the Ganges 5into trees and plants, such as the Tulsi 5 in to an imals,such as a fish, a tor toise, a boar 5 and lastly into men .

Probably the definite shape g iven by the Brahman sto the doctr ine of human incarnation, was due to theirper ception of the fact that the success of Buddhismwas in great par t due to the r everence the Buddhainspir ed by his own per sonal character . He practisedhonestly what he preached enthusiastically. He was

sincere, energetic, earnest, self- sacr ificing , and devoted .

Adheren ts gathered in thousan ds round the per son of

the consistent preacher , and the Buddha himselfbecame the r eal cen tr e of Buddhism . When he died,he ceased to ex ist. He became, according to his owndoctr ine, utter ly ann ihilated 5 but the remains of hisburn t body wer e enshr ined as relics in var ious par tsof India, and his memory was wor shipped almost asear nestly as his per son had been r evered. The mer ememory of a g reat man, however , cannot r etain itshold on the affections of a people through manygenerations. The Brahmans saw this. They knewthat the r eligious cravings of the gr eat mass of the

A lotus, on which is seated Brahma, the Creator , is represented as issuing from the navel of the g od, while the g oddessLakshmi , Vishnu’s wife, chafes her husband’s feet.

11 111130 15 11 . 03

H indus could not long be satisfied with the wor shipo f r elics, or with homage paid to a being held to beex tinct . In all probability, soon after the death of

Buddha (about the 4th century they elaboratedtheir scheme for supplying the people with r ealobjects of faith and adoration out of their own epicpoems, the Ramayana and Maha- bharata. Thegr eat Kshatr iya dynasties wer e made to trace backtheir or igin through Brahman ical sages to the Sun -godand the Moon-

g od,l while the g r eat her oes, Rama

and Kr ishna, wer e declar ed to be not r eally Kshatr iyaso r even human being s, but in carnations of the godVishnu.

And here be it noted that the idea of incarnation ,

like every other idea in r eligion, morality, and science,when man ipulated by the Brahmans, was by themsubtilized

,distor ted

,and exaggerated . Hence the

incarnations (Avatdr a) of Vishnu which wer e undertaken r easonably enough for preserving the wor ldwhen in pressing emergencies, especially when in

danger of ruin from some undue acquisition of poweron the par t of evil demons

,ar e said to be of five

kinds and deg r ees .r st, the full human incarnation , as that ofKrz

’

s/zzza

zndly , the partial human incarnation , consistingof half the god’s essence, as in the R i m of the

Ramayana,commonly called Rama-candra 5 3m

’

1y ,

the quar ter incarnation, as in Rama’s brother B izar ala,

As Vishnu is connected with Surya, the Sun, so S'iva isconnected with Soma, the Moon , who is a male deity in R iudiimytholog y. One name for the g od S

'iva is moon - crested(see PP 921

1 04 H INDUISM.

4tltb', the incarnation consisting of an eighth of

the god’s essence, as in Rama’s two other brother s,

Lakshmana and Satrug hna ; and silzly , the infusion of

divine vir tues or qualities into ordinary men , an imals,and inan imate objects.1

Vishnu’s ten pr incipal incarnations 3 may be br ieflydescr ibed as follows

I . Matsy a, the fish .

’ In this, Vishnu became a fish to saveManu, the prog en itor of the human race, from the un iversaldelug e. ThisManuwas not the g randson of Brahmaand r eputedauthor of the law- book, but the seventh Manu, or Manu of the

present per iod, called Vaivasvata. He is r epr esented as con

ciliating the favour of the Supr eme Being by his auster ities inan ag e of un iversal depr avi ty. Hence

, like Noah, he wasm iraculously warned of the coming delug e, and was commandedto build a ship and g o on board with the seven Rishis, or

patr iar chs, and the seeds of all ex isting thing s. The floodcame, Manu went on board, and Vishnu took the form of a

fish with a horn on its head, to which the ship was fastened bya cable. The ship was then drawn along by the fish and secur edto a hig h crag till the flood had passed.

Another account of this incarnation makes Vishnu, after

r escuing Manu, destr oy a demon named Hayag r iva, who, whileBrahma was asleep at the end of a Kalpa, stole the Vedas, and

Often in modern times, men whose lives have beenmade r emarkable by any peculiar cir cumstances, have beencanon ized after death, and held to be partial incarnations of thedeity . Ag ain, not only are many animals and different kindsof stones held to be permeated by the div ine presence at alltimes, but ther e wer e special occasions on which Vishnu tookthe form of an imals to r escue the wor ld in g r eat emer g encies,as in the first thr ee Avataras enumerated above.

3 The Bhag avata-

purana g ives twenty- two incarnations of

Vishnu.

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1 06 H INDUISM.

I t is r emarkable that the first three incarnations are all con

nected with the tradition of a un iversal delug e.4 . Nar a -sz

’

nlza, the man - lion .

’In this, Vishnu assumed the

shape of a cr eature, half man, half lion, to deliver the wor ldfrom the tyranny of a demon called B itanya-kas1pu, who had

obtained a boon from Brahma that he should not be slain byeither g od or man or an imal. Hence he became so power fulthat he usurped the dom inion of the three wor lds, and appropr iated the sacrifices made to the g ods. When his pious sonPrahlada praised Vishnu, the demon tr ied to destroy the boy,but Vishnu appeared out of a p illar in the form Nara- sinha and

tore H iranya-kasipu to pieces.

These four first incarnations ar e said to have taken place inthe Satya or first ag e of the four ag es of the wor ld.

5. Vi mana, the dwar f.’In the second or Tr etaag e, Vishnu

descended as a dwarf to depr ive the demon Bali (who r esemblesRavana and Kansa in the stor ies of Rama and Krishna) of thedom in ion of the three wor lds. Vishnu presented himself befor ehim as a dim inutive man , and solicited as much land as hecould step in three paces. When his request was g ranted, hestrode in two steps over heaven and ear th, but out of com

passion left the lower wor ld, Pat'

ala (see p. 1 0 1 , note 2) in the

demon ’s possession.

6 . Pa r afu-m’

ma,‘Ri ma w ith the axe.

’ I n this, Vishnuwasborn , as the son of the Brahman Jamad- ag n i and descendant ofBhrig u, in the second ag e, to pr event the Kshatr iyas from ar r og ating dominion over the Brahmanical caste. Parasu- r i ma is

said to have cleared the ear th twenty-one times of the wholeKshatr iya class.7. Rama (commonly called Rama- éandra, the mildor moon

like Rama the hero of the Ramayana, son ofK ing Dasarathaof the Solar r ace, and therefor e a Kshatr iya. Vishnu took thisform at the close of the second or Treta ag e, to destroy thedemon Ki y ana (see p.

8 . K gi rhgza , the dark g od, ’ the most popular of all the laterdeities of India. This incarnation ofVishnu at the end of the

Dvapara or third ag e of the wor ld, as the eig hth son ofVasudeva and Devaki', of the Lunar race, was for the destructi on ot

I I INDUISM. 1 07

the tyr ant Kansa, the r epresentative of the pr inciple of evil,cor responding to Ravana in the previous incarnation .

The details of the later life of Krishna have been in terwovenw ith the later por tions of the Maha-bharata, but they do not

belong to the plot, and theymig ht be omitted without impair ingi ts unity. H e is certainly not the hero of the g r eat epic. He

appears as a g r eat chief who takes the part of the r eal heroesthe Pandavas— and his claims to deification ar e often disputed.

H is ear lier days and juvenile feats, thoug h not found in theoldest par ts of the Maha-bharata , may be g athered from the

Har i -vansa and Pur i nas, especially the tenth book of the Bhi

g ay ata- purana, from which we learn as follows

Vasu-deva (a descendant of the Yadu who, with Puru, as sonsof Yaya

'

ti, formed the two branches of the Lunar dynasty) hadtwo w ives, Rohini and Devaki . The latter had eig ht sons, ofwhom the eig hth was Kr ishna. I t was predicted that one of

mese would kill Kansa, king ofMathura, and cousin ofDevak‘i .H e therefore impr isoned Vasu-deva and hiswife, and slew theirfi rst six children. The seventh, Bala- rama, was abstractedfr om Devaki ’s womb, transfer red to that of Rohini , and thussaved . The eig hth was Krishna, born with black skin , and themark called S n

“

w in on h is breast.‘ H is father , Vasu-deva,escaped from Mathura with the child, and, favoured by theg ods, found a certain herdsman named Nanda, whose wife,Vasoda, had just g iven bi r th to a daug hter whom Vasudevaconveyed to Devaki , after substituting his own son in i ts

place. Nanda took the infant Kr ishna and settled first inGokula or Vr aja, and afterwards in Vrindavana, where Krishnaand Bala- r i ma g rew up tog ether , r oaming in the woods, andjoining in the sports of the herdsman’s sons. While still a boy,Krishna destroyed the serpent Ki liya, and lifted up the mountain Govardhana on his hug er to shelter the Gopi s from the wrathof Indra, who, enrag ed because Krishna had instig ated themto the worship ofGovardhana, tr ied to destroy them by a delug e.I Ie isdescr ibed as spor ting constantlywith these Gop

'

i s, thewives

The date of his birth is kept as a g reat festival by theHindas, and called (see the chapter on the

festivals, p.

1 08 H INDUISM.

and daug hter sof the cowherds, ofwhom eig htwere his favoun tes,especially Radha. Krishna built Dvaraka in Gujarat, and

thither transpor ted the inhabitants ofMathuraafter killing Kansa.

According to some, Krishna is not an incar nation of Vishnu,

but Vishnu himself 5 in which case Bala- rama, the str ongRama,

’ born at the end of the Dvapara or third ag e of the

wor ld, as son of Vasu-deva and Devaki , and elder brother ofKrishna, is sometimes substituted for Kr ishna, as the eig hthincarnation of Vishnu.

9 . Buddha. The adoption of Buddha as an incarnation of

Vishnu was r eally owing to the desire of the Brahmans to effecta compromise w ith Buddhism (see p . The reason someg ive for this incar nation is that Vishnu assumed the form of the

g reat sceptical philosopher , in the fourth ag e of the wor ld, thathe mig ht delude Daityas, demons, and wicked men, and leadthem to br ing destruction on themselves by despising the Veda,and neg lecting caste -duties and denying the ex istence of theg ods. But the simple fact was that the Brahmans adoptedBuddha as some of them are now adopting Chr ist, and makingH im out to be an incarnation of Vishnu.

1 0 . Kalki or Kalki”, who is yet to appear at the close of thefour th or Kali ag e (when the wor ld has become wholly depray ed) for the final destruction of the wicked, for the r e

establishment of r ig hteousness upon the ear th, the r enovationof all cr eation, and the r estoration of a new ag e of pur ity (saly ayug a) . According to some, hewi ll be r evealed in the sky, seatedon a white horse, with a dr awn sword blazing like a comet.From the fact of the horse playing an important r é le in thi sincarnation, i t is sometimes called Afvdvatdm . Some of thedeg raded classes of India comfor t themselves in their pr esentabject condition by looking to Kalki as their futur e deliver erand the r estorer of their social position.

Before concluding the subject of incarnation, wemay observe that Vishnu is the only member of theTr i-mur ti who can be said to have infused his essenceinto actual flesh and blood for the salvation of the

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I I O HINDUISM.

The approx imate pre-Brahman ical and pre-Bud

dhistic ver sions of the two poems may be fixed at

about 500 B.C., and their first order ly completion in

their Brahmanized form may possibly have takenplace in the case of the Ramayana, about the end

of the 4th or beginn ing of the g rd century B.C. , and

in the case of the Maha-bharata still later .The Ramayana (that is R fima -ay arza, the going s

of Rama, the 7th incarnation of Vishnu for the destruction of the demon R é

‘

wana), held most sacr ed ,and equally r evered by Vaishnavas and Saivas, isbelieved to be a poem by a human yet inSpired author , Valmiki. I t consists of about twen tyfour thousand stanzas, ar ranged in seven books, whichnar r ate the story of Rama- éandra, whose name is ahousehold word throug hout all India, as followThe first of these (called Bdla descr ibes the boyhood

of Rama. Dasaratha, king of Ayodhya, of the Solar dynasty ,had no son, a ser ious calamity in India. A horse- sacr ifice ,therefor e, was per formed to propitiate the g ods. Four sonswer e then born fr om the thr ee wives of Dasaratha 5 the eldest,Rama, possessing half the natur e of Vishnu, from Kansalyi ;the second, Bharata, possessing a four th par t, from Kaikeyi 5and the other two, Lakshmana and S'atra -

g hua, shar ing the

r emaining quarter between them, from Sumitra. While yet astr ipling , Rama was taken to the court of Janaka, king of

M ithila or Videha. He had a wonderful bow, and had g ivenout, that the man who could bend it should win his beautifuldaug hter Si ta. Rama bent the bow, and Si ta thus became hiswife ; and she remained his one wife— the type of wife- likedevotion . The second (called Ayodbyd descr ibes the

tr ansactions in Ayodhya and the banishment of Rama by hisfather , king Dasaratha, thr oug h the jealousy of Kaikeyi

'

, who

w ished her own son to become the heir -appar ent. The third(calledAr ayya-ka

‘

gzda) nar rates the events in the for est abode of

H INDUISM. I I I

Rama after his ban ishment, including the car rying 01? of $115

by the demon Ravana, king of Ceylon . The four th (calledKzZr/zkz

'

ndlzy d-kdzzq

’a ) details the occur r ences at Kishkindhya,

the capital city of Sug r iva, the monkey-king who was Rama’sally in h is expedition ag ainst ”

Ceylon for the r ecovery of 5 1121.

The fifth (called Sundam the beautiful section ’

) g ivesan account of the miracles by which the passag e of the straitsand the ar r ival of the invading armies in Lanka (Ceylon) wer eeffected. The six th (called Yuddba descr ibes the actualwar w ith Ri vana in Lanka, the victory over his armies and

h is destruction by Rama, the r ecovery of Si ta, the r eturn to

Ayodhya, the r eun ion of the four brother s, and final cor onationof Rama. The seventh (called Utta r a -kdgzq

’a ) r ecounts the

concluding events of the history of Rama after his cor onation on

r eturn ing to Ayodhya— his sensitiveness to the g ossip and scandalof the citizens, his consequent ban ishment of si ta to the herm itag e of Valmiki, notwithstanding the absolute cer tainty of her

blameless conduct dur ing her captiv ity in Ravana’s palace 5 thebirth of his twin sons, Kusa and Lava, in the herm itag e 5 h isfinal r eunion with her and translation to heaven . All thissupplement to the story has been dr amatized by Bhava-bhfiti in

his Uttara - rama- éar itra, and the whole previ ous history in hisMaha- vi ra- éar itra.

Let us now pass to the Maha-bharata, probably byfar the longest epic poem that the wor ld has everproduced. It is called an I tilzii sa or sacred history

,

’

but is r eally a collection of I tihasas— a vast cyclo

paedia or thesaurus of Hindu tr adition s,legendary

history,ethics, and philosophy

, which afterwardsbecame the source ofmany of the Puranas. It seemsto have passed through several stages of constructionand reconstruction

, until finally ar ranged and r educedto order ly wr itten shape by a Brahman or B rahmans

,

whose names have been purposely concealed, becausethe work is held to be too sacred to have been com

H INDUISM.

posed by any human author , and is therefor e attr ibutedto the divine sage Vyasa .

The entir e work consists of about lin es, ineighteen Parvans or sections

, as follow

The 1 5t, called A-

di -parw n,descr ibes how the two br other s,

Dhrita- rashtr a and Panda , of the Lunar dynasty, ar e broug ht up

by their uncle Bhishma, who conducted the g over nment of theking dom of Hastinfipura near Delhi, and how Dhrita

- r i shtra,who is blind, has one hundr ed bad sons—commonly called theKuru pr inces—by his wife Gandhar i 5 and how the two wives ofPandu—Pritha (or Kunti ) andMadr i— havefive g ood sons, calledthe Pandavas or Pandu pr inces. The eldest, Yudhi - shthi ra, i sthe Hinda ideal of ex cellence— a patter n of justice and integ r i ty .

Bhima, the second, is a type of brute courag e and str eng th .

Arjuna, the third, r ises mor e to the Eur opean standard of per

fection. He may be r eg arded as the real hero of the Mahibharata, of undaunted bravery, yet g enerous and tender -hear ted .

Nakula and Sahadeva,the four th and fifth, who ar e twins, ar e

both amiable, noble-m inded, and spir ited. The eldest of

Dhri ta- rashtra

’s sons

,called Dur -

yodhana, is the type of everything evil .II . Sab/zd-pa rw n

, descr ibes the g reat Sabfid or assembly ofpr inces at Hastinz

'

i -

pura, when Yudhi - shthi ra, the eldest of thefive Pandavas is persuaded to play at dice wi th S’akuai, and

loses h is title to the king dom . The five Pandavas and Draupadi ,their wife, ar e requir ed to live for twelve year s in the woods.

III . Vana -par van , nar rates the life of the Pandavas in the

Ki myaka forest . This is one of the long est books, and full ofepisodes, such as the story ofNala and that of the Ki ratarjuniya.

IV. Vz’

r dfa -pan'an

,descr ibes the thir teenth year of ex ile, and

the adventur es of the Pandavaswho lived for that year disg uisedin the ser vice of King Virata.

V. Udy og a-parw n , r ecounts the pr eparations for war on the

side of both Pandavas and Kauravas, the former being de

termined to r ecover their king dom . Krishna and Bala - rama ,

who wer e relations of the contending par ties, r esolve not to

fig ht, but Kr ishna consented to act as Arjuna’s char ioteer .

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1 1 4 11a 11 15 11 .

XVI . AIaw a/a -pa r z/an , nar rates the death of Kr ishna and

Balarama, the ir return to heaven , the submer g ence ofKrishna’

s

city, Dvaraki , by the sea, and the self- slaug hter in a fig ht w ithclubs (murala) of Kr ishna’s family, the Yadavas, throug h the

curse of some Brahmans.

X VI I . fila/zdpr astlzdnMa -pan'an

,descr ibes the r enunciation of

their king dom by Yudhi - shth ira and h is four brothers, and

their depar ture towards Indr a’s heaven in Moun t Meru.

XVI I I . Sz'a rg dr olzam'

é a -par van ,nar r ates the ascent and ad

m ission to heaven of the five Pandavas, their wife Draupadi ,

and kindred.

The supplement, or Ha r z’vanh -pam an , a later addition ,

r ecounts the g enealog y and bir th of Krishna and the details ofhis early l ife.

H INDUISM. 1 1 5

CHAPTER I X .

1 11 1: DOCTRINE OF 131 11 11 AS DEVELOPED m1 11 1: PURANAS AND 1 11 11 1 11 11 5 .

T11 13 per iod of the Epic poems was not marked bymuch r ivalry between the wor shipper s of the thr eemember s of the Tr i—mfir ti . Brahma, Vishnu, andSiva wer e at first regarded as differ ent names forthe one un iver sal eternal essence

,man ifesting itself

var iously. Their attr ibutes and functions were constantly in ter changedwithout any necessary antagon ism .

After a time the doctr ine of incarnation r eceiveddefin ite shape, and the heroes of the Epic poems wer edeified as incarnations of Vishnu. It was not, however

,till a comparatively r ecent per iod that str ifes

and jealousies arose between the follower s ofVishnuand é iva, and of their incarnations and man ifestations, each god being identified with the Supr emeBeing by his wor shipper s. The Puranas wer e thenwr itten for the express purpose

,as we have seen , of

exalting one deity or the other to the highest position ,

while other books, called Tantras, wer e composed togive prom inence to the wor ship of the female coun terpar t of Siva. Mor eover , the doctr ine of bfmktz

’

, or

salvation by faith,’which ex isted to a cer tain ex tent

from the ear liest times, and which was fully propounded in the Bhag avad-gi ta, a philosophical episode

1 1 6 11a 11 15 11 .

of the Maha-bharata, (see the Appendix p . 2o6 , for a

full descr iption of this celebrated episode), and r educedto a system by a wr iter called Sandilya in his Bhaktisfitras,

— became in the Pur i nas and Tantras exag g e

rated and perver ted. The most complete devotion tothe per sonal deities, Krishna and Rama was enj oin edby the Vaishnavas, while the Saktas claimed the same

for Durga. Fur thermore, an absolute belief in the

most ex travagant m ir acles, alleged to have beenworked by these deities, and an unr eason ing accep tance of every mon strous detail of their legendaryhistory, wer e insisted on 5 while the r elationship of

the human soul to the divine was descr ibed in the

language of human love, and illustrated with imagesand allegor ies, suggestive of conjugal un ion, and evenof sexual and adulterous passion .

The Puranas and Tan tras ar e the true exponentsof these two last and most cor rupt phases of popularH indfiism

,on which account both sets of books ar e

sometimes called a fifth Veda especially desig ned fo rthe masses of the people and for women .

I n order to invest the former with a sacr ed character ,a fictitious antiquity was given to them by namingthem Pur i na, ancient tr adition

,

’and assigning their

compilation to the ancient sage Vyasa, the supposedar ranger of theVedas and Maha-bharata, and founderof the Vedanta philosophy. The work called Vayupurana is perhaps one of the oldest of this class ofwr itings 5 but an ear lier date can scar cely be assig nedto it than the 6th century of our era.

The Puranas, then , must be car efully disting uishedfr om the I tihasas (see p . It is true that the

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1 1 8 11a 1115 1 1 .

The following are the names of the eighteen Pur i nasaccording to the above thr ee divisions

1 . The Rajasa Pur i nas, or those which r elate to Brahma,are : 1 . B r a/mza , 2 . B r afimdgzda, 3. B r abma -va iw r ta, 4. M dr

kagzq’cj

fa , 5. Blmw'

sfiy a , 6. Vd‘

mana .

1 1 . The Sattvika Pur i nas, or those which r elate to Vishnu,ar e : 1 . Vz

’

s/zgzu, 2. B/zdg aw ta , 3. Nd'

r adiy a , 4 . 04 7114111 , 5 .

Padma , 6 . Vdr dfia . These six ar e usually called VaishnavaPur i nas.

1 1 1 . The Tamasa, or those whi ch g lor ify S’iva, ar e : 1 . S’

iva,

2. Ling o , 3. Skana’a , 4. Ag n i , 5. Matry a, 6. K 12m . Thesesix ar e usually sty led S

'

aiva Pur i nas. For the Ag ni , ’ the

ancient Pur i na called d a is often substituted.

Although it is cer tainly conven ient to group the

eighteen Puranas in these three divisions,in accor d

ance with the theory of the Tr i -mfir ti or tr iple man ifestation , it must not be supposed that the six so

called Rajasa Puranas are devoted to the ex clus iveexaltation of Brahma, or the Tamasa to that of Siva.

The real god of the Pur i nas may be said to beVishnu, since all the Pur i nas are mor e Or less con

cerned with his var ious forms and incarnations.

Moreover , under lying the teaching of all of themmay be discerned the one grand pantheistic doctr in e,generally found at the root of H indfi theologywhether Vedic or Puran ic— the doctr ine expressed inthe formula ekam cw adw

’

lz‘

y am (see p .

Fur thermor e, interwoven with the radically pantheistic and Vedantic tex tur e of these composition s

,

tinged as it is with other philosophical ide as (especial lythe Sankhyan doctr ine of Prakriti), and di ver sified as

it is with endless fanciful mytholog ies, theogon ies,

11 1 11 11 1115 11 . 1 1 9

cosmogon ies, and mythical genealogies, we have awhole body of er roneous teaching on near ly everysubject of knowledge.

Of all the eighteen Pur i nas, the Markandeya isthe least sectar ian , while the Bhagavata is by far themost celebrated. Perhaps the nex t best known isthe Vishnu.

Of the Markandeya, which is one of the oldest

probably as old as the 8th century of our era, par t isin praise of Brahma, and par t of Vishnu. A sectionof this Pur i na, called the Devi -mahatmya or C’andimahatmya, is r epeated at the gr eat autumnal festivalin honour of Durga (see p . It is devoted tothe praise of Durga, the chief Devi or goddess (standing alone without a husband), and of her victory overthe demons, especially the buffalo demon Mahishasur .

The Bhagavata- purana is in twelve section s or books.

Par ikshit, king of Hastina-pura, andgrandson ofAr

juna,was condemned, in consequence ofa cur se, to dieby the bite of a snake in seven days, and ther efore wentto the banks of the Ganges to pr epar e for death.

There he was visited by cer tain sages, among whomwas Suka, who an swer ed his inquiry as to the bestway for prepar ing for death by r elating the Bhag avatapurana, as he r eceived it from Vyasa.

I ts most impor tant book is the tenth, which narratesthe ear ly life of Kr ishna

, an abstract of which hasalready been given at p . 1 07.

The following story, freely translated and slightlyamplified from the 89th chapter of this book, affordsa good example of the view taken by the Bhagavatapurana (and, indeed, by most of the Pur i nas) of the

I 20 H INDUISM.

comparative excellence of the three members of theTr i -mfirti

A dispute arose among the sag es as to which of the thr ee

g ods was g r eatest 5 so they applied to the g r eat Bhr ig u, one of

the ten Maharshis, or pr imeval patr iar chs cr eated by the fir stManu, to determine the point. He under took to put all threeg ods to a severe test, and went fir st to Brahma ; on appr oachingwhom he purposely omitted an obeisance. Upon this the g od’sang er blazed ter r ibly forth 5 but, r estraining i t, he was at leng thpacified. Nex t he r epair ed to the abode of S’iva, in Kaili sa,and omitted to r etur n the g od’s salutation. The vindictivedeity was enrag ed, his eyes flashed fire, and he raised his tr identto destr oy the sag e 5 but the g od’s wife, Par vati , fell at his feet,and by her inter cession appeased him . Lastly, he r epaired to

Vaikuntha, the heaven of Vishnu, whom he found asleep wi thhis head on his consor t Lakshmi ’s lap. To make a tr ial of

his forbearance, he boldly g ave the g od a kick on his breast,which awoke him. Instead of showing ang er , however ,Vishnu ar ose, and on seeing Bhr ig u, asked his pardon for nothaving g r eeted him on his fir st ar r ival. Nex t, he expr essedhimself hig hly honour ed by the sag e

’s blow (which he declar ed

had impr inted an indelible mark of g ood fortune on hisand then inquir ed tender ly whether his foot was hur t, and pro .

ceeded to rub it g ently. This, ’ said Bhrig u, is the mig htiestg od 5 he overpowers by the most potent of all weapons—g entleness and g ener osity .

’

Of all the eighteen Puranas the Vishnu- puranaconforms most near ly to the epithet panEa- laks/zazta .

The great sage Parasara is supposed to r elate it tohis disciple Maitreya. It is in six books, and is, ofcour se, dedicated to the exaltation ofVishnu, whom it

This mark is called the S'r i vatsa. I n some forms of

Vishnu or Krishna, such as that called Vi tho -ba (worshipped at

Pandharpur ) it is r epr esented as a r eal footmark.

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I 22 H INDUISM.

Domin ion over other s 5 noble r ankWill g ive no claim to lordship 5 self-willed womenWill seek their pleasur e, and ambitious menFix all their hopes on r iches g ained by fraud.

The women wi ll be fickle and desertTheir beg g ared husbands, loving them aloneWho g ive them money. King s instead of g uardingWill r ob their subjects, and abstract the wealthOfmerchants, under plea of raising taxes.

Then in the wor ld’s last ag e tlfe r ig hts ofmenWill be confused, no proper ty be safe,N0 joy and no prosper ity be lasting .

There are eighteen Upa -pur d’

zzar , or secondaryPuranas,

’ subordinate to the eighteen pr incipalPmanas, of which the names only need be given,as follow

1 . Sanatkumd'

r a, 2 . Nar asz'

nfia or A’

n lrin/i a, 3. A'

a’

r adiy a

or Vg ifian 4 . S iva , 5. Dum asasa , 6 . Kapila , 7.

Mdmwa, 8. Anfanasa, 9 . Va

’

t um, 1 0. Kdlz

’

ka’

, 1 1 . 3 501611 , 1 2 .

Nandz’

, 1 3 . Strum , 1 4. Pdr d'

far a , 1 5 . Aditya, 1 6 . Mdfiefvam ,

1 7. Bfic‘

ig aw ta (for Bh i r g ava 1 8. Vzifzirlzgka . In anotherl ist the Nanda

“

, S iva - a’barma

, B r afimdnda and Kdurma are

substituted for some of the above.

Let us now turn to the Tantras, and consider the

system they inculcate, which for conven ience may becalled Tantr ism, or , from the Saktas who follow it,

Saktism .

Although some of the Puranas and Upa—puranas,such as the Skanda

,Brahma- vaivar ta, and Kalika, do

in r eal truth teach Tantr ika doctr ines by promotingthe wor ship of Prakr iti and Durga, yet it is also truethat the Tantras r epresent a phase of Hinduism generally later than that r epr esented by the Puranas.

11 11111 11 15 11 . 1 23

Indeed, Tantr ism, or éaktism, is H indfiism ar r ivedat its last and wor st stage of medieval development.As the most conspicuous god of the Pur i nas is

Vishnu with his incarnations, so the most prominentdeity of the Tan tras is Siva with his man ifestations,more especially in the innumerable forms of his

female counterpart. l

We have already noted that the pr incipal H indi'

i

de ities are supposed to possess a double natur e, ortwo characters— one quiescent, the other active,— and

that the active, called his S'aklz

’

, is person ified as his

wife, or as the female half of his essence, r epr esen ted,as we shall see presently, on his left side . Be it nowobserved that, just as the male god Siva gatheredunder his own personality the attr ibutes and functionsof all the pr incipal gods, and became ‘the gr eat g od

(Maizd-deva) - that is, the most lofty and severe g odof the H indfi Pantheon,—so his female counterpartbecame the one gr eat goddess (de w, maIu

'

i

who required more propitiation than any othergoddess, and to a cer tain extent represented all

other female manifestations of the Tr i -mar ti , and

absorbed all their functions.2 For this r eason even

the wives of Brahma and Vishnu were said to be herdaughters. According to the Vayu- purana, not only

I t must not, however , be forg otten that ther e are a few

Vaishnava Tantras whi ch substi tute Ri dhi , the favour ite wifeofKrishna, for Durg i , wife of S

'iva.

Kulh‘

ika (Mann, ii. 1 ) says, S m ti r a‘w'

mllfiiz'

var’

dib’

{dn

tn’

l'i Ea, r evelation is twofold, Vedic and Tantr ik.

’Besides

the name Ag ama there are two other names, Ydm la and

d a r a— appli ed to certain classes ofTantras.K

1 24 11 1 11 111115 11 .

was é iva himself ofa twofold nature, male and femalebut his female nature also became twofold, one halfAsita, or white, and the other half 5 1711 , or black,each of these again becoming man ifold. The wh ite,or mild nature, became separ ated into the Saktis,called Umd

‘

, Gaur i , Laks/zmi , Sar aw ali , &c. 5 the

black, or ner ee nature, into those called Dur g ei , K é liC

’

azzdz‘

, 05771 14214713, 810. In shor t, all the other 8aktisseem to have been included by the éaktas under theSakti or ener g y of é iva, which eventually developedin to innumerable separate man ifestations and person ifications of all the for ces of natur e, physical, physiological, moral, and intellectual. These for ces, or

rather the deified personalities presiding over them,

were grouped in classes, such asMahdm’

dy é s, sourcesof great knowledge 5 M i mic, divine mothersYog in i s, goddesses having magical power s. ’ Theyare too numerous to be separately named, var iousclassifications having been adopted for the sake ofdisposing the female manifestations of Siva, like the maleincarnations of Vishnu (see p. under differentdegr ees of par ticipation in the divine essence ; suchas the full pfir zza -faktz

'

, mfila the par tial

(anfa the still mor e par tial (kald- rfipizzi), andthe par tial of the par tial (kaldnfa - rfipiui )5 the lowestincluding mor tal women in var ious degr ees

,from

Brahman women downwards, who are all wor shippedas form s of the divine mother upon ear th}l Ther eare, however , cer tain pr incipal female personifications

1 I n the case of the Vaishnava éaktas, Radha, favour ite ofKrishna, r epr esents the full manifestation , and the Gopi

'

s the

partial .

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1 26 11 1 1 111 11 15 11 .

development to the popular izing of the Sankhya

theory of Par aslza (masculine), the inactive, ihdifferent soul, and P r akr i ti (femin ine), the act ive producing pr inciple, each distinct from the other , yeteach un iting in the act of creation . In harmonywith this idea the images of the gr eat god ’ Sivasometimes r epresent him (see p. 96) as Ar d/ia-né fl ,

that is, a being consisting of two halves, the male half

being on his r ight side, and the female on his left.It may easily be imagined that a creed like th is

was likely to degenerate into impur e doctr ines, andthat result was actually brought about ; for those

who applied the pr inciple of devotion (Makti ) to the

double natur e of the deities,finally resolved them

selves into two classes,— the first called Daksbizzé

Ed'

r im , r ight -hand wor shipper s,’who make the

Pur i nas their real Veda (myama). These are de

voted (bizakta) to Siva, Vishnu, Kr ishna,and their

wives, but merely in their character s of g ods and

goddesses, not with any undue preference for the

female divin ity, and not with any implication of

impur e ideas ; the second called Vdmdl'

dr z'

rzs, lefthand wor shipper s,

’

who are follower s of the Kaulo

pan ishad, and make that Upan ishad and the Tan trastheir own peculiar Veda (dg ama). These devotethemselves to the wor ship of the female counterpar tof the deities, to Durga rather than Siva, to Radharather than Krishna, and to Si ta rather than Rama ;but especially to Durga, not as Siva’s wife, but as

the'

goddess who pr esides over two quite distinctoperations,— the intercour se of the sexes and the

acquisition of magical power s.

11 111 11 1115 1 1 . 1 27

And her e be it noted, that just as Buddhism wasthe expr ession of a natural effor t to break throughthe r estraints of caste in one direction, so Saktism or

Tantr ism was an efl'

or t in another— the one ending inasceticism , the other in licentiousness.The r ites, or r ather orgies of the left-hand wor

shipper s , pr esuppose the meeting of men and womenof all castes in the most unrestrained manner on

terms of perfect equality.

l They are car r ied on in

secret , and are said to requir e the use of some of thefive Makaras5 namely,— 1 . Mariy a, wine 5 2 . Mdma

,

flesh 5 3 . Malay a, fish 5 4 . Mudr c'

i , parched grain 52

5 . Ma iflzuna, sexual union .

3 Each of the aboveis again subdivided into five . But the object of

these wor shipper s is not merely to break through ther estraint of caste and g ive themselves up to liceutious practices. They also aim at acquir ing magicaland mystical power s by the use, or abuse , of Man tras,and what are called Vijas , Nyasas , and Yan tras.

The cir cle they form at their meeting s is called Eakm , and

the verse cited as the author ity for the temporary suppression of

caste at these meeting s is as follows —Pr dpte b’

Bizai r az/e fab ?

p( it/zak pfi tlmk. On enter ing the circle of Bhairava,° all castesar e on an equality with the best of the twice-born ; on leavingi t, they ar e ag ain separated into castes.

”

This g rain is eaten like dry biscuit with the wine and spi

r ituous liquor . The term Al udr i is also used in Ti ntrism to

denote mystical intertwining s of the fing ers so as to form sym

bo lim l fig ures.

3 The un ion of the actual man and woman in the r elig ion of

the Tantr ikas, o r left -hand worshippers, takes the place of theLing a and Yoni in that of the r ig ht-hand worshippers.

1 28 11 111 11 1115 11 .

With reg ard to the Mantras, it should be obse rvedthat a Mantra with the Tantr ikas loses its characterof a divinely inspired prayer addressed to a deity

(see p. It is generally, indeed, a text from the

Veda, but rather from the Atharva-veda collectionthan from the three other s, and instead of a pr ayer

or invocation, becomes a spell or charm, the very

sound of which, it’

proper ly uttered and repeated

according to prescr ibed formular ies, has, in itself, a

mystical power for good or evil .As to the Vijas, these are mystical letters or

syllables employed for br evity to . denote the root

(mfila), or essential par t of a Mantra, the name of

the deity to whom it may be addressed, or some

par t of the body over which that deity presides. For

example

Am is said to denote S'iva, U Vishnu, Hn‘

m the sun, Lam

the ear th,Nam the mind, Dlzam both the g oddessBhuvaneévar iand the tong ue, Nam both the g oddessAnnapfirni and the nose,Pam the ear , &c.

And here, be it observed, that the proper locationor application of the several letter s of the alphabetto the several par ts of the body, as symbols of theSaktis or Matrikas who preside over those par ts iscalled .Afi

'dsa, and plays an impor tant par t in the

Tantr ik wor ship. Sound is held'

to be eternal and

co- ex istent with the deity (according to the Mimansaaphor ism, S

’abda y onitvd

’

d B ralmza). Hence the

letter s of the alphabet being the ultimate instruments by which sounds are uttered and though tsexpressed, are consider ed to possess supernaturalattr ibutes, and to have in themselves a mystical and

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1 30 11 111 01115 111 .

tically, they constitute a fifth Veda (in place of the

Pur i nas), for the Saktas, or wor shippers of the femaledivine energy (S aktz

’

) of the male gods, on wh ich

account the name Ag ama is sometimes given to the

or iginal Tantras to distinguish them from M'

g ama , a

name only applied to the Vedas and Pur i nas.

Every Tantra ought, like a Pur i na, to treat of fivesubjects ; namely,— 1 . The Cr eation 5 2 . The destruction of the wor ld ; 3 . The wor ship of the gods ; 4 .

The attainment of all objects, especially of e ig htsuperhuman power s 5 5. The four modes of

union with the Supreme Spir it (see p. Very fewconform even par tially to this rule . Most of themare mer e hand -books for the use of practiser s of a

kind of witchcraft, which to Europeans appears so

inefl'

ably absurd that the possibility of any personsbelieving in it seems in itself almost incredible.

Whole Tantras teach nothing but what may be calledthe science of employing unmean ing sounds for

acquir ing magical power over fr iends, and for de

stroying enem ies and r ivals.Some g ive collections of spells suitable for making

people enamoured, for destroying sight, for producingor preventing diseases, for injur ing crops, for alchemy

Other s explain the most effectual modesof wor shipping the Saktis, Mahavidyas, Matr is,Yoginis, Vatukas, or by whatever name the inh umerable man ifestations of Siva and his wife may becalled. Other s simply descr ibe the Yantras, Vijas,and Mudras (inter twinings of the fing ers) belong ingto each man ifestation, the places suited for the worship of each , the names of trees and plants sacred to

11 111 11U15 11 . 1 3 1

each , or permeated by each, and the days of the

year allotted to each . Some few touch on near lyevery conceivable topic of human knowledge, and

contain her e and there really interesting matter .So little is known about the composition of these

mystical wr iting s that it is not possible to decide atpresent as to which are the most ancient, and stillless as to the date to be assigned to any of them.

They ar e all said to be founded on the Kaulopanishad.

It may, however , be taken for granted that the ex tanttr eatises are, l ike the ex tant Pur i nas, founded on olderworks and if the oldest known Puri na is not older

than the sixth or seventh century, an earlier date canscarcely be attr ibuted to the oldest known Tantra.

Perhaps the Rudr a-

yd’

mala is one of the most deservedly esteemed and most encyclopedic in its

teaching.

1 Other s are the S akti - rang ama, Vi fw s rdr a,

MaM—m’

r zzé zza , Vi r a, Kulc'

i r ztaw (or text-book of the

Kaulas), Sfya'

ma“

r alzarya, S ar adc'

i tilaka, Uddim ,

Kdmdklzy é , VzIrlzzm-

yd'

mala.

Full as the above works are of doubtful symbolism,

they are not necessar ily full of impur e allusions,though the teaching contained in the best of themunquestionably tends towards licentiousness. Whenthey are better known , their connection with adistor tedviewof the Sankhyan philosophy, andwith some of thecor rupt forms ofBuddhism,

willprobablybemade clear .There ar e also works called Vaishnava Tantras,

such as the Gautamiya and the Sanat-kumd'

r a, but

I t is said to consist of verses. A section of it,

called Ji ti -mala, treating of caste, has been pu'

nted at Calcutta.

1 3 2 11a 1115 11 .

even in these Siva is the nar rator and his wife thesupposed listener . Moreover their teaching, whichmakes Radha, the wife of Krishna, take the place of

Durga as the chief object of adoration, has the sametendency as that of the other Tantras, and equallyleads to licentiousness.It may be well to give some idea of what th is

Tantr ik teaching r eally is, by a specimen of the

dir ections given for performing the r ite called Bfifitafudd/zz; a r ite the aim of which is to expel the evilspir its whose presence would interfere with the dueperformance of subsequent ceremonies. The directions are her e abr idged from a native work on the

Durga-

pfija of Beng al.l

Holding a scented flower , anointed with sandal, on the lefttemple, r epeat 077: to the Gurus, to Ganesa, to Durg i .

Then with Ompfiat rub the palms with flowers, and clap thehands thr ice over the head, and by snapping the fing ers towardsten differ ent dir ections, secur e immunity from the evi l spi rits.Nex t utter the Mantra Ram, spr inkle water all around, andimag ine this water as a wall of fire. Let the pr iest identifyhimself with the animal spir it (fi'wi tman) abiding in man’s

br east, in the form of the taper ing flame of a lamp, and conductit by means of the Sushumna ner ve throug h the six sphereswithin the body upwards to the Divine Spir it. Then meditate on the twenty- four essences in natur e 5 viz. the five cardinalelements, the five exter nal or g ans of sense, the five org ans ofaction, with those of self- consciousness and self- cog i tation or

eg oism.

Conceive in the left nostr il the Mantra Yam, declared to bethe Vija or r oot of wind ; r epeat i t six teen times while drawingair by the same nostr il ; then close the nose and hold the

breath, and repeat the Mantra six ty- four times.

The author ’s name is Pr atdpa -Z'andm

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1 34 11 111 11111511 .

CHAPTER X .

MEDIEVAL AND MODERN SECTS.

IN the previous chapters we have endeavoured to

trace br iefly the progress of H indfiism, and have

followed it to the last stage of its developmen t i nmedieval times— to its darkest and wor st phase ,si ktism or Tantr ism . It is believed that six or sevenhundred years ag o Saktism was un iver sally prevalen tthroug hout the greater par t of India

,as indeed it

still is in Bengal and many other ex tensive distr icts.

This general degradation of religion thr ough what iscalled the left-hand form of worship— or devotion tothe female counterpar t of Siva— led to the spr ing ingup of var ious r eforming sects, and to them we mustnow turn our attention . It is a subject which opensout an almost unbounded field on which to expatiate

,

and volumes might be wr itten befor e exhausting it.Our limited space, however , r estr icts us to a br iefnotice of some of the chief sects ; and at the veryoutset we are met by a difficulty as to what is meantby a Hindi? sectThe term is sometimes applied in a general way

to five classes of wor shipper s, viz. the Vaz’

r lzzzavar ,

and S'dklas, with the Serums, Sun -wor shippers,

and Gc'

izzapao'as, ador er s ofGanapati (Ganesa), the lordof the t100ps of devils. But th e greater number 01

11 111 0 11 15 11 . 1 35

H indas are wor shippers ofVishnu, Siva or their Saktis ; and although many display special prefer ence forone or the other , many also pay homage to all thesedeities equally, without belonging to par ticular sects.

Mor eover,all good H indfis adore the sun (Szb y a)

daily, and scar cely any r eligious r ite is performedwithout homage being paid to him or Mantras beingaddressed to him

,while only a few per sons here and

ther e are specially initiated into his Mantra, or selecthim for their special saviour . Again, all H indfis

wor ship the god Ganesa, as the remover ofobstacles atthe commencement of every under taking 5 some of hisforms (such as Dhundhi - raja at Benares) receivingspecial wor ship at solitary places. In fact, the systemswe have styled Vaishnavism

,Saivism

, and Saktism,

with Sun -wor ship and Ganesa-wor ship, constitute, 50to speak, the chief staple of ordinary H indfiism.

Evidently, therefore, it must lead to confusionof thought if these five names are used to expresssectar ian separation from the every-day belief and

practice of the bulk of the H indfi people. But

we may legitimately employ the term sect todesignate separate societies or commun ities withinthe two leading systems of Vaishnavism and Saivism— separate divisions, in fact, of these systems themselves

,or iginated by par ticular revivalist leaders for

the enforcement of greater str ictness of devotion to

the Hinda gods, whose worship had degeneratedthrough the influence of Buddhism, or for the

propagation of their own peculiar ideas in moralsand philosophy. Such divi sions are called Sam

pradayas, as repr esenting the peculiar traditionary

1 36 11 1 110 11 15 11 .

doctr ine or ig inated by such teachers, and handed

down from generation to generation .

One most noticeable featur e in the Sampradayas

founded by these reformers has been the exag g era

tion of the pr inciple of faith and love (blmkti ), so

that even castewas subordinated to it ; in other words,the making devotion to Krishna (Vishnu) or Siva, butespecially an enthusiastic love for the former , a bondof union stronger than all social di stinctions.Those who made every other duty g iveway to this

religious passion called themselves, not Vaishnavas orSaivas, but Bh

'

aktas . They made songs, music,dancing, and waving of lights (5m) , take the placeof the old Vedic Mantras, substi tuted vernacularprayer s for those in Sanskrit, and paid special ador ation to the images of Krishna. Moreover

,they be

lieved that for the attainment of beatitude it wasnecessary to pass through five stages 1 . That of

S217m; or calm contemplation of the deity ; 2 , Thatof Ddsy a, or servitude ; 3 . That of Saklzya, or

fr iendship ; 4 . That of t salya, or filial affection ;and 5 . That of Mdd/mry a, or tender love.In the practice of this Bizaktz

'

they knew no dis

tinction of caste.Ther e seems, indeed, to have been a general desire

on the par t of the leader s of r eligious thought in Indiato follow the example of the great Buddha in hiseffor ts to deliver the people from the tyranny of casterules. At any rate they saw that the popular ity of thedoctr ines they inculcated depended on their attracting adherents from all r anks, high and low. Hence,most of the gr eat r eligious r evivalists proclaimed the

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1 38 11 11100 1511 .

ence for Vaishnavism. But, as a Vedantist, hereally had no preference either for Siva or Vishnu.

He is the reputed author of a vast numbe r of

treatises and commentar ies on the Vedanta philosophy (including the Atma-bodlza and J acuda -lafiafl ).His learning and sanctity wer e in such repute that

he was held to have worked var ious miracles ;amongst other s, an imating the dead body of a kingAmaru, so as to be able to argue with the wife of a

Brahman , named Mandana.

l

Let us now notice br iefly, and, if possible, inchronological order , six pr incipal divisions of Vaishnavism founded by leader s who lived at different

epochs. They may be disting uished from each other

by the names of their founders, thus,1 TireM

'

mbdr kas. 2 . I 7“Ra'

md'

nujar .

3 . The 4 . H eRa'

mdnandas.

5 27m Vallablzdéé ryar . 6 . 7716 C'ax

'

tanyas.

Of course, the common link of all these sects is

their belief in the supr emacy of Vishnu. Their difference consists in the character assigned to that g od, inthe practices and usages founded thereon by the

leader to which each sect owes its or igin, in the

philosophical doctr ines taught by that leader , and indistinctive sectar ian marks (p.

1 . To begin with the Nimbarkas (vulgar ly calledN imdndis), perhaps the least impor tant of the six

H is object is supposed to have been to become the husbandof the king ’s widow for a time, that he m ig ht learn by exper ience how to ar g ue on amatory subjects with the wife of theBrahman . This is descr ibed in the celebrated poem,

Amam

Iafaka , to which a mystical interpr etation is g iven.

nmnvrsu. r 39

Vaishnava sects, but the" first in chronological

order .

The founder ’s name was Nimbarka or Nimbaditya,

and is generally Strpposed to have been identical withthe astronomer , Bhaskar i c

'

arya, who is thought tohave flour ished in the 1 2th century.

Other s r egard him as an actual incarnation of the

Sun -god, under taken for the r evival of r eligion and

the suppression of heresy.

The adherents of this sect possess few characteristic peculiar ities. They worship Kr ishna and Ri dh

'

a'

. conjointly, and'

thei r chief scr iptural author ity is the Bhag avata-

pur i na (see

p . 1 Althoug h Nimbarka is said to have wr itten a commen

tary on the Veda, this sect is not possessed of any literatur e oftheir own, the want of which they attr ibute to the destructionof thei r books at Mathura, in the time ofAurang zi b.

This sect is distinguished by two perpendicularyellowish lines, made of Gopiéandana ear th, drawnfrom the root of the hair to the commencement of eacheyebrow,

and ther e meeting in a curve, to repr esentthe footpr in t of Vishnu. A second curve is sometimes added below.

It should be noted her e, that the poet Jayadeva,who is thought to have lived in the 1 2th century, maybe said to have followed Nimbarka in promoting thedoctr ine of devotion to Krishna,

by his celebratedpoem called Gita—govinda, in which are descr ibed theloves of Kr ishna and the Gopi s as

'

typical of thelonging of the human soul for union with the divine.1

The late Dr . Adam Clarke appears to have been struckwith the resemblance of this mystical poem to the Song of

Solomon. See his Commentary.L

1 4c 11 111 0 11 15 1 1 .

2 . The Rdmdnujas.— These come nex t in order of

time , and are a most impor tant sect in the South of

India.

They wer e founded by the celebrated r eformerRamanuja, who was born at Sr i Parambattfir (about 26miles west ofMadras), and is known to have studiedat Conjeveram, and to have resided at Sr i Rang am ,

near Tr ichinopoly. He probably flour ished about themiddle or latter par t of the 1 2th century. The ch iefdoctr ine he promulgated was, that Vishnu is the

Supr eme Being, that he was before all worlds, andwas the cause and cr eator of all thing s.

This sect has two g rand subdivisions —1 . The Vadag alaic,or Nor ther n School of Ramanujas ; 2 The n ula is, or

Southern School. The differ ence in their doctr ines is somethingthe same as that of Arminian and Calvinist . In philosophythey both belong to the Advaita, or non -dualistic school ; butRi manuja, althoug h he affi rmed the ultimate oneness of man

’s

soul with God’s, declar ed that in the body they wer e practicallydistinct . This doctr ine he called Vifz

'

sbg-ddvaz'

ta qualified

non -duality. ’ One peculiar ity of the sect consists in the

scrupulous pr eparation and pr ivacy of their meals. Anotherpeculiar ity is that they never allow mustachios on the upperlip. Moreover , they often have the cakra and other symbolsofVishnu br anded on thei r arms.

The frontal mark of both subdivisions of this sectconsists of two perpendicular white lines drawn fromthe root of the hair to the commencement of eacheyebrow, and meeting below in a curve. A centralperpendicular r eddish line is added to represen tLakshm i and, in the case of the Teng alais, the whiteline is ex tended halfway down the nose, and the wholeis supposed to repr esent the two feet of Vishnu.

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1 42 HINDUISM.

the Ramanujas. Their founder taug ht that all dist inction of

caste among the Vair i g is and ascetic orders oug ht to be

abolished.

Ramananda had twelve disciples, among whom the

most celebrated was a r emarkable r eformer named

Kabi r , who probably lived about the end of the 1 4th

century.

This Kabi r became the founder of a distinct sect.He assailed idolatry wi th gr eat boldness, and r idi

culed the r eligi ous practices of his fellow—countrymen,

though he allowed adoration to be paid to Vishnu or

Rama, as names for one god. He promulg ated a hig hmoral code, declar ing that life was a sacred g ifiof

God, and that the blood of men or an imals oug ht

never to be shed by his creatures. He laid g reat stresson truthfulness, and advocated r etirement from the

wor ld for the attainmen t of control over the passions.It is supposed that Nanak Shah, the founder of the

Sikh r eligi on , who was born in the Panjab, near

Lahore, and in the reign ofBabar about the year 1 500,attempted a compromise between Hinduism and

Islam , was indebted to his predecessor Kabi r , for hispantheistic opin ions

,and some of the other ideas

which character ize his system.

l H is order of ascetics

(cor responding to Sannyasi s and Vairag i s), are calledUdi si s.

5 . The Vallab/zdéci fyas form a very importan t sectin Bombay, Gujarat, and Central India.

The Adi - g rantha, first book, ’ which embodies his system,

and is the bible of the Sikhs (prohibiting idol-worship, and

teaching the unity of the Godhead pantheistically) was pron al

g ated about the time of our Reformation.

HINDUISM. 1 43

Their founder , Vallabhaéarya, is said to have beenborn in the forest C’

amparanya in 1 479, and is r egardedby his follower s as an incarnation of Krishna.

Var ious miraculous stor ies ar e fabled about him.

For instance, his intelligence is alleged to have been so

g reat that when he commenced learn ing at the ag e of

seven , he mastered the four Vedas, the six systems ofPhilosophy, and the eighteen Puranas in four mon ths.

After such pr ecocity we need not wonder that at the ag e of

twelve he had formulatedhis teaching , and commenced travellingto propag ate hisdoctr ines. When he r eached the cour t ofKrishnadeva, king of Vijayanag ar , he was invited to a public dispntation with the S

'aivas, in which he succeeded so well that he

was elected chiefKéi rya ofthe Vaishnavas. He then travelled fornine years throug h differ ent par ts of India, and finally settled inBenares, wher e he composed seventeen works among whichwas the Bhi g avata

- tika- subhodhini ,’or commentary on the

Bhag avata-

purana, which last work, especially its tenth book(see p. is the chief author itative sour ce of the doctr ines ofthe sect. In philosophy he maintained Vedantist doctr ines, andcalled his system S udd/zd

’

dw ita ,‘pur e non -dualism,

’to distin

g uish it from the Vzfirktddw ita of Ramanuja. Vallabhfiéarya

died at Benares, or , according to his followers, was transpor tedto heaven while performing his ablutions in the Gang es.

Vallabhacarya left behind him eighty- four discipleswho disper sed themselves thr oug hout India and

dissem inated his doctr ines. But the real successorto the Gadi or Chair of Vallabhaé

'

arya

was his second son, Vitthalnath, sometimes called

Gosainji from his having settled at Gokul, nearMuttra (Mathura). This Vitthalnath had seven sons,each ofwhom established a Gaddi in different partsof India, especially in Bombay, Kutch, Ki ttiwar ,and Malwa, and par ticularly among the merchants

1 44 HINDU ISM.

and trader s called Ban ias and Bhatias. The influ

ence of Vallabha'

carya’

s successors became so g reat

that they acquired the title of Maharaja, the name

Gosain (for Gosvamin— lord of cows— ah epithet ofKrishna) being sometimes added.

Vallabhaéarya’

s system is called P y s/ttzlmdr g a the

way of eating, dr inking, and enjoying oneself’that is

to say, wor shipping the deity, not with fasting , self

denial,self-mortification , and pen itence, but with in

dulg ence of the natural appetites and enjoyment of thegood things of the wor ld. The god wor shipped is theKrishna form of Vishnuwith his wives the Gop is orcowherdesses. But their idol is g enerally one repte

senting Krishna in his childhood, ti ll his twelfth year .

According to the pur er Vaishnava faith Krishna’s love

for the Gopi s, and especially for his favour ite Radha,is to be explained allegor ically, as symboliz ing the

longing of the human soul for the Supreme. But the

Vallabhacaryas interpr eted it in a gross and mater ialsense. Hence their devotion to Kr ishna and his

wives degenerated into the most cor rupt practices, and

their system became rotten to the cor e. Their menhad brought themselves to believe that they

~must as

sim ilate themselves to female Gopi s in doing homag eto their god, and the Maharajas or spir itual chiefs,the successor s of Vallabhaéarya, were to dress likewomen in order to commend themselves to Krishna.

But far mor e than this, these Maharajas had come tobe regarded as representatives of Kr ishna upon ear th,and it was even believed by many that they weredivine beings— incarnations of the god. Hence in the

temples, where the'

Maharajas did homage to the

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1 46 11 111 01115 11.

cedence, from the super ior importance of the temple

and monastery ofwhich he is head.

Svi mi-Narayan, who took the name of SahajanandaSviimi (cor rupted into Sejananda), was not a native

of Gujarat. He was born m 1 780 A.D. , at Chapai,a town in Oudh, about six ty kos to the north east ofLucknow, and died about the year 1 830 , when he

was for ty-nine year s old.

Living in Gujarat, he soon became stir red in spir it by the

sensuality of the Vallabhi éi ryas. To counteract their hcentious practices, Svami-N

'

ar i yan, who, to a natural leaning towards

Udai ra and asceticism, joined all the energ y of a g r eat reformer ,made chastity and pur ity of life the keynote of all his teaching ,‘and ended by boldly asserting that he himself, and not Vallahhaéarya, was the true incarnation ofKrishna, and that the g od,in order to r estor e the Vaishnava faith to its former pur ity, haddescended in his per son as a Brahmacan , or Brahman under a

vow of continence.

6 . C’az

’

tarzyar . This sect is peculiar to Beng aland Or issa, wher e it is of g r eat impor tance and well

known .

The founder , C’aitanya, was born about 1 485, and

r eg arded as an incarnation of Kri shna. At the ag e

of twenty-four he became an ascetic, and tr avelled to

Jag anniith, in Or issa, where he taught Vaishnavadoctr ines.

He r emained twelve years at Katak, eng ag ed in intense medi

Their code of instructions is of a very pure and lofty chatsetar . I t is compr ised in a little work called S'iksfid-petn

'

, a

copy of which, with a commentary in Gujarati and Sanskrit,was pr esented tome by the Maharfija ofWar tal on the occasionofmy visit to the temple andmonastery at that place, over whichhe presides.

11 1 110 11 15 1 1 . 47

tation on Kr ishna. But this was not his only occupation . l le

insisted on the impor tance of sing ing (sanh'

r tana ) and dancing ,as well as of contemplation, to fit the mind for ecstatic communion with the deity, and his followers often swooned awayin their fits of relig ious emotion. He was himself subject to fitsof relig ious ecstasy, and died durin g one of them whilst bathingin the sea nea r Pur i . After his death he was canonized, anddeclared to have been an incarnation ofKrishna.

C’aitanya’s disciples soon spread themselves over

Bengal . They hold that Krishna is the SupremeBeing, and that b/zaktz

'

or faith in him is mor e ethcacious than knowledge, than subjugation of the

passions, than meditation (y og a), than char ity, virtue,or anything usually deemed most mer itor ious. All

castes become by such faith equally pure, and all

castes are equally adm issible into the sect. Theirchief r itual consists in constantly repeat ing the nameKri shna. A gr eat many trea tises have been wr itten

in support of their tenets, which are highly esteemedin Bengal.Besides the above- descr ibed six pr incipal sects of

Vaishnavas, ther e are many others of less impor tancesuch as the followers of Vtfitfia]or ”?Ito-be

'

i (a form of

Krishna)1 worshipped more especially at Pandharpurin Maha- r ii shtra, and the favour ite of the celebratedMarathi poet Tukar iima ; the follower s of Da

'

dzI

(Dddfi a famous ascetic who lived at Jaipur

about A.D. 1 600 ; the M i r aba'

k a subdivision of the

Vallabhaéaryas founded by Mirabat, the wife of the

R i m of Udaipur and several others.

The imag es of this form of Krishna g enerally represent himand his wife with their hands resting on their hips.

1 48 11 1 11 0 11 15 111.

With reg ard to the so-called Saiva sects, there are

a large number of Saivas in the South of India, calledLt

'

ng a- vats (commonly Linga

- its and Jang amas), as

weanng the Linga on their persons. They werefounded by a leader named Vrishabha, who taug ht

the suppression of all caste distinctions, and the use

lessness of all Brahman ical r ites. This sect buryinstead of burn ing their dead. Another so called

S'

aiva sect, the Pdfupata: (worshippers of Siva in

his character of Pafu-patz'

, lord of the soul, called

pafu), base their philosophical doctr ines on a system

called Siva- siddhanta.

Saiva ascetics ar e proper ly called Sannyasis, butthey are often confounded with other orders of

ascetics, called Vairag is (supposed to be proper lyVaishnavas), Gosains, Yogi s, &c. The following areother order s

The Par amakamas, or the hig hest order of Yog is, who are

solely occupied with meditating on Brahma ; the Ag /zon'

m or

Ag fior a -patfiim , who propitiate S’iva by r evolting auster ities ;

the vr dfiva- bfim , who ex tend one or both arms over the headand hold them in that position for years the A

_kiifa -muklzim ,

who keep their necks bent back looking up at the sky ; the

Dapglim , or mendicant staff-bear ers, a subdivision ofwhom hasbeen alr eady descr ibed as founded by S'ankar iEi rya .(see p.

Having thus noted the pr incipal divisions of

Vaishnavas and saivas, which owe their or igin to theg reat leader s of r elig ious thought and practice inmedieval and modern times, we cannot conclude th is

This is the hig hest order of ascetics. The theory is that aYog i who aims at per fection oug ht to g o thr oug h six courses ofauster ity of twelve year s each. In the last he is called a

Par ama -lzam a .

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1 50 11 11100 15 11 .

in the Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of

mankind,”and its theology might be well expressed

by the first par t of the first Ar ticle of the Church of

England There is but one living and true Godever lasting, without body, par ts, or passions, of infinitepower , wisdom and goodness, the maker and preserverof all things.”

Other forms of theistical Samaj ex ist in India for

example, one called the Prarthana Samaj or P r ay erSoa

’

dy , at Bombay. These have the Vedanta formulaEkam evi dm

’

tiy am (see p. 1 1 ) inscr ibed over the en

trance to their house of prayer , r ecently erected.

Moreover , a new Brahman r eformer,

named Dayananda, has r ecently appeared, and is attracting manyadherents in the West of India. He is engaged inwr iting a new commentary to the Rig—veda, which heinterprets monotheistically, and his society is calledthe Arya- samaj .We must acknowledge with thankfulness the g ood

these theistical societies are doing by their uncom e

promising opposition to idolatry, fanaticism, supersti

tion , and caste. They are the present protestants ofIndia.

Never theless it is to be feared that, with the

exception of the Progr essive Samaj of Calcutta, theyare not altogether free from a suspicion of pantheisticproclivities.

H INDUISM . 1 5 1

CHAPTER X I .

M O D E R N C A S T E S .

NOTWITHSTANDING the constan t effor ts of greatr eligious leaders in India to deliver their fellowcountrymen from the tyranny of caste, the power 01caste has always in the end r ecover ed its ascendency.

It might almost indeed be infer red from the influenceexer ted by caste- rules on the daily life of the H industhat the whole of their r elig ion was centr ed in casteObservances, and that Hinduism and caste were conver tible terms. And, in point of fact, str ictness inthe maintenan ce of caste is the only real test ofH induism exacted by the Brahmans of the presentday . In matter s of mer e faith, Hinduism is (as wehave seen) all- tolerant and all- r eceptive.

'

N0 per sonwho is not born a Brahman can become one, but anyper son can be admitted into the lower ranks ofH induism who will acknowledge the supremacy of the

Brahmans and obey the rules of caste. So long as

a man holds to his caste, he is at liber ty to hold anyopinions he likes, even to accepting the doctr ines ofChr istian ity.

Perfection is alone attained by himWho swer ves not from the business of his caste.‘

Caste, as a social institution, ex ists, of cour se, in

See the Bhag avad~ Gi ta, quoted in the appendix of this

volume (p.

1 52 11 111 111115 11 .

all countr ies, and in England operates with no slig ht

potency. We believe in a close connection betweenblood and breeding and, although we do not g o so

far as to hold that differ ent grades of society havedifferent coloured skins (according to the or ig inal

Hindutheory), yet we have a difficulty in admittingthat a man who is not a gentleman by bir th can ever

be made one by train ing. With us, however , caste isnot a r elig ious institution . Ou the contr ary, our

relig ion , though it sanctions differences of rank,

teaches us that class - distinctions oug ht to be lai daside in the worship of God

,and that there is no

respect of persons with H im. Nor with us does

caste preven t a cer tain amount of social union, intercour se, interchange of ideas, and even in termar r iag e,between the var ious classes of society ; nor does it, asin India, operate to merge the individual in the cor

porate body, to set class against class, to prevent thelower r ising to the upper , and to make national unionimpossible. On the contrary, with us all ranks and

order s so run into each other and blend imperceptiblytogether , that it becomes impossible to separate theminto sharply-defined strata, or to say where the upperends and the middle or lower begins.Very different is the caste theory of the Hindus.

The doctr ine of Manu was (see pp. 57, 58) that thedeity created distinct kinds of men , as he createdvar ieties of an imals and that Brahmans, Kshatr iyas,Vaisyas, and sudras were born and must r emain frombir th to death distinct from each other . A Brahman ,however , could have four wives, and mar ry a womanbelong ing to any of the three lower castes. Intermar r iage could also take place between members of

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1 54 11 11100 15 1 1 .

or iginal pure castes of ancient times. Many of thesetrade-unions resemble the guilds of ar tisans once

common in Europe, and have numerous sub—castes

under them.

1 Each society keeps aloof from the

other , and shuts itself up in its own independence .

And yet, within each caste, individual independenceis impossible, because no individual can act alone,but on ly in conjunction with his caste- t

'

ellows.

Probably, the or iginal idea of caste was, that

difference of complex ion, or skin- colour (var zza),marked a natural separation between the g rades ofsociety. The ear ly immigrants found par ts of I ndiaoccupied by Negr ito abor igines, almost as dark as

Afr icans and they themselves,by in termar ri age with

the pr imitive tr ibes (some of them afterwards calledsudras), and again by fur ther intermarri age amongthemselves, lost their or iginal fairness of complex ion.

Hence subsequent immigrants ar r iving in India, andfinding those already settled ther e as cultivator s ofthe soil (va i fy as) mor e dark- coloured than themselves,claimed a super ior ity of rank based upon greaterpur ity of blood, which pur ity, they believed, couldonly be main tained by str ict prohib itions ag ainstintermar r iage with the lower classes. We may in thisway account for the or igin of the higher castes of

Brahmans and Kshatr iyas. Soon a theory was ad

vanced that food had an impor tan t efi'

ect on the

preservation of blood- pur ity, and str ict regulationsabout eating and dr inking came into force . As timewent on , still fur ther safeguards wer e elaborated .

I n the Nor th -west, the Kayasth , or wr iter caste, has twelvesubdivisions, and similar ly, the Barhai , or carpenter caste, hasseven sub - castes, none of which can eat tog ether .

11 11100 15 1 1 . 1 55

Even contact with the skin of per sons of infer iorcaste was thought likely to cause contamination .

Hence, only men of the same caste were allowed toeat together and work together ; and when a deathoccur r ed, no man could be car r ied to the burningg round except by his own caste- fellows. These ruleshave multiplied almost endlessly among the almostendless divisions of moder n caste but it will beobserved that, however numerous and intr icate suchrules have become, they still affect a man chiefly in

the four matter s of mar r iage, food, professional occupatiou

, and funeral r ites .As to the fir st of these

,intermarr iage between

differen t castes,which in Mann

’s timewas permissible,is now altogether prohibited

, and a kind of endog amy ,

or mar r iage within a limited circle of caste-associates,leading to many objectionable results, is enforced, notonly in each caste, but even generally in every subcaste . For example, there ar e, it is said, eighty - foursub - castes of Brahmans in Gujarat which are not

allowed to intermar ry,and in many of these there are

mor e males than females.

l

In r egard to the second point, of food,

’ the rulesare more str ict than in Manu

’s time, not merely as tothe kind of food, but also as to the mode of its pre

par ation , and the per sons with whom it is eaten . All

the hig her classes agree in abstain ing from an imalfood, the eating ofwhich, although former ly permittedon cer tain occasions, is now regarded as a sin . Again

,

The sub - castes of the Kayasths cannot intermar ry excep ,

ith the h ig hest of the twelve

1 56 nw owam.

all classes, high and low,hold it to be not only a sin,

but an act of down r ight impiety,to eat the flesh of

oxen .

l Even to sit in the presence of an Englishmanwhile engaged in eating beef, is not only sinful, butproduces feelings of disgust far greater than an

Englishman would feel in sitting nex t to a Chinaman

while satisfying his appetite with a meal of boiled rats.The sacredness and inviolability of the cow and ox

is in real truth a un iver sally applicable test of modern

o r thodox Hinduism.

So also it is not merely a breach of social propr iety,but an offence against religion, for a man ofhig h casteto eat food pr epar ed by one of inferior caste or for

member s of different castes to eat together .

2 An im

por tant distinction , however , in r egard to eating together is made between food cooked with water and dryfood. The former consists of boiled r ice, dal, &c .

, or

of coar se baked cakes, and this kind of food, whichcontains no g hi , is eaten by all castes apar t fromeach other , after washing their hands and feet, andr emoving par t of their clothing. Ou the otherhand, dry food comprehends not only all dry eatablesand fruit, but also food cooked with g hi , as well as

Happily for the H indus, the cow which supplies them with

their only an imal food— m ilk and butter— and the ox , whi chhelps to till their g round, wer e declar ed sacr ed at an ear lyper iod. Had it not been so

,this useful animal mig ht have been

ex terminated in times of famine. What is now a superstitionhad its or ig in, like some other superstitions, in a wise foresig ht.

Contrast St. Paul, 1 Cor . v. 1 1—“Now I have wr itten untoyou not to keep company, if any man that is called a brotherhe a fornicator , or covetous, or an idolater , or a railer , o r a

drunkard, or an extortioner ; wi th such an one no not to eat.”

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1 58 11 1 11 0 11 15 111 .

thoug ht to impar t a taint which makes the most wholesome meal unfit to be eaten .

With r egard to the third point affected by caste,viz. professional pur suits, it should be observed thatBrahmans alone are allowed free liber ty of eng ag ingin the occupations of other castes . Former ly onlysix acts were permitted to a stri ct Brahman, viz.

r epetition of the Veda teaching it toother s sacr ificing (y ajana), assisting at

sacr ifices (yajana), giving and r eceiving g ifts

(f r atzg r alza). But even in Manu’3 time Brahmans

might under cer tain circumstances become soldier s,or live by agr iculture, keeping cattle, or trade (Manu,

x . 80—82 , 1 0 1 , 1 02 ix . In the presen t day theyare often cooks, and they may engage in any industr ial ar ts not involving contamination and deg radation.

The other castes ar e generally restr icted to one

occupation , but the names of the castes are not

always a guide to the nature of their employmen ts,these latter having sometimes in process of timebecome changed.

Indeed it is by open ing its arms to receive associations of men engaged in the same ar t or trade thatHinduism, which is not in theory a proselyting cr eed,is continually ex tending itself. Any body of men,pur suing the same occupation , may form themselvesinto a kind of trade-un ion, and the Brahmans willadmit them into the pale of their r eligion, the solecondition s being that they bind themselves not to

intermar ry with other castes, and accept the supremacyof the Brahmans and the sacredness of the cow or 011.

11 1 110 11 15 1 1 . 1 59

The four th and last poin t affected by caste, is the

performance offuneral r ites, andofSraddhas in honour

of the dead . This interesting subject hasbeen alr eadynoticed (see p. We have only space to state fur therthat considerable var iation in the pe rformance of suchcer emon ies prevails everywher e throughout India, andthat all diver sities of usage in this matter dependupon difference of caste

,and of sub - caste, and even

sometimes of gr oups of families.It only r emains for us to enumerate some of the

more impor tan t divisions and subdivisions of castenow found in India.

l

To begin with the Brahmans who are still religiouslyabove all other castes, and are still in their own

estimation , and in that of bigoted Hindus, the lordsof creation ’ by a kind of divine r ight. They are

divided into ten pr incipal tr ibes, thus

The norther n division of Brahmans (sometimes called Gaua’a )has five tribes under it, according to the proper abode, viz. , the

Kdny abubja (Kanauj ), Sci r an '

ata (North -west), Garage (Beng a land Delhi ), .Ma itfiila (North Behar ), Utkala (Or issa). Thesouthern division (calledD r d

'

w'

rfa) has also live ; viz. , the Mah i

r dJ /zfr a (Marathi distr icts), Ta i/mg a (Telug u), D r dwlja (Tam il),Kam dla (Kar natic), and Gwya r a (Gujarat). The first tr ibe ofthe northern division, viz. the Kdny ah cbja, or Kanauj , is ag ainnumerously subdivided, and especially into one hundr ed and

fifty - six tr ibes, ofwhich one hundr ed are called Vdrmdr a , and

fifty - six Rddfia or Ri f f: (from Rag ha, a d15 tr ict in the west ofBeng al). Of the former , eig ht, and of the latter six , ar e t e

g arded as A’

ulx‘

na, or noble. The six Kulina Ragh tri bes are

Banerjea,Mukhurjea, C

'

aturjea, Gi r g uli, Goshiila, andKanjali la.

The Rev . M . A. Shem’

ng , of Benares, has published auseful work on this subject , which is my chief authori ty here.

1 60 H INDUISM.

Again , all tr ibes of Brahmans are divided intoGaff as or groups of fam ilies, according as they are

supposed to be der ived from one or other of the sevenmythical sages, Bhrig u, Aug iras, Atr i, Visvamitra,(Kausika), Kasyapa, Vasishtha, and Agastya. Theseseven sets of Gotras are again subdivided into other stoo numerous to mention .

l

Again, Brahmans are still fur ther classified accordingto their supposed par ticular line of study, or ex tent oflearning as, for example, whether a man knows theRig- veda alone (fizg veda or the Yajur -veda

( Yajurwa’

a or two Vedas (dvi - z'edi , commonlycalled Dobe), or three Vedas (tr zi vedz

‘

, commonlyTiver i), or four Vedas (Eatur - vea

’

i commonly Chaube),or some par ticular branch (SVikk i ) ofone of the Vedasor its Sutras, or whether he is generally a learned man

Other titles are the r esult of differ ence of

occupation ; as, for instance,The S ’r otr zya who performs Vedie ceremonies ; the Ya

‘

jn i éa,who per forms the Sanskar as the Vaidika, who r ecites the

Veda ; the S a‘

stn’

, who explains the law-books the Pa rm‘

igzfia

who r ecites the Puifinas the fiotz'

slm, who knows astr onomy,and settles the calendar ; the Mahd-br cikmazza or Mafid-fi tr a

(in some places called A who ar rang es the ceremonies attimes of death and mourning ; the G

'

ang é-putr a, who sits near

the Gang es and g uides the pilg r ims at Benar es the Gay ii -wa‘

l,

who super intends the pilg r ims at Gaya; the Pr ay a’

g-wdl, who

does the same at Allahabad the Ojlm—exor ciser ofdemons ; thelast five of whom are Brahmans of an infer ior order , and somear e r eg arded with contempt by hig h - caste Brahmans.

The Rajputs, who r epresen t the ancient Kshatri ya,military and royal caste, and come nex t to the Brahmans, are also divided into numerous tr ibes or clans,

There ar e eig hty- four subdivisions in Gujarat alone.

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1 62 11 1 110015 1 1 .

present so- called Vaisya caste have anything to do

with agr iculture. Some of them may be of toler ablypure descent, but they are generally merchan ts, shopkeeper s, and trader s, form ing tr ibes called Ban ias orBan iyas (Sanskrit bazdk), Bhatiyas, &c. , many of

whom are Vaishnavas, and many Jains in the ir creed.

A large class of trader s are called K/mtr z‘

s, which name

probably shows that they are descended fr om the

ancient Kshatr iyas, and in cer tain pr ivileg es, such as

that of wear ing the sacred thread (common ly called

[aneo and repeating the Gayatr i and

par ts of the Veda, these Khatr i tr ader s who are often

shopkeeper s, dealer s in cloth, silk, lace, &c. , comenear er to the ancient Kshatr iyas than the Rajputs,who claim to represent them.

1

Other impor tant classes of trader s who claim Vaisyadescent ar e the Ag arwdlc

’

i s of Nor th-westem and

Central India (mostly Jain s in r eligion),— the Orwdkof Gujarat (also found at Benar es), the Bandarwd

’

r s,

the Rasfog‘z‘

s, the Banjdr ds (wander ing merchants), & c.

The above mercantile and trading communities constitute the most enterpr ising and enlightened, as wellas the best- educated of all the Indian castes (not excepting the Brahmans), and it is from this sour ce thata strong middle- class capable of creating and foster in ga sound healthy public opin ion— one of the gr eatestof India’s needs— may one day be der ived.

Another enterpr ising and educated class are called

Rajput boys also wear the sacred cord, but they are not

invested with it till mar r iag e, whereas the Khatri s receive i t ateig ht years of ag e. I n some parts of India, Kathaks (musicians),Sfitars (carpenters), Sonars (g oldsmiths), Bhatiyas and Kaser i s(braziers), also wear the Janco.

11 1 1100 15 1 1 . 1 63

Kdyastfias or wr iter s, who claim to have had a

Brahman progenitor named C'itra—gupta. They comenex t in rank to the Vaisya or trading commun ities, andar e by some affirmed to be pure Sfidras, though theyare much above those lower classes now called Sudras .The member s of this caste (who are often vulgar lycalled Kaits) discharge most impor tant duties in thegovernment law- cour ts and other offices. They are

lawyer s, clerks, accountants, keeper s of register s, &c. ,

and ar e generally most intelligent and well- informed .

Ther e ar e at least twelve sub- castes ofKayasthas, divided in Bengal into eleven clans,named GosBose (vasu), Mitra, De, Datt, Kor , Palit, Das, Sen ,Singh , Guha. Fur thermor e, in Bengal ther e is a castecalled Vaz

’

a’

y a or Baz'

afya, medical (=Ambasfiflza,Manu

,x . which comes nex t in rank to the Brahman .

I t will not be possible for us to enumerate all thecastes formed by associations of men engaged in

var ious employments, trades, ar ts, industr ial and

men ial occupations . Some of the commonest are thefollowing

Elaia or C'

a r am ,reciters of poetry at wedding s, &c. (or in

praise of Rajput pr inces, Kat/zakr , professional musicians (these play on var ious musical instrumen ts and teachsing ing and dancing to prostitutes, fo r no r espectable womene ither sing or dance, and even had women seldom play on

instruments) 50min (m var gra -kdr a ), g oldsmiths, a subdivisionof whom are the Rat/za - l'dr ar , who claim to be a Brahmanrace ; Lofidr : (loha blacksmiths ; Baffin

“

: or $ 121e

(salm carpenters, sometimes employed as smiths ; Tana”

:

weavers, who also manufacture Kim-khab (pr oper lythe Persian Kam -d

’

é,and vulg ar ly Kinkob), or cloth inter

woven w ith g old and silver thr ead (there is also a weaver castecalled K A

'

arer a’

: (kama -bdm ), braziers or workers in

1 64 11 1 1100 15 1 1 .

brass, copper , &c. Tali: oilmen ; Kumbfidr : or Kumhz

'

i rs (KumMa -kdr o), potters ; D&obz‘

s washermen ,

(no H indi‘

r, however poor , washes his own clothes this opera

tion must be per formed by the Dhobi caste, who are g enerallyknown by their donkeys) Ma

‘

lz'

s, g ardeners ; Log ar i t (14 1 mm

preparers of salt Rang d'

n'

: (r ang a dyers

Halwdz‘

s, confectioners .Di r zz‘

r, tailors (who, when Muhamma

dans,ar e euphemistically called Khali fas or Caliphs) Nai r

(na’

pzta) or Hajjd'

mr , barbers (who are also g o-betweens inar rang ing mar r iag es) Akin , herdsmen ; 1( afidr s, palankin

bear ers ; Mullahs, boatmen ; Pa‘

fi’

s, villag e watchmen. To

the above may be added unclean castes, such as C’a‘

mdr (2cmh im ) or M0213 , leather - cutters and shoemakers ; M ili tan t or

Bfiang i r, sweepers or scaveng ers ; Dams, cane chair -maker s (these

ar e the lowest of the low ; they are often employed as str eetsweepers and in furn ishing wood and fire for the burning of

dead bodies) K&lz'

s, labour ers this last name is rather appli

cable to any labourer than to a caste, being der ived fr om a

Dravidian word, and meaning one who r eceives (daily) wag esor kfili .

It is sati sfactory to know that, although it is tootrue that caste is still the very life and soul of Hinduism

,and although this very caste is not without

cer tain good poin ts and advantages, yet some of itsmost vexatious rules ar e gradually giving way underthe pr essure of steam, electr icity, and Eumpean influence. Many year s ag o a Brahman who accidentallytouched leather would have had to choose betweenpublic expiation or degradation, and expulsion fr omcaste, wher eas in 1 870 a Ur iya Brahman held the

post of sub - inspector of police in Pur i itself, within

the very shadow of Jagannath, although a leatherbelt formed par t of his uniform.

l

Hunter ’s Or issa, vol. 11 . p. 147.

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1 66 H INDUISM.

1nvoked at the commencement of all under tak ing s.His bloated, dwarfish, and distor ted appearance ,which is like that of the Ganas of Siva over whomhe presides, indicates sensuality and love of g ood

living, while his elephant’s head is said to typify

a combination of wi sdom,or , perhaps, rather , of

cunning and sagacity .

Again, shr ines to the other 5011 of Siva, Skan da or

Kar ttikeya, the leader or general of Siva’s armies or

t100ps of demons, are very common in the south of

India. He is there called Subrahmanya.

Nex t are found all over India shr ines dedicated tothe Monkey- god Hanuman , the devoted ally of the

great Rama in his conflict with the Rakshasas of theSouth of India (see p. 1 1 His images are smear edwith the sacred colour vermilion, to denote the estimation in which he is held, and the un iver sal admiration of his devotion as a model faithful ser vant. Afterthe great war , and the subjugation of Ravana, kingof Ceylon, Rama is said to have made over to Hanu

man a gr eat por tion of the Deccan (tie. Dakshina, orsouth country, sometimes called Rama-kshetra, and

sometimes Dandakaranya), of which Hanuman and

his follower s became the pr incipal colon izers. Henceidols of the monkey—leader ar e found in (and often

outside) every village of the Marathi country.

Then in some towns, such as Benares, besides thepr incipal shr ines there are temples of the Nava

g r alzd’

é, n ine planets, that is of the Sun-

g od (Surya),Moon - god Mar s

,Mer cury, Jupiter , Venus,

Saturn, Rahu (dragon’s- head, or ascending node of

the moon, and cause of eclipses), and Ketu (drag on’

s

11 11100 15 11 . 1 67

tail), which, With the Nakshatras (see p. Constl

tute a formidable galaxy of deities whose favour mustbe conciliated befor e mar r iages and other auspiciousevents can be successfully accomplished,— with manyspecial shr ines, such as those of Anna—pfir zzc

'

i,the

goddess of plenty S i tald, the goddess of small- poxB lzaz

’

r aw - rzdtlza or D azzq’

a a sor t of deified policemagistrate, and other s too numerous to descr ibe.Again, carved stone images of the following well

known deities of the Hindu Pantheon are not un

common

I ndr a , g od of the atmosphere Var ugza , g od of the ocean ;K aw m

, g od of wealth Kdma, g od of love ; BaIa - r dma, the

H indfi Hercules ; Par afa - r dma, a de ified Brahman who is

especially connected with the Konkan (called from h im Par a

fur d’

ma -bs/zetr a) and sometimes r eg arded as the g od of the

Konkanastha Brahmans ; Yama, g od and judg e of the dead.

But shr ines dedicated to their honour are unusual . 1

Nor are cer tain groups (g ana) of gods honouredwith special shr ines . The following, however , are

r ever enced

The ten Vi s‘w -dwa: the eig ht Vasm (forms offire or lig ht)the eleven Rudr a: (see p. 25) the twelve Adity as (see p. 23)the d lzy as, celestial being s of peculiar pur ity ; the Sz

’

a’dlzas,semi -divine being s of g reat perfection.

But the idol-wor ship of the towns by no meansrepresents the common cultus of the rural distr icts ofIndia. No village is too small, no locality too littlefrequented to be without its own peculiar r eligioussymbols. At the tops of hills, in gr oves, on every

I have never met with shr ines to Iudra, Varuna, Kuvera,o r Yama, thoug h their imag es often stand in the g aller ies of

temples, or ar e carved on the walls qf caves.

1 68 11 11100 15 1 1 .

high place, and almost under every rock and statelytr ee, are to be seen, if not finished temples, at leastrough idols or simple blocks of stone and wood, consecrated to local deities by patches of

,red pain t, and

bear ing witness to the belief of the inhabitan ts in the

presence of presiding gods and goddesses. Thereis, in truth, a strange mix ture of abor iginal fetishismwith Brahman ical pantheism in the popular r eligionof the mass of the Hindu people. Everythingg reat and useful— everything strange, monstr ous,and unusual, whether good or evil, is held to bepermeated by the pr esence of divinity. It is not

mer ely all the m ighty phenomena and forces of the

un iver se— all the most str iking manifestations of

almighty energ y— that excite the awe and attract ther everence of the ordinary Hindu. Ther e is not anobject in ear th or heaven which he is not preparedto wor ship— rocks, stocks, and stones, tr ees, pools,and r iver s, his own implements of trade,1 the ani

mals he finds most useful, the nox ious r epti les hefear s, men r emarkable for any ex traordinary q ualities,— for g r eat valour , sanctity, vir tue, or even vice

g ood and evi l demons, ghosts and goblins, the sp ir i tsof depar ted ancestor s, an infinite number of semihuman, semi- divine ex istences— inhabitants of the

seven upper and the seven lower wor lds— each and

all of these come in for a shar e of divine honour or atr ibute of more or less adoration . Ver ily, the

Hindu Pan theon has a place for everybody and

Every trade, profession, and calling has its tutelary divin ity .

Even the Thug s claimed the g oddess Kali as their presidingg oddess, in whose honour they murder ed their victims.

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1 70 H IN0 0 15 1 1 .

race of serpents, half human, half divine, calledNagas, is supposed to ex ist in the regions under theear th. They are ruled over by three pr incipal serpents, named S'es/m, Vdsuki , and Taks/zaka . Ac

cording to some,this serpent race, however fabulous,

points to the former ex istence of a class of being s towhich the serpent that tempted Eve may havebelonged, before the sentence was pronounced bywhich it became a creeping reptile.

Monkeys, a whole army of which aided Rama inhis conquest of Ceylon, are, of cour se, among themost sacred of all an imals. They are inviolable, andnever under any cir cumstances to be molested .

Swarms of them are encouraged to infest the vicin ityof temples and consecrated buildings, wher e they subsist on the food offer ed to them by pious worshippers.

But not only an imal life, plant life also is heldsacred, because thought to be permeated by divin ity .

Perhaps the T0151plant (proper ly Tulasi ), or holyBa5 11,is the most r evered . It is sacred to Vishnu, and

even prayer s are addressed to it, as if it wer e itself a

goddess . The mar r iage of the Tulsi with the g odVishnu, or Kr ishna, is celebrated in every Hindufam ily in the month Kar ttik.

So also the Vilva (Bel) tr ee, with its tr iple leaf, issacred to Siva, with his tr iple functions.The Pipal tree (Ficus r elzig z

'

osa) is another divinetr ee . It is r egarded as occupied by the g od Brahma,and is sometimes invested with the sacr ed thread as

if it wer e a r eal per son . All the ceremon ies cl

Upanayana are then per formed over it.No native wil l willing ly cut down a Tulsi plant, or

11 11100 15 11 . 1 71

a Pipal tr ee, and the planting of these is always con

sidered a r eligious and mer itor ious act.The Asoka shrub is also sacred to Siva ; the Darba

g rass to Ganesa the Banyan tree to Kala or Time ; theArka plant to Surya or the Sun. The Sami or Acaciais a goddess on her own account, and is supposed tocontain fire . The Custard- apple is called the fruit ofSi ta (si ld-pitala). The Kusa is a most sacred g rass.Then as to stones. Black stones

,called Salag rama,

wi th markings like those of the ammon ite, ar e worshipped by the pr incipal sects ofVaishnavas, as te

presenting Vishnu also white agates as typifying $iva,and red stones as symbolizing Ganesa. Cer tain coral

like formations have also their r eligious value, and

are r evered as sig n ificant of par ticular attr ibutes of thedeity . The Mahatmya or divine glory of these stonesis celebrated in the Padma- purana.

We pass on now to sacred places. A H indii’

s

craving for some holy place of pilg r image (fi r th ), towhich he may hope to r esor t for a special blessingmor e than once in a l ifetime, is not satisfied by a

single Jerusalem, or a single Mecca.

India is studded with an increasing number of

sacred places, from the very soil ofwhich are supposedto exhale sanctity, salvation, and beatitude for thebenefit of thousands of pilgr ims who annually visitthem. Pilgr images to such spots are

gener ally performed as acts of faith and devotion forthe accumulation of r eligious mer it, or to atone forsius.

l Sometimes, however , they are undertaken for

The pilg r ims are often branded on their arms with a mark

Ela'

fy ) of the Iankfia , g ada'

, cakr a , padma, bin'

ta 01 di am“, to

N

1 72 11 11100 15 11 .

the performance of g raddha ceremomes 1n honour of

depar ted ancestor s, or for the recovery of some sick

per son ,1 or to convey the burnt r emains of the bodies

of deceased r elations to some sacr ed shr ine near a

r iver , the object being to scatter the ashes on the

pur ifying water s.The multiplication of places of pilgr image pro

ceeded very rapidly. River s, as sources of fer tilityand pur ification , were at an ear ly date invested with a

sacr ed character . Every g reat r iver was supposed tobe permeated with the divine essence, and its water sheld to cleanse from allmoral guilt and contamination .

And as the Ganges was the most majestic, so it soonbecame the holiest and most r ever ed of all r ivers.

N0 sin too heinous to be r emoved,no character too

black to be washed clean by its water s. Hence thecoun tless temples with fl ig hts of steps lin ing its bankshence the ar ray of pr iests called Sons of the Gang es,sitting on the edge of its str eams, r eady to aid the

ablutions of conscience- str icken bather s, and stampthem as white-washed when they emerge from its

water s. Hence also the constant trafli c carr ied on intran spor ting Ganges water in small bottles to all par ts

of the country.

The confluence of the Ganges with the Jumna

serve as an evidence of their having accomplished a par ticular pilg r imag e . AtDvarakanear ly 5,000 persons are annually branded.

Colonel Sleeman records the case of a family of four personswho walked about four teen hundred miles with a sick boy,car rying with them bottles of Gang es water to bathe the idol ofJag annath in Or issa. The chang e of air cured the child, but thefam ily of course attr ibuted the cur e to the g ratitude of the idol.

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process. O i cour se , the mer it accumulated is inpropor tion to the time occupied in the pilgr imageand the sacredness of the g round traver sed.

But if r iver s wer e believed to be pervaded bydivinity, and their water s held capable of purg ingfrom all sin, it will not be matter of wonder that holycities, towns, and bathing- places (ti r tluu) rapidlyarose on their banks. It was not difficult to stampsuch places with a sacred character . One 01 other ofthe gods was descr ibed as connecting himself withpar ticular localities. Thus, the sanctity of Benar es

,

on the Ganges, was supposed to have been commun icated by the g od Siva to his son Skanda (as recor dedin the Kaé i - khanda of the Skanda- purana), and thewhole town ther efor e became sacr ed to the specialwor ship of Siva, who is alleged to have gone throughsevere auster ities in the neighbourhood.

This celebrated city ofBenares, which has a population of about out of which at leastare Brahmans, was probably one of the first to ac

quir e a fame for sanctity, and it has always mai ntained its reputation as the most sacr ed spot in all

India. Her e, in this for tress ofHinduism,Brahmanism

displays itself in all its plen itude and power . Her e

the degr ading effect of idolatr y is visibly demon

strated as it is nowher e else except in the extr emesouth of India. Her e temples, idols, and symbols,sacred wells, spr ings, and pools, ar e multiplied beyond all calculation. Here every par ticle of groundis believed to be hallowed, and the very air holy.

The number of temples is at least two thousand,not counting innumerable smaller shr ines. In the

pr incipal temple of é iva,called Visvesvara, are col

11 11 100 15 1 1 . 1 75

lected in one spot several thousand idols and symbols, the whole number scatter ed throughout the citybeing, it is thought, at least half a million.

Benares, indeed, must always be r egarded as theHindu’s Jerusalem . The desire of a pious man’

s

life is to accomplish at least one pilg r image to whathe regards as a por tion of heaven let down uponearth ; and if he can die within the holy circuit ofthe Panéakosi , str etching with a radius of ten milesaround the city,— nay, if any human being die there,be he Asiatic or European ,—no previously- incur redguilt, however heinous, can prevent his attainment ofcelestial bliss.For a long time the r iver Ganges and the city

Benares occupied a position far above all otherr iver s and all other sacred cities ; but as the Aryansspread themse lves from the nor th-west, eastward,westward, and southward, the Brahmans who settled

down in other places naturally became jealous of themonopoly enjoyed by those in Benares. If anynatural phenomenon— a volcanic crater , a fissure inthe soil, a hot spr ing, a cavern or rock of peculiarshape— ex isted anywhere, it was pressed into the ser

vice , and made to subserve the purposes of the pr iests.A kind of free trade in the invention of myths for theconsecration of par ticular spots was thus in troduced .

For instance, in Kattiwar there is a spr ing , the waterofwhich is said to have been formed from the per

spiration of Krishna’s body. So also many legends

were connected with the gr eat idol Jagan-nath at Purl,in Or issa, which is said to contain Krishna

’s bones.

New Mahatmyas were then composed and insertedin some of the Puri nas (often in the Skanda).making

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a god or holy sage r eveal and extol the praises of a

par ticular spot intended to be elevated to a h igh

position among the consecrated places of India.

Place after place was declared consecrated g round .

Prayag a at Allahabad and Gaya probably achieved a

reputation for sanctity soon after Benares. Pr eacher swere sent all over India to recite the Mahatmyasof innumerable r ival localities.To this day the pr iests ofBenar es, Gaya, Allahabad,

and other sacr ed places send agents to every town and

large railway station in India, who are commissionedto per suade pilgr ims to visit their own shr ines. Whenonce a str eam of pilgr ims sets in a par ticular direction ,it very soon gather s strength. One devotee followsanother , and in this manner the fame of man y new

places is established. Pandharpur , in the Dekhan,which contains a shr ine of Kr ishna called Vi thoba

(celebrated by the Marathi poet Tukaram), is a citywhich has in thisway r isen quite recently to impor tance .

At near ly every sacred place the number of shr inesto be visited and of ceremonies to be performed oc

cupies many days, and no pilgr im can g o through all

the duties r equired of him without the aid of theBrahmans attached to the locality, who exact feeseven from the poor est

,and r eceive large sums of

money from r ich per sons . At some sacred placesr elig ious gather ings occur every year , at other s aftercer tain intervals. The fullest often take place oncein twelve year s

, when the planet Jupiter enter s a part icular sig u,

l011 which occasion the concour se of

For example, at Har idwar , when Jupiter enters the sig n

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1 78 11 11100 15 11 .

Alaka-nandi and Nanda, called Nandi -

prayag a of the Pindi rand Alaka-nanda, called Karna -

prayi g a ; of the Mandi kini and

Alaka-nandz‘

i,called Rudra -

prayi g a of the Bhi g‘

t’

rathl and

Mandi k ini , called Deva-

prayi g a ; of the Krishna and Veni ,called Dakshina-

prayag a ( in the Dekhan).The sour ces, and sometimes the mouths, of these

and other r iver s are always esteemed places of pil

gr image for example

Gang otn'

, the sour ce of the Gang es ; Yummm'

, of the Jumni ;A rr:ar a -kagz{ab, in the Vindhya, of the Narbadi ; Mafiiibald var ,of the Krishna and Very? (Kistna) p i -mfila, of the Tapti , in

Beri r Cong é—sdg ar a, the mouth of the Gang es.

Then there ar e four specially holy Dhamas or

r esidence of deities, viz.

7ag an -mitfi, at Purl, in Or issa Dvdr aé ci (also one of the

seven holy towns befor e named) ; Badafl -keda‘

r a or Badar‘

i

udt/z, in the H imalayas (one of the sources of the Gang es)Ix’dmefvar a, on an island six miles from land, between India

and Ceylon .

And twelve sacred places contain ing celebratedLingas of é lva, viz.

Sommi tk, in Ki ttiwar ; Malfikd'

fy'

una , on the'Sr i - 5

'

aila mountain, in theKarnatic Mafid

’

ké la or Makdé a'

la‘w r a, in Ujjayin‘

i

(Oujein ), to the north of Indor e Otgz-kd

'

r a , on an island in ther iver Narbada; Keddr a or X ea

’

a'

r efvar a , in the Himalayas ;Ebima -fankar a

, at the sour ce of the r iver Bhima, near PunahVifvandt/z, in Benares Try améaka - na

'

fi,

near Nasik, on

the Godz‘

i var‘

i Vaz’

dy a - nd’

t/z (or Vaijanath), about 100 milesfrom Ahmednag ar n undtfi, or n cfvar a, beyond Ahmed

There are two Dvarakas at the distance of fourteen milesfrom each other one is called Gomati Dvaraka, and the other ,Beyt. When the idol was r emoved from the former to Dakor e,a new one was placed in Gomati by S’ankarfiéarya, who has amonastery there, while Vailabhacarya g ave an idol to Beyt.

H INDUISM. 1 79

nag ar in the N izam’s dominions Rdmam itfi or Rdnm‘var a ,

near Adam’

s Br idg e, between India and Ceylon ; Ghn'

s/md

m m, at Ellora, near Aurung abad.

Five divine lakes or holy tanks, are

also enumerated viz.

A’

drdy agza , in Kutch Pur itka r a, in Ajm

'

i r Bind”, in Sidhpur , about 60 miles from Ahmedabad ; Pampa

’

, in the Kar

natic, and Mdnar a (commonly called Mana- sarovar ), in the

Himalaya mountains.

There are also four celebrated shr ines of g od

desses

Habd’

Iakrkm i , at Kolapur Bba'vdm

'

, near Sholapur ;Rai ned, at Matapura ; Yog efzfan

'

, about 80 miles from Ah

mednag ar .

And four monaster ies of Sankaraéarya, one at

each ex tr emity of India, viz.

S ri r add-matlla , at Gomati Dvfiraka S ( ing efi- flmgfia, in theKarnatic, near Mysor e ; fioh

’

r -ma gha , near Badar i -ni th, one of

the sour ces of the Gang es and Var a’fiana -matha, at Pur i .

A few other well-known sacred places are

C’

1'

fr a near Allahabad, the first abode of Ri ms and

Lakshmana after their ex ile from Ayodhya Pr abfidsa, near

Somnath andDvaraka, where Kr ishna’

s kinsmen, the Yi davas,destroyed themse lves ; S r i -mi ll: or NdM near Udaipur(the temple of whi ch has an idol from Govardhana) ; Ama r aw i t/z, in Kasmi r ; fidId-mukfii , a small volcanic crater nearAm r itsar , in the Panjab d or e

,in Gujarat, celebrated for the

idol ofKrishna (called Ran- chor ) broug ht from Dvi raki .

Ndsié , on the Godi var i , where Lakshmana cut off the nose

of the demon S'arpa-nakhi ; Kum -b fia‘m , near Delhi, wherethe g reat battles of the Mahabharata were foug ht ; Ra

'

ja - éur ,

near C’

itra kote, the r esidence of Tulsi -das ; Oddbadd, tn Ki tti mwar , where the body of Svami-Narayaria (see p. 145) was

1 80 11 1 110015 11 .

burnt ; Pdlitd’

na (or S aln mjay a), a sacred hill of the Jains inKi tfiwar ; Amr itsar , in the Panjab, the sacred ci ty of the Sikhs.

It appears, then, that almost the whole c ir cle of

the sciences— zoology, botany, mineralogy, and g eo

gr aphy— is in India taken into the service of r elig ioussuper stition . Even astronomy and chronology are

utilized in the same way. I f a full moon fall on a

Monday, this is an astronomicalcoincidence that must

be by all means turned to the best account. I t is a

moment par ticular ly favourable for char itable acts

and a gift of one rupee at such a time is equal to onethousand at any other .

The Nakshatras—twenty- seven constellationswh ichin Indian astronomy separate the moon’s path in totwenty- seven divisions, as the sig ns of the Zodiac dothat of the sun into twelve— ar e r egarded as deities

who exer t a vast influence on the destiny ofmen, notonly at the moment of their entrance into the wor ld,but dur ing

‘

their whole passage through it. Theseform idable constellations are consulted at bir ths, marr iag es, and on all occasions of family r ejoicing, distr ess,or calam ity. N0 one under takes a j ourney or anyimpor tan t matter except on days which the aspect ofthe Nakshatras render s lucky and auspicious. I f anyconstellation is unfavourable, it must by all means hepropitiated by a ceremony called S ’

dntz’

.

Much the same may be said of the supposed influence of the n ine Grabas (see p. all regarded asplanets. Similar ly it is held that myster ious attr ibutesand proper ties attach to every month of the year andevery day of the month. The Mahatmyas, or r eli

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1 82 11 1 11 00 15 1 1.

at Pr ayag a (Allahabad), the confluence of the Jumnaand Ganges, where a celebrated Mela (r elig ious fa ir )takes place . In the South of India this festival iscommonly called Pongal

,

’and is the commencement

of the Tamil year . Cattle ar e decorated with g arlands, 1ed about in procession, tr eated with especialveneration and ex empted from labour .

2. S'r i -pam

’dwi

,on the 5th of the light halfofM

(January- February), in honour ofSarasvati (calledgoddess of ar ts and learning. Implements ofwr i tingand books are therefore wor shipped (see pp. 90,

3 . S'z'

va in honour of g iva, held on the 1 4 th

of the dark half ofMagha (about the middle or end ofFebruary). A str ict fast is observed dur ing the day, anda vigil held at n ight

,when the Linga is worshipped.

At this season many pilgr ims flock to the places dedicated to Siva.

4. Half, now generally identified with the Dola

yci tr fi or swinging festival, celebrated as a kind of

HinduSaturnalia or Carn ival, and very popular allover India. It commences about ten days beforethe full moon of Phalg una (February-March), but isusually only observed for the last three or four days,terminating with the full moon . Dur ing this festivalboys dance about in the str eets

, and the inhab itantsof the houses spr inkle the passer s- by with red or

yellow powder , or play practical jokes. Towards theclose of the festival a bonfire is lighted and games

(r epr esenting the frolics of the young Krishna) take

place round the expir ing ember s.

5 . Ré ma -nammi,the bir thday ofRama-candra, on

the 9th of the light half of the month C’aitra (Mar ch

HINDU ISM . 1 83

Apr il), kept by some as a str ict fast. The temples ofRama are illum inated, and the image ofRama adornedwith costly ornaments. The Ramayana is read inthe temples, and Nautches are kept up dur ing then ight.6 . Neig u a festival in honour of the Nagas

( see p . on the sth day of the light half ofsravana.

7. K rz’

s/zzzajcmmdslzfami , the bir thday of Krishna,ou the 8th of the dark half of the month Bhadra,and in the south of g ravana (July-August), one ot

the gr eatest of all H indu holidays. The months ofthe Nor thern and Southern Brahman s difl

'

er in

Kr ishna- paksha.

8. Gazzafa-katur t/zi , the bir thday of Ganesa, on the

4 th of the light half of the month Bhadra (AugustSeptember). Clay fig ures of the deity are made, andafter being wor shipped for two days, or in some casesten days, ar e thrown into water .

9. D amé -pz‘

ijd, or Nava - rdtr z’

, commencing on ther st, and ending on the 1 oth day of the light half ofAsvina (September -October). This festival, cele

brated in Bengal and other parts of India, is supposedto be connected with the autumnal equinox. It is heldin commemoration of the victoryofDurga,wife ofSiva,over abufi

'

alo—headeddemon Her imageiswor shipped for n ine days, and then cast into thewater .

The ten th day is called Vz'

jayad afami , or Dafa-fiard.

1 o . Rama- li ld’

.— Ou the day when the Bengali s

assign their images of Durg a to the waters, theHindus of other provinces celebrate the Rama- li la,a dramatic r epresentation of the car ry ing off of Si ti ,

1 84 HINDUISM.

concluding with the death of Ravana (see p. of

which the 9th day of the Durga-puja is the ann iversary.

1 1 . D ipd’

li or D iva]? (proper ly D'

ipdvali ), the

feast of lamps,

’on the last two days of the dark half

of Asvina (September -October), and the new moonand four following days of Kar ttika, in honour of

Vishnu’s wife Lakshmi , and of é iva’s wife Bhavani(Parvati).

1 2 . Kdr tfziéa the full moon of the monthKar ttika (October -November ), a festival kept in honourof Siva’s victory over the demon Tr ipurasura.

We must now br ing our account of Hinduism to a

close. We cannot hope to have succeeded in nu

ravelling all the knots of an in tr icate subject. Suffi

cient at least has been wr itten to show that theHindus are a profoundly r eligious people . A r eligionof some kind they must have— a r eligion which wi llstir the depths of the hear t, and give room for theexercise of faith and love.

The ancient for tress of Hinduism, with its foursides

,Monotheism , Pantheism , Dualism, and Poly

theism, is everywher e totter ing and ready to fall.Let not Chr istian ity undervalue its obligations to

education , which has, so to speak, served as a mightylever for upheaving the massive fabr ic of the Hindusystem . But the education we are giving in Indiahas little efi

'

ect on the hear t, and has cer tainly no

power to regenerate it. What then is to become ofthe masses of the people when their ancient faithsinks from beneath their feet Only two other homesare befor e them— a cold theism and a hear t- stir r ingChr istian ity. They are both alr eady established in

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1 86 H]NDU ISM.

the formidable Gol iaths to which he is opposed, butwith the q uiet confidence of a David in the streng thof his own weapons

, g o for th fear lessly with the

simple sling and stone of the Gospel in his hand an ddo battle with his enem ies

,not forgetting to use the

Sword of the Spir it with its n ine ir r esistible thrustslove, joy, peace, long- suffer ing, gentleness, goodness,faith, meekness, temperance.

Much ground,indeed

,has been already won by

the soldier s of the Cross ; but to secur e a more

hopeful advance of Chr istian ity throughout India, alarge accession to the missionary ranks of welltrained men, thoroughly conver sant with the sys

tems again st which they have to contend, and

prepared to live as well as preach the simple storyof the Gospel of Chr ist, is urgently needed. And

far mor e than this is needed for the completetr iumph of God’s truth in India. Nothing lessis demanded of us Englishmen, to whose char gethe Almighty has comm itted the souls and bodiesof two hundred and fifty millions of H is creatur es,than that every man among us, whether cler icalor lay, should str ive to be a missionar y according tothe standard set up by the first gr eat Missionary— Chr ist Himself. Let no lower standard of our

duty satisfy us. So will the good time ar r ive when

not on ly every ear shall have heard the good news ofthe r econciliation of man to his Maker , but everytongue also of every native of India— from CapeComor in to the H irnalaya mountains— shall con

fess that Jesus Chr ist is Lord, to the g lory of Godthe Father .

APPENDI X .

DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF THE SIX SCHOOLS

OF PHILOSOPHY.

THE names of the Six Schools of Philosophy havebeen alr eady given, and the doctr ines common to themall br iefly explained (see p. N0 student of

Hinduism, however , and cer tainly no missionary, oughtto be satisfied without acquir ing a clear and accurateknowledge ofthe pr incipal distinguishing character isticsof the six philosophical schools. The more advancedscholar will, of cour se, do well to study the or ig inalSutras in which the dogmas of each school are

enunciated. But a concise outline of each systemmay be found useful by those who have not time tomake themselves Sanskr itists.I n endeavour ing to give a trustwor thy sketch of

this difficult and intr icate subject, it will be convenientto beg in with the Nyaya ofGotama,with its supplement,the Vaiseshika, not because the Nyaya is first in orderoftime,but because it is g enerallyfirst studied, andmuchof its term inolog y is adopted by the other systems.

The Nj'd

'

ya pr oper .

The word Nyz'

iya sig nifies going into a subject,’

ti e. investigating it analytically. In this sense ofanalysis,

’

the word Nya'

ya is exactly opposed to

Sank/zyd'

, synthesis.’ It is common to suppose that

the Nyaya is chiefly concerned with log ic, ,but this is

merely one par t of a single topic, the fact rather beingthat this system was intended to furn ish a cor rectmethod of philosophical inquiry into all theabja

'

t: and

o

1 88 11 111 1111 13 1 1.

subjkds of human knowledge, including , amongst oI/m'

s,

the process of reasoning and laws of thoug ht.The Nyz

‘

iya proper propounds in its first Sfitra six

teen topics, the fir st of which is P r amé rga , i . e. the

means or instrument by which Prama, or the r ightmeasure of a subject, is to be obtained. The differ entprocesses by which the m ind arr ives at true and

accurate knowledge are four ; viz.— a . P r atyakska ,

perception by the senses ’ ; b. Anumdna , inference’

c. Upamc'

iua,‘compar ison’

a’

. S'aba’a,

‘verbal author ity,or trustwor thy testimony,

’ including Vedic revelation .

The treatmen t of the second of these four , infer

ence,’ indicates that the Hindus have not, like other

nations , bor rowed their logic from the Greeks. It i sdivided into five Avayavas or

‘members.

’1 . The

pr atz’

jm‘

i , or proposition (stated hypothetically). 2 . The

lulu, or reason. 3 . The udé lzar azza , or examplemajor pr em iss). 4 . The upanay a, or application

of the reason minor premoiss). 5. The mg amana,

or conclusion , 1 . e. the proposi tion re stated as proved.

This method of splitting an argument into'five divisionsis thus illustrated . 1 . The bill is fiery ; 2 . for itsmokes 3 . whatever smokes is fiery, as a kitchenhear th ; 4 . this h1ll smokes 5 . therefor e this h1ll 1sfiery .

Her e we have a combination of enthymeme and

syllog ism , which seems clumsy by the side ofAr istotle’

s

conci ser method ; but it possesses some advantageswhen r egarded not as a syllogism , but as a full andcomplete rhetor ical statement of an argument.Perhaps the most noticeable peculiar ity in the

Indian method, stamping it as an or iginal and in

dependen t analysis of the laws of thought, is the useof the cur ious terms 16 151511, pervasion I/jriz

'

paka ,

pervader and H&pya, to be pervaded.

’ Theseterms are employed in making a univer sal affirmation,or in affirming un iversal distr ibution as, for example ,‘Wherever there is smoke there is fire .

’I n such a

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1 90 11 11 11311 15 1 1.

question must be examined— every possible obj ectionstated— and so a fur ther Vé

’

da, or‘controver sy,

’ takesplace, which of cour se leads to jalpa ,

‘mere wrangling,

’followed by -db/zd

'

m

fallacious r eason ing ’

C ‘quibbling ar tifices ’

fati ,‘futile repl i es ’ andM g r alza- st/idna ,

‘the puttingan end to all discussion,

’ by a demonstration of the

objector ’s incapacity for ar gument.After enumerating these six teen topics, Gotama

proceeds to show how false notions are at the root ofall m i sery. For from false notions comes the fault ofliking, disliking, or being indifferent to anythingfrom that fault proceeds activity from this mistakenactivity proceed actions involving either mer it or

demer it, which mer it or demer it forces a man to passthrough repeated bir ths for the sake of its reward or

pun ishment. From these bir ths proceeds misery, andit is the aim of philosophy to cor r ect the false notionsat the root of this misery .

T/ze Vaz'

fes/u’

lca (supplement of the Nyaya).

The Vaiseshika may be called a supplement of theNyaya proper . It is attr ibuted to a sage namedKanz

’

ida atom and is not so much a branchof the Nyaya as a development of it, ex tending thesystem to physical i nvestigati ons

,which it conducts

very imperfectly, it is true, and often with strang efancies and absurd blunder s, but, never theless, withoccasional exactness, and not unfrequently with sin

gular sagacity. It is,perhaps, the most interesting of

all the systems, both from its more practical characte rand from the par allels it offer s to European philoSophical ideas. I t begins by ar ranging its inquir iesunder seven Paddr t/ms, or categ or ies 1 . enumer ation of cer tain gener al

.proper ti es or attr ibutes thatmay be predicated of ex isting things), which, as they

4 9 9 13110 111 . 1 9 1

are more proper ly categor ies than the topics of tne

Nyaya proper , are now the generally- received categ or ies of the Naiyayikas. They are as follows1 . Substance (11171111111) 2 . Quality or proper ty3 . Act or action 4. Generality or communityof proper ties 5 131111310 11) 5 . Par ticular ity or indivi

duality 6 . Co inherence or perpetual intimater elation (sa111azu

'

iy a) 7. None x istence, or negationof ex istenceKanada, however, enumerated only six categor ies

the seventh was added by later wr iter s.The seven categor ies have most of them sub

divisions. Those of the first category, D r azry a, sub

stance , are n ine, to wit— ear th , water , light, air , ether ,t ime, space, soul , and the internal organ or mind.

The fir st four of these n ine, and the last (viz. M anas,

the are held to be atom ic, and the fir st fourare both eter nal and non- eternal non - eternal in theirvar ious compounds, eternal in their ultimate atomsto which they must be traced back.

As to the second categor y, 0 111111 , quality,’

there areseventeen qualities inherent in the n ine substancesv i .z colour , savour , odour , tangibility, number s, ex tensions

, individuality, conjunction , disjunction , pr ior ity,poster ior i ty, intellections, pleasure, pain , desir e, avers ion , volitions. Seven other s are said to be implied ;vi z. gravity, fluidity, viscidi ty, self- reproduction , mer it,deme r it, and sound making twenty- four in all.

Six teen of these qualities belong to mater ial substances . The other eig ht— viz. intellection ,

volition ,desire , aver sion , pleasure , pain , mer it, and demer itare the proper ties of the soul.

’

1 he third category, consists of fivekinds of acts ; viz. elevation , depression , contraction,d ilatation

,andmotion ; and the four th , 5 1511111 10111 , gene

rality ofproper ties, is said to be twofold viz. higher andlower generality, to wit, that of genus and of species.The fifth category, Vib

‘es/m

,par ticular ity,

’ belongs

1 92 11 1111111s .

to the nine eternal substances of the first categ or y,all of which have an eternal ultimate difl

'

erence , dis

ting uishing each from the other . Hence the systemis called Vaiseshika.

The six th category, Samamiya , coinherence ,’is of

only one kind. It is the coinher ence bet ween a sub

stance and its qualities, between atoms and what is

formed out of them , between a genus or species and itsindividuals, between any object and the g eneral ideaconnected with it, and is thought to be a real entity.

As to the ‘non- ex istence ,

’four

kinds are specified ; viz . an tecedent non-ex istence ,cessation of ex istence , mutual non—ex istence (as of ajar in cloth), absolute non—ex istence.

In theVaiéeshika system -the formation of the wor ldis supposed to be effected by the agg r egation of atoms .These ar e innumerable and eterna l, and are eternallyaggregated, disintegrated, and redisinteg r ated by thepower of Adr ishta (see An atom is definedas‘something ex isting, having no cause , and eternal .

’

It is, moreover , descr ibed as less than the least,‘

in

visible, intangible , indivisible , imper ceptible by thesenses and each atom has aV11151111 , or eternal essenceof its own . The combination of these atoms is firstinto an aggr egate of t wo. Three of them , again , are

supposed to combine into a par ticle , called Tr asar em1

, wh ich , like a mote in a sunbeam,has just

sufficien t magnitude to be per ceptible.

With r egard to a Supreme Being, the name 05

1 11111 11 1 , Supreme Lord,’ is introduced once into

Gotama’

s Sutras, but is not found in Kanada’s.

Probably the beliet°

of both was that the formationof the wor ld was simply the result of 141171191110 , the

°

unseen for ce ,’ der ived from the works or acts of a

previous wor ld. This force becomes. in Hinduphilosophy a kind of god, if not the only god . LaterNaiyayika wr iter s, however , affirm the ex istence of aSupreme Soul (par amdtman), distinct from the living

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1 94 11 111 131115 11 .

The following aphor isms propound its doctr ine of

evolutionThere cannot be production of something out of nothi

that which is not cannot be developed into that which is. e

production of what does not already ex ist (potentially) is impossible, like a horn on a man because ther e must of necessi ty bea mater ial out of which a product is developed, and becauseeverything cannot occur everywhere at all times, and becauseanything possible must be produced fr om something competentto produce i t. ”In the Sankhya, therefore, instead of an analytical

inquiry into the univer se as actually existing, ar rang edunder topics and categor ies, we have a syntheticalsystem star ting from an or iginal pr imordial Tattva or

eternally ex isting essence,

’called P r akriti , that

which evolves, or produces, or br ings for th (pr aka r otz'

)everything else,

’and descr ibed in the following

aphor ismsFrom the absence of a r oot in the root, the root of all thing s

is rootlessEven 1f there‘be a succession ofcauses (one befor e the other ),

there must be a halt at some one point ; and so Prakg'i ti is only

a name for the pr imal source (of allIt should be noted, at the outset, that Prakr iti,

though a subtle elementary essence, is yet itself supposed to be made up of three constituent pr incip lesor elementary substances in equipoise, called Gunas,(from the word g azza, a cord, because they bind the

soul with a tr iple bond), viz. g oodness or pur ity(sattva), passion or activity (r ajas), and darkness or

stolidity (tamas). These three Sankhyan Gunas ar econstantly r efer r ed to in Indian literature, and it ismost impor tant that the student of H indfiism shouldendeavour to under stand the ideas they convey. Theyar e by no means to be confounded with the NyayaGunas (see p. They are the actual substances oringredients of which Praki

'iti is constituted, just as

trees are of a forest. Moreover , they are supposedto make up the whole wor ld of sense evolved out ofPrakr iti, although in this case they are not conj oined

APPEND IX . 1 95

in equal quantities, but in varying propor tions, one or

other being in excess. 1 In the case of a man, they .

make him divine and noble, thoroughly human and

selfish, or bestial and ignorant, according to the predominance of goodness, passion, or darkness respectively.

This r emarkable doctr ine of three eternal pr inciples,Sativa

,Rajas, and Tamas, may be called the San

khyan tr in ity, just as the idea of SaZ-Zz'

d—d’

nanda (see p.

5 2) may be regarded as the tr in ity of the Vedantist.Beginn ing, then , from the or iginal eter nal rootless

g erm Pm lcrztz'

,

2(also called P r ad/ziina , chief one ;

Az'y akta, unevolved Mdyd, power of illusion), theSankhya counts up (sau-kfzy c

‘

i ti ) synthetically (whenceits name of synthetic enumeration twenty- thr eeother Tattvas

'

o1' entities,— all productions of the first,

and evolving themselves spontaneously out of it, ascream out of milk, or m ilk out of a cow,

— while itcarefully distinguishes them all from a twenty-fifth,P ur us/za , the soul or spir it, which is in its own naturedestitute of Gunas, though liable to be bound by theGunas of Prakriti.The process is thus stated in the Sankhya-kar ika

The root and substance of all thing s (except soul) isPralq 'iti .

I t is no production . Seven th ing s produced by it are also producers. Thence come six teen productions (wh im ). Son], the

twenty-fifth essence, is neither a production nor producer . ”

I t cannot be too often repeated, that they are not to be confounded with the Nya a Gunas. In fact, they are evidently r athersubstances or pr ine1p es than qualities, thoug h g ugza also means‘quality ’ ; and althoug h such expressions as g oo dness, pur ity,&c. ,convey mor e the notion of a quality than of a substance .

May not the whole idea have been sug g ested by the thr ee formso f matter ? At any rate, even modem chemists acknowledg e ak ind ofmater ial tr iad of substances, —solid, li a id, and g aseous.The translation Natur e, often iven for h is word, is alto~

g ether misleading . Better equivalents would be such expr essions as Creative for ce, Evolver , Producer , &c.

1 96 11 111 0 1115 111 .

The first production of the eternal Producer isBudd/zz

‘

or in telligence,’also termed Malcat, from its

being the Gr eat sour ce of the nex t°

producer , Abankiff a, and the eleventh organ, Mamas). Third inorder comes this Alzankdr a , the I -maker ,

’z’

. e. self

consciousness, or the sense of individuality, which

produces the nex t five pr inciples, called Tanmatr as ,or‘subtle elementary par ticles. ’ These eig ht con

stitute the producer s.Then follow the six teen that ar e productions

(Vzkar a) only. And first in order , as produced bythe Tanmatras, come thefive grosser elements (mafiaMata), as follows :

1 . Akd'

fa ,”ether , with the disting uishing property or sub

stratum of sound (which is the aiskay a or object for a cor re

sponding or g an of sense, the ear ). 2. V'

ya ,‘air ,

’with the

proper ty of tang ibility (which 18 the vi vfiay a for the skin). 3 .

T1 a: or ?y ol r,‘fire or lig ht, with the pr operty of

colour (which is the wiflzaya for the ey .e) 4. Ajax, water ,with the proper ty of taste (which 15 the

ywlr/zay a for the tong ue).

5. Pfit/u'

vi ; or b/zz'

imz,‘earth, ’ with the property of odour or

smell (which 15 the w fiaya for the nose).

Each of these elements, after the first, has also theproper ty of the preceding besides its own .

Nex t follow the eleven organs produced, l ike theTanmatras, by the third producer , Ahan -kara. Theseare the five organs of sense, the five organ s of action ,and an eleventh organ standing between them , viz .

M amas, the m ind, which 13 regarded as an i nternalorgan of per ception , volition , and action . The eig htproducer s, then, with the five grosser elements andthe eleven organ s, constitute the true elements, andconstituent substances of the phenomenal wor ld. As ,however , the most impor tant of the producers, after

The or org ans of sense, are ear , skin, eye ,nose , tong ue ; the karmmdr iy an i , org ans of action, are larynx,hand, foot, excretory and g enerative org ans.

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1 98 11 111 130 15 11 .

o r means of obtain ing the cor rect measure of ex isting things,

’ being r educed from four to thr ee ; viz. ,

perception by the senses inferenceand credible asser tion or trustwor thy testimony (Ziptaw

No one can doubt that the Sankhyan view of the

soul is infer ior to that of the Nyaya, which ascr ibes toi t, when joined to mind, activity, volition, thought, andfeeling. Obviously, too, the pur e Sankhya is morea theistical than the pure Nyaya ; for if the Cr eationp roduced by the Evolver , P r akr iti , has an ex istenceof its own independent of all connection with the

par ticular Purusha to which it is joined, ther e can

be no need of an intelligent Creator of the wor ld, ore ven of any super intending power .Notwithstanding these atheistical tendencies, the

charge of unor thodoxy is evaded by a confession of

.faith in the Veda. Some adherents of the Sankhyamaintain the ex istence of a supreme Soul, ca lledJfir azzy a -

g a r é l uz, and of a g ene tal ideal phenomenalun iver se with which that supreme Soul is connected,and into which all the subcrcations of infer ior soulsare gathered.

I t is remarkable that this singular theory of the r elat ionship between spir it and matter , involving as it doesa strange jumble of physical and metaphysical subtleties, has always had pecul iar charms for the H indfimind. Not that the uneducated masses could makeanything of the mysticism ofa pr imordial eternal germevolving out of itself twenty- thr ee substances to forma visible wor ld for the soul, descr ibed as apathetic,inactive, devoid of all qualities

,and a mer e indif

ferent spectator ; but that ordinary men are only tooprone to accept any theory of the or igin of the

un iver se which makes the acts of the Creator harmonize with their own operations and the phenomenawhich sur round them. Even the most illiterate

APPEND IX. 1 99

Hindu, therefor e, was well able to under stand and

adopt the idea of a univer se proceeding from Pra

kr iti and Purusha as from father andmother . Indeedthe idea of a un ion between the female pr inciple ,regarded as an ener g y or capacity and themale pr inciple, r egarded as a gener ator , is, as we

have already seen (see p. 1 2 of gr eat antiquity inthe Hindusystem .

It is notewor thy that Buddhism, which representedmany of the more popular philosophical ideas of theHindus, perhaps as ear ly as the sixth century B.C. ,

has more in common with the Sankhya philosophythan with any of the other systems.Even the cosmogony of Manu, although a com

pound of var ious theor ies, pr esents a process of

evolution very similar to that of the Sankhya.

Perhaps, however , the ex treme popular ity of the

Sankhyan idea of a un ion of two pr inciples is bestshown by the later cosmogony and mythology. In

the Pur i nas and Tantras, the gr eat r epositor ies of

the popular Hindu creed, Prakr iti becomes a realmother of the un iver se, taking the form of femaleper sonifi cations, who are regarded as the wives or

female energies and capacities (faktz) of the pr incipal male deities, to whom ,

on the other hand, thename Purusha, in the sense of the Supreme Soul, orpr imeval male, is sometimes applied. This is especially the case, as we have shown in chapter ix . , withthe sakti , or female energy of Siva, wor shipped byvast number s as the true mother of the univer se. "

From the popular ity of the Sanhkya and its ih

fluence on the later mytholog y we shall not be sur

pr ised to find that ther e is a common saying in India,

This is the best explanation of the fact, that the shr ines of

the Iz‘

ng a and y om‘

ar e more common than any other throug hout India.

200 H INDU ISM.

No knowledge equal to the Sankhya, no powerequal to the Yoga.

’

The Yoga, founded by Patanjali and reg arded as

a branch of the Sankhya, is scarcely wor thy of thename of a separate system of philosophy. Yet it has

undoubted charms for the naturally contemplativeand ascetical Hindu, and claims greater or thodoxythan the Sankhya proper , by directly acknowledg ingthe ex istence of a Supreme Being.

In br ief, the aim of the Yoga i s to teach the meansby which the human soul may attain complete unionwith the Un iversal Soul. This fusion or blendingof the individual spir it with the supreme Purusha,or un iver sal Spir it,

’ may be effected even in the

body by the constan t habit of keeping the mind inits unmodified state— a state clear as crystal whenuncoloured by contact with other substances, and

by the practice of complete suppression of the passions The last condition of suppresmon

of all action is only to be achieved by meditationon the Supr eme Being, who is defined to befa Sp1r itunaffected by works , having for one of h1s appellations the mystical monosyllable Om.

’ Indeed ther epetition of 0m is supposed to be all-efiicacious ingiving knowledge of the Supreme and preven tingthe obstacles to Yoga. The eight means of mentalconcentration are as follows

1 . Yama , restraint. ’ 2 . Myama, r elig ious obsem nces.’

3 .

°

Asana, postures. 4. P r é gzdya’

ma, suppression of thebr eath, ’ or breathing in a peculiar way.

’

3. Pr alydltd

'

r a , t e

straint of the senses. ’ 6 . DM r am,

‘stea ying of the m ind.

’

7. Dlzy é na, contem lation.

’ 8. Samddfii , profound meditation, ’ or a state of r e ig ious trance, which is most efl

'

ectually attained by such practices as fix ing the eyes intently and incessantly on the tip of the nose, &c.

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20 3 H INDU ISM.

to a kind of log i cal meI/iod, con1mencin”g with the

proposition to be discussed, the doubt ar i sing aboutit, the P r?n 'a -pak rlza or p rmzd fade and wr ong viewof the question , the Utta r a-paksfia or r efutation of

the wrong view, and the conclusion .

Its philosophical discussions amount to a kind ofcr itical commentary on the Brahmana or r itual por tionof the Veda ; and it differ s from the Vedan ta inin terpreting the Mantras according to the obviousliteral sense, and not any supposed occult mean ingunder lying the tex t. Jaimini was, in real truth , theopponent of both r ational ism and theism. Not thathe denied a God, but the tendency of his teach ingwas to allow no voice or author ity to either r eason or

God. The Veda was practica lly the only g od. A

Supreme Being might ex ist, but was not necessary tothe system . The Veda, said Jaim in i , 15 itself author ity, and has no need of an author izer . His fir staphor ism states the whole aim and object of hissystem , viz. , a desire to know D/za rma or duty, whichconsists in the performance of the r ites and sacr ificesprescr ibed by the Veda, because they are so-pr escr ibed,without r efer ence to the will or approval of any personal g od, for Dharma is itself the bestower of r eward .

Some r ecen t M imansakas, however , maintain thatDharma ought to be performed as an offer ing to aSupreme Being, and that it is to be so perfom i ed as

a means of emancipation .

Some singular speculations occur in Jaimini’s system .

His belief in the inher ent author ity of the Veda,independently of any divine Revealer , leads h im to

asser t its own absolute etern ity, and he declar es thatonly eternally pre- ex isting objects are mentioned init. Other str ange doctr ines maintained by him are

that ther e is a perpetual connection between a wordand its sense, and that sound is eternal , or rather ,that an eternal sound under lies all temporary sound.

APPENDIX. 203

We may add, in illustration of the notion of.

the

e tern ity of sound, that the Chinese have a saymgThe echoes of a word once uttered vibrate in spaceto all eter nity.

’

T/w Vedc'

i lzfa .

The Vedanta of Vyasa or Badarayana is, for conven ience, placed last of the six or thodox systems ;but on many accounts it oug ht to stand first. Theoutline of its pantheistic creed is traceable, as we

have seen, in the Rig- veda, and it conforms moreclosely than any other system to the doctr ines propounded in the Upanishads, on which treatises indeed,as form ing the end of the Veda, it professes to befounded. Moreover , it is the truest exponent of thehabits of thought of thoughtful Hindus, as much inthe most recent as in the most ancient times. Themost celebrated teacher of this school of philosophywas Sankaraéarya (see p. who was the gr eatr eviver of Brahmanism, in opposition to unor thodoxBuddhism,

about the end of the 7th or beginn ing ofthe 8th century of our era.

As the Nyz‘

iya has much in common with the practical philosophy of Ar istotle, which gave to thing sand individuals, rather than to ideas, a r eal ex istence,so the Vedanta offer s many parallels to the idealismof Plato.

A Vedantist’s cr eed has the mer it of ex treme simplicity, being compr ised in the well- known formula of

three words from the C'handog ya Upan ishad (ekamevi dw

’

tz‘

y am, one only essence without a second),or in the following Brahma ex ists truly, the wor ldfalsely, the soul is only Brahma, and no other ,

”or in

the fo llowing All this un iver se indeed is Brahmafrom h im does it proceed into him is it dissolvedin h im it breathes . So let every one adore himcalmly.

204 11 111 1311 15 1 1 .

Here, then, we have pr esented to us a differ entview of the or igin of the wor ld. In the Nyaya itproceeded from a concur rence of eternal atoms ; inthe Siinkhya from one or iginal creative for ce calledPrakriti the latter not operating independently

, but

only when associated with souls, 11 hich according toone view, are presided over by a supreme soul. I n

the Vedanta, there is really no 1nd1v1dual soul at all,as distinct from the univer sal Soul. Hence, the doctr ine of this school is called A dr 'az

'

la,

non- dualism.

’

The un iver se ex ists, but mer ely as a product of the oneeternal Essence, when overspr ead by Mayaor Illusion.

Badarayana’

5 fir st aphor ism states the object of thewhole system in one word, vi z. , B r afimajz/xzdsd

'

, the

desire ot knowing Brahma’

I n the second aphor ism this Brahma 18 defined tomean, that fromwhich the production of this un iver seresults.’

From other por tions of the aphor isms it appear sthat the one univer sal essence, called Brahma (notB r afimd), is to the ex ternal wor ld what yarn is tocloth, what milk to curds, what ear th to a jar , whatgold to a bracelet. This Essence is both creator andcreation , actor and act. It is itself Ex istence, Knowledge, and Joy (SaZ-Zz

'

rl- é nanda),1 but at the sametime, without par ts, unbound by qual ities, withoutaction, without emotion, having no consciousness ,such as is denoted by

‘I’and ‘Thou apprehending

no per son or thing, nor apprehended by any, havingneither beginn ing nor end, immutable, the on ly r ealentity.

This is the Vedantist’s tr inity, cor responding very rema rkably, asMr . Robson observes, w ith the Author of Ex istence (theFather ), the Source of Wisdom (Chr ist, the Word), and the

Sour ce of oy (the Holy Spir it) thus the Veda, the Vedanta ,and the B akti - sastras all point to the tr iple natu1e ot

'

theSupreme Being .

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06 11 1111311 15 1 1 .

By reason of Avidya, then, the Jivii tman, or livingsoul of every individual, mistakes the wor ld as well asits own body and mind for r eal ities, just as a rope ina dark n ight might be m istaken for a snake. Themoment the per sonal soul is set fr ee from this selfimposed ignorance by a proper under standing of thetruth through the Vedanta philosophy, all the illusionvan ishes, and the identity of the Jivatman and of thewhole phenomenal univer se with the Paramatman ,or Supr eme Soul, is re-established.

I t may be noted that in the Vedanta the livingsoul of individuals, when separated o il

“

from the

Supr eme Soul , is r egarded as enclosed in a succession of cases (kofa) whtch envelop it, and, as it were,fold one over the other , like the coats of an onion.

1

Of cour se the Vedanta theory, if pushed to itsultimate consequences, must lead to the neglect ofall duties, r eligious and moral , of all activity, physical and intellectual, and of all self- cultur e. I f

everything be God, then you and he and I must b eone. Why should any effor ts be made for theadvancement of self or for the good of other s ?Everything we have must be common proper ty .

Eded ic Sc/iooL T/ze B lmg avarl Gi fd.

The Bhag avad i ta, commented on by the greatVedantic teacher ankaraéarya (see pp. 83 , may

These ar e called smdna -may a, P r d'

gza -maya,Amm -may a , and a fifth is named Anand

'

a -may a .

I am oblig ed to repeat her as in some of the precedingpag es of this work , much of w at I have already descr ibed inthe work called Indian Wisdom,

’ for the simple r eason thati t is essential to my present subject ; and I find myself unableto vary my descr iptions without spoiling them.

APPEND IX . 207

be r egarded as r epresenting the Eclectic school ofIndian philosophy. As the r egular systems weredevelopments of the Upan ishads, so the Eclecticschool is connected with those mystical treatisesthrough the Svetasvatara Upanishad. This last isa comparatively modern Upan ishad, but whetherit was composed before or after the Bhag avad-gi ta,the design of both is evidently the same . They bothaim at reconciling the conflicting views of difi

'

erent

systems, by an attempt to engraft the Sankhya and

Yoga upon Vedanta doctr ines. Althoug h , therefore,the order of creation and much of the cosmogonyof the Sankhya system are r etained in both

,the

sovereig nty of the Soul or Spir it of the un iverseneut. ) with which Krishna is identified,

as the source and end of all created things, and yet

wholly independent of all such creations, is asser tedby both .

The real author of the Bhag avad-gi ta is unknown .

Nor is it known when the work was inserted in theBhishma- parvan of the Maha- bharata, in which poemit lies inlaid like a pear l, contr ibuting, with othernumerous episodes, to the tesselated character of thatimmense epic.

l

The author was probably an ear nest Brahmanand nom inally a Vaishnava, but r eally a philosopherwhose mind was cast in a broad mould. He is supposed to have lived in India about the second or thirdcentury of our era. Finding no r est for his spir it inthe ex tr eme dogmatism of any one system of philosophy

, as commonly taught in his own time, muchless in the nar tow-m inded exclusiveness, and cor

rupt forms of Brahman ism which sur rounded him,

he was dr iven to construct an eclectic school of his

I t commences at line 830 of the 25th chapter of the Parvan,and ends at line

208 11 1 1 11311 15 1 1.

011 n .

'

l l1 is he has done with gr eat per spicuity andbeauty of lang uage in the Bhag avad

-

g i ta , con1bining .

var ious theor ies into one system , by interweaving,so to speak, threads from the Sankhya, Yoga, andVedanta, so as to form a many- coloured 11 oot

'

of

thought 11 h1ch ts shot across a stifl‘

warp of the doc

tr ine of 101 c (Maktt'

) forKr ishna, and of stern devotionto caste duties Of these cross threads themost conspicuous are those of the Sankhya, for whichthe author of the Gi ta has an evident predilection .

As a necessary result of its composite character , thework is, of cour se, full of incon sistencies. The wholecomposition is skilfully thrown into the form of a

dramatic poem ,something after the manner of the

book of Job or a dialogue of Plato . The speaker sare the two most impor tant per sonages in the Mahabhz

‘

i rata— Arjuna and Krishna. Arjuna is, perhaps ,the real hero of that epic. He is the bravest, and yetth e most tender - hear ted of the five sons of Pandu.

The god Kr ishna, who 15 identified with Vishnu, andin this philosophical dialogue i s held to be the SupremeBeing himself, had taken form as the son of Devakiand Vasudeva, who was brother of Kunti , wife of

Pandu. Hence the god was cousin of the sons ofPanclu, brother of Dhr ita- rashtra, the son s of thesebrother s being of cour se r elated as cousins to eachother . I n the gr eat war which arose between the twofam ilies ofPandu andDhr ita—rashtra (see p. 1 1 2), representing two Ksbat1 iya races contending for supremacy,Kr ishna r efused to take up arms on either side , butconsented to act as the char ioteer of Arjuna, and toaid him with his advice. Ar the commencemen t ofthe Bhag avad

-gi ta the two contending armies are

supposed to be drawn up in battle-ar ray, when Arjunais struck with sudden compunction at the idea of

fig hting his way to a kingdom through the blood of

his kindred, and asks Kr ishna’s opinion as to his

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2 1 0 H INDU ISM.

most desirable state which enables aman to ann ihilatehis own individuality

,and see God in everything and

everything in God. Arjuna is comfor ted under thedistressing thought that he is about to kill his r elations,by an argumen t drawn from the eternal ex istence ofthe soul , which is nobly expressed thus

The wise g r ieve not for the depar ted, nor for those who yetsurvive. Never was the time when I was not, nor thou, no ryonder chiefs, and never shall be the time when all of as shallnot be ; as the embodied soul in this corporeal frame movesswiftly on throug h boyhood, youth, and ag e, so will it passthroug h other forms hereafter— be not g r ieved thereat. The

man whom pain and pleasure, heat and cold afl'

ect not, he is fitfor immor tality . Whatever is not cannot be whatever is cannever cease to be . Know this— the Being that spread this un iver se is indestructible. Who can destroy the Indestructible ?These bodies that enclose the ever lasting soul, inscrutable, immor tal, have an end but he who thinks the soul can be destroyed, and he who deems it a destroyer , are alike mistakenit kills not, and is not killed ; it is not born, nor doth i t

ever die it has no past nor future— unproduced, unchang ing ,

infin ite he who knows i t fixed, unborn , imper ishable, indissoluble , how can that man destroy another , or ex ting uishoug ht below As men abandon old and threadbare clothes toput on others new, so casts the embodied soul its worn - out

frame to enter other forms . No dar t can pier ce i t flame cannotconsume it, water wet it not, nor scorching breezes dry it —i r1destructible , incapable of heat or moisture or ar idity, eternal ,all- per vading , steadfast

,immovable, perpetual , yet impe rcep

tible, incomprehensible , unfading , deathless, un imag inable .

”

I n the second and six th chapter s the duty of Yogaor‘intense concentration of the mind on one subject ’

(viz. the Supreme Being , here iden tifiedwith Krishna) ,till at last the gr eat end of freedom from all thought

,

perfect calm , and absorption in the Deity are obtained ,is enjo ined with much force of lang uage, as may beseen from the following ex tracts

That holy man who stands immovable,As i f erect upon a pinnacle ,‘

A??M - sllza (VI . 8) may mean standing erect like a peak .

’

APPENDIX . 2 I l

H is appetites and org ans all subdued,Sated w ith knowledg e secular and sacred,To whom a lump of ear th, a stone, or g old,To whom fr iends, r elatives, acquaintances,Nentrals and enemies, the g ood and bad,Are all alike, is called one yoked with God.

’

The man who aims at that supreme conditionOf per fect yoking w ith the DeityMust first of all be moderate in all thing s,I n food, in sleep, in vig ilance. in action,I n ex ercise and recreation. ThenLet h im, if seeking God by deep abstraction ,Abandon his possessions and his hopes,Betake himself to some secluded spot,’And fix his heart and thoug hts on God alone .There let h im choose a seat, not hig h nor low,

And with a cloth or sk in to cover him,

And Kus'

a g rass beneath h im, let him sit

Fi rm and erect, his body, head, and neckStraig ht and immovable, his eyes directedTowards a sing le point,‘not looking round,Devoid of passion , free from anxious thoug ht,H is hear t r estrained, and deep in meditation.

E’

en as a tor toise draws its head and feetWithin its shell, so must he keep his or g ansWithdrawn from sensual objects. He whose sensesAr e well controlled attains to sacred knowledg e,And thence obtains tranquillity of thoug ht.Without quiescence there can be no bliss.E

’

en as a storm- tossed ship upon the waves,So is the man whose heart obeys his passions,Which, like the winds, w ill hur ry him away.Quiescence is the state of the Supreme .

He who, intent on meditation, joins

Tersely expressed in Sanskr it by samaJ osfit‘is‘ma -kdnéana'

(VI .2 I use these expr essions as kindred words to the Sanskp t

yukza and y og a .

‘Joined ’and

‘junction ’are also cog nate

expr essions.3 Cf. Matt. vi . 6 : But thou, when thou prayest, enter 1nto

thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door , pray'

to thy Fatherwhich is in secr et. ’

0The tex t (VI . 1 3) says, ‘fix ing his eyes on the hp of h1s

nose (mmpr ekslzy a nciszl uig mm).

2 ! 2 H INDUISM.

H is soul with the Supreme, is like a flameThat fl ickers not when sheltered from the w ind.

I n the second division of this poem the pantheisticdoctr ines of the Vedanta are mor e directly inculcatedthan in the other sections. Krishna here , in the

plainest language , claims adoration as one with thegr eat univer sal spir it, pervading and consti tuting theun1ver se.The following are por tions from different par ts of

this section

\Vhate’er thou dost perform , whate’er thou eatest,Whate’er thou g ivest to the poor , whate ’erThou offerest in sacr ifice, whate’erThou doest as an act of holy penance,Do all as if to me, O Arjuna ( IX .

I am the ancient Sag e, W1thout beg inn ing ,I am the Ruler and the All- sustainer ,I am incomprehensible in form,

More subtle and minute than subtlest atomsI am the cause of the whole universe

Compare 1 Cor . x . 3 1 Whether therefor e ye eat, or dr ink,o r whatsoever ye do, do all to the g lory ofGod.

’ Dr . Lor inser ,expanding the views of Professor Weber and others concern ingthe influence of Chr istianity on the leg ends of Krishna, thinksthat many of the sentiments of the Bhag avad-

g‘

i tii have beendir ectly bor rowed from the New Testament, copies of which,he thinks, found their way into India about the third century,when he believes the poem to have been wr itten . He evenadopts the theory of a parallel in the names of Chr ist andKrishna. He does not, however , sufficiently bear in m ind thatfrag ments of truth are to be found in all relig ious systems, however false, and that the Bible, thoug h a true revelation, is still,in reg ard to the human m ind, th roug h which the thoug hts are

transfused, a thoroug hly Or iental book, cast in an O r ientalmould, and full ofO r iental ideas and expressions. Some of h iscompar isons seem mere coincidences of lang uag e, which mig htoccur independently. Never theless, something may be said forDr . Lor inser

’s theory. H is German translation ( 1 869) is r ich in

notes, pointing out parallels. See also the Indian Antiquaryfor October , 1 873 .

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z 1 4 HINDUISM

I lave faith in me, adore and worship me,‘And join thyself in meditation to meThus shalt thou come to me, O ArjunaThus shalt thou r ise to my supreme abode,Where neither sun nor moon hath need to shine ,For know that all the lustre they possess is m ine . ’

We come now to Chapter X I . , called the Vision (orRevelation) of the Un iver sal Form (vzl

‘w - r ry a -da r

far m). Arjuna, filled with awe at the discovery of

the true nature of Kr ishna,acting as his char ioteer ,

addresses him thus

Most mig hty Lord supreme, this revelationOf thy myster ious essence and thy onenessWith the eternal Spir it, clears awayThe mists ofmy il lusions . Show me thenThy form cel stial, most divine ofmen ,I f haply I may dare to look upon it.

To this Kr ishna replies

Thou canst not bear to g aze upon my shapeWith these thy human eyes, 0 son of Pandu,But now I g ift thee with celestial visionBehold me in a hundred thousand forms

,

I n phases, colours, fashions infin ite.

Then follows the descr iption of Kr ishna’s supernatural transformation :

3

thee . ’ A sense of o r ig inal cor ruption seems to be felt by allclasses of H indus, as indicated by the following pr ayer used after

the Gayatr i by some VaishnavasPdpa 7mm pdpa -ka r mzi/mm plipci/mzi pdpa -samb/mva é ,

T ni/zi mdm, pundar z'

kdks/za sar z/a -pdpa -fia r a H a r e,

I am sinful, I commit sin, my nature is sinful, I am conceivedi n s1n

Save me, O thou lotus- eyed Har i, the r emover of sin.

’

Cf. Prov . xx iii. 26 My son , g ive me thine hear t. ’3 Cf. Rev. x x i . 23 The city had no need of the sun , neither

of the moon , to shine in it for the g lory of God did lig hten it. ’3 The idea of this Dr . Lo r inser considers bor rowed fr om the

Gospel nar rative of the transfig uration . I t is cer tainly very in

APPENDIX. 2 1 5

Thus having said, the m ig hty Lord of all

Displayed to Arjuna h is form supreme,Endowed with countless mouths and countless eyes,With c01mtless faces turned to every quar ter ,With countless marvellous appearances,With ornaments, and wreaths, and robes divine

,

With heavenly frag rance and celestial weapons.I t was as if the firmament wer e filled,All in an instant with a thousand suns,

Blaz ing w ith dazzling lustr e, so beheld heThe g lor ies of the universe collectedIn the one per son of the God of g ods.‘

Arjuna with every hair on his body br istling withawe , bows his head at this vision , and folding hishands in r everence

,gives utterance to a passionate

outbur st of enthusiastic adoration, which is hereabr idged

I see thee, mig hty Lord of all, revealedI n forms of infinite diver sity.I see thee like a mass of purest lig ht,Flashing thy lustre everywhere ar ound.

I see thee crowned wi th Splendour like the sun,Pervading earth and sky, immeasurable,Boundless, without beg inn ing , middle, end,Preser ver of imper ishable law,

The ever lasting Man the tri ple wor ldI s awe- struck at this vision of thy form,

Stupendous, indescr ibable in g lory.Have mer cy, God of g ods the universeI s fitly dazzled by thy majesty,Fitly to thee alone devotes its homag e.

structive to contrast the simplicity of the Gospel scene : ‘Hisface did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the lig ht’(Matt. xvii. 2 ; Mark ix .

I n the Udyog a-

par van of the Mahi -bharata (44 19-

4430)Krishna r eveals h is form in the same way to the assembledpr inces, who are oblig ed to close their eyes at the awful sig ht,while the blind Dhrita- r z

'

ishtra is°

fted with divine vision thathe may behold the g lor ious spectac e

7 Sandlanalf purm/mé (X I . 18)may be translated the eternalSpi r it. ’

z 1 6 11 111 11 1115 11 .

At thy a Proach the evil demons flee,Scatte 1n ter r or to the winds of heaven.

The multitude of holy saints 'adore theeThee, first Creator ,2 lord of all the g ods,The ancient One,’ supreme ReceptacleOf all that is and is not, knowing all,And to be known by all. Immensely vast,Thou eomprehendest all, thou art the All (X I . 40 )TO thee ear th's g reatest heroes must r eturn ,Blending once more with thy r esplendent essence,Like m ig hty r ivers rushing to the ocean (X I .To thee be sung a thousand hymns of praiseBy every creature and from every quar ter ,Before, above, behind. Hail ! Hail ! thouAll !Ag ain and yet ag ain I worship thee.Have mercy, I implore thee, and for g ive,That I , in 1g norance of this thy g lory,Presumed to call thee Fr iend and pardon tooWhate’er I have too neg lig ently uttered,Addressing thee in too fam iliar tones.

Unr ivalled God of g ods, I fall before theeProstrate in adoration , thou the FatherOf all that lives and lives not have compassion,Bear with me, as a father with a son,

Or as a lover with a cher ished one .

Now that I see thee as thou r eally ar t,I thr ill with ter ror l Mer cy Lord otf lords,Once more display to me thy human form,

Thou habitation of the un iverse .‘

Many other r emarkable passages might be adducedéconnection with the first two divisions of the sub

Ci . par ts of the Te Deum. The Siddhas form a g roup (g naw )of semi-divine being s, supposed to possess g reat pur ity, calledSi dhyas in the ear lier mytholog y (Manu, i . Siddhas andSi dhyas are sometimes confused, thoug h her e mentioned separately (see p.

7 Cf. John viii. 58 Before Abraham was, I am.

’

Pum J/i aé pun i gza/g , the most ancient person (X I . Cf.Dan iel vi i . 9 The Ancient ofdays did sit. ’

X I . 45, 46. D r . Lo rinser compares the awe of our Lord’sdisciples (Matt. xvii. ‘They fell on their face, and wer esor e afraid.

’ Also of Simon Peter (Luke v. When SimonPeter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying , Depar t fromme for I am a sinful man , 0 Lord.

’

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2 18 11 1x ou1s.1 1.

Subjoined is a paraphrase of another r emarkablepassage of the Bhag avad- gita (XVI . 1 2 It maybe compared with Luke x ii. 1 7- 20

Entang led in a hundred wor ldly snar es,Self- seeking men, by ig norance deluded,Str ive by unr ig hteous means to pile up r iches.Then, in their self- complacency, they say,This acquisition I have made to-day,That I W i ll g ain to-mor row so much pelfIs boarded up already, so much moreRemains that I have yet to treasure up.This enemy I have destroyed, him also,And others in their turn I will dispatch.I am 2 lord I w ill enjoy myselfI ’m wealthy, noble, strong , successful, happy ;I’

m absolutely per fect no one elseI n all the wor ld can be compared to me.

Now I will offer up a sacr ifice,G ive g ifts with lavish hand and be tr iumphant. ’Such men , befooled by endless, vain conceits,Caug ht in the meshes of the wor ld’s illusion,Immersed in sensuality, descendDown to the foulest hell of unclean spi r its.

A few lines from Chapter III . may be added, inwhich Krishna exhor ts Arjuna to energetic action byan argument drawn from the example set by himselfin his own ever lasting exer tions for the good of the

wor ld (cf. John v. The order of the tex t is notobser ved in the following ver sion, and the sentimentin lines 6, 7, is from Chapter II . 47

Per form all necessary acts, for actionI s better than inaction , none can liveBy sitting still and doing noug ht ; i t isBy action only that a man attainsImmunity from action . Yet in workin

gNe’e r work for r ecompense let the act 5 motiveBe in the act itself. Know that workP roceeds from the Supreme. I am the patternFor man to follow know that I have done

APPEND IX . 2 1 9

All acts already, noug ht remains for meTo g ain by action, yet I work for everUnwear iedly, and this whole universeWould per ish if I did not work my work (III.

The third division of the poem, compr ising thelast six chapter s, aims par ticular ly at interweavingSankhya doctr ines with the Vedanta, though this isdone mor e or less throughout the whole work. Itaccepts the doctr ine of a supreme presiding spir it,as the fir st source of the un iver se, and asser ts thatboth Prakriti and Purusha— that is, the or iginal eternalelemen t and soul— both emanate from this SupremeBeing. Moreover , i t maintains the individuality ofsouls , and afli rms that the body and all the wor ld of

sense is evolved out of Prakr iti by the r egularSankhyan process, through Buddhi, Ahan -kara, thefive subtile elements , the five grosser elements, andthe eleven organs, including mind.

Tbus in X III. 1 9, and in VI I . 4—6 , we read

Lear n that Pr akr iti and Pa rw lza also are both of them without beg inn ing . And know that the Vikaras, or pr oductions, ’and the Gunas are sprung from Pr akr iti.Ear th, water , fire, ai r , ether , mind, intellect, and eg oism,

into these eig ht is my Prakr iti divided. This Prakriti is theinfer ior one, but learn my super ior Pr akriti to be other than this.Understand that all thing s are produced from this other Prakriti.Again , in VII. 1 2—1 4 , Kr ishna, speaking of the

three Gunas, saysKnow that all the three Gunas, whether Sattva, Rajas, or

Tamas, proceed only from me. I am not in them, but theym me .

All this universe, deluded by these th ree conditions consistingof the Gunas, does not recog nize me, the imper ishable Being ,super ior to them all.

For this divine illusion (Aldy d, i . e. illuso creationconsisting of the thr ee Gunas, caused by me, is ifli cult to be

passed over . Those only are delivered from it who have recourseto me.

The eclecticism of the Bhag avad-gi tawill be suffiQ

220 H lNDUlSM.

ciently appar ent from these examples. Thr ee or fourpassages (taken from Chapter III . 27, Chapter X III.29, 3 1 ) will form a fit conclusion to the subject, asthey contain the gist of the whole argument, viz. thati t is Arjuna

’

s duty, as a soldier , to act like a soldier,

and to do the work of his caste, regar dless of con

sequences ; and that this may be done consistentlywith adhesion to the Vedantic dogma of the soul’sr eal inactivity and state of passionless repose

All actions are incessantly performedBy opera tion of the ualities

Of Prakriti delud by the thoug htOf individuality, the soulVainly believes itself to be the doer .

The soul ex isting from eternity,Devoid of qualities, imper ishable,Abiding in the body, yet supreme,Acts not, nor is by any act polluted.

He who per ceives that actions arePerformed

By Prakr iti alone, and that the souI s not an actor , sees the truth ar ig ht.

Kr ishna’s last advice may be thus summed upAct then and do thine own appointed task,I n every action my assistance ask ,Do all with heart and soul absorbed in me,So shalt thoug ain thine end and be from tr ouble free.

Arjuna’s conclusion may be thus paraphrased

Eternal One ! thy g lory just beheldHas all illusion from my soul dispelledNow by thy favour is my conscience clear ,I will thy bidding do and fig ht without a fear .

This beautiful poem offer s, as we have seen,

numerous parallels to passages in our own sacr edScr iptures. But if we exam ine the wr itings and te

corded sayings of three great Roman philosopher s,

Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, we shallfind them also full of similar resemblances, while there

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222 H 1NDU 1SM.

some few matter s, such as the mark of clothing or

absence of such mark on their images, the number ofheavens, 810. They both ag r ee with the Buddhists inr ejecting the Veda of the Brahmans. The pr incipalpoint in the Jaina cr eed is the rever ence paid to holymen , who, by long discipline, have raised themselve sto divine perfection. The Jina

, or conquer ing sain t,who has conquered all wor ldly desires ’ (whence theadjective Jaina, to denote a follower of the Jinas), iswith Jainas what the Buddha, or

‘perfectly enlightenedsaint,

’ is with Bauddhas. He is also called Jinesvara,chief ofthe Jinas ’ ; Arhat, the venerable

’

; Ti r than

kar a, the saint who has made the passage of the

wor ld Sarva-jna, omn iscien t Bhagavat, holyone.

’ Time with Jainas proceeds in two eternallyr ecur r ing cycles of immense duration, defying all

human calculation 1 . the Utsarpini or‘ascend

ing cycle’

; 2. Avasarpini or descending cycle .

’

Each of these had six stages. Those of theU tsarpin i per iod are bad- bad, bad, bad-good, goodbad, good, good- good time. In the Avasarpini per iod,the ser ies begins with good-good and goes reg ular lybackwards. In the first cycle the ag e and statur e of

men incr ease ; in the other decr ease. We are now

i_1_i for ty -five difl'

erent works, in six g roups collectively calledAg amas, viz. 1 . eleven Ang e: 2 . twelve Ufingm ; 3. ten

Pai'

nnas 4 . four Alfila - si i tr a 5. six éh da-sfitm 6. one

Nandz’

- sz'

i tr a 7. oneAnmfog a-dvdr a-sii tm . Some of then}.have

a four fold commentary, under the names ffikd, N i h’

, Cur m ,

and Blzc‘

is/zya . The Tiki s are in Sanskrit, t e others in

Mag adhi Prakrit. Professor Dr . A. Weber has recently°

ven

a long account of these works in his I ndalvclze Studim . I ouldadd that the sacred books of the Dig -ambara Jainas are inSanskrit and little known to Europeans. Two Dig

-aruban .

Jainas who visited me at Jaypur spoke Sanskrit fluently , andwore the Brahmanical thr ead. They did not deny that theyconsider ed themselves half Brahmans.

APPENDIX . 223

in the fifth stage of theAvasarpini , i .a. in bad time.

When the two cycles have run out, a Yuga or ag e isaccomplished. Twen ty- four J inas, or perfect saints,

’

raised to the rank of gods, have appear ed in the presen t Avasarpin i cycle, twenty—four in the past Utsar

pin i , and twenty- four will appear in the future. Theidols representing them are always, like that ofBuddha,in a contemplative posture. The first J ina of the

present cycle lived 8 000 year s, and attained astature equal to the length of 500 bows (dizanus).The ag e

.

and stature of the second were somewhat lessand so i n a descending scale. The last two Jinas ,Parsva-natha and Maha-vi ra, were probably real persons, and are those pr incipally revered by the Jainasof the present day . In all likelihood the first founderof the sect was Parsva-natha, and its first activepropagator Maha- vi ra. In the same cycle there havelived twelve ’Cakr a- var tius, univer sal emperor s,

’n ine

divine per sonages called Bala—devas , n ine calledVasudevas , and n ine others called Prativasudevas,making a list of six ty- three divine per sons in all.

With r egard to the wor ld, the Jainas affirm that,being formed of eternal atoms, it has ex isted and willex ist eternally. They believe that it has three divisions, viz. lower , m iddle, and upper , and that there ar enumerous hells and heavens. All ex isting things arear ranged under the two gr eat '

l attvas of J iva, livingsoul, and A- j iva, ‘inan imate objects. ’ Of livingSouls there are three kinds a . N z

’

Qa everperfect,

’as the Jina b. M uktii tflum , liberated soul

c. B add/zd’

tman,bound soul,

’or one bound byworks

and wor ldly associations. Mater ial objects are sometimes classed under a Tattva called Padg ala , and somemake seven , others n ine Tattvas.

There are three ‘gems,’which together effect the

soul’s liberation (mob /m) viz. a . r ight intuition, 6.r ight knowledge, c. r ight conduct. This last consists .

11 1 11 11 11 15 1 1.

in observing five duties or vows of self- r estraint,thus

1 . Do not kill or injure. Str ict Jainas car ry this to so pr eposterous an extr eme that the strain water befor e dr inking rt, sweethe g r oundwith a brush h treading on it, never eat or dr iin the dark, and sometimes wear muslin before their mouths topr event the r isk of swallowing minute insects. Moreover , theynever eat fig s or an fruit contain ing seed, nor wi ll they eventouch flesh-meat wi t their hands. 2. Do not tell lies. 3. Stan]not. 4. Be chaste and temperate in thoug ht, word, and deed.

5 . Desire nothing immoderately.

There are two classes of Jainas, as of Buddhists ;viz. those who engage in secular occupations, and Yatis, monks or ascetics, who are r equir edto pluck out their hair or wear it cropped shor t. Thelatter often congregate in Mathas or monaster ies,

’

being called Sadhuwhen not monastic.It should be noted that most Jainas have a sor t

of modified belief in the H indt‘

t gods, especiallyBrahma, Vishnu, Siva, and Ganesa, with their con

sor ts, as beings subordinated to the Jainas ; and

r epresentations of these deities ar e sometimes observable in the precincts of their temples. They are evenobserver s of caste practices, and claim to be r egardedas Hindus, though r ejecting the HinduVeda. In

many par ts of India the pr iests of Jaina temples are

Brahmans.

77ze (55mm .

Ther e is no such philosophical sect as that.

ofo

theCarv

'

akas at pr esent in India, but that a mater ialtstlcschool of thinker s so called once ex isted, and exer cisedno slight influence on sceptical philosophy , is provedby the fr equent allusions to them in Ind1an wr ttmg s.

No account of H indfiism,ther efore, would be com

plete without a br ief statement of their opin ions.Nothing is known about C'ai rvaka, the founder of

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226 H INDUISM.

N0 recompense for acts the Ag nihotra,The tr i

ple Veda

,tr iple self- command,‘

And al the dust and ashes of r epentanceThese yield a means of l ivelihood for menDevoid of intellect and manliness.

I f victims slaug htered at a sacr ificeA re raised to heavenly mansions,“why should not

The sacr ificer immolate his fatherI f offer ing s of food ,

can satisfy ”Hung ry depar ted spir its, why supp1yThe man who g oes a jour ney with provisionsH is fr iends at home can feed him with oblations.I f those abiding in celestial spheresAre filled with food presented upon ear th ,Why should not those who live in upper stor iesBe nour ished by a meal spread out belowWhile life endures, let life be spent in easeAnd mer r iment let a man bor row moneyFrom all his fr iends and feast on melted butter .How can this body when r educed to dustRevisit ear th and if a g host can passT0 other wor lds, why does not strong afl

'

ection

For those he leaves behind attract him backThe costly r ites enjoined for those who dieAr e a mer e means of livelihood devisedBy sacerdotal cunning — nothing mor e.The thr ee composers of the tr iple VedaWere rog ues, or evil Spir its, or bufl

'

oons.

The recitation of myster iousAnd jabber “of the pr iests is simple nonsense.

Tr i -da gq a, contr ol over thoug hts, words, and actions, denoted by the three Danglas or staves car r ied by ascetics. ’ SeeManu, X I I . 1 0, 1 1 .

9 See Mann, V. 42, and p. 38 of this volume. Cf. Mahabharata, As

'

vamedhika -

parvan 793 , &c.

3 This is a hit at the S'raddha, when (as we have explained at

p. 66 ) oblations of cakes and libations of water are made to thespir its of deceased fathers, g randfathers, and prog en itor s.

Let us eat and dr ink, fo r to -mor row we die’

( 1 Cor . xv.

Compare such Hor atian precepts as Epod. x iii. 3, &cTwo cur ious Vedic words,ja r b/zan

'

and turpltar z‘

, are g ivenin the tex t as specimens ofwhat I suppose modern scofl

'

ers m ig htcall Vetlic slang . They occur in I‘l ig

- veda X . 106 , 6 , and

APPEND IX .

’

227

As a conclusion to our Appendix , we commend theforegoing cur ious commen tary on the religious systemof the Hindus by an enemy within their own camp,to the special attention of the Chr istian Missionaryin India. The satir ical spir it it evinces is very different from that we have r ecommended, at the end of

our 1 2th chapter , as likely to be most effective incontending with the Hydra H indt

‘

tism.

N trukta X III . 5. For their explanation, see Bohtling k and

Roth, and my Sanskr it-Eng lis Dictionary (published byMacmillan 81 Co. for the University ofOxford).

PRONUNCIATION OF LETTERS IN WORDS OFSANSKRIT ORIGIN.

VOWELS.

as in mer r i ly.mar ine.P1? ?azsle.

CONSONANTS.

I: kill,seek.

é k inkko

d

rn

tigg n,

3 5 n Og fiut‘1: before k or g , as in sink, sing .

as cl: 111 churdz (furf).211 as (M: m churdzkill.

as in jet.

j]: as dg ek tu hedg ekog (hejkog ).n belc i c e andj, as m in ch, smg e.

t as in true.M ant/zill.d drum.

db redbaited.2; none.t water (in Ireland).11: nut -fiook (but more dental).d dice (mor e like tfi in ré is).d]: adfiere (but more dental).u not, in

P Put:“Apk upbill.

bear , rubM aMor

7» map, jam.

31 y et.

r r ed, year .

I lie.

v vie (like 20 after consonants).I sure, session.

3 5 slum,hush.

1

hit.

Visarg a, or a distinctly audible aspirate.

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230 11 11111 1113 11 .

Avayavas (members of a syllo

g ism), 188, 189.

Avidya, 205.Avyakta, 195.

Awadhi dialect, 7.Ayodhya, 1 10, 177.

Ayodhyi -ki nda, 1 10 .

Ayog ava, a muted caste, 57, 1 53.

BADARAYArgA, 46, 203 .

Bada

s

r i -kedara, or Badari -ni th,17

Bahais (carpenters), 1 63.

Baladevas, 223.

Bala-kanda, 1 10.

Bali, 63 (n.

Bandarwars, 1 62.

Bang is (sweeper s), 1 64.Ban ias, or Ban iyas, 1 62.

Banjaras, 1 62.

Banyan - tree, 171 .

Benar es, 174, 175, 177.Beng ali lang uag e, 7.Bhag avad

-

g i ti , 206—221 .

Bhag avata-

purana, 1 18, 1 1 9, 1 20 .

Bhairava 94.

Bhairava-natha, 1 66.

Bhairavi, 95.

Bhaktas, 1 36.

Bhakti , 1 1 5, 1 36, 208, 209.

Bhakti-marg a, 1 2.

Bhakti - s'astr a, 1 5.

Bhakti - sfitras, 1 1 6.

Bharata , 1 .Bharata-khanda, 1 .

Bharata-var sha, 1 .

Bhi skaraéar ya, 1 39.

Bhatiyas, 1 62.

Bhats, 1 63 .

Bhatta-

prayag a, 177.Bhava-bhitti, 1 1 1 .

Bhavani (a shr ine), 179.

Bhavishya-

purana, 1 1 8.

Bhikshu, r elig ious devotee, ’ 59 ;(Buddhist), 78.

Bhi'ma, 1 1 2.

Bhima- sankara, 178.

Bhishma-

par van, 1 1 3.

Bhistis (water - car r iers), 1 64.Bhojpur i dialect , 7.

Bhi’

tr , 6 1 .Bhfita-suddhi , 1 32.

Bhiita- yajna, 63.

Bhuy ar , 6 1 .Bihistis (water - car r iers), 164.

Bindu (a Sar ovara), 179.

Bodhi - tr ee, 75.Brahma. See Brahman .

Brahma (the g od), 26, 87—90.

Brahma form ofmar r iag e, 62.

Brahma- éi r in , unmar r ied stu

dent, ’ 59.

Brahma-jijnasii , 204.rahman, 17, 204 ; the suprem

soul, 49 ; meaning of, 86 .

Brahmana por tion of the Veda1 4 , 1 8, 33

—38.

Brahmanda-

pur'

ana, 1 1 8.

Brahman ism , 1 3 Buddhism an

Brahmanism contrasted, 74.

Brahmans (pr iests), 34 , 56—63divisions of, 1 59.

rahma-

purana, 1 1 8.

rahma Samaj , 1 49.

Brahma-yajna, 63 .

Brahma - vaivarta-

purfina, 1 18.Braj dialect, 7.

Buddha, 72, 74, 75 mean in0

2874incarnation ofVishn

1

Buddhi (intellect), 1 96 .

Buddhindr iyani, 196 (n).Buddhism , 72 and Br i hmaniscontrasted, 74.

11 1 1 11 1111111 , 146.aitanyas, 1 38, 146, 147.

'Cakra -vartius, 54, 223.

’Camars ( leather - cutters), 1 64 .

’Ca

'

munda, 1 24.’

Canak

ya, 72

’Candi a, amixed caste, 57, 1 5

INDEX.

'Candi’

, 1 24 . i pi li , or Divali , 184 .

'Candi -mahatmya, 1 1 9. Di rzi s (tailors), 1 64.

'Candra Sen (Keshab), 149. Dola- yatr i , 182 .

'Candra-

g upta, 4, 73, 74 . Doms (chair -makers), 1 64.

'

Ci r vakas, 224. Dravida Brahmans, 1 59 .

Caste, 1 5 1—1 59. Dravidians, 2 languag e of, 8, 9,Castes (the four ), 56, 57, 1 52 ; Dravya (substance), 190, 1 9 1 .(modern divisions), 1 59 ; (or i Dr ishadvati r iver , 55.g in ofmixed cas tes), 1 52, 1 53. Dr ishtanta (example in log ic),

Categ or ies (seven), 190, 1 9 1 . 1 89.

'Cii tur varnya, 56. Drona-

parvan, 1 13.

Caula, 59. Durba g rass, 171 .Ceylon, 82, 1 1 1 . Dur g a, 95, 1 24 .

’Chandas, 1 5. ur g a

-

piija, 1 83.

'Citra- kote, 179. uryodhana, 1 12.

Confluences (seven), 177, 178. Dvapara ag e, 1 2 1 .

Confucius, 47. Dvar aka, 1 14, 177, 178.

Conjevaram, 177. Dvi -ja,‘twice-born, ’ 58.

Cows, rever ence for , 1 69 . Dyaus, 22 , 24.

’C i

’

tda-karman , 59. Dyaush -

pitar , 22.Custard- apple, 171

DAIVA form ofmar r iag e, 62.

EATING and dr inking , 1 55- 1 57.

Dakore, 1 80 .

Dakshinac'

ar ins, 1 26.FOOD. 1 55- 1 57

Dandakaranya (the Deccan), 1 66 .

Danda-

pani, 166 . (371 011 111 1171 , 1 80 .

Dar s’

anas (systemsofphilosophy), Gandharva form of mar r iag e,1 4 , 46, 1 87—206. 62.

Dasahara, 1 83 . Ganesa, 63, 1 65.

Das'

aratha, 1 10. Ganesa - éatur thi , 183.

Dasra , 24 . Gang a-

putra, 1 60.

Deccan, 1 66 . Gang a-si g ara, 173, 178.

Deva-

praya'

g a, 178. Gang es, 172 .

Deva- yajna, 63 . Gang otr i , 173, 178.

Devi -mahatmya, 1 18. Garbhi da'

ina, 59.

Devi , 1 23 . Garbha- lambhana, 59.

Dhfirjati , 93. Garuda-purana, 1 18.

Dharma (caste duties), 77, 202, Gauda Brahmans, 159.

208. Gaur'i , 1 24 .

Dharma - s'

astra, 1 5. Gautama, 75.

Dh ig vana, a mixed caste, 57. Gayi , 75, 176 .

Dhobis (washermen), 1 64. Gayatr i , 6 1 .

Dhrita- r iishtra, 1 1 2. Gayi -wal, 1 60.

Diet, 64. Ghrishnesvara, 179.

Dig ambara, 93, 22 1 . Gi ta-

g ovinda, 139.

232 11 11 111 1115 11 .

Godavar i r iver , 173 .

Gods (thirty- thr ee), 25.Gond lang uag e, 99.

Gosain, 144.

Gosainji , 1 43.

Gotama, 46, 75, 1 89.

Gotras, 1 60.

G rabas (nineplanets) 1 80 .

G r iha- stha,‘

useholder ,’

59.

Gr ihya- si

'

ttra, 1 5, 53 .

Gujarati lang uag e, 8.

Guna (quality),81

890, 1 9 1 .

Gunas (three), 8 , 1 94, 1 95.Gurjara Brahmans, 1 59.

HAJJAMS (barbers), 1 64.

Halwais (confectioners), 1 64.

Hanuman, 1 66.Har i dwar 177.Har ivans

'

a 1 rvan, 1 1 4.

Hell, 5 1 .

Hetu (reason in log ic), 1 88.Hindi languag e, 7.

H indi i , or ig in of name, 2.

H induism, 1 3, 1 6.

H industan , 1 .

H indiistani lang uag e, 7.

H iouen Thsang , 8 1 .

H i ranya g arbha, 1 98.

Holi festiva1, 1 82.

I 11O1. -w0 11 5 11 1 1>, 1 65.

I ncarnations, 1 03 Vishnu’s ten,1 04

- 108.

India, ditTerent names of,population of, immig rations into, 2—6 °

, conquests of,4 four teen lang uag es of, 79

°

sacred lang uag e of, 1 3Indra, 23, 1 67.I ndrani , 27.

Indus r iver , 2.

Investiture with thecord, 60, 6 1 .I s

'

vara, 205.

I tihasa, 1 5, 1 1 1 .

JAGAN 1171 1 11, 175, 178

Jag an 'matn s 93: 95°Taimini , 46, 20 1 .aina

,222.

Jainism,

Jambu-dvipa, 2.

Jang amas, 1 48.

Janmashtami , 1 83.

Jata- karman , 59.

Jats, or Jats, 1 6 1 .aya-deva, 1 39ina, 222.

Jivatman, the individual soul

50, 192, 200, 206.

Jnana -mar g a, 1 1 .Jumna r iver , 172.Jumnotr i , 178 .

Jvi lzi -mukhi , 179.

Jyotir -matha. 179Jyotisha, 1 5.

Jyotishi (family astrolog er ), 62.

Jyotishtoma sacr ifice, 40.

KABIR, 14 1 , 142.

Kabars (palankin -bearer s), 1Kala, ‘Time, ’ 92.

Kali ag e, 1 2 1 .

Kali (the g oddess), 92, 95, 11 25.

Kalki or Kalkin, incarnationVishnu, 108.

Kalpa- sii tra, 1 5.Kama ( 0d of love), 1 67.Kama-d enu, 1 69.

Kanada,Kanarese lang uag e, 8.

Kanauji dialect, 7.

Kané i (Konjeveram), 177.

Kanyakub a Brahmans, 1 59 .

Kap ila. 4 193Kapila- vastu, 74.

li arana, a mixed caste, 57.

Karma-marg a, 1 1 .

Karman (act), 1 90, 1 9 1 .Karma- p11ala, 55Karma- vipaka, 5 1 .

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234 H INDUISM.

Manushya- yajna, 63. Nava- 15 t1 i festi val, 1 83 .

M5 1ka11deya- pur 5 g a, 1 1 8. Nep5li lang uag e, 1 0.

Mar r iag e, 1 55; eig htformsof, 62. N ig amana (conclusion in log ic),Maruts (The ), 23 . 1 88.

Magha (a monastery), 224 . Nimb5 1ka,01 N imb5ditya, 1 38.

Mathu1 5 (Muttra), 177. Nimb5 1kas, 1 38, 1 39.

M5 t1 is, 01 M5 t1ik5s, 1 24. Niwaya (in log ic), 1 89.

Matsya incarnation , 104 . Ni rukta, 1 5.

Mausala - par van,1 14 . Nishk_1 amapa, 59.

M5y5 (illusion ), 1 95. Nou-Aryan races of India, 7.

(Har idw5 r ), 177. Ny5ya system ofphilosophy, 46,Meg asthenes, 4, 73. 1 87- 1 90.

Mel5 ( relig ious fair ), 1 82.

Mew5 r i dialect, 7.

M ihtars (sweepers), 1 64 .

M im5ns5 system of philosophy,46, 20 1 - 203 .

M it5kshar 5 , 70.

M itra, 22.

Moé is, 1 6 .

Mohun Roy (R5ja R5m), 1 49.

Monkeys, 170.

Mud15 , 1 27, 1 30.

Muhammadans, 5, 6 .

Mfirdh5vasikta, a mixed caste,

57Muttra

,177.

NAGA-N'ATH

, or N5g e§vara, 179.

N5g a -

panéami , 1 83 .

N5g as (se rpents), 1 69.

Nak

gzhatras (27 constellations),

1

Nakula, 1 1 2.

N5ma- karag a, 59.

N5 11 5 11 Shah, 142.

Nand5 -

pray5g a, 178.

N5 radiya-

pur5pa, 1 18.

N5 r5yaoa, 10 1 (a Sar ovara), 179.

Nara - sinha incarnation, 106 .

Narbad5 r iver , 173.

N5satya, 24.Nasik, 179.

N5 th-dv5 r , 180.

N55 5 (barbers), 164.

Nava-

g rah5l1 (nine planets), 1 66 .

01 1m , 1 60.

Om (the mystical200.

OIp- kara, 178.

01 5 011 lang uag e, 9.

Or iya lang uag e, 8.

Osw5ls, 1 62.

PADARTHAS (seven categ or ies),1 90 .

Padma- pu15na, 1 1 8.

Fais'5ca form ofmar r iag e, 62.

Pakhtu Ian ag e, 1 0.

5lit5na, 1

Pam 5 (a Sarovara), 179.

an a - lakshag a, 1 17.

P5nglavas, or P5 11d11 pr inces,1 1 2.

Pandharpur , 1 20 1 47, 176.Panj5bi lang uag e, 8.

Parama- hansas, 1 48 .

Par am5 tma11 , the Supreme Soul,49. 1 92, 206

P5 ramit5s (six ), 79.

Paraéu- r5ma, 1 67 incarnationof, 106.

Paras'

ur5ma-kshetra, 1 67.Par ikrama, 173.

Par ikshit, 179.

Par ivr5jaka (a relig ious mendicant), 59 ; (Buddhist), 78.

P5rsi s, 5.

INDEX .

Parvan, 1 8 1 .

P51 12 11, 95.

Pasht e, 10 .

P5sis (villag e watchmen), 1 64.

P5éupatas, 148.

Paéu-

pati 148.

P5 gali -putra (Patna), 4, 73.

Patanjali , 46, 200.

Philoso hy, six systems oi, 45,46, 1 7- 206 .

Pilg r imag e, places of, 171 - 1 80 ;why under taken, 171 , 172.

P imja, 66 , 68.

ipal tree , 170.

F iti'i -yajna, 63.

Places (sacred), 170 - 1 80 .

Plan6

e

6

1s (temples of the n ine),1

Pong al festival, 182.

Prabh5sa, 179.

Pmdakshio5 , 173 .

Pmdh5na, 195.

Fraj5 -

pati, 90.

Pr5j5patya form ofmar r iag e, 62.

Prak1iti, 194- 199.

Pmm5 (true knowledg e), 52,Pram5oas (four ), 188 ; (three).197.

Pr ameya, 189.

Prati'

n5 ( log ical proposi tion),1

Prativ5sudevas, 223.

Pratyaksha, 1 88.

Pray5g a (Allah5b5d), 176 ; (aconfluence), 177.

Pray5g-w5l, 1 60.

Pr5yasé itta, 55, 71 .

Prayojana ( ia log i c), 189.

Pr iests. See Br i hmans.P1 ithivi , 24 .

Pukkasa, a mixed caste, 57.Punsavana, 59.

Pur im, 1 5, 1 1 5- 1 22 ; subjectstreated of in a, 1 17.

Pfirbi dialect, 7.

235

Ri m ! (the lanet), 1 66.R5ja-

pur , 180 .

Rajas (the 88, 1 17, 194,1 95.

R5jasa Pur5ms, 1 17, 1 18.

Rajmahal lang uag e, 9.

R5kshasa form of mar r iag e, 62.

R5ksl1asas, 166.

R5m Mohun Roy, 149.R5 1na (incarnation of Vishnu),

106, 1 1 0.

R5 11

6

1

‘5-kshetra (the Deccan),

1

R5m5nanda, 14 1 .R5m5nandas, 138, 14 1 , 142.

R5ma-ni th, 01 Ri meévan , 179.139.

1 38, 140.

Ri mi 112, 1 5, 109- 1 1 1 .

Ram nu , 178, 179.

Rang i ris (dyers), 1 64.

Rastog is, 1 62.

Ri vam, 2, 1 10, 1 1 1 , 166.Ream (a shr ine), 179.

Rudras, 25, 1 67.Rudra-

yi mnla M m 13 1 .

8713 4 111 1111 1 r iver , 173.

'Sabda (verbal author i ty), 188.Sabh5 - parvan, 1 1 2.

Puma- prajna, 140 .

Purusha, the Supreme Soul , 49,I9S»200

Purusha- si ikta, 30.

Piu‘va-mim5ns5 , 20 1 .Pixr va-paksha, 202.

Pushkara (a Sar ovara), 179.

Pushg i -m5 r g a, 144.

Pythag oras, 47.

236 11 111 11 1115 1 1 .

Saé - é id-ananda, 52, 195, 204 .

Sacrifices, human, 36 , 37; of

animals, 38- 4 1 ; of the Somaplant, 39 ; abolition of

11121, 42.

Sad- 5é5 12, 55.

S5dhyas, 1 67.Sag es (seven), 160.

Sahadeva, 1 1 2.

Sahaj5nanda, 145.Saiva, 97.

'Saivism, 97- 100.

'S5ktas, 98, 1 22- 1 32.

'Sakti, 92, 1 23, 199.

'Sz

‘

iktism, 1 22—1 33.

'S5lag r5ma stones, 171 .Si lokya, 5 1 .

'Salya- parvan, 1 13.

Sam5j (Brahma), 149.

Sam5 110dakas, 68.

S5m5nya (g enerality of pro

perties), 190, 191 .Sam5var tana, 59, 62.

Samav5ya (coinherence), 1 9 1 .

S5ma- veda, 20.

Samay5é5 1 ika- si'

1tra, 1 5.'Sami tree, 171 .S5mipya, 5 1 .

amprad5yas, 135.Samsaya (ia log ic), 189.

Sandby5, 63.

S5 11dilya, 1 1 6 .

Sandrokottus'

Candra-

g upta),4a 72

'Sa11kar565 rya, 137, 203 , 206 .

Sai nkhya system of philosophy,46, 193

—200.

San 11y5si11 (relig ious devotee),59, 65~

Sansk5 ras (twelve), 59.

Sansk g- it (lang uag e), 1 3 ; litera

ture), 1 3 , 1 4 .

'S5nti -parvan, 1 13.

Sapiogla, 69.

Saptapadi , 63.'Sa

'

l tada -matha, 179.

S5 rasvata B15hmans, 1 59.

S5rasvati (1 iver ), 355, 95, note 1 ,

172 (the g oddess), 90, 1 24 .

amyu r iver , 173.

arovara (divine 179 .

5 1 i‘

1pya, 51 .arva- darsana-sang raba, 225 .

'S5stri , 1 60 .

(Suttee), 149.

'

Satrunjaya, 179.

Sattva (the Guna), 88, 1 17, 1 94195 .

S5ttvika Pur5 g as, 1 17, 1 1 8 .

Sauptika-

par van, 1 1 3 .

Sfiyujya, 5 1 . 521 34, 135 .

Seleukos N ikator , 4, 73 .

’Sesha (the serpent), 170 .

Shap-daréanas (six systems 0

philosophy), 46 .

'Siksh5 , 1 5.

'

Siksh5 - pat1 i , 146'Siddh5 11 ta (ia log ic), 1 89.

Siddhas, 167.Simantonnayana, 9.

Sindhi lang uag e,Sindhu r iver , 1 .

Sins (five g r eat), 64.'Si tal5 (the g oddess of s

pox ), 1 66 .

'Siva, 26, 87- 96, 98.

'Siva- pur5g a, 1 18.

'Siva- 1 5 11 i, 1 82.

115 , 1 10, 1 1 1 .

Skanda, 1 66.

Skanda- pur5 11a, 1 18.

S1u5 r ta- sfi tta, 1 5.

Smy iti, 1 4 .

Somn5 th , 178.

Sonars (g oldsmiths), 1 63 .

Soul , 49, 50.

'Sr5ddhas (funeral r ites), 64'Sraén aoas (Buddhist ascetics7

'Smuta - sii tra, 1 5 .

'S r5vakas (Jaina), 224 .

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238 11 115 13 1 15 111 .

V5m5¢u1 ins, 1 36, V1sva-n5 1h, 178 .

V5mana. incamati011 , 106. Vith0b5 , 1 20, 147, 176.

V5mana -

p1115m, 1 1 8 .Vly

'i ha. 59Vana- parvan, 1 1 2. Vyitra, 23°V5naprastha (anchor i te), 59, 64. Vp shatha, 148.Varaba incarnation , 105. Vyi hr ltls (three), 6 !V5 15ha. p11 1 5115 , 1 1 8.

Vyi pay q (m 19 g nc). 188.

Vardhana-matha, 179 .Vy5pti 1 88

Varuna, 22, 23, 28, 1 67. Vyapya (m 183

Vamni ni’ 27, Vy5 sa, £ 1 2, l l 6, l 46, 203 .

Vi sudcm , 223. Vyavahara, SS, 71

V5s11ki (the serpent), 170 .

Vasus (eig ht), 167. YAJNAVALKYA, code of, 70, 71 .V5y11 , 23. Yajnika B1 5hma11 , 1 60.

V5yu-

p11 15pa, 1 18. Yajnopavi ta, 60.

Veda, mean ing of, 17. Yajur - veda, 20.

Ved5ng as (six ), 1 5. Yama, 1 67.\

’

ed5uta system 01" philosophy, Yantras (mystical diag rams),46. 1 29.

Vedas, 19, 20. Yatis (Jaina), 224 .

\’e115 r iver , 17 Yog a system of ph ilosophy, 46 ,

Vijas, 1 27, 1 2 200, 201 .

Vijaya -daéami , 183. Yog a (concentration of theVik5 ras (six teen), 196 . mind), 209, 2 10 .

Vilva tree, 170. Yog eévar i (a shr ine), 179.

Vinaya, 77. Yog in, 01 Yog i , 20 1 .Vi r5 ta- parva11

,1 1 2. Yog ini , 95, 1 24 .

Viéesha (particular itg), 190, 19 1 . Yom, 95.

Vishnu, the g od, - 9 1 , 100 Yuddha - k5 rgcja, 1 1 1 .

1 08 . Yudhishthira, 1 1 2.

Vish1,1 11 177.

Vishnu- pu15na, 1 18, 1 20- 122. ZAND-AVASTA, 5.

Viéva-devas (ten ), 1 67. Z oroaster 5, 47.

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