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HINDUISM PAST AND PRESENT
Öxfore
HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
HINDUISM
PAST AND PRESENT
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF
AºA2 CEAV7' Aſ/AVDO RAEATORMAZA'S AAWD A /3/R/A2 F
COMPAA’ASO/W /3/27°WAEAEAV AZZAV/D UAS//
A WZO CA/ACAS 7TWAAVZZ"Y
BY
New
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J. MURRAY MITCHELL, M.A., LL.D.
SEcoMD EDITION, CAREFULLY REVISED
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY
56 PATERNOSTER Row AND 65 St. PAUL’s CHURCHYARD
I 897
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| 8 97
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- /*3223.
2
* 2
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
-º-º-
HE title of this little work is Hinduism Past and
Present. Hinduism is so exceedingly vast and
complex that a full discussion of the subject would
require a large volume, or rather many volumes.
My desire has been to produce, if possible, a book
which should be sufficiently correct to satisfy the
Orientalist, and yet short and simple enough to
attract the ordinary reader.
The main difficulty has been in the compression
into a small space of Superabundant materials. It
would have been easier to present a larger work; but
brevity was imperative. Still, leading facts and
principles have been dwelt upon, I trust, at sufficient
length to enable the reader to consult with intelligence
the Indian writings contained in such a collection as
the Sacred Books of the East. At all events, the
work will form a sufficient introduction to the writings
on Indian religion of such Continental scholars as
Lassen, Roth, Weber, Haug, Barth, Bühler, and
others—H. H. Wilson, Max Müller, Monier Williams,
Muir, Cowell, &c., in this country—and Professors
Whitney and Hopkins in America. Among investiga-
tions carried on in India, those of Colebrooke stand
6 INTRODUCTORY NOTE
pre-eminent. A Marathi work, Hindu dharmatsen
Szwarup, by the Rev. Baba Padmanji, contains much
accurate information on Hinduism '.
Indian names often repel readers by their multiplied
diacritical marks. With some hesitation it has been
resolved to omit the whole of these in the body of
the work; but they are given in the Index, with an
explanation of their meaning. When the reader is
at a loss as to the proper pronunciation of any name,
the Index will be a sufficient guide.
* A valuable series of books throwing light on Indian belieſ and life
is at present in course of publication by the ‘Christian Literature Society
for India, under the editorial care of Dr. John Murdoch at Madras.
Very useful works bearing on Indian religion are found in Traibner's
Oriental Series. Ward on Northern, and Dubois on Southern, Hinduism
may still be consulted with advantage.
Dr. Claudius Buchanan's Christian Researches in Asia aroused
immense interest in the beginning of the century; especially his account
of the temple and worship of Juggernaut (Jagannath) at Puri, the most
remarkable place of Indian pilgrimage. Regarding its present condition,
the account of Sir W. W. Hunter in his work on Orissa is full of interest.
But we make no attempt to mention all the books on the subject of
Hinduism that are of real value.
CHAP.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
CONT ENTS
-º-º-
INTROLUCTION e º - e e e e e
THE VEDAS AND VELIC PERIOI) . e & e *
THE VEDIC RITUAL te º e º e e ©
SECTION I.--THE UPANISHADS. RISE OF PHILOSOPHY
SECTION II.--THE SIX DARSANAS. METHODIZED
PHILOSOPHY . º e o •
DEVELOPMENT OF BRAHMANISM. SOCIAL LIFE. CASTE
STRUGGLE BETWEEN BRAHMANISM AND BUDDHISM .
RECONSTRUCTION OF HINDUISM. THE AVATARAS .
THE EPIC POEMS . e º e - º º •
THE PURANAS e © º º tº © º tº
THE TANTRAS. THE SAKTI WorSHIP º
THE HINDU SECTS e e e * º & ©
MODERN HINDUISM. FEASTS AND FASTS . º e
RECAPITULATION . & & 3. º º e o
34
43
53
8I
94
IO2
I 18
127
I 35
I4o
165
2OI
8 CONTENTS
CHAP.
XIII. RECENT HINDU REFORMERS
XIV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
XV. HINDUISM COMPARED WITH CHRISTIANITY
APPENDIX—
I. HYMNS OF THE VEDA . e e
II. THE GAYATRI
III. THE AT HARVA VEDA
IV. THE UPANISHADS .
V. THE CODES OF LAW
VI. VIRODHA BHAKTI
VII. MODERN BRAHMANICAL WORSHIP
VIII. THE BRAHMO SOMAJ
IX. SPECIMENS OF THE BETTER TEACHINGS OF HINDUISM
I’AGE
2 I I
24O
247
28o
INDEX . e te º de tº
28 I
INTRODUCTION
I
ERY earnest efforts are made in the present day
to investigate the early history of nations; and
these have been attended with no inconsiderable
Success. No part of a nation's history is more im-
portant than that of its religion ; and much valuable
light has been thrown of late on many systems of
faith, both of ancient and modern days.
Of the religions of antiquity, several that were once
flourishing and influential have become entirely ex-
tinct. Thus, the faiths of Greece, Italy, and Egypt,
SO celebrated in ancient days, have completely passed
away. So have the religions of the Celtic, Teutonic,
and Slavonic races, as well as those of Syria and Asia
Minor. But, in the Farther East, we come on systems
of belief which, for reasons which it would be well
to inquire into, have been possessed of much more
stability, and which are to be ranked among both
ancient and modern creeds. The most remarkable of
these are Hinduism and Buddhism. Both of these
systems deserve the careful study of educated men.
In this little work we are to be occupied with the
consideration of Hinduism—the more ancient of
the two.
IO * HINDUISM
In this remarkable system we see the oldest sur-
viving form of the faith that was once common to all
the branches of the great Aryan, or Indo-European,
family, to which we ourselves belong. The Vedas of
India exhibit that faith in a form which is decidedly
more ancient than that presented in the Homeric
poems; and many points in classical mythology
which would otherwise have remained obscure, receive
elucidation from the contents of the Hindu books.
Just as a critical acquaintance with Greek and Latin
etymology cannot be obtained without a knowledge
of Sanskrit, so we may assert that the religions of
Greece and Italy cannot be satisfactorily studied
without frequent reference to the faith of ancient India.
For these reasons, then, as well as on account of
its great antiquity and long-continued existence,
Hinduism presents a most interesting subject of
investigation. Nor is the interest lessened by the
circumstance that the influx of Christian, and Western
ideas generally, is telling at the present moment with
great power on the faith of India, and threatening not
merely to modify, but to destroy it. It has clung
tenaciously to life for more than three thousand years;
but the end seems now approaching. A stupendous
revolution is going on in India which has many
striking points of resemblance to the change which
took place over the Roman Empire when the ancient
Paganism was slowly expiring.
One word as to the spirit in which the study of
Hinduism should be carried on. We trust that neither
our readers nor we can enter on it with our feelings
as little moved as if we were preparing to examine
INTRODUCTION II
merely some philosophical or scientific problem.
For we are about to deal with religion—with a subject
bearing directly on the honour of God and the welfare
of human beings. Hinduism is, at this moment, the
creed of a hundred and ninety millions of our brethren.
What, during its protracted reign of more than three
thousand years, has it told them of God and man,
and sin and salvation, and heaven and hell ? How
far has it proved a faithful guide amidst the per-
plexities of life P What comfort has it supplied to
the sorrowful ? We have to think of human hearts
with all their trembling sensibilities—not of abstract
principles and passionless laws. And if, as our inquiry
procecds, we shall find that Hinduism has often spoken
erringly and ill on matters pertaining to the Divine
glory and human weal, how should it affect us? The
Roman poet could boast of the pleasure of being
able, from the ‘serene temples reared by the teaching
of sages", to look down on the crowds of men
wandering far and wide in the vain quest of truth
and joy. Very different from such cynical scorn will
be the feeling of one who truly loves his kind. His
emotion will resemble that which filled the breast of
Him ‘whose name is above every name, when ‘ He
beheld the multitudes, and was moved with com-
passion towards them, because they fainted, and
were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.’
We must further explain that we by no means
desire to deal with our subject as if there were
a lawsuit between induism and Christianity, in
which we held a brief for the latter and intended to
* “Edita doctrina sapientäm templa serena.’—Lucreţius.
I2 HINDUISM
press to its farthest consequences every point that is
adverse to the opposing party. On the contrary, we
feel ourselves in duty bound to do the utmost justice
to Hinduism, and to point out its merits as faithfully
as its demerits. Time was when non-Christian
systems of religion were regarded by Christian writers
as simply masses of unrelieved falsehood ; but such
was not the belief either of the Apostles or the early
Christian authors. The declaration of St. Paul is
that ‘God has never left Himself without witness,
and that ‘ the Gentiles, which have not the Law, are
a law unto themselves.” Conscience is not wholly
extinguished in the human breast; it speaks, indeed,
often in feeble and faltering accents; but we shall
welcome even its faintest whispers when it testifies on
behalf of God and goodness.
We shall begin at the beginning, and try to study
Hinduism chronologically. It is very true that every
winding of the great stream has not yet been ex-
plored ; nor can we fix the precise point where it
was joined by such or such a tributary : still, we are
tolerably well acquainted with its fountains, with the
course which it has hitherto pursued, and the chief
alterations it has sustained.
II
When a Hindu is asked what his religion is, he at
Once replies that it is contained in the Sastras, or
sacred writings;–he does not speak of unwritten
tradition as authoritative ". What, then, are the
* The number of Sanskrit works, as brought to light by the investiga-
INTRODUCTION I3
accredited sacred writings? The Hindu will generally
reply that they are ‘the four Vedas, the six Darsanas
or philosophical systems, and the eighteen Puranas.'
This sacred literature is exceedingly voluminous.
The Vedas contain at least thirty thousand long verses.
The philosophical writings, with their commentaries,
are also very extensive. The Puranas comprise prob-
ably a million and a half of lines, without including
supplementary treatises, called Upa-Puranas. It
follows that very few Hindus are well acquainted
with their own Sastras. Even the most learned
Brahman can hardly have read more than a fiftieth
part of them.
The Hindus make a distinction between direct and
indirect revelation. Certain portions of their literature
are classed under the head of Sruti—literally, “that
which has been heard.’ An eternal, Divine voice is
supposed to have uttered these portions; and the
favoured few who heard them treasured them up and
repeated them for the good of others. They are also
said to have been ‘seen’ by holy men". These writings
are believed to constitute a direct revelation, and are
fully authoritative. Other books are classified under
the head of Smriti——literally, ‘that which is re-
membered.” No eternal existence is claimed for
these ; their authority is derived from their being
a faithful representation of the sense of the Sruti.
There is some resemblance between the distinction
tions of the Government of India, is not less than ten thousand. Rajendra
Lal Mitra holds that the entire number of Sanskrit books (Hindu,
Buddhist, and Jaina) is not under twenty thousand. The writers he
estimates at four thousand.
1 * The words of Amos . . . which he saw" (Amos i. 1).
I4. PHINDUISM
thus drawn between the two classes of authoritative
books, and that which Roman Catholics have stated
as existing between the Bible and the Fathers.
In addition to the two kinds of works now mentioned,
the Sanskrit language contains multitudes of writings
for which inspiration is not claimed ; for example, the
extensive dramatic literature. Some important works
—particularly the great heroic poems, the Ramayana,
and the Mahabharata—occupy a sort of middle
ground between the fully inspired and uninspired.
Again, there is an important class of writings, of
comparatively late origin, known by the name of
Tantras. Several writers have claimed an authority
for these equal to that of the Puranas.
In some cases the philosophical writings have been
excluded from the list of inspired books.
It will thus be perceived that there is much un-
certainty as to the extent of the Hindu Canon. No
Council has ever been called to consider the subject;
and the conception of a Church or Pope—an infallible
authority in matters of faith—is foreign to the Hindu
mind.
The Sruti comprises the books known under the
name of the Veda or Vedas. These are now universally
admitted to be fully authoritative.
CHAPTER I
7A/AE VA2/D.A.S AAWD VE/O/C AEA' NO/D
HE term “Veda” means knowledge". Generally
four Vedas are mentioned; but they are often
spoken of as if they constituted one book. They are
written in an ancient form of Sanskrit, as the Avesta
is in a cognate language usually termed Zend.
Originally a Veda was understood to consist only of
two parts; but, at a later period, a third was added.
The first is called Sanhita, or Mantra, and consists of
praises and prayers composed in verse. The second
part, the Brahmana, is chiefly in prose; it explains
how the Mantras are to be used, the origin and
meaning of the rites, and the proper mode of per-
forming them. The Brahmanas are thus commentaries
on the hymns. The third part of the Veda is con-
tained in the Aranyakas, or ‘forest treatises'—so
called because they were studied by ascetics in the
forests. The parts of these which discuss philoso-
phical and religious questions regarding God, the
Soul, the destiny of man, &c., are termed Upanishads.
They are written chiefly in prose, partly in verse. It
* From the root zid, “to know’ or ‘see’; which is etymologically the
same as eiða, and zideo.
I6 HINDUISM
is important to note that the three parts of a Veda
are not only very diverse in character, but for the
most part different in age. As a rule, the Upanishads
are the latest, and much more recent than the Hymns.
They are not parts of the Veda proper, but appended
disquisitions, which, however, are now deemed the
most holy portions of the Veda ; and on this account
they should not be kept in a dwelling-house, but in
a temple. All this implies a sad confounding of
things that differ; and it could have been assented to
only when the sense of the most ancient part of the
Veda had been in a great degree forgotten.
When we speak of the Veda and the Vedic religion,
we must exclude the Upanishads from consideration.
We must also distinguish between the Hymns and
the Ritualistic writings, or Brahmanas. The Brah-
manas of each Veda are later than the Hymns of the
same Veda ; and they generally contain a somewhat
different theology. When we use the term Veda,
then, we shall include only the Hymns. The four
divisions of the Veda are called respectively the Rich,
or Rig Veda ; the Saman, or Sama Veda; the Yajush,
or Yajur Veda ; and the Atharvana, or Atharva Veda.
We need not pay much attention to the second and
third. The Sama Veda contains only verses extracted
from the Rig Veda, and arranged for the use of
certain priests" at the chief sacrifices. The Yajur
Veda appears in two forms, called the Black and the
White (or Taittiriya and Vajasaneyi). It is properly
a liturgical work in prose, with hymns, or extracts from
hymns, interspersed. It also borrows very largely from
* The Udgatris.
THE VEDAS AND VEDIC PERIOD I7
the Rig Veda, and contains texts arranged for another
class of priests". The Atharvana comes next to the
Rig Veda in importance; from which about a sixth
part of it is taken.
The Rig Veda means the Veda of praise. It con-
tains II,0co verses and IoI7 complete hymns—or,
according to another recension, Io28. We must speak
with great caution as to the time when these hymns
were composed, and with still more caution as to the
date when they were collected and committed to
writing *. The oldest hymns may perhaps take us as
far back as the year 2Goo or 18Co B.C.—say, about the
age of Abraham.
There is no small diversity of character among the
hymns. Some of them are tolerably simple; and
these may be regarded as the spontaneous utterance
of religious sentiment; but there is a larger number
that are involved, laboured, and unnatural *. We
cannot assert that even the oldest are all simple
and childlike. From the first we see the sacerdotal
stamp deeply impressed on many, if not most, of these
compositions. The Rig Veda itself must have been
mainly written, and probably wholly arranged, by
priests; and both the selection and arrangement must
have been made chiefly with a view to liturgical pur-
* The Adhvaryus.
* The art of writing does not seem to have come into use long before
the Greek invasion of India in the fourth century B.C. The collection
of the hymns may have been from about I ooo B.C.
* “Whole hymns must remain to us a dead letter,’ says Max Müller.
Why? The conviction is growing among scholars that many of them
are intentionally obscure.
B
\p
I8 HIWDUISM
poses. Even in the days when the first hymns were
composed, religion had begun to petrify; forms and
rites were coming to be deemed more important than
thoughts, feelings, or deeds. The early period of
Hinduism thus reveals a tendency—which is clearly
exhibited throughout the history of religion—to sub-
stitute the external for the internal.
It is probable that the Indian branch of the great
Aryan race came into India about two thousand
years B. C. They were civilized to a very considerable
degree. They depended for subsistence chiefly, but
by no means solely, on their herds and flocks. The
hymns speak of powerful kings and their great wealth.
Commerce and many of the arts of civilized life were
well known. They had even made some progress in
astronomy. Cities, or at least towns, must have been
pretty numerous. They had probably come into India
in several successive bands. They were confined for
a time to ‘the country of the seven rivers,’ as they
called it"—or, as we now name it, the Panjāb (five
rivers). They did not find the land unoccupied. They
had been preceded by the great Dravidian race—
which was of Turanian, not Aryan, origin, and which
is now nearly confined to India south of the Krishna
river. Other races, now generally termed Kolarian—
which are likewise probably of Turanian extraction—
may also have entered India about the same time as
the Aryas. The Kolarian tribes were doubtless then,
as they remain to this day, scarcely civilized; but
certainly the Dravidian races were so to a very con-
* So called when the Indus and Saraswati are included along with the
five rivers of the Panjāb,
THE VEDAS AAWD VEDIC PERIOD I9
siderable degree. The intrusive Aryas met with
opposition, as they pushed on from the north-west of
India : and although in the nature of things there
must occasionally have been friendly intercourse
between the two great races, yet hostility evidently
was the rule, and at times it must have been intensely
bitter. The language in which the Vedic poets speak
of these enemies is uniformly that of unmingled,
vehement hatred. They are reviled as ‘noseless,’
‘speechless,’ ‘godless;' because, forsooth, their nasal
organ was less prominent than that of their rivals,
their speech was not allied to Sanskrit, and their
deities were different from the gods and goddesses
of the Aryas. That, morally, the one race at all
Surpassed the other, does not appear. The earlier
occupants of the soil gradually retreated before their
gifted, energetic enemies; we may say they did so as
the Britons slowly gave way before the Saxons and
kindred tribes who came swarming over the German
Ocean. What deeds of valour they may have per-
formed, and what sufferings they may have endured,
it is impossible to say ; but, at all events, the invader
was proud and pitiless; and his desire was the ex-
termination of all that opposed him. His prayers to
the gods in regard to his enemies were the most
tremendous of imprecations. Here is a specimen :
‘Indra and Soma, up together against the cursing
demon 1 May he burn and hiss like an oblation in
the fire | Put your eternal hatred on the villain who
hates the Brahman, who eats [raw] flesh, and whose
look is abominable !’
We may describe the religious belief which appears
B 2.
2O HIVDUISM
in the Veda as nature-worship. It is a great mistake
to call it monotheism *. Max Müller justly says,
“If we must employ technical terms, the religion of
the Veda is polytheism, not monotheism.’ At best
there are momentary glimpses of what seems almost
monotheism *. At the same time, as nature is
throughout divine, there is an under-tone of panthe-
ism, which, in one or two of the latest hymns, becomes
distinctly audible. It is thus difficult to define or
classify the Vedic faith. It abounds in contradictions”.
But we must glance for a moment at the faith that
preceded the Vedic. As the striking resemblances
among the Aryan languages allow no doubt to
remain that they have all sprung from one source,
so the religions of the various branches of the Aryan
race appear to have had, at one time, a common
faith. This is at least clear regarding the chief
divinity acknowledged by the Greeks, the Romans,
the Iranians (ancient Persians), and the Hindus.
This divinity was understood to be wise, powerful,
and good. He was not, in the strict sense of the
word, a creator, but an Organizer of the world.
Though the supreme *, it does not follow that he
* It is matter of regret that a writer of weight like Mountstuart
Elphinstone, in his History of India, should have so designated it.
His learned editor, Professor Cowell, has, however, corrected the
mistake.
* As in R.V. i. 164.
* As Dr. John Muir states it, the faith has three leading character-
istics:—I. Everything connected with religious rites is thought to have
a spiritual as well as physical potency. 2. Every part of nature is held
to be separately invested with divine power; 3. Yet all the parts are
held to form one grand whole.—Sanskrit Texts, v. 4II.
4 A. in alter, oberster Gott. Roth.
THE VEDAS AND VEDIC PERIOD 2I
was the sole, divinity. Inferior beings also received
worship. This system some call monotheistic–
others polytheistic. We may call it imperfect mono-
theism. In every case the chief divinity was the god
of heaven. This fact cuts up by the roots a vast
growth of speculation respecting the origin of all
religious faith as being, Mr. Herbert Spencer would
Say, in ghost-worship ; and it certainly gives no
countenance to another frequently expressed hy-
pothesis—that decided polytheism (as the word
is usually understood) preceded explicit monotheism.
It is easy to trace in the Aryan religions the con-
tinuous advance of polytheism ; and when the crowd
of deities wearied the worshipper, or philosophic
thought began to call these beings in question, it was
to pantheism that recourse was had, rather than to
monotheism.
In ancient pre-Vedic times—before the Aryan
race arrived in India—a place of undisputed pre-
eminence must have been held by the deity
Varuna. This name is etymologically connected
with Oùpavós, heaven. Its original signification was
‘the encompasser", and it was especially the extreme
vault of heaven to which the term was applied in
Vedic times. But we may affirm that in the pre-
Vedic period it was not chiefly the visible heaven,
but the deity presiding over it, that was the object
of worship.
In the Vedas the word designating God is deva,
which etymologically means brilliamſ, shining. The
deities, then, were the bright ones. Castrén, a high
It is derived from vri, to encompass, surround,
22 HINDUISM
authority especially on Turanian religion, maintains
that throughout all Asia it has been pre-eminently
to heaven that adoration has been paid. He says
that, among all uncivilized people, heaven, considered
as possessed of soul (der besee/te Himmel), is the
Supreme divinity. But at the point to which we can
trace back Aryan thought and life—that is, the
time when the great Indo-European race was still
undivided—we cannot call them uncivilized ; and we
can bring no evidence of their ancestors having been
so. We believe that to worship heaven as living
was a descent—a falling away from higher and truer
conceptions of divinity".
In Vedic days Varuna—the god of heaven——does
not retain his old, unapproached superiority. But
very lofty attributes are still ascribed to him, and
ethically he stands by far the highest among the
divinities. It is he that upholds the order, both
physical and moral, of the universe. He rewards
the good and punishes the evil. A power approach-
ing omnipotence, and a knowledge approaching
* It has sometimes been maintained that, during the Vedic period,
there was a gradual elevation of the religious consciousness. On
the contrary, we see a gradual degradation. From Varuna to Indra
was a great descent; from Indra to the deities of the Atharva V.
was one still greater. Farther, it seems in a high degree improbable
that the conception of heaven as a physical object was gradually
exalted until the God of heaven had such high moral attributes
ascribed to Him as belong to Varuna, and then that this great conception
was lost. This theory assumes a gradual elevation of religion of which
there is no evidence; and it denies a degradation of which the evidence
is clear. Indra undoubtedly superseded Varuna ; that is, low ideas
built on physical phenomena came in place of high moral conceptions
of divinity which are almost worthy of being ranked with those of the
Old Testament.
THE VEDAS AND PEDIC PERIOD 23
omniscience, are both ascribed to him. Although by
no means implacable, yet to the impenitent wicked
he is severe and stern ; and it is a most instructive,
and by no means unintelligible, circumstance that, in
certain hymns, there begins to be manifested not
Only a dread, but a dislike, of a being so awfully pure
and just. -
An acute critic" has said that there are two great
deities, Varuna and Indra, ‘between whom the
religious consciousness of the Vedic Aryans seems to
oscillate.’ The conception of Indra was undoubtedly
the later in origin ; it does not take us back to pre-
Vedic times; the idea—if perhaps not the name—seems
of purely Indian origin. The return of the rains,
after the long drought of the cold and dry seasons,
was hailed in Northern India with unspeakable re-
joicing ; it was like light dispelling darkness, or life
succeeding death. When the sky, which had for
eight months been painfully bright and stainless,
began to be veiled with clouds floating northward
from the ocean, and when the higher summits were
wrapped in mists, every man felt his heart expand
with hope; for relief from the intolerable blaze of
light, the stifling heat, and the suffocating dust, was
now at hand. When the clouds were light and
floated overhead without dropping down their watery
treasure, it was held that some demon was carrying
captive ‘the cows of the sky,' to confine them in the
caves of the mountains. The sight was most tanta-
lizing, for the people stood in the midst of burnt-up
plains and dry watercourses, and often of dying
* Bergaigne.
24 PHINDUISM
cattle. But when the lightning flashed, and the
thunderbolt pierced the dark enswathing vapour,
it was regarded as the work of a friendly deity
warring against the demon (Vritra), and compelling
him to set the precious liquid free, so as to let it
fall, to the refreshment and joy of all the inhabitants
of earth. That friendly deity was Indra. He thus
corresponds pretty nearly to the Jupiter Pluvius of
the Romans. Indra soon came to be described as
a mighty warrior, striding victoriously to battle. He
never forsakes his friends. If they supply him abun-
dantly with offerings, he asks no questions about
their character; he will to the uttermost support his
supporters—those who give him his favourite nourish-
ment. Indra has no high attributes. Next to his
joy in battle, his main characteristic is his delight in
the intoxicating Soma juice. He rushes ‘impetuous
as a bull’ to the place where it is flowing ; and he
quaffs it ‘like a thirsty stag.’
When it came to be said that ‘ the haughty Indra
takes precedence of all gods,' and Varuna was
becoming overshadowed by such a rival, there was
certainly a deplorable declension in the religious
belief of the Aryas. Sensuous and sensual con-
ceptions now took the place of moral ones. But
the explanation is not far to seek. St. Paul supplies
it : “They did not like to retain God in their know-
ledge.’ They were overawed by the serene majesty
of Varuna; they were terrified by his awful purity.
Indra, on the contrary, was both a mighty god and
a boon companion ; and when they liberally shared
with him the beverage which they liked so well them-
THE VEDAS AWD LZEDIC PERIOD 25
selves, he was completely won over to their side.
Deterioration has thus marked Hinduism even from
the most ancient times.
In the days when “Varuna the king’ was supreme,
he was probably, as we have said, not the Sole divinity.
Even in Vedic days every force in nature, every great
phenomenon, almost every striking object, came to
be worshipped.
A third divinity of a remarkable character was .
Agni, the Fire (ignis). Physically he was very
wonderful. Produced from the friction of two pieces
of wood, he devoured his parents. His powers were
extraordinary; yet, though a mighty being, he con-
descended to reside in their dwellings; he repelled
the darkness and the enemies—wild beasts, evil men,
and fiends—that lurked within it. When “fed abun-
dantly with butter’ he rose heavenward in his
brightness, and bore the prayers and offerings to the
gods. He was “approached with reverential homage,
both morning and evening.' But he was not confined
to the piece of wood from which they had laboriously
extracted him ; he could leap out suddenly from the
hard stone when struck, or from the dark cloud.
He pervaded all things; he was therefore one of the
very highest of the gods. His hymns are more
numerous than those of any other deity except Indra.
The early Hindu explained the phenomena of
nature by his own human experience. We knew
a little child in India who, on seeing a bright star
hanging by the side of the moon, exclaimed, “Oh !
look at the mother-moon with her baby.' We do
not know whether the child repeated what some
26 HINDUISM
native servant had said, or expressed its own simple
thought; but this well exhibits the childish interpreta-
tion of nature which prevailed in Vedic days. Even
as the child, or Savage, attributes life to surrounding
objects, so did the ancient Hindus. Hence gods were
multiplied more and more.
The Sun may be the first mentioned after the three
great divinites noted above ". He is preceded by the
two Asvinas and Ushas the Dawn. The return of
light, as the first streaks of morning appeared in the
east, was a very wonderful and beneficent event.
Lustrous and lovely were the Asvinas—the beams
that heralded the dawn ; and the Dawn herself—ever
young, ever fresh, ever fair—was a marvel that drew
from the Hindu poets their strains of sweetest song.
So, too, the Winds were gods,-Vayu, and the Maruts,
or Storm-winds (literally ‘howlers’), were of high
importance. The Earth was a goddess. The Waters
were goddesses. The Moon scarcely received the
notice we could have expected ; and the Stars are
seldom mentioned. Probably this was because night
was greatly dreaded.
The reader may perhaps still ask whether it was
the outward, visible object, or a being supposed to
* Yet the Sun does not occupy so high a place as we might have
anticipated, or as he holds among the Santals and other Aborigines.
3yron, in Manfred, speaks thus—
“Glorious on b : the idol
Of early nature . . .
Which gladdened, on their mountain tops, the hearts
Of the Chaldean shepherds, till they poured
Themselves in orisons.”
But the holiest text in the Veda is a meditation on the sunlight. See
Appendix 2.
THE VEDAS AND VEDIC PERIOD 27
preside over it, that received the homage. In the
Avesta, the sacred book of ancient Persia, there is
a distinction made between these two things; and
the homage is unquestionably paid both to the out-
ward object and to a spirit or genius presiding over
it. But the Hindus have never made so clear a dis-
tinction between these things as the Iranians did.
The Indian mind in modern days oscillates between
the two ideas—mixes them—often confounds them.
In Vedic times it was more the visible, tangible
Object than any presiding spirit to which the homage
was paid—the object being personalized.
The deities in the Veda are generally spoken of
as being ‘thrice eleven in number. But we also
hear of three thousand three hundred and thirty-nine
divinities, and even more. This is a vague amplifica-
tion, to denote that the powers surrounding men were
exceedingly numerous. We shall see that, in later
days, even this amplification was greatly amplified.
The philosopher Hegel has justly affixed the epithet
‘measureless ' (masslos) to the Hindu imagination ;
it revels in vastness, vagueness, mystery—soon losing
all sense of fitness, or proportion, or harmony.
In the Vedic pantheon there is no system, no fixed
order. In his turn every one of the greater deities
becomes supreme. The family relationships among
them are utterly confused : it would not be difficult
to show that any god was at once his own grandson
and his own grandfather. We need not wonder at
this chaos; for the connexion between natural phe-
nomena may be looked at from different points
of view.
28 HINDUISM
Almost each of the deities has a female counter-
part, or, as she is called, a wife. But the goddesses
are indistinct both in character and function, with the
notable exception of one already referred to —the
Dawn. The Earth, called ‘the broad one’ (Prithivi),
has been also mentioned ; but her importance—
never great—decreased as time went on. Aditi (‘the
boundless expanse') occupied a somewhat higher
place, as being the mother of gods and heroes.
The conception of triads is pretty frequent in
Hinduism. In later Vedic days-—the fourth century
B. C.—it was stated by a leading commentator (Yaska)
that the divine energies were summed up in the three
gods—Fire, Air, and the Sun (Agni, Vayu, and Surya).
But this is the generalization of a philosopher; and too
much stress should not be laid upon it. It was in
later days that the notion of a triad of gods became
CO II). In O11.
Reference has been already made to the circum-
stance that the Iranian and Hindu religions were
originally connected. After several branches of the
great Indo-European family had successfully migrated
to the West, the ancestors of the Iranians and the
Hindus evidently still remained together, or at least
were closely allied. Hence the connexion between
both their religions and their languages. The Ahura,
or Ahura Mazda, of the Avesta was originally the
same as the Varuna Asura (the Lord Varuna) of the
Veda. Mithra, who in the Avesta was originally the
deity of the shining heaven, and who latterly became
identified with the Sun, corresponds to Mitra (the
Friend), who in the Veda is almost always coupled
THE VEDAS AAWD VEDIC PERIOD 29
with Varuna. Mitra became more and more associ-
ated with the light of day; while Varuna tended
to be so with the awe-inspiring heavens as revealed
at night". Vayu, the wind, is the same both in
the Avesta and the Veda”. Agni greatly resembles
Atar, the genius presiding over fire.
A still more striking connexion exists between the
Soma of the Hindus and the Homa of the Iranians.
(The words are the same, with the usual dialectic
change of s into /.) Soma is the expressed and fer-
mented juice of a milky plant growing on mountains
(Asclepias acida, or Sarcostemma viminale), which,
when fermented, is intoxicating. When Paracelsus
discovered alcohol, his laudations of it were abundantly
hyperbolical ; and perhaps we need not feel surprise
that the simple-minded Aryas were astonished and
delighted when they first experienced the exhilarating
effects of Soma. Still, as they seem to have drunk
it to excess, the debasing results must have been well
known; and it is one of the most saddening things
connected with the Veda, that the glory of the Soma
should be celebrated with such unbounded rapture.
Bacchanalian poets have been effusive enough, at
all times, in their praise of wine; but generally One
sees a twinkle in the eye which shows that the bard
is more than half in jest. It would be a relief if we
could persuade ourselves that the Vedic singers are
only playing with us when they make Soma the king
* In the Avesta there is also a strong bond between Mithra and
Ahura Mazda. Thus, ‘May Mithra and Ahura, the strong gods, come
to our help.”
* Vayu seems to have been originally almost as important a god as
Indra; but his greatness gradually decreased.
3O HINDUISM
of gods and men, the creator of heaven and earth,
and the Sovereign ruler of all beings. Most strange
that the juice which they had crushed out from the
milk-weed—which they drank themselves, and gave
their gods to drink, and which never quite lost its
physical character——should at the same time be
deemed a god, and one of the very mightiest of gods".
How could sane men drivel in this way ? We must leave
the problem unsolved. In the religions of the world
many things are morally worse than this ; but nothing
is more absolutely absurd. We may note that, though
the praise of Homa in the Avesta is extravagant
enough, it never rises to the same height of folly
as the laudation of Soma did in India *.
The importance naturally attached to the sacrificial
fire and to the libation led to the exaltation of Agni
and Soma. Similarly, the prayer or invocation was
invested with mighty potency, and Brahmanaspati,
or Brihaspati, the lord of prayer, became an important
deity. He may almost be called prayer personalized ".
It is remarkable that the word deva (god), which
is applied to the highest beings in the Veda, is
used in the Avesta to designate demons *. Several
of the Vedic deities, in fact, are in the Avesta de-
graded into fiends,-even the mighty Indra himself
* Dr. Haug was one of the few Europeans who have tasted the Soma
as legitimately prepared. He says, “It is a very nasty drink; and has
some intoxicating cffect.’
* The Soma offering seems still to be made by a few Brahmans; but
is completely shorn of its ancient splendour.
* Still more decidedly the Avesta personalizes prayer; and certain
potent prayers are prayed to.
* In Zend, daeva; which in modern Persian becomes div.
THE VEDAS AND VEDIC PERIOD 3I
seems to be so. It has been conjectured that there
must have been collision, conflict, between the two races
—the Iranian and Indian—which had been originally
one ; and that a violent reconstruction of the ancient
faith took place, probably through the teaching of the
famous Zarathushtra (Zoroaster). This is possible,
but by no means certain. In Iran, the supreme divinity
Ahura was never dethroned, as Varuna was. Monothe-
istic ideas were gradually strengthened ; the distinction
of god and devil was more strongly emphasized ; and
those beings who were rivals, not servants, of Ahura
were necessarily regarded as evil". Thus, in an
ethical point of view, the Avesta stands always
higher than the Veda. -- ~~~
The worship prescribed and exemplified in the
Veda was not idolatry, in the sense of image-worship.
Yet, although the recognized ritual was free from
this taint, it is difficult to believe that images were
quite unknown. The description of certain divinities
is so precise and full, that it looks as if it had been
drawn from visible representations of them.
An important part of Hinduism consisted in the
worship of the Pitris or Fathers (patres). This
class of beings is not to be confounded with the
gods (devas). Yama, the first mortal, was the off-
spring of the sun. He travelled the road by which
none ever returns, and is in the Veda the ruler of
the happy dead. He drinks the Soma draught, ‘in
* The word deva came thus to mean demon. This reminds us that
in classic Greek Čatua v denoted a superhuman being, whether good
or bad. Augustine mentions that, by his time, through the spread of
Christian ideas, it had come to be used only in a bad Sense.
32 HINDUISM
the innermost part of heaven,’ surrounded by other
Fathers".
As every thing connected with religious rites had
a spiritual power (see note 3, p. 20) it was entitled to
worship. Thus, the Yupas, or sacrificial pillars, are
invoked to give wealth and progeny (R.V. iii. I. 8).
But in fact every thing capable of helping or hurting
was to be adored ; as, for example, the war-horse, the
cow, the dog, and other animals, whether useful or
noxious; the war-chariot, the sword, the plough, &c.;
also mountains, rivers, trees, and plants *.
The preceding remarks have had reference to the
oldest of the sacred books, the Rig Veda. The next in
importance is the Atharva Veda, which contains nearly
760 hymns. Many of these are repetitions of parts of
the Rig Veda. What is original is, for the most part,
greatly inferior in a moral point of view to what is con-
tained in the older Veda. The deities are often entirely
different. The Rig Veda acknowledges few evil
* In the Avesta he is Yimo the Ruler (Yimo Kshaeta); in whom the
idea of a fall from original blessedness, which is discernible in the Vedic
Yama, becomes unmistakable. From Yimo Kshaeta was derived the
story of King Jamshid, so famous in later Persian mythology. Distinct
references to a future life occur only in the two latest books of the Rig
Veda. The life in heaven is generally described, in books posterior to
the Veda, as sensual or even immoral. It is not immoral in the Veda.
* Let it be noted that the favourite divinities of modern days do not
occur in the Veda—such as Siva, Rama, Krishna, Durga, Kali. Con-
sidering the great stress laid in modern days on the divinity of the cow,
it is important to remember that, according to the Rig V., the cow was
killed and eaten, especially when guests were entertained. In fact, one
designation of a guest was go-ghma, cow-killer. Strange are the revolu-
tions of history. No deity is now so universally recognized as the cow ;
ceremonial purity is attained, or regained, chiefly through contact with
her, or eating her five products (panchagaziya). If a Hindu on his
deathbed can grasp the tail of a cow, he dies happy.
THE VEDAS AND VEDIC PERIOD 33
divinities; sorceries, incantations, and obscene prac-
tices are seldom inculcated in its hymns. But in
many cases the Atharva Veda manifests a great dread
of malignant beings—of fiends, in fact; and their
wrath is earnestly deprecated. Talismans are invoked,
as possessed of boundless power; and charms for the
destruction of enemies abound. Altogether, with the
exception of a few hymns which appear to be the
relics of a former period, the Atharva Veda is a
wretchedly low collection; and the question at once
forces itself upon us, How is this marked inferiority
to the more ancient books to be explained P. Two
explanations suggest themselves. The Aryas mingled
with the original occupants of the soil, and both their
blood and their religion became contaminated. Or,
again, there may have existed from the beginning
a higher and a lower form of religion—the latter
probably the religion of the great mass of the people;
and the Atharvana presents the latter. In truth, we
hold both of these suppositions to be correct; two
causes apparently combined to produce the painful
result. At all events, it is in the highest degree im-
probable that at any time in India there existed only
one form of religious thought among the Aryas.
Systems which have flourished luxuriantly in later
days had their roots, we believe, even in the earliest
period; and the deprecation of demons may probably
have co-existed (we do not say in the case of the same
individual) with the adoration of King Varuna, the
god of heaven.
CHAPTER II
7A/E VAE/O/C A&M 7TUAZ
HE second part of a Veda is called the Brah-
mana. Professedly the Brahmanas explain the
modes of performing the various parts of worship; .
but in reality they do much more than this. They
are discursive treatises that deal not only with ritual,
but questions exegetical and dogmatical ; along with
which they contain many explanatory legends. In an
intellectual point of view they are decidedly inferior
to the Hymns. Pedantry and puerility mark every
page; literary merit they have none. Their sole value
is from the light they throw on the development of
the sacrificial system and religious thought generally.
The most ancient part of these treatises may date
from about the sixth century B.C., or at most two
centuries earlier. A long period had elapsed since
the composition of the earlier Hymns, during which
religion had become more and more petrified. Thought
and feeling had faded away in proportion as ritual
was enlarged ".
* One is reminded of Coleridge's words: ‘An appropriate ceremony
in religion is like a golden chain round the neck of faith; but you must
not draw the chain too close, lest you strangle the faith.”
THE VEDIC RITUAL 35
The religious observances had been developed to
a considerable extent even before the composition of
the earliest Brahmanas. ‘The rites,’ says Haug,
‘must have existed from times immemorial. He
contends that they preceded the Hymns. We must
ascribe the commencement of sacrifice to pre-Vedic
times; and it seems to be in reference to their origin
in former ages that the Rig Veda itself calls the rites
of sacrifice ‘the first religious rites".' That a complex
ritual, and elaborate explanations of its significance,
should have been so early in existence, is a matter
full of significance. -
We cannot discover that there were any temples—
buildings set apart for worship—in Vedic times.
There were no holy places—none permanently con-
secrated. Worship was performed generally in the
house. A room seems to have been set apart for the
sacred fire. When a grander ceremonial was required,
a space was enclosed for the occasion, which might
be either covered or open. -
Worship was personal, or social in the sense of
domestic,+very seldom what we understand by public
worship. Farther, each man dealt with the gods on
his own account. When it was domestic, the husband
and the wife could worship together ; and if there
were more wives than one, the chief wife was the one
associated in the act. The presence of any others,
whether worshipping or not, was an interruption to
the service. -
The worship consisted of offerings, prayer, and
praise. The chief offerings were clarified butter poured
R. v. i. 16443.
C 2
36 HINDUISM
on the fire, and the expressed and fermented juice of
the Soma offered in ladles. The Soma was generally
mixed with water or milk. Curdled milk, rice, and
cakes were also presented. The offerings were usually
thrown into the fire, which, as it blazed high, was
understood to bear them, or their essences, up to
heaven. Sometimes the gods and ‘fathers’ were in-
vited to come and seat themselves on the sacred grass
with which the floor was strewn, that thus they might
partake of the precious beverage. The remainder of
the Soma was generally drunk by the worshipper, or,
in somewhat later days, by the officiating priest or
priests. Hymns of praise and prayer accompanied
the offerings. Various metres were employed. Each
metre had some special potency; one Secured long
life, another cattle ; and so on.
It was distinctly understood that the offerings
nourished and gratified the deities as corporeal beings.
“They who present to thee oblations, augment thy
vast strength and thy manly vigour". As in the
case of men, so in that of the gods, exhilaration was
produced by drinking the fermented Soma juice; and,
as we have seen, Indra in particular indulged in it to
excess; his love of liquor was ‘intense.’ Bloody
sacrifices were also offered. The animals were chiefly
sheep, goats, bulls, cows, and buffaloes. But the
great offering was that of the Asvamedha—the sacri-
fice of the horse; the ceremonies connected with which
are detailed with disgusting minuteness in the Rig
Veda itself (R.V. i. 162. 163) *. This rite, which had
* R.V. i. 54.
* From the Yajur Veda we learn that, along with the horse, 609
THE VEDIC RITUAL 37
apparently descended from pre-Vedic times, continued
for many centuries to be regarded as the greatest of
all sacrifices; and in later days, when not one, but
a hundred horses were offered, the potency of the
ceremony was irresistible; it made—if the worshipper
desired it—the throne of the mightiest deities to
totter. This idea, however, is foreign to the Yeda.
The sacrifice of human beings, if not frequent, was
yet in existence. Though practised, it scarcely seems
to have been approved ; and, among the higher classes,
it gradually ceased. It is referred to as ‘the way of
the Sudras, the tribes that had been conquered and
enslaved. It doubtless continued long among the
middle and lower classes; and, in truth, it has not
ceased up to this day. Whether it was a practice
handed down from pre-Vedic times, or adopted from
the aborigines, does not very clearly appear.
We cannot state with certainty the ideas at first
connected with the very remarkable rite of sacrifice;
nor can we fix the order in which they arose.
The conception of the gods requiring nourishment
has been mentioned as very prevalent; the food of
man was necessary also to deities. Again, the
offerings—including animal sacrifice—were eucharistic.
The important idea of sacrifice being expiatory existed
in Vedic times; and we see no reason to believe that
it was not pre-Vedic. Farther, the belief prevailed
that the offering was a substitute for the offerer. We
also hear of a divine being—Prajapati, or Vishnu-
being the victim ; or again, the being offered is the
animals of various kinds, wild and tame, were tied to 21 yupas, or sacri-
ficial posts, and offered.
38 HINDUISM
primeval male, Purusha—who is also identified with
the Creator. Very remarkable indeed are such con-
ceptions as these ; and we do not seem sufficiently
to account for them by ascribing their origin to a
tendency in the Hindu mind to push every idea to
excess; we may rather regard at least some of them
as the relics of primeval revelation—fragments of
patriarchal faith borne down on the stream of time.
We do not assert that this is proved ; but, assuredly,
it cannot be disproved. We may well study, then,
with reverent curiosity, the teaching of the ancient
books regarding ‘the nave of the world-wheel,'—that
which was believed to uphold the order of the uni-
verse—the great, mysterious, awful rite of Sacrifice.
We see tapas or austerities, which will assume a most
prominent place in later Hinduism, just beginning to
appear.
The Hymns celebrate the power, exploits, gene-
rosity, and sometimes the personal beauty, of the
deity addressed. In exchange for praises and offerings
presented, he is asked and expected to bestow his
favour and help. Temporal blessings are implored—
such as life, food, wealth, children, cows, horses,
protection against danger, success in battle, the de-
struction of enemies, and so on. The praises bestowed
on the god were believed to increase his power'.
The favour which he granted hardly depended on the
moral state of the worshipper. The confessions of
sin are very defective; so much so that Professor
Weber asserts the religious sense of sin to be wanting
* ‘May our praises augment thy power' (R.V. i. Io).
THE VEDIC RITUAL 39
altogether'. We think, however, this language is too
unqualified. We require to distinguish between the
Vedic writers. Some do appear to have a sense of
defilement that is not merely ceremonial ; we might
call it a smothered sense of personal sin”. Other
Hymns do really little more than reiterate in endless
forms the prayer, “Here is butter; give us cows”.’
In the Brahmanas—poor as they are intellectually
—there seems rather more reference to the ethical
qualities of the gods than we find in the Hymns. But
there was no real advance; for Varuna, with his
Sovereignty and high moral attributes, was more and
more eclipsed.
It is sad to see how rapidly prayer degenerated
into a kind of spell or charm. It became a magical
formula, the sounds of which were irresistible, even
when not understood; only they must be fully and
exactly pronounced. Woe to the wretch who
blundered When prayer and sacrifice were offered
in due form, the gods would certainly grant the
worshipper his request. We see the idea that they
zwill grant passing into the idea that they must grant;
and there gradually grows up the tremendous con-
ception of extorting, by sacrifice or austerities, a desired
boon from reluctant gods. But if this dreadful con-
* Weber, History of Indian Literature, p. 38. So Goldstücker:
“Ethical considerations are foreign to these outbursts.” Similarly De
Quincey says that ‘the Greeks and Romans had not the faintest vestige
of an idea of what in Scripture is called sin” (Works, x. 240).
* As was to be expected, it is especially in hymns to Varuna that any
right idea of sin is perceptible.
* So Barth. We may enlarge the expression to this: ‘Here is butter;
give us cows, and we will bring more butter.’
4O HINDUISM
ception appears at all in the Vedas, we see it only in
the germ.
The Hymns were produced in the north-west of
India, chiefly in the Panjāb. When most of the
Brahmanas were composed, the Aryas had advanced
eastward, perhaps as far as the country between the
Ganges and the Yamuna (Jumna). The language of
the Hymns has by this time become unintelligible to
the mass of the people, and obscure even to the
learned. Now, therefore, the sacred texts become
stereotyped. The official ‘man of prayer’—the
Brahman—has become absolutely necessary. He prob-
ably cannot compose hymns, or offer extempore
prayers; but he can repeat them ready-made, and in
fixed, proper formulae. The worshippers are now
passive ; the Brahman prays and sacrifices for them.
He alone possesses the requisite knowledge of the
sacred texts; and of the perilous precision with
which they must be uttered he alone is capable.
Thus the men of prayer became an order, and
steadily grew into a caste. Only persons of their
own class could enter into this; and, as we have
heard it expressed in India, a horse is not more
separate from a donkey than a Brahman is believed
to be from a man of lower caste. This exclusiveness
—inhuman though it often was——was for the purpose
of guarding the purity of their blood. Mixture with
the non-Aryan inhabitants of India has taken place
to a very large extent in other cases; it is among the
Brahmans, if anywhere, that we are to seek for the
descendants of the primitive Aryan settlers. This
comparative purity of blood Secured a measure of
THE VEDIC RITUAL 4I
intellectual superiority—the Aryans being undoubtedly
a more gifted race than any of the earlier inhabitants
they systematically employed it for their own exalt-
ation. With remarkable ability, with inflexible
determination, and with unrelenting selfishness, they
went on, throughout many centuries, encroaching on
the rights both of princes and people. The usurpations
and demands of priestly power have been striking
enough in other places; but the pretensions of popes
and priests in Europe fade into insignificance when
compared with those of the sacerdotal caste in India.
Education was necessary for the Brahman when
he had become the depositary of the sacred texts—
which were probably still unwritten and handed down
by oral tradition. In the schools there was little
importance attached to what can be called doctrine ;
the externals of religion had by this time become
nearly all in all. This we can understand ; but our
Western minds can with difficulty conceive how the
next step was taken. The gods were thrown into
the shade, and the rites became the great divinities.
The principle of association has worked with great
force at all times in India; and soon everything used
in worship became holy, became itself divine and
an object of worship. Thus the texts with their
mysterious potency, about which the mind of the
priests was so greatly exercised, absorbed the atten-
tion almost to the exclusion of the beings they were
addressed to. If the incantation was rightly uttered,
all was right.
42 HINDUISM
Meanwhile the ritual gradually waxed more and
more elaborate and complex. The great celebration
of the Soma sacrifice came to be exceedingly ex-
pensive; it required a host of priests, and lasted
Sometimes—in theory at least—for hundreds of years'.
High worship was thus an aristocratic thing, possible
only for men of wealth. Animal victims were fre-
quently offered in immense numbers; a mere hecatomb
was but a paltry sacrifice. All the greater sacrifices
required one or more human victims”.
* Haug refers to the Mahabharata, iii. Ioff. 13, as proving that the
Sacrificial rite might extend to a thousand years.
* “The Brahmanical cultus remained inhuman for a long time” (Barth).
CHAPTER III
SECTION I
7THE UPAAW/SHA /OS 1. AºASAE OF AH/ZZOSOAAIV
E have seen how a stupendous system of
ritual observances gradually arose, until
thought and feeling in religion were overlaid, and
all but Smothered, by externals, and the rites became
almost independent of the deities in whose service
they had been established. A reaction from this
state of things, we may say, was unavoidable. The
ritual could be performed only by Brahmans; but
it is very improbable that every Brahman could find
sufficient employment as a priest. Hence, among
such an intellectual class, speculative thought was
certain to arise; and probably, even in the discharge
of their priestly functions, some were led to ask,
What is the meaning of all this? Worship had
become to many a round of mechanical ceremonies;
but it could hardly be so to all. Then, the Brahmans
* The meaning of the term ‘Upanishad' is not certain. Sankara
Acharya explained it as meaning the “setting to rest” (or destruction)
of ignorance. Others would render it ‘sessions,’ quasi ‘lectures.’
Others again say it means that which ‘sits beneath,’ quasi “mystery.'
44 HINDUISM
had not secured an absolute monopoly of thinking
power; princes and nobles—though debarred from
priestly functions—could not be kept from reflection
on spiritual things. The early period of the Aryan
residence in India had been a stirring one ; war with
the aborigines must have been very frequent ; and
speculation, in such circumstances, could hardly have
flourished. But the Aryan superiority in North-
Western India was ere long secured ; and the men
of action could then begin to reflect. As the race
steadily pressed down the great Gangetic valley into
warmer and more fertile regions, the requirements
of outward life were easily met, and there was time
for rest and contemplation. We believe there is, in
the higher Aryan mind, a tendency to dreaminess
and quietism ; and now not only outward circum-
stances, but the climate itself, disposed it to yield to
this feeling. There are even in the Hymns—though
probably not in the very earliest—attempts to pene-
trate into the mysteries of creation and the world.
Wonder is often expressed. Bold conjectures are
hazarded as to the origin and meaning of things.
India, at the distant date we speak of, was largely
covered with forests; and probably there were groves
in sight of every village. In northern countries
a residence ‘under the green-wood tree' can hardly
be called attractive, save perhaps in the height of
summer; the return of “winter and rough weather’
will dispel the temporary charm. But in India there
is almost at every season something exceedingly
attractive about forest-life. The dense shade of the
trees mitigates the intolerable heat and glare of day.
THE UPANISHADS 45
Then comes the quiet of the evening, and the great
hush of nature sinks into the inmost Soul.
* There, as the wild bee murmurs on the wing,
What peaceful dreams the handmaid spirits bring !
What viewless forms the Aeolian organ play,
And sweep the ſurrowed lines of anxious thought away !’
Thus men who were disposed to religious thought
were almost driven to seek a forest sanctuary. By
and for these recluses were composed the Aranyakas,
or forest treatises ; and the most important parts—or
supplements rather—of these are contained in the
Upanishads; of which we have said above that,
although properly only treatises appended to the
Vedas, they have come to be regarded as their most
precious part. The Upanishads are found in various
parts of the sacred writings. Some are among the
Hymns; others among the Brahmanas ; others among
the Aranyakas; and others stand by themselves.
These last are appended chiefly to the Atharva Veda.
The text of the Upanishads is often uncertain ;
sometimes evidently corrupt.
The Aranyakas are not clearly discriminated
from the Brahmanas ; questions of ritual and other
extraneous things are discussed in them. The
Upanishads proper generally avoid such topics, and
discuss the nature of the Divine existence and its
relation to the human soul.
The Upanishads are generally written in prose.
They are numerous; we have lists of nearly 240 of
them. Ten or twelve are of special value". Very
* Viz. the Isa, Kena, Chhandogya, Katha, Prasna, Mundaka, Man-
dukya, Brihad-Aranyaka, Aitareya, and Taittiriya. Weber says (in
1878)—“At present I count 235 Upanishads.’
46 HIWDUISM
few of them date from Vedic days; possibly only six,
and certainly not twelve, can do so. These we may
venture to assign to the fifth or sixth century B.C.;
though the form in which they exist is probably some
centuries later. Many of the Upanishads are quite
modern productions.
Even in Vedic days—as we have seen—the
process of reflection had begun. This is proved by
some of the later Hymns. In a few of these there are
touching confessions of ignorance; such as this—
‘Who truly knows, or who has told, what path leads
to the gods?’ In eschatology—the doctrine of the
last things—the Veda is singularly wanting; but the
poets turn with the deepest interest to the origin of
the world. They seem to have thought that, being
in existence, it might continue so ; but how did it
come into existence P Beneath and around them
was the wondrous earth ; over them the still more
wondrous sky: how came they there, and which of
them was first P They could only fall back on human
analogies: ‘What was the forest, what the tree, out
of which they cut the sky and earth, that abide while
days and many dawns have passed and gone?’" Or
again, ‘Brahmanaspati has forged the gods as a
blacksmith kindles his flame. Or again, Indra had
begotten the sun, the sky, the dawn. Or yet again,
all things were made out of Purusha, who was the
primeval male, and yet a mighty deity. But Hindu
speculation always inclines to the mysterious ; and
illustrations like these now mentioned were soon too
simple for it. Ere long the idea arose that, amidst
- * R. V. x. 31. 7.
THE UPANISHADS 47
the unceasing flux of things, there was a something
which never changed. From this it was easy to
proceed to the thought that all else was only ap-
pearance, and that this something alone was real.
Though these conceptions were soon conveyed with
all the lavish luxuriance of Oriental hyperbole, we do
not know that, in the commencement, they differed
essentially from the idea expressed, or implied, in the
often-quoted lines of Wordsworth :
‘A sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused—
A motion and a spirit that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.”
The language of Shelley may still better express
the developed Indian conception :
‘The One remains; the Many change and pass;
Heaven's light for ever shines; earth's shadows fly;
Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,
Stains the white radiance of eternity,
Until death shatter it in fragments.’
Thus then reflection, º had begun even
before the Hymns had been all composed. The
farther development of thought is presented in the
Upanishads. These are by no means either
systematic or homogeneous. They have been called
‘guesses at truth’; for they present no formal solution
of great problems. They contradict one another ;
the same writer sometimes contradicts himself. They
are often exceedingly obscure, and to most Western
minds repellent—vague, mystical, incomprehensible.
A few rise to Sublimity; others are nonsensical—
48 HINDUISM
‘wild and whirling words, and nothing more. Yet
there is frequently earnestness—a groping after some-
thing felt to be needful ; there is the yearning of
hearts dissatisfied and empty. In this lies the value
of the Upanishads; our sympathies are called forth
towards those hermits who saw no meaning in the
Stupendous ritualism that had grown up around them,
or in the ever-increasing mob of deities that were
crowding in. Another characteristic is the general
sadness of their tone. With them commences that
great wail of Sorrow which, for countless ages, has
in India been rising up to heaven. All the earlier
Vedic hymns take a cheerful view of life; but with
the Upanishads we see the beginning of that de-
spondency which, as time goes on, will deepen almost
into despair. Whence comes, it may be asked, this
characteristic gloom P It has sometimes been traced
to the unhappiness of the environment. Warfare
was almost the normal state of Indian society;-
war with the aborigines; war of one Aryan tribe
with another ; a long struggle between princes and
priests, and the steady exaltation of the latter; the
Macedonian invasion; the rise and rapid progress
of Buddhism ; war with Scythian hordes;–in all
this there was undoubtedly enough to distract and
depress the Indian mind. In modern Europe the
evils that still afflict both the individual and society
have prompted the question—‘Is life worth living P’
and many, perhaps an increasing number, answer in
the negative. If this be the case after all that Christ
has taught and Christianity has achieved, we cannot
wonder that those ancient hermits were overwhelmed
THE UPA WISHADS 49
by the deep mysteries of existence and the manifold
trials of life.
The teaching of the Upanishads, amidst some
varieties", is, in the main, pantheistic.
It is exceedingly difficult to state the chronological
order in which the various systems of Indian philo-
sophy arose. But there is reason to believe that the
sequence was as follows:
First, a belief in the sole, self-existing being ; all
else being the effect of ignorance or illusion. ºrs
Secondly, the belief in an original void, out of which
all things came.
Thirdly, the belief in an original plurality of selves,
and of the independent existence of the world ".
We should only weary our readers if we went into
this question at any length. Moreover, we must
touch on this subject when we discuss the formulated
systems of philosophy, of which the Upanishads were
Only the precursors.
We must, however, note that the Upanishads are
by no means purely speculative. They have a prac-
tical end in view ; they profess to teach the way
of salvation. They point out how the human Soul,
ignorant of itself, attaches itself to unworthy objects,
and so is again and again dragged into the whirlpool
of life. -
New ideas had by this time come in. Of these
none was more remarkable, none more powerful in
its influence, than the doctrine of metempsychosis,
* While doctrine closely akin to pantheism is most frequent in the
Upanishads, dualism is also found. Even asceticism finds a place.
* See Gough on the Ahilosophy of the Upanishads, p. xi.
D
50 HINDUISM
or transmigration. The Vedic poets never spoke of
a second birth ; the good went at death to the happy
abode of Yama, and as pitris (fathers) became quasi-
divinities themselves; while there are some hints in the
Rig Veda, and more distinct allusions in the Athar-
vana, to punishment in gloomy pits as the doom of
the wicked. We cannot say with certainty whether
the idea of Transmigration sprang up in the Hindu
mind, or was derived from the aborigines; we incline
to the former supposition. The belief is not unnatural.
Plato's doctrine of pre-existence involves it; and
Pythagoras distinctly upheld it. But in India the
belief has assumed a wild, fantastic shape; and it
Sways the minds of men with tremendous power.
The series of births is virtually endless; the common
statement is that it rises to eighty-four lacs—that is,
eight millions four hundred thousand; and this in all
who cannot somehow succeed in arresting the dreadful
Succession. According to the merit or demerit of
a human being, he is born afresh into the body of a
man, or a beast, or a bird, or a fish, or a plant, or
a stone. ‘Ah! this fearful round of births, exclaims
the Maratha poet Tukaram—‘this weary coming and
going; when will it all end ?” From ancient days
all things on earth seemed to the Hindu to be in a
perpetual flux ; there was no stability, no rest, no
abiding peace. Now, to the Hindu–perhaps from
climatic reasons primarily—the idea of repose is
essentially that of bliss ; and unrest is misery. And
then the horror of tenanting the bodies of wild beasts
and loathsome, venomous reptiles, such as snakes,
toads, and worms | But when the soul once knows
THE UPA NISHADS 5I
ſ
|
|
itself, it is in union with the true Self, or God. The
sage, then, still lives only until the stock of merit he
had amassed has been exhausted. Very startling are
the declarations regarding the condition of the man who
has reached this point. This perfected sage, as long
as he lives, may do good and evil as he chooses, and
yet incur no blame. “Such is the efficacy of a know-
ledge of the Self'.” But there is a farther step to be
taken. When the stock of merit is exhausted, he is
not, like the multitude, driven back to another birth;
when his body falls away, he is identified with the one
and only Self. This Self is existence, knowledge, and
bliss”. But the existence is an impersonal, unconscious
existence. With the knowledge there is no knower,
or thing known : with the bliss there is no blessed
one, and no sense or cause of blessedness. We presume
there is not one mind in a thousand that will profess
ability to extract any meaning out of such words. But,
passing from Such dreams, we ask our readers to note
the moral characteristics of all this. Ethical distinc-
tions are completely overturned ". We are expressly
told that the perfect sage, when he murders, does not
murder; all appearance is an illusion, a dream, from
which at last he wakes.
One cannot but look with profound sadness on those
hermits in the forests, dreaming life and generations
of life away in such unhappy dreams, and sometimes
* So Anandagiri. See Gough, pp. 61, 67, 229. See also infra.
* Instead of existence, it would be more precise to say that which
exists, or an existent thing.
* “La doctrine de l'identité absolue, par la nécessité de son principe,
divinise le mal.”—Caro, Z'idée de Zieu, 5th edit. p. 29.I.
D 2
52 HINDUISM
torturing their bodies in the hope of thus identifying
themselves—or rather, recognizing their identity—
with the One and All. The chief end of man believed
to be the crushing out of all feeling and all thought !
No wonder that a writer, who has devoted much time
to the careful study of the Upanishads, declares them
to be “the work of a rude age, a deteriorated race,
and a barbarous, unprogressive community".' It is
true that Schopenhauer professed to admire them—
attracted, no doubt, by their unrelenting pessimism ;
but we do not see how any one can share in that
admiration who does not absolutely despair of the
future of humanity. The Christian, at all events, can
have no sympathy with such a feeling; for he believes
in a Being who is possessed of every glorious attribute,
and who is emphatically called ‘the God of hope.”
Therefore His true worshippers are men of hope;
and if the present be in darkness, or at least in
twilight, they turn their eyes to the promised age,
—and lo! the landscape is all bathed in floods of
blessed sunshine.
Another remarkable conception, unknown in earlier
days, that came forward in this period, was that of
asceticism, passing into a morbid ecstasy. Quite
possibly this too was derived from the lower races
around them: for among such races religion has easily
run into wild excitement, both physical and mental.
The worship of the god Siva comes into prominence
during this period. He is the great lord of devotees
who indulge in self-torture and extreme austerity.
There is reason to connect him with the Himalaya
* Gough, p. 268.
THE SIX DARSA NAS 53
mountains, as if he had been the god of aboriginal
tribes there dwelling; but the worship may have
existed from the first among the Aryans, although
not a part of the orthodox system.
SECTION II
7THE S/X /O.4 RSA A/AS. M/E7'HO/D/ZED AEAZZOSO/2//V
The Upanishads, then, contain the first attempts
to comprehend the mysteries of existence; but their
teachings cannot be gathered up into an harmonious
system. As time went on, a desire was felt to expand,
classify, and arrange these earlier utterances—to make
them more definite and more consistent. Hence
gradually arose what we may call the Official philo-
sophy of India, which is comprised in a number of
methodical treatises. These are generally called the
six Darsanas, or “exhibitions.” No doubt it was only
by degrees that they assumed their present elaborated
shape, which cannot be much older than the Christian
cra. They consist of the following works : I. The
Nyaya, which was founded by Gautama or Akshapada;
2. The Vaiseshika, by Kanada or Kanabhaksha ; 3.
The Sankhya, by Kapila; 4. The Yoga, by Patanjali;
5. The Mimansa, by Jaimini; 6. The Vedanta, by
Badarayana. -
The original text-books of the various systems
consist of Sutras. The word properly signifies ‘a
string”; and we may understand it to denote a string
of rules, or rather aphorisms. They are expressed
with extreme conciseness—doubtless for the purpose
54 HINDUISM
of being committed to memory; and without a com-
mentary they are exceedingly obscure.
With the purely philosophical part of these writings
we need not much concern ourselves. Their meta-
physical theories and their statement of logical pro-
cesses possess no small interest, and in any history
of philosophy they claim attentive study; but we
must occupy ourselves mainly with their conceptions
on religion.
They belong to the division of Hindu books called
Smriti. They are therefore authoritative; but not to
the same extent as the Vedas and Upanishads ".
It is usual to classify these systems in pairs, making
three pairs in the order given above; but this arrange-
ment is not satisfactory. The Nyaya and Vaiseshika
may indeed go well enough together; and the Sankhya
and Yoga may with some difficulty do the same ; but
the Mimansa and Vedanta have very little in common.
Their conjunction has arisen from the circumstance
that the Mimansa (otherwise called the Purva or
earlier Mimansa) deals with the ritual portion of the
Vedas as explained in the Brahmanas; while the
Vedanta or Uttara (later) Mimansa seeks to unfold
and apply the principles of the Upanishads: and
thus, as each expounds a portion of what had come
to be styled the Veda, the two systems were bracketed
together.
* The only case in which we ever knew them not to be recognized as
authoritative scripture was that of Raja Narayana Basu (Bose), a man
of position and influence in the “Original Brahmo Somaj.’ But no
orthodox Hindu questions their full authority. We appealed at the
time to the Pandits of Poona and Benares; who at once denounced
the view now objected to.
THE SIX DARSANAS 55
None of the six systems openly attack, or deny,
the authority of the Vedas: on the contrary, they
all profess the profoundest reverence for the sacred
books. It is difficult to see how the authors of some
of the systems could do this with any sincerity;
unless they held that what is theologically true may
be philosophically false. Yet the Hindu mind has
long surpassed all other minds in the ability to hold,
or believe itself to hold, at the same time, two or
more opinions which appear wholly irreconcilable:
indeed, an acknowledged note of the Hindu mind is
‘cclecticism issuing in confusion'; it has been said
to be ‘the very method of Hindu thought.' But the
contradictions among the philosophical systems were
too glaring to escape the notice of men capable
of reflection ; and accordingly the author of one
Darsana and his followers frequently attack the
supporters of the others. Thus the great contro-
versialist Sankara denounces a followcr of the Nyaya
philosophy as a bullock minus the horns and tail—
implying, we suppose, that he had all a bullock's
stupidity without his power of fighting. The author
of the Sankhya charges the followers of the Ve-
danta with ‘babbling like children or madmen.' The
Mimansa accuses the Vedanta of being disguised
Buddhism. The Padma Purana maintains that four
of the six systems are simply atheism. :
But while thus radically opposed to each other,
the six official systems of philosophy are all held
to be orthodox. In this respect Indian philosophy
is unlike the Greek, which was developed in entire
independence of religion. The relation of Indian
56 HINDUISM
philosophy to the Veda resembles that of the scho-
lastic systems of the Middle Ages to the Church.
I. The Nyaya system deserves the praise of attend-
ing to method—i. e. the mode of discovering truth.
It is distinguished by over-elaboration, dryness,
formality; but its philosophy is by no means despic-
able. Beginning with the inquiry, Which is the way
to attain perfect happiness? it asserts that this is
found in right apprehension, true knowledge. The
Nyaya undertakes to communicate that knowledge,
so that the soul may attain the goal of perfect rest.
Among other kinds of evidence it brings forward
a form of syllogism which, though differing somewhat
from the Aristotelian (built on the celebrated dictum
de omni et nullo), is yet virtually the same, and which,
for rhetorical purposes, is perhaps a more useful form.
Still, the nicety of distinctions in which the Nyaya
rejoices, exposes it to the reproach of encouraging
wranglings and logomachies, which (rightly or wrongly)
has so often been preferred against the logic of the
Stagirite. In matters of physical science, when it has
occasion to touch them, the Nyaya—as was of course
inevitable—is often sadly astray.
Whether the more ancient form of the Nyaya was
theistic, is somewhat doubtful; but in its later form
it is so , and it ascribes to the deity intelligence, will,
and power %. But it says nothing of moral attributes
* Thus the Kusumanjali (a celebrated work of this school) exhibits
an earnest attempt to prove the Divine existence. Of the Divine attri-
butes it says next to nothing. Professor Cowell ascribes this work to
the twelfth century A. D.
* The name of Iswara (or Lord) occurs once in the Sutras of Gautama,
THE SIX DARSANAS 57
as belonging to God; nor does it recognize His
government of the world. Nor can it be said to
believe in creation, inasmuch as it holds matter to
be composed of eternal atoms. Confluent atoms, in
themselves uncreated, composed the world". To call
the Nyaya philosophy theistic is therefore misleading,
unless the character of its theism be explained. The
Nyaya has nothing to say about worshipping God;
while yet it recognizes—implicitly at least—the doc-
trines and forms of worship inculcated in the Veda.
Soul, or rather spirit, is represented as multitudinous,
and (like atoms) cternal. It is distinct from mind.
2. The Vaiseshika system, which we have said is
rightly coupled with the Nyaya, is an extension of
the latter. The Vaiseshika Sutras do not mention
God. They go very fully into the doctrine of atoms
—which, like the Nyaya, they declare to be uncaused
and eternal. These atoms are so exceedingly small
that it requires a combination of at least three of
them to be perceptible.
Another tenet common to the Nyaya and Vaiseshika
is that souls (spirits) are ubiquitous, or universally
diffused through space. But the spirit is united to
mind, which is atomic and not ubiquitous ; and the
perceptions of the spirit are made through the mind *.
the founder of the Nyaya. Later writers speak of the Supreme Spirit as
moulding the universe, not (in our sense) creating it.
* It is interesting to see in the teaching of the Nyaya and Vaiseshika,
as in that of the Greek philosopher Democlitus, something like an
anticipation of the atomic theory of Dalton.
* A short specimen of the excessive refinement of the Hindu schools
may probably suffice for our readers. Thus, as right apprehension
Secures emancipation from pain, the question is by what means right
58 HINDUISM
3. We come now to the Sankhya system. It holds
that there are two primary, eternal agencies, viz.
Nature (Prakriti, or that which produces—natura
naturans) and Souls. The system is thus essentially
dualistic. There is no place for God; and accordingly
it is known among the Hindus by the name of
Niriswara Sankhya, or the Samkhya without the Lord.
But all that the original text asserts is that His
existence is ‘not proved.” Kapila, then, was an
agnostic rather than an atheist.
There are three elementary principles (of which,
in later days, we hear continually), namely, Sattva,
Rajas, Tamas; or Truth, Passion, Darkness. These
principles enter into all things; and on the relative
quantity of each in any object depends the quality of
the object.
The root of all things except soul is Prakriti, which
may be tolerably rendered by the word ‘Nature.” It
is not a product. It is the producer of Seven things,
apprehension can be obtained. Four means of doing so are mentioned ;
viz. perception, inference, comparison, and testimony. Each of these is
explained at great length by the commentators. Then an exceedingly
important matter is the ca/cgories. There are seven of these, viz.
Substance, Quality, Action, Generality, Particularity, Intimate Relation,
and Negation. The categories are thus subdivided. Subs/ances are
nine in number, viz. carth, water, light, air, ether, time, space, soul,
and mind. Qualitics are twenty-four in number (we spare our readers
the enumeration). Actions are five in number, viz. elevation, depression,
contraction, expansion, motion. Generality is of two kinds, viz. exten-
sive and non-extensive. And so on. These, and similar distinctions,
belong to the Nyaya and Vaiseshika schools. Hindu metaphysicians
not only split hairs, but, as Abraham Tucker would have said, quarter
them. Thus the Sankhya tells us that there are eight kinds of error;
eight kinds of illusion ; ten kinds of extreme illusion; eighteen kinds of
gloom ; and eighteen kinds of utter darkness.
THE SIX DARSANAS 59
which are themselves producers of sixteen other things.
Soul is not a product, nor a producer. Souls (Purush)
are countless in number; individual, sensitive, eternal,
unchangeable. All that is done by Prakriti is done
on behalf of soul. In its own nature soul is without
qualities, until united with Prakriti. The union of
the two is compared to a lame man mounted on
a blind man's shoulders; each of the united two is
then (as it were) capable of perception and movement.
But how and when this important union is effected is
not clearly mentioned.
The Sankhya very firmly holds that out of nothing
nothing comes (ew mihilo nihil fit)". The universe
is produced by the union of nature and soul; each
individual soul producing its own universe”. With
the Sankhya, as with the systems already mentioned,
present existence is suffering ; and the great object
of the philosopher is to obtain exemption, or rather
emancipation. This is found only through knowledge.
When through knowledge the soul is emancipated
from the ‘fetters’ which bind it in its union with
nature, all suffering ceases *.
Although Kapila was a man of acute and patient
thought, it cannot be said that his system stands
intellectually high. Morally, it is still lower. Con-
templation is the one right occupation of the Sage ;
1 “Gigni
De nihilo nihil; in nihilum nil posse reverti.”—Persius.
* Compare this with Derkeley’s theory.
* But what is the condition of the enlightened soul? “So, through
study of principles, the conclusive, incontrovertible, one only knowledge
is attained that neither I am, nor is aught mine, nor do I cxist’ (Sankhya
Karika, 64).
60 PHINDUISM
no matter about conduct. Prayer is needless, or rather
absurd. Man is thus not a religious being.
4. Along with the Sankhya is generally coupled
the Yoga philosophy, which is often styled the Theistic
Sankhya. It agrees in its general principles with the
Sankhya proper; with the one remarkable exception
of acknowledging the existence of God.
The great end of the Yoga is to obtain union with
the Supreme Being'. But the mode of attaining this
great end is very startling. It is by concentration
of the mind; by calling in all wandering thoughts
and fixing attention on some one object. Any object
will answer, if we think of it alone; other thoughts
must be suppressed. When the contemplation is
carried to its full extent, it is simply contemplation
without any object of contemplation.
The French philosopher Degerando and many
others have spoken of the necessity of acquiring a
mastery over the mind, a power of recalling it from
its wanderings and forcing it to dwell steadily On
some proper object. So far their idea resembles that
of the Yoga; but immense differences soon appear.
In the Yoga the adoption of certain bodily postures,
restraining the senses, suppressing the breath, and so
forth—even fixing the eyes steadily on the tip of the
nose—are potent means towards the end desired.
* “Iswara, the supreme ruler, is a soul distinct from other souls;
unaffected by the ills with which they are beset; unconcerned with good
or bad deeds and their consequences, and with ſancies or passing thoughts.
In him is omniscience. He is infinite, unlimited by time.’ So Patan-
jali, as quoted by Colebrooke. The language is, in several points, mar-
vellously like the celebrated description of Deity in the De rerum matura,
‘Omnis enim per se divöm natura necesse'st,' etc.
THE SIX DARSAWAS 6 I
Patanjali does not speak—as the Hindu poets often
do—of the soothing influence of Nature, in her shady
groves and quiet murmuring streams. With him the
place or environment seems of no importance; and
in this omission he lost a potent influence which is
fitted to steady the human mind, recalling it from
foolish dreams. Wildness, extravagance, downright
absurdity, became the characteristics of his system.
The effects ascribed to extreme asceticism are truly
marvellous. The past and the future are unveiled
to the gaze of the Yogi (the man fully initiated in the
Yoga). He sees things invisible to others. He hears
the Sounds that are in distant worlds. He becomes
stronger than the elephant, bolder than the lion,
Swifter than the wind. He mounts at pleasure into
the air or dives into the depths of the earth and the
Ocean. He acquires mastery over all things, whether
animate or inanimate. Mysticism and magic thus
very strongly mark the Yoga system.
And with what object was the system studied ?
Frequently, perhaps generally, for the acquisition
of Supernatural power, and for no moral end what-
CVG1.
The question may well arise whether all the prac-
tices of asceticism issued only in dreams and sheer
delusion. Or did the Yogi sometimes come in contact
with powers and principles in nature of which our
accepted science as yet takes no note P We will not
venture to say. Our readers will answer the question
variously, according as they may deem the teachings
of clairvoyance, animal magnetism, spiritualism, &c.,
to have in them any element of truth or not. De-
62 HINDUISM
ception, both conscious and unconscious, there has
often been in abundance; has there been nothing
more? For the Hindu Yogi, at all events, we venture
to urge the plea that he was often not a wilful deceiver;
he told what, in his state of mental exaltation and
ecstasy, he believed he had seen and done. Still, we
heartily assent to the judgement which an accomplished
Sanskrit scholar has passed on the doctrines of the
Yoga : “Conscientiously observed, they can issue only
in madness and idiocy".’
5. The fifth system is the Mimansa. It need not
Occupy us long. It is not a philosophical system ;
it is a system of Vedic interpretation, thrown into
a quasi-scientific form. To Jaimini the Veda was all
in all. It was its own evidence. Its very sounds
existed from all eternity. The sum of human duty
was to obey its precepts.
We pass to the system which has long been the
chief philosophy of India, viz.:
6. The Vedanta. This word properly means ‘the
end, or scope, of the Vedas.' The name, however,
is misleading. The doctrines inculcated by the
Vedanta are entirely distinct from those of the Veda
proper; they agree with those of the Upanishads,
which (as has been explained) are philosophical
disquisitions appended to the Veda. The name, how-
ever, has had the effect of enhancing the estimation
of the philosophy to which it has been—whether
ignorantly or artfully—attached.
The Vedanta philosophy is said to have had its
origin with the Sage Vyasa. This personage we may
* Barth.
THE SIX DARSANAS 63
dispose of as mythical. The most distinguished
champion of the system was the sage Sankara Acharya,
who probably flourished after the year 7CO A.D. His
influence in the exaltation of Hinduism and the
depression of opposing systems (such as Buddhism
and Jainism) was immensely great, and equally so in
the diffusion of the Vedanta philosophy. We may
indeed say that his influence on the theology of India
has been as great as that of Augustine on the theology
of the Western Church.
A clear and brief statement of this philosophy in
its developed form is found in the Vedanta Sara ;
and of this authority we shall now largely avail
ourselves ".
The Vedanta Sara distinctly states that the Vedanta
philosophy is founded on ‘the Upanishads and works
auxiliary thereto.’ It does not mention the Veda
proper in this connexion. It had been declared in
the Chhandogya Upanishad that there was in the
beginning ‘only one [thing] without a second *.' So
the Vedanta Sara begins by saying, ‘The oneness
* The following publications will supply all needful information
regarding this important system :—I. A Lecture on the Vedanta, em-
bracing the text of the Vedanta Sara. Iły Dr. Ballantyne, 1851.
2. A Manual of Hindu Zºantheism (containing a version of the
Vedanta Sara, with copious annotations). By Colonel G. A. Jacob.
3rd edition, 1891. 3. The Vedanta Sara, with two commentaries.
All in Sanskrit. By Colonel G. A. Jacob, 1894. 4. Three Lectures
on the Vedanta philosophy. By Professor Max Müller, 1894. 5. In
the Academy of Sept. I, 1894, there is a review by Colonel Jacob of
Max Müller's lectures, and exception is taken to several of the profes-
sor’s views. (Colonel Jacob, we may remark, has long been a diligent
student of Ilindu philosophy.)
* Ekamevadvitiyam =ekam eva advitiyam.
64 HINDUISM
of soul and God. This is shown by all Vedanta
treatises.’ It quotes approvingly the ancient text,
‘The whole universe is God.” God (who is generally
called Brahm") is existent, intelligence, and bliss *.
He is the sole Reality. All else is only appearance;
it seems, but is not. Its seeming existence is owing
to ignorance or illusion. Ignorance is not a mere
negation ; it is possessed of two powers—that of
envelopment (or concealing) and that of projection.
The former hides from the soul its identity with
God. The latter ‘projects’ the appearance of an
external world". Brahm and Ignorance are co-eternal
principles.
There are four conditions of the soul—waking,
dreaming, dreamless sleep, and a ‘fourth 'state, which
is something higher (or deeper) than even dreamless
sleep. The waking man is grossly ignorant of
reality; he is occupied with unreal mockeries, and
believes in their existence. The sleeper is freed from
a portion of Such ignorance ; although he dreams, and
believes in his dreams. He that sleeps without
dreaming is more ſully emancipated from delusion.
But the consummation is the ‘fourth 'state, which it
would appear can hardly be described in human
language. Thus, then, according to this philosophy,
although the world seen in dreams is a delusion, the
* There is a great distinction between Brahma (or Brahman) and
Brahmā. To avoid confusion, we shall write the former thus—Brahm.
* Sat, chit, ananda ; or (as written together) Sachchidananda. This
formula is continually repeated in Vedanta treatises. Sat means
existent—an existent thing, the word being neuter.
* “The projective power can produce anything, even the whole exter-
nal world’ (V. S. Sec. 39).
THE SIX DARSANAS 65
world seen in our waking hours is a grosser delusion
still.
The great necessity, then, is knowledge—appre-
hension of truth. ‘He who knows what soul is gets
beyond grief.” Nay, more ; “he who knows God
becomes God.”
Meditation without distinction of subject and object
is the highest form of thought, according to the
Vedanta. But the consummation is when thought
exists without an object: it must not be an object to
itself. -
In the older books a practical or conventional
existence is admitted of the human soul—the Self
within us—as distinguishable from the Supreme Self;
and the same thing is admitted of the external world".
But when the philosophy has been fully formulated
by the great Sankara Acharya, it generally asserts
the doctrine of non-duality”. The soul is one with
God, although it may not know it ; and the external
world is a mere appearance, an illusion.
It would be vain to expect logical consistency in
the statement of such transcendental thoughts. We
have quoted a text about the soul becoming God. But
if it is God already (although ignorant of its being
So), how can it become God? The contradiction was
evidently noticed, and it is met with this solution :
“Being God it becomes God,'—language which has
to us no meaning. It cannot mean that the Soul
* Professor Gough, however, in his Philosophy of the Upanishads,
argues that the doctrine of Maya, or illusion, is “a vital element of the
primitive cosmological conception,’ as exhibited in the Upanishads.
* Ekamevadvitiyam.
E
66 -- HINDUISM
being God recognizes itself as God ; for, when the
soul is emancipated, it enters into unconsciousness.
We cannot be surprised if, in explaining this system,
writers run into contradictory statements. They
sometimes speak of transmigration and of absorption.
There can, however, to the true Vedantist be neither of
these things. There has never been, there will never
be, transmigration. The Self within us has been, is,
and will be, God. A/am Brahma, “I am God,” is
a fundamental text of this philosophy. Absorption,
too, is unnecessary and impossible. But even the
Subtlest and most logical Vedantist—not excepting
Sankara Acharya himself—cannot formulate his
theory in clear, or even consistent, terms ".
It is a theory which, I presume, no Western mind
can acquiesce in. We hear, indeed, of pantheism,
and even of a Christian pantheism, as still professed
in Europe; and poets especially will use language
which, logically, may involve a pantheistic view of
nature; but the passionate utterance of poetry is to
be distinguished from the calm dictum of philosophy.
The identification of the individual with the universal
Soul is to all thinking men, in the words of Tennyson,
‘ a faith as vague as all unsweet'; or, rather, the
theory is unthinkable, and those who profess to hold
it befool themselves with words and words only. Y
Passing from the intellectual weakness of the
Vedanta to its ethical character, it is evident that
moral distinctions are overturned by it. The sole
* In the Academy of Sept. 1, 1871, there is a review by Dr. John Muir
of a work by Dr. Bruining on Sankara. This writer clearly proves that
Sankara is inconsistent.
THE SIX DARSANAS 67
existence being Brahm, or Self, sin is non-existent
and impossible. It appears to exist; but that appear-
ance is as illusive as the mirage of the desert. ‘He
whose intellect is not confused, even though he should
kill, kills not.’ In so far as this can be believed by
the Hindu, it must practically exert a very evil
influence ; and accordingly there is clear and explicit
testimony that the reception of the Vedanta theory
produces a most pernicious effect on moral character".
All religion is also overthrown by the Vedanta.
Humility, a sense of dependence, love to God, rev-
erence, prayer, obedience, repentance for sin, love
to Our neighbour—all such things must, to a genuine
Vedantist, appear absurd, and in fact impossible.
And now, glancing at the whole of these famous
Systems of philosophy, we may sum up our opinion
in the words of Dr. John Muir : ‘The only one of
the six schools that seems to recognize the doctrine
of Divine Providence is the Yoga. It thus seems that
the consistent followers of these systems can have, in
their perfected State, no religion, no action, and no
moral character.’
The authors of the six Darsanas endeavoured to
systematize the principles of the Upanishads, and to
do so without visibly departing from Hindu orthodoxy.
The result of their labour was a number of philo-
Sophical schools whose teachings were on many points
irreconcilable with each other. Yet the Hindu pro-
fesses to accept all the six schools as authoritative,
* That to a Vedantist there is no distinction between virtue and vice
can be abundantly proved by quotations even from Vedantist treatises.
See Colonel Jacob's Manual of Hindu Pantheism, p. 128.
E 2
68 HINDUISM
so that, if he really understands them, he believes
in contradictory propositions. With regard to their
theology, we have in the various schools distinct
affirmations of polytheism, pantheism, and atheism,
and, we may add with some hesitation, monotheism.
The points in which they agree are the following:
I. All the systems, except the Mimansa, inculcate
expedients for attaining salvation ; or the emanci-
pation of the soul from the body and from desire.
2. Ignorance is the great cause of the bondage
of the soul.
3. But also works, whether good or bad, bring the
soul into bondage. For good works have merit, and
merit necessitates enjoyment; and bad works have
demerit, and this necessitates suffering. Where cn-
joyment or suffering is, there is no true emancipation.
The emancipated soul feels neither pain nor pleasure.
4. Emancipation is obtainable only through right
apprehension. The soul must apprehend itself as
distinct from the body, the senses, &c.
5. The soul is eternal, without beginning and with-
out end. -
6. Before it attains emancipation, the Soul is subject
to transmigration.
7. The world had a material cause—something out
of which it was produced.
8. The world has always existed. It has often
been reduced to its first elements and formed anew ;
but, in one state or other, it has existed from eternity.
We hasten to add that although Vedantist writers
very often express themselves in contradictory terms,
yet, as the Vedanta, in its developed form, denies the
THE SIX DARSAWAS 69
existence of an external world, some of the principles
now stated do not rightly apply to it.
The six Darsanas did not entirely supersede the
Upanishads. They are dry, and cold, and technical ;
whereas, in the Upanishads, notwithstanding all their
extravagance, there is a human element which appeals
to the heart and awakens sympathy. Still, the re-
Cognized philosophy of the schools held a high
place in India; and the contradictory utterances
of the Darsanas occasioned no small perplexity.
Accordingly a very earnest attempt was made to
bring the discordant voices into harmony by the
author of the Bhagavad Gita (Song of the Holy
One). We cannot fix with any certainty the date
of this remarkable composition. It has sustained
many interpolations. Some of these can hardly be
earlier than the third century of the Christian era.
By that time very considerable intercourse had taken
place between India and the West. The Yavanas
are spoken of in the epic poem, the Mahabharata,
with high admiration; and under that designation
Seem to be included the Greeks and the Greco-
Bactrians". It is exceedingly probable that there
was some interchange of thought between East and
West, especially after Alexandria had become a
meeting-point between Asia and Europe. The Mani-
cheans certainly borrowed from both Indian and
Christian thought; and so probably did the Gnostics.
It has also been asserted (though perhaps not fully
proved) that the later Platonists show signs of ac-
quaintance with Indian philosophy, especially with
* ‘Omniscient are the Greeks, O King—heroic II]Cll surpassingly.”
70 HINDUISM
the Sankhya, Yoga, and Vedanta systems". We
admit that India had “little intellectual wealth for
exportation to the Alexandrian emporium *’; but,
beyond all question, its asceticism and monasticism
exerted, chiefly through Egypt, a powerful influence
over the West. Was not the debt fully repaid P
Various circumstances concur in showing that India
borrowed from the West more than she lent. In
regard to mathematical and physical science this
assertion admits of no dispute; in many cases the
very terminology found in Indian books is simply
Greek, and one astronomical work is known by the
name of Romaka Siddhanta, i.e. Roman (or Grecian)
treatise. In recent days Indian thinkers have been
marked by exclusiveness and intellectual pride; but
such was not always the case. In regard to religious
ideas, India was from the beginning marvellously
receptive ; even the debased aboriginal faiths and
rites of the land were largely absorbed and partly
assimilated. Hinduism has grown to be the enormous
and abnormal thing it is, both by accretion from with-
out and by development from within.
These considerations will help us to form a tolerably
correct conception of the intellectual position of the
author of the Bhagavad Gita. He probably was
a Brahman, and possessed of all the culture of his
caste. He certainly was a man of as high intellectual
endowments as any Indian sage with whom we are
acquainted ; at once a poet and a philosopher. Such
a man would look around him, and be dismayed at
* I assen, Indische Alter/humskunde, iii. 379-442.
* Gough, p. xii.
THE GITA 71
the multiplicity of rites and the contradictions of
beliefs among his people. Was it possible to bring
a Cosmos out of such a chaos ? He would, at all
events, make the attempt. And he has done so in
verse at once melodious and majestic ; he moves
on with the stately march of a Lucretius, yet, at the
same time, scattering poetic flowers around him and,
like Lucretius, contingens cuncta lepore.
The Bhagavad Gita is inserted in the middle of the
vast epic poem the Mahabharata'. The interpolation
was doubtless made to stamp it with authority. It
consists of a dialogue between the warrior Arjuna and
the deity Krishna. Arjuna was a distinguished leader
in the great war between the Pandavas and the Kau-
ravas. The armies were drawn up in battle array;
the war-shell had sounded ; and the deadly strife was
about to commence, when the tender-hearted Arjuna
was overwhelmed with grief at the thought of imbruing
his hands in the blood of men who, while opponents,
were yet near relatives. His bow drops from his
hand; he weeps; he cannot fight. The god Krishna,
who has been acting as Arjuna's charioteer and giving
him advice, interposes with a rebuke of this faint-
heartedness, and denounces his reluctance to slay the
foe as “disgraceful, despicable weakness.’ And to
prove his point, the deity plunges into the depths
of metaphysical speculation, and at length reaches
the conclusion—'And therefore up ; on to battle, son
of Bharata l' There is thus an exceeding unnatural-
ness in the way in which the disquisition is introduced;
but, if it was to be palmed off as quasi-authoritative
* In the Bhishma Parva, from line 830.
72 HINDUISM
Scripture, there was probably no easier or more
effectual way.
Krishna, in this remarkable production, is repre-
sented as the Supreme Being himself. By the time
it was composed Vishnu had attained a high place
in the pantheon; he was one of the gods of the Hindu
Trimurtti (triad); and a large body of followers
regarded him as the greatest deity. Now Krishna
is a manifestation, or avatara, of Vishnu. Thus, the
words which he speaks are accepted as an utterance
of the deity condescending to instruct men in a bodily.
form. And this is one great cause of the immense
popularity of the Bhagavad Gita ; which is not only
carefully studied in Sanskrit, but has been rendered
into many of the vernacular Indian languages. The
greatest poem in the Marathi language is an ample
commentary on the Song of the Holy One ; and the
whole character of the succeeding literature has been
powerfully affected by it. Several versions of it have
appeared in Hindi. It is also popular in South India,
and has been translated into Telugu and Canarese.
The great Tamil poem of Tiruvallavar, the Kural",
also borrows largely from the Song.
Let us briefly glance, then, at the teachings of this
ſimportant book. Its great effort is to harmonize the
doctrines of the Yoga, the Sankhya, and the Vedanta.
It begins by dwelling on the exceeding value of con-
centrating the mind, according to the first of these
systems, and si -attaining to union with - Deity.
Quiescence is essential; the sage must be absorbed
* This remarkable poem was the work of a low-caste man, a Pareiya -
(Paria).
THE GITA 73
in contemplation. While lauding the Yoga, the Gita
steers clear of the wild asceticism and magic that
are the main characteristics of the system. The
metaphysics of the Sankhya as regards Purush and
Prakriti, &c., are adopted. (We have explained these
terms above.) But the doctrine of a Supreme Spirit
as presiding over them is added—an alteration of a
fundamental character. There are said to be two
kinds of Prakriti; which also is an essential change.
In describing the Supreme Spirit the poet seems to
task his fertile imagination in heaping thought on
thought and image on image, until we confess even
his practised touch fails to awaken admiration or
sympathy. Finally, Krishna reveals himself to Arjuna
in his supreme form, as possessed of countless faces,
countless mouths, countless eyes – as, in fact, all
things—and blazing like a thousand Suns. This
passage is a striking proof of the extravagance—
the Masslosigkeit (to use again Hegel's phrase)—
of the Hindu mind *, which, in fact, can never discri-
minate between greatness and bigness, and totally
lacks the taste for natural simplicity. The practical
conclusion of the whole is that every man should
strenuously perform the duties of his caste : and
Arjuna, being a Kshatriya or soldier, has nothing to
do with whimpering; for fighting, killing, is his
Another expression of Hegel's is ‘The dream state of the Hindu
mind.” Barth, a very thoughtful and well-informed writer, thus
characterizes the Hindu people: ‘They are at once sensual, Superstitious,
speculative, with an equal appetite for subtle theosophy and coarse
exhibitions, and have never been able to rest satisfied with faith in one
god, or reconcile themselves to the worship of many.’
!
74 HINDUISM
function. And so the warrior is convinced, and
plºnges into the battle.
The book is full of contradictions. Contemplative
quietism is enjoined in one place ; and in another
energetic action. Farther, the attempt to harmo-
nize the three systems of philosophy ends in total
failure. Two of them must be stripped of their most
distinctive features before even the semblance of unity
can be secured. The ‘Song ' is mainly, though not
wholly, Vedantist, that is, pantheistic, in its doctrine.
The incubus of caste has heavily weighed down
the soul of India for ages; and it is at this day the
chief obstacle to elevation and advancement. Yet
the ‘Song” accepts it; glories in it; and asserts that
varnasankara, or the mixture of classes, is the cause
of the most pernicious consequences. ‘A man must
not forsake the occupation to which he is born,
even although it be blameworthy.’ A barber's
son must be a barber, whatever may be his capacities
and opportunities of raising himself. The son of
a slave must be a slave. There is this compensation,
however; the very meanest—yes, even women and
slaves—may attain salvation if they place their entire
trust in Krishna. º
The exaltation of Krishna is one of the most
notable features of the book. His early life was
in many things most faulty, most foul; yet the grave
author of the ‘Song’ regards him as an incarnation
of the Supreme Divinity. Clearly there had arisen,
by the time the poem was composed, a feeling of the
need of believing in a Supreme Being, who was not
dim, distant, inconceivable, but who mingled in the
THE GITA 75
affairs of human life. How this feeling arose is
a most interesting question ; but here we cannot try
to discuss it, though we must do so in another place.
The Supreme Being, whom, as revealed in Krishna,
we have seen acting as Arjuna's charioteer, is yet
declared to be not properly existent. ‘ I am existent
and non-existent; ' and again, ‘The Supreme Deity
is not to be declared either existent or non-existent.’
Metaphysicians like W. Humboldt have tried to affix
a rational meaning to such language; but we need
not make the attempt. Finally, the Gita in some
places admits the existence of an external world,
and makes it a part of the essence of the Supreme.
This is diametrically opposed to the teaching of the
Vedanta; nor is it reconcilable with what the ‘Song’
itself inculcates in various passages.
One remarkable characteristic of the book has still
to be noticed. Its language in many places bears
a wonderful resemblance to that of the Bible. We
are prepared to find in Hindu writings resemblances
to thoughts and expressions in the Bible, just as we
find them in Greek and Roman authors; it would
be strange if such parallelisms did not occur. But
the resemblances between the Gita and the Christian
Scriptures, particularly the New Testament, are so
numerous that the question unavoidably arises, Could
the writer of the Gita have been acquainted with the
teachings of the Gospel? This point has been fully
discussed by Dr. Lorinser, who has carried out a view
very ably supported by Professor Weber and others,
to the effect that the development of the Krishna
legend has been powerfully affected by ideas
76 HINDUISM
borrowed from Christian sources. It is well known
that various apocryphal Gospels were circulated in
the East—chiefly among the Syrian Christians—
from the second century downwards'. Translations
of these were made into Greek, Latin, Coptic, and
Armenian. These writings are of special importance
in the history of Mohammadanism. The Arabic
Gospel of the Infancy, which seems to have been
a version from the Syriac, was ascribed to St. Peter,
and had much currency in Arabia. It was the main
source, in all probability, from which Mohammad
drew his ideas of Christ and Christianity. We do
not think it can reasonably be denied that these
legends have powerfully affected Hindu mythology.
It is true there is a great difference between this
degraded Christianity and the lofty teaching of the
Canonical writings which seems to be occasionally
echoed in the Gita. Still, in Western and Southern
India at least, there were Christians by the time
of the probable composition of parts of the ‘Song.’
Moreover, it is rather difficult to account for the
statements of the Mahabharata regarding ‘the White
Island *’ and the worshippers of one God who were
white men found there, unless by supposing that the
Hindus knew a great deal about Christian countries
in the West. A mind like that of our author—essen-
tially eclectic, and laboriously gathering ideas from
all quarters—would certainly have been deeply
impressed by many of the Christian doctrines,
* See Edinburgh Review, July, 1868, and Indian Antiguary, Septem-
ber and October, 1873.
* Mahabharata, xii. 337.
THE GITA - 77
provided he had become acquainted with them.
If he lived in Western or Southern India, he could
have had no difficulty in doing so ; nor would the
difficulty in any part of India have been great. So
that, although we do not consider the theory of
Dr. Lorinser to be proved ', we hold it probable
that Christian ideas were to a considerable extent
early incorporated with Indian thought.
But we must carefully distinguish between the
Song, and the Puranas or later writings. While it is
only probable that Christian conceptions have been
introduced into the former, it is certain that legends
regarding Christ have powerfully influenced the latter.
But what a falling off! The tales in the apocryphal
Gospels are eminently silly ; but, as reproduced in
the Puranas, they are often revoltingly impure. Our
limits will not allow us to dwell longer on the
striking ‘Song’—in which are laboriously interwoven
so many conflicting theories—in which are occasional
gleams of lofty thought, but which, on the whole, {
is so hopelessly astray on fundamental points. Letí
us conclude by giving the judgement pronounced on
it by M. Cousin, one of the most tolerant of philo-
sophers, and, like the author of the Gita, essentially
an eclectic thinker. ‘ Before this kind of theism,
at once terrible and chimerical, and represented in
extravagant and gigantic symbols, human nature .
must have trembled and denied itself. Art, in its
powerless attempt to represent being in itself,
necessarily rose without limit to colossal and irre-
* Certainly it is not proved that there was a version of the Scriptures
in an Indian dialect.
78 HINDUISM
gular creations. God being all, and man nothing,
a formidable theocracy pressed upon humanity,
taking from it all liberty, all movement, all practical
interest, and consequently all morality. Again, you
will comprehend how man, despising himself, has
not been able to take any thought for recalling the
memory of his actions; so that there is no history
of man and no chronology in India '.'
It would have been strange if the orthodox philoso-
phies (which nominally acknowledged the Vedas as
authoritative) had aroused no opposition. Opposition
to the Vedas themselves, and to all systems connected
with them, there evidently was from the first. The
most famous sect of this class was that of the Char-
vakas—so called from a noted teacher. It inculcated
* Of Hindu philosophy in general, Archer Butler observes: ‘The
effects of such views of God and man may easily be conjectured. Upon
the mild sages of the Ganges they probably produce little result beyond
the occasional suggestion of elevated ideas, perhaps more than counter-
balanced by the associations of a minute and profitless superstition.
But, upon the enormous mass of the nation, these baseless dreams can
only result in the perpetuation of ignorance and the encouragement of
imposture” (Zectures on Azzcient Philosophy, i. 266).
Burnouf, in his elaborate preface to his edition of the Bhagavata
Purana, expresses his surprise that the Hindus should have devoted all
their faculties to the examination of insoluble questions and the com-
prehension of the incomprehensible. Other nations, he says, soon
abandoned such fruitless attempts, and directed their attention to
inquiries of a practical character. But the mind of India, fed on tales
of the gods, disregarded the doings of men. Thus India has never cared
for the history of the past, nor thought it worth while to record the
events of the present.
To fix dates in early Indian history is impossible now. Happily at
least one date older than the Christian era is ascertained ; it is that of
Chandragupta, the Sandrocottus of the Greeks. He was the grandfather
of the celebrated Asoka, “the Constantine of Buddhism.’ He flourished
three centuries B. C. On the probable date of Buddha see infra.
THE GITA 79
undisguised materialism. It seems to have been
marked by a light, sneering infidelity; and it was
probably in derision that the school was said to have
been founded by Brihaspati, the guru of the gods.
‘The authors of the Vedas were only buffoons,
knaves, and demons,'—such was the Sweeping dictum
of the Charvakas. Their morality seems to have
amounted nearly to this : ‘Let us eat and drink,
for to-morrow we die.” Closely allied to these
sceptics must have been the Lokayatikas, or Secu-
larists. It is enough to note the existence of such
scoffing sects. More earnest doubters would doubt-
less avail themselves of the polemic of the Buddhists
and Jainas against Hinduism.
We have thus reviewed at some length the
philosophical speculations of India ; and, though
we are saddened by the result of our inquiries, we
cannot be much surprised. With all its patience
and acuteness, the Indian mind never rose to the
height of Aristotle or Plato; and, on problems which
these great thinkers failed to solve, what light could
possibly be thrown by Vyasa or Badarayana P Of
the highest speculations of Greek and Alexandrian
philosophy St. Paul was compelled to say: ‘Hath
not God made foolish the wisdom of this world P
For, after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by
wisdom knew not God, it pleased God, by , the
foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe.”
Even so is it in India.
The feeling of sadness which we confess to have
experienced in the review of Hindu philosophy is
so far modified by the hard dogmatism and the
ſ
8O HINDUISM
unbounded self-assertion of all the schools. It would
be an immense relief if one word betokening per-
plexity or distrust of their own wisdom were uttered
by those teachers—such as we heard occasionally
proceeding from the Vedic poets; but there is no
such word. Each theorist assumes, instead of proving,
his premises, and then moves on with head erect,
possessed of absolute faith in his own omniscience.
It never occurs to him either that there are matters
with which the human mind has no faculties to deal,
or that Truth unveils her treasures only to the
humble.
CHAPTER IV
A)/2 1//, / O Z2///ZAV7' O/7 /3A2A//]/AAV/S//. SOCAA / / //7/2.
C.A.STAX
N order to take a combined view of the great
schools of Indian philosophy we have been
obliged to include the Gita, although it is of con-
siderably more recent date than the six ‘ exhibitions'
(darsanas). But, as we desire to trace as far as
possible the progress of Indian thought chronologically,
we now go back to the sixth century or so B. C.
While philosophy went on developing, sacerdotalism
did so too. The cultivation of the former was not
confined to Brahmans; but all religious teaching and
observances were more and more monopolized by the
priestly caste; and the functions which the Brahmans
had once secured they tenaciously retained. It was
a slow, steady process of usurpation, continued from
age to age. There are clear indications of resistance
on the part of other classes; and in civil matters the
Brahmans were compelled to concede ample powers
to the military caste, to which the rulers belonged.
But their spiritual authority and claims were not for
a moment relaxed. Spiritual power is of all powers
the strongest, and may be the most tyrannical ; and
F
82 HINDUISM
so it became in India. The system of caste was fully
established by the sixth century B. C.
Codes of law had by this time begun to appear,
which were to regulate civil as well as religious life.
As a kind of supplement to the treatises on ritual
(Brahmanas), a class of writings called Sutras had
appeared. One division of these, called Grihya Sutras,
treated of domestic ceremonies; another, called
Dharma Sutras, referred to public right—civil and
criminal law. Out of these Sutras the various treatises
On jurisprudence seem to have gradually arisen ".
The most celebrated of these books is the Code of
Manu. Where, when, and by whom it was drawn up
we cannot with certainty say. With some probability
we may ascribe its present form to the fifth, or at
latest the third, century B. C.; but it may have been
Only very gradually moulded into shape. Brahmanical
thought pervades it all through ; and nowhere does
the measureless pride of the Brahman appear in more
repulsive forms. It would seem as if the very gods
had been created for his special benefit.
According to Manu there are four castes or classes
that are regular : the Brahman, the Kshatriya, the
Vaisya, and the Sudra. The Brahman is the priest;
the Kshatriya is the warrior; the Vaisya is the hus-
bandman or trader; the Sudra is the servant, or rather
slave. There is, besides these, a multitude of impure
classes, which are said to have arisen from the inter-
marriage of members of one pure caste with those
* “The so-called revealed codes [Manu, &c.] are, in most cases, but
improved versions of older prose works.”—Bühler, Sacred Books of the
Aast, ii. Io. -
DEVELOPMENT OF BRAHMANISM 83
of another. The first three classes are invested with
a sacred thread, as a token that they are “twice
born –though that name is often used to designate
especially the Brahman. Unlike the Parsi religion,
which gives a sacred thread as the token of initiation
to men and women alike, Hinduism recognizes no
“twice-born women. As for the Sudra, he has simply
nothing to do with the statutory religious rites. Any
attempt on his part to engage in them demands
summary punishment; and Rama, the warrior-god,
when he beholds a Sudra practising rites forbidden
to his caste, simply decapitates him on the spot, to
the great delight of the gods'. To teach a Sudra
the Veda was a grievous sin; to receive money for
doing so was an unpardonable crime.
The usual word in Sanskrit to express the idea of
caste is varna, which properly means ‘colour. The
Dasyus and other aboriginal tribes who opposed the
intrusive Aryas are called ‘the black skin.”; and
apparently there was—wholly apart from the natural
hostility between invaders and invaded—a strong
repugnance on the part of the fairer race to the
darker. Human nature is sorrowfully consistent; we
see in this an anticipation of the relations that subsist
even in modern times between the white and black
races. Up to this day there is generally a marked
distinction in colour between the highest and the
lower castes. The purity of the Brahman blood has,
in various places, been pretty successfully preserved.
With fixed determination, then, the Brahmans main-
tained for generations the struggle for supremacy,
* Ramayana, vii. 74–76. * R. W. i. 130.8.
- F 2
84 HINDUISM
until at last the prize was won. We read of earnest
opposition on the part of the Kshatriyas or warrior
caste, with whom doubtless the two others, in so far
as they may have been able to resist at all, must
have taken part. The kingly power was a foe which
it took all the skill and perseverance of the Brahmans
to overcome. In individual cases, indeed, they had
to give way. Thus the celebrated Visvamitra is
said to have obtained the rank of Brahmanhood for
himself and his family. The later legend (invented
by Brahmans) represents this high distinction as
having been won only by frightful austerities pro-
longed for thousands of years; as if it had found it
necessary to deter others from making a similar
attempt. Although this was not a solitary instance
of successful resistance to Brahmanical domination ",
yet, on the whole, the priestly power continually
increased. If we are to believe the Brahmans them-
selves, the Kshatriya race was finally exterminated
by Parasurama (Rama with the axe), the fifth incarna-
tion of the god Vishnu. It is exceedingly probable
that this legend implies a great contest between the
priests and the soldiers, in which the former were
completely victorious. The Brahmans seem thence-
forth to have ruled all things according to their will—
in other words, with a rod of iron. They now drew
up the most stringent rules regarding caste. When
castes multiplied, which they necessarily did as social
life became more complex—each profession becoming
a kind of caste—they were ready with ridiculous
tales to explain their origin. Men of different castes
| King Janaka also is said to have opposed the Brahmans.
DEVELOPMENT OF BRAHMANISM 85
could now not dine together. Marriages of people of
different castes were detestable ; above all, for a low
caste man to marry a Brahman wife was the horror of
horrors. Some writers of respectability have almost
apologized for caste ; they say it has a good as well
as a bad side. So has slavery, as well as many other
things of the serpent's brood. They think it guarded
morality, as a man would be deterred from committing
offences which the law did not punish, provided ex-
pulsion from caste would be entailed by them. Yes,
in that case; but what offences were so punished P
Eating, drinking, and marrying—if contrary to rule ;
but for ages past, if not from the very beginning,
the most heinous sins could be committed without
injury to a man's position in society. On the other
hand, if—even under the pressure of famine—he ate
food prepared by a man of lower caste, and even if the
food had been forced into his mouth against his will,
he was summarily expelled, and suffered all the
frightful evils which excommunication involves in
India. But as the modern development of caste will
necessarily come under consideration at a later point,
we shall not now discuss its moral character at greater
length. -
The great object of the legislation was to secure
the exaltation of the Brahman ; and the regulations
are exceedingly detailed with a view to this. Every
Brahman properly passes through four stages of life.
First, he is an unmarried student; secondly, he is
a married householder; thirdly, he is a hermit ; and
fourthly, he is a religious devotee. He enters the
first stage at the age of eight, through investiture with
86 HINDUISM
the sacred cord. He then resides with a preceptor
(guru) to learn, the Veda. When his studies are
Completed, he returns home and marries. Marriage
is a Sacrament; it is generally accompanied with great
rejoicings, and lasts for several days. As a married
householder, he is especially bound to perform five
great duties, or forms of worship : that is, he repeats
the Veda; worships his ancestors; worships the gods;
worships all beings (chiefly by Scattering grains of
rice for living creatures to eat in the open air); and
shows hospitality to guests. His wife must also have
certain important qualifications. She must be of his
own caste, not related to him within the sixth degree;
she must not have the name of a constellation, or of
a tree, or of a river; she must walk like a young
elephant, and must not be afflicted with red hair.
When his strength begins to fail and he has a
grandchild, he must betake himself to the forest,
either accompanied by his wife, or alone—after
cntrusting her to her sons. He must now bathe
daily thrice; he must allow his beard, nails, and hair
to grow ; he must continually be conversant with the
Veda and meditate on the Supreme. Penances are
obligatory. In the hot season let him sit exposed to
five fires; in the rains let him stand uncovered ; in the
cold season let him wear moist garments. He must
live without a house, and remain wholly silent.
One does not see how the hermit could long survive
under such a discipline; but if he did, he must enter
on the fourth and last stage. His beard, nails, and
hair are now to be clipped. He is to be provided
with a dish, a staff, and an earthen waterpot. He
DEVELOPMENT OF BRAHMANISM 87
must wander about continually, begging his food once
a day. Coarse clothing, total solitude, no home, no
fire to cook his food; these things are essential.
Then like a tree falling into a river when the bank
gives way, or like a bird pleased to quit the branch
On which it has had its perch, so he cheerfully forsakes
the body which is the abode of sorrow and disease.
In this remarkable delineation there are a few pleasing
touches: for example, the ascetic is exhorted to bear
all things with equanimity, and to avoid giving pain
to any sentient creature. Yet the usual note of
extravagance is seldom wanting; and the ineradicable
taint of error is seen in the command to suppress all
love as well as hatred, as a needful preparation for
union with the Supreme. But this whole style of
thought is so foreign to Western minds that we can
hardly apprehend it—perhaps hardly do it justice.
No wonder that the Greeks were confounded to see
the multitudes of men who seemed weary of life in
Northern India. A happy, sensuous existence was
all in all to the Greek, and death was full of gloom.
To the Brahman life was misery, and the cessation of
all personal existence was the Supreme good. It is
surely both touching and instructive to note how
Greek and Indian strayed so far, in opposite directions,
from the truth. -
The legislation regarding women requires to be
noticed, since the treatment of one-half of the popu-
lation is a point of the greatest possible importance.
Women in earlier days had occupied a position of
respect. We have poems in the Veda that were
written by women ; and in somewhat later times
88 HIWDUISM
women often entered into religious discussions with
as much zeal and intelligence as men. But as time
went on, a great change took place. In the developed
code women are put in the same position—at least as
to religious rights and property—with Sudras or
slaves. ‘Women's rights' were unknown. It is a
Seeming, but not a real, contradiction of this to say,
as Miss Nightingale has somewhere said, that women
are absolute in their own sphere. The mother, the
grandmother, and the mother-in-law are real powers
in the household. When the females in a Hindu family
patriarchal in its constitution — combine against the
wishes of the men, they generally carry their point.
But alas for the widow and daughter-in-law
Women could have no property of their own.
‘Women were created to be mothers,’ says the legis-
lator". They may be married before they are eight
years old. A man may have more wives than One.
A woman is under her father in childhood, then under
her husband ; when her husband dies she is under
her sons: ‘a woman is never fit for independence.’
Even if the husband be wicked, or in love with another
woman, he must be revered as a god by his wife. When
he dies, the widow must ‘emaciate her body by living
on pure flowers, roots, and fruit'; she must continue,
if she live, ‘performing harsh duties.’ The marriage
of a widow is forbidden. Taking this law in con-
Inexion with the permission—or command almost—
that women be married when no more than children,
One easily apprehends the deplorable consequences.
Any one who has been in India, or who reflects on
* Manu, ix. 96.
DEVELOPMENT OF BRAHMANISM 89
the results of such legislation, must be wounded in his
inmost soul as he thinks of the sufferings of Indian
widows.
We have still to speak of the inhuman rite of Sati
(Suttee) or the burning of widows on the same funeral
pile with their dead husbands. When the British
Government in India was preparing to abolish it—
which it did in 1829—the Brahmans vehemently
opposed all interference with the time-honoured
custom ; and, under their influence, almost a rebellion
in Bengal seemed imminent. The Brahmans contended
that Suttee was a religious institution authoritatively
prescribed in the Veda. They quoted the precise
passage enjoining that widows should “consign them-
selves to the fire.' But when examined, the passage
in question was found to inculcate the very reverse of
what the Brahmans affirmed. Professor H. H. Wilson
proved that they had actually falsified the text, and
not merely mistranslated it; they had changed the
words of the one book which they professed to receive
with awful reverence as the “eternal utterance of
heaven. Rightly does Max Müller denounce this act
as “perhaps the most flagrant instance of what can
be done by an unscrupulous priesthood '.' It has
been calculated that, from the year 1756, when the
battle of Plassey gave Britain the sovereignty of
Bengal, up to 1829, when Suttee was prohibited in
British territory, no fewer than 70,000 widows had thus
been sacrificed. And if this estimate be even approxi-
mately correct, what pen ‘dipped to the feather in
human agony’ can describe the horrors of the Suttee
* Chips, i. 35.
90 HINDUISM
rite for the last two thousand years P The tortured
and murdered women must have been millions in
number. Alas for
‘The fair humanities of old religion,'
of which poets vainly talk | All honour to the memory
of Lord William Bentinck, who, in spite of the oppo-
sition of Brahmans leagued (proſ, pudor /) with some
Europeans, dared to quench those hellish fires | The
writer must be pardoned if he appear to speak too
strongly ; but when he went to India the Suttee
flames were still blazing in Native States; and he well
remembers the thrill of horror and indignation which
he felt when he read the account of the burning alive
of nine women along with the corpse of old Runjit
Singh. Four wives and five slave girls who were
concubines were thus murdered. But nine was a
small number ; there are cases on record in which the
holocaust consisted of sixty or seventy women, and
CVCI). In O1 e.
The Sanskrit treatises on Hindu law are very
numerous". Next to Manu the Code of Yajnavalkya
is held in high esteem. The latter is much shorter
and more systematic than the former ; but in their
general character the two codes pretty much agree.
Yajnavalkya's work may perhaps date from the first or
second century A. D. Both of these codes are written
in verse ; and indeed that of Manu is sometimes truly
poetical”.
* “The total number of Dharma-Sastras, or treatises on law, is fifty-
six.’— Weber.
* Manu, x. 84. We must add that amidst much that is childish and
not a little that is morally wrong in the great law-book, we occasionally
DEVELOPMENT OF BRAHMANISM 91
Our limits will not allow us to dwell on the general
character of Hindu legislation ; but we may mention
that trial by what is generally called ‘ordeal ' is very
much more prominent in the later code than in the
earlier. The forms of ordeal are as severe and un-
reasonable as those employed in medieval Europe.
Here again the Brahman had the easier trial. He
was to be judged by weighing. If innocent, he rose
upward ; if guilty, the scale in which he was descended.
Ordeal by fire or water, or the drinking of poison, was
reserved for the Sudra. Another point of difference
between the codes is this : gambling is expressly
prohibited by Manu ; but the later lawgiver allows
it, only insisting that a certain part of the gain shall
be paid to the king and certain other persons. The
Hindus had been greatly addicted to gambling even
from the times of the Veda. It is probable that the
earlier legislation honestly opposed it, but found its
suppression impossible; and that the later was satisfied
with the attempt to regulate the vice.
When the laws ascribed to Manu were drawn up,
the Hindus were in Northern India near the river
Sarasvati. The people seem to have lived in villages
rather than large towns or scattered habitations; and
we may well believe that some form of associate life
was necessary to protect them against enemies and
wild beasts. The country must have been much more
richly wooded than it is now. The supply of water
come upon noble thoughts. Thus: ‘The wicked have said in their
hearts, “None sees us.” But the gods see them, and so does the
spirit in their own breasts.' Such a saying is like an oasis in the
desert.
92 HINDUISM
also must have been ampler; for the Sarasvati, which
is extolled as a mighty river, now loses itself in the
sands before reaching the Indus. Flocks and herds
abounded. Agriculture had been originally held in
high honour; but ere long ‘the benevolent' objected
to it, because the iron-mouthed pieces of wood
wounded not only the earth but the creatures dwelling
there"; and hence Brahmans and Kshatriyas should
have nothing to do with it. On every side of the
village a space was left for pasture-ground ; fields
could be enclosed within it for cultivation ; but then,
as now, the greater part of the cultivated ground must
have been at some distance from the village. Rice, .
barley, leeks, and sugar-cane were among the most
important products. Artisans of various kinds were
employed ; each, as a rule, confining his labour to his
Own village. In fact, from the earliest days, and through
Successive centuries, the village system has been in-
destructible—and, as a village institution, complete
in itself. Dynasties may come and go, but the villager
clings to his inheritance, and contentedly lives and
works where, and as, his fathers did before him. For
women, when not engaged with household duties, the
common Occupations were spinning and weaving. We
hear of travelling merchants; and there was doubtless
much traffic between one part of the country and
another. Foreign merchants could reach Northern
India by the river Indus—though the ascent was
doubtless difficult then, as it is now. Indian pro-
ducts seem to have been carried to Persia, Palestine,
and Egypt from an early date ; but we cannot
* Manu, x. 84.
DEVELOPMENT OF BRAHMAWISM 93
suppose that either exports or imports were on an
extensive scale. Ivory seems to have been exported
from India; and, as the African elephant had not been
domesticated, war-elephants must also have been so.
Indigo (the very name denotes the country of its
growth) and cotton were early in use in India, and
were also exported. -
CHAPTER V
STR UGG/AE AEAE 7"WEEAV BA2AAA/AM/VS// AAWD
A U/O/O A.Z.S//
T has been already mentioned that ritualism and
philosophy went on developing side by side. It
is not conceivable that the zealous supporters of the
one system aided in the development of the other. .
The students of philosophy, indeed, were careful to
declare themselves to be orthodox believers in the
Veda ; but the inevitable result of their speculations
was to weaken, among those who accepted their
teaching, the authority of the established worship, and
indirectly to undermine that of the Veda. Meantime,
the ritual had assumed more and more imposing
dimensions; and extravagant asceticism more and more
prevailed. Sacrifice had become more protracted,
more expensive, and more bloody. All religious
services were conducted in Sanskrit; and the sacred
texts of the Veda were in an archaic form of the
language which the priests themselves very partially
understood. Princes and people could only look on
and see worship performed on their behalf. Direct
approach to the deities was possible only to the holy
Brahman; and it was his inalienable birthright—the
BRAHMANISM AND BUDDHISM 95
title ran in his blood. Religious instruction for the
mass of the people was never thought of; nor did the
philosophers ever dream of communicating to them
their daring speculations. Altogether the religious
condition of India had become darker than ever—
deplorably dark—by the sixth century B. C. One is
disposed to think that a reaction from priestly tyranny
and extreme sacerdotalism was inevitable. It has
been said of the Reformation of the sixteenth century
that it was certain to have taken place even had the
great Soul of Luther never come upon the scene; the
ever-gathering waters must have burst their way ere
long. Even so in India, two thousand years before
the Reformation in Europe. An immense revolt from
. Such intolerable tyranny over the souls and bodies of
men was sure to come. But the specific form which
the revolt assumed was largely due to the personal
qualities of the reformer. We are aware that writers
of high name have doubted whether such a man as
Buddha ever lived . It seems to us, however, that
unity is so deeply impressed on early Buddhism that
we are compelled to ascribe it to one author. It is,
at all events, far easier to believe that there was no
Zoroaster, or no Homer, than that there was no
Buddha.
It is now pretty well made out that the death of
Buddha fell between 482 B.C. and 472 B.C.; and this
is the second certain date in Indian chronology. We
cannot, in this little work, discuss either his character
or his doctrines at any length. There is no evidence
that he was a man of high intellectual gifts; his
* Such as Wassiljew, H. II. Wilson, Senart, and Kern.
96 HINDUISM
chief characteristic was tenderness of heart. He saw
overflowing sorrow all around ; and with him the
great question was—How shall that sorrow cease ?
In the portentous metaphysical speculations with
which his system has been overlaid, he had no share;
his aim was wholly practical. It has been asserted
that he openly attacked Brahmanism ; but this does
not seem likely. As a mere social institution he
appears to have had no quarrel even with caste,
although a gentle soul like his must have mourned
Over its detestable tyranny; but he held that none
who adopted his teachings need be fettered by it
in their mutual intercourse. Men of all ranks were
welcomed as disciples. Women too—although still
debarred from that position which is their right—
received, on entering the society, a place of com-
parative respect. His law, he declared, was a law of
kindness, and intended for all. He preached in the
vernacular language, and to masses of men. The
complex ritual of Brahmanism he ignored ; and
sacrifice, as involving pain to sentient creatures, was
abhorrent to his whole system of thought. A prince
sympathizing with the people was a sight by no
means Common ; a prince instructing the people in
their own tongue was a sight entirely new. We
cannot, then, be surprised at the effect of his public
appearances. He was the man for the time.
A distinguished philanthropist in modern days'
used to say: “Disease and misery and vice exist.
I have no time and less inclination to talk metaphysics
about them ; but my life shall be given to remedy the
* Pastor Fliedner of Kaiserswerth.
BRAHMANISM AND BUDDHISM 97
evil and lessen the load which is crushing down into
mere animalism the beings made in God's image.’
The last clause Buddha could not have uttered, for
Buddha did not believe in God or God’s image; but
the rest of the sentiment he would heartily have
adopted as his own. In respect of this tenderness
of heart Buddha stands unique in the Pagan world.
When we think that, without believing in God and
without having the example of Christ, he was able to
rise so high, we are filled with astonishment. And
with regard to his atheism, it is a thing to be deplored,
but hardly to be wondered at. He believed in gods
—beings superior to men, but subject to mutation and
decay; and, in the countless series of births which
he had passed through, he had been himself a god,
just as he had been a worm. In so far as Buddha
attempted to philosophize, he seems to have agreed
with the earlier Sankhya school", which taught that
* Buddha, however, did not derive his pessimism from the Sankhya.
Gradually a stupendous system of metaphysical speculation was
connected with Buddhism; and, before the Christian era, this had been
developed into a pure Nihilism, especially under the teaching of Nagar-
juna. This asserts the existence of an original void, out of which
proceeded all that is. But what is ? Only a series of sensations. Using
modern terms, we may call the philosophy of Buddhism pure sensa-
tionalism.
We have said that, in the absence of historical documents, the
chronological sequence of the various philosophical systems cannot be
fixed with certainty. Quite possibly the Buddhist doctrine of an original
void became prominent when the high metaphysical speculations of the
Vedanta has been pushed to an extreme, and the impersonal Brahm, in
fact, had been reduced almost to zero. The Buddhist took only one
step more than the Vedantist.
The Sankhya, as it appears in later books, is probably a polemic
against the Buddhist philosophy. It strongly asserts the real existence
G
98 HINDUISM
there were souls and nature, but no Supreme Ruler.
And if he turned to the orthodox Brahmanical creed,
its gods were dim and distant; or, if they ever did
concern themselves with the doings of men, they
were unlovely and unlovable. With such divinities
he had no sympathy, and it was impossible for him
to honour them ".
It is truly remarkable that although Buddha was
an atheist, Buddhism speedily became almost theistic
by Buddha being worshipped. It is hard to style
the votaries of Krishna theists, and those of Buddha
atheists; for morally Buddha stands immensely the
higher of the two. -
The character of Buddha was most attractive; but
Buddha was a man, and he had passed into the inane;
and of the gentle teacher there remained only a sweet,
sad memory. This could not satisfy the cravings of
the heart; and so he was turned into a quasi-divinity.
But in speaking of Buddhism a clear distinction must
always be drawn between the northern and southern
schools. It is in the great northern school that he has
become a full divinity. We may say, then, that
his system flourished chiefly in consequence of a
reversal of his teaching on this fundamental point.
both of mind and matter (purush and £rakrit:)—or soul and nature, as
we may rather render the terms.
We have referred in this note to the time when the Buddhist doctrine
of the void “became prominent.' But it began in the time of the
Upanishads. We read in the Chhandogya Upanishad : “Some say that
entity issued of non-entity. But how can this be 2 * The doctrine of an
original void must therefore have been maintained by certain schools or,
at least, individuals.
* “Do you worship the gods?’ said Bishop Heber, in Ceylon, to a
Buddhist priest. ‘No,' said the priest; ‘the gods worship me.’
BRAHMANISM AND BUDDH/SM 99
Singular, surely, and at the same time most sig-
nificant, that his denial of a divinity led to his
own exaltation to divinity. It is a proof that man
must worship.
Buddha himself believed not in a divinity, but in
Karma (literally, work); which, as understood by
him, we may call the principle of moral retribution.
This was a higher thought than that of Moºpa, or fate;
which, according to the ancient Greeks, controlled the
action even of Zeus himself.
But apart from its atheism Buddha's system was
greatly faulty. Salvation—all the salvation he knew
—was to be obtained by people becoming monks
and nuns—mendicants and ascetics. The idea of
being in the world yet not of it, was far above
his reach. And he dealt with individuals. He could
not save society; he could only destroy it. His
followers could attain Salvation only by abandoning
all family ties.
His counsels of perfection—unless his early followers
exaggerated his views—ran into an asceticism which
even those who admire his unqualified pessimism will
repudiate as extravagant and Senseless.
We find in Buddhism much that is high and pure,
much that is foolish, and much that is deplorably
defective. It disregarded caste; but nothing was
gained when the Buddhist sangha became the sub-
stitute. The Buddhist ‘ clergy’ were all ascetics, and
speedily became full of spiritual pride. Theirs was
a very bad form of monasticism. The superiority
of Buddhism to Hinduism as a moral system is
unquestionable ; and yet it seems all but powerless to
G 2
IOO HINDUISM
produce the morality it inculcates. Its best feature
was its early missionary spirit. It is a pathetic
spectacle to witness those old Buddhist monks
crossing inhospitable mountains and stormy oceans,
that they might preach to barbarous races that poor
gospel of theirs—the best, alas ! they had to offer—
declaring that all existence is misery.
In India Buddhism contended with Brahmanism
for fully a thousand years; and when Asoka (who
deserves the appellation of Emperor of India as
much as any ruler ever did) had embraced it and
given it his powerful patronage, it seemed not
unlikely to prevail finally over its rival. But it was
not so to be. Various causes combined to overthrow
it. For one thing, the Brahmans had all along
maintained their intellectual superiority, which they
showed both in speech and writing. The Buddhist
style has been called ‘the most detestable of all
styles’; and the thought was generally as feeble as
the expression. Society also rebelled against a system
which aimed at its dissolution by drawing into monas-
ticism and mendicancy every man and woman who
was in earnest about salvation. Then, Brahmanism
was national ; Buddhism was cosmopolitan : and
this difference, which at first helped Buddhism, the
astute Brahmans would turn to full account when
at last the Indian princes roused themselves to repel
the Northern invaders. In the end Buddhism dis-
appeared from Indian soil. It was, however, a dear-
bought victory to its opponents. They retained their
power by surrendering many of their distinctive
principles. Many Buddhistic ideas had so penetrated
BRAHMANISM AND BUDDH/SM IOI
the Indian mind that they could not be uprooted.
Accordingly these were skilfully interwoven with the
Brahmanical system ; while, at the same time, some
of the deficiencies of Buddhism were carefully
Supplied.
For a long time there was no open conflict between
Brahmanism and Buddhism. Buddha, we have said,
did not inveigh against caste; though he taught his
followers to rise above it by constituting a spiritual
Community of which any man—or woman—might
become a member. Let us do justice to this lofty
conception of brotherhood, so widely different from
the narrow selfishness of Brahmanism. The Brah-
mans must undoubtedly have disliked the bold
innovation ; but probably open war between the
rival systems did not commence until the Buddhist
fraternity began to share in the gifts of which the
Brahmans had hitherto had a monopoly. Although
the Buddhist was professedly a mendicant, his order
was often rich ; and to the Brahman this was alto-
gether intolerable.
We do not know that there ever was a persecution
of Buddhists on any large scale. Local outbreaks
there must have been, as there have often been
between rival sectaries in India ; and in all such
collisions the pacific Buddhists, if true to their prin-
ciples, would fare the worse. But there was no
sudden fall of Buddhism ; there was a long and
gradual decay, until it finally disappeared from India
about the end of the twelfth century A.D. But we
may fairly say it was not so much expelled, as it was
absorbed.
CHA PTER VI
A'B'COAVSTA’ UCTYOM OF HAWD U/S//. THE A VA TAA’A.S.
HE Hinduism that gradually arose as Buddhism
faded away was a vastly different system from
that which previously existed. We find in it distinct
traces of Buddhistic thought; we may say that an
undertone of Buddhism is audible through all later
Sanskrit writings, and equally so in the vernacular
literature. Sacrifice was set aside ; and great regard
for animal life was inculcated. This was a stupendous
revolution ; a reversal, one might say, of the deepest
thought of the early Hindus. No more even of
horse-sacrifice—that rite of dazzling splendour and
tremendous potency. A sentiment, often heard in
modern India, began to move the public mind :
‘Non-killing is supreme religion.’
Again, the main strength of Buddhism was Buddha;
first, the living man, and after his death, his memory.
Assuredly it was not its wild asceticism that gave
Buddhism its influence ; nor was it the stupendous
and incomprehensible metaphysics that soon clustered
around the system: it was the mild, loving man him-
self. His character compelled an admiration which
passed in many cases into adoration. The influence
RECONSTRUCTION. THE AVATARAS 103
of Buddhism on Hinduism is traceable as clearly as
anywhere in the Avataras, or ‘ descents' of divine
beings to mingle in the affairs of human life. It is
especially the god Vishnu who thus ‘ descends. Round
the naturalistic divinities of the Veda there had
gathered a mass of fable which served in some degree
to humanize them. Still, much of their original,
physical character remained ; and they had few or
none of the attractive attributes of Buddha. The
latter had by this time come to be regarded as
a brother-man whose heart was full of sympathy with
the Sorrowful, and yet a kind of deity, possessed of
Superhuman power. The Brahmans chose two great
legendary heroes, Rama and Krishna, whose names
were associated with events in history as famous in
India as the War of Troy was in Greece; they repre-
sented them as divinities who had ‘ descended ' to
earth. These were as truly human as Buddha, and
still more divine. Round the simple Buddha there
had gradually clustered a wild mythology, the Offspring
of a depraved taste, so that the touching history of
the man was not easily traced amidst the false orna-
ments so lavishly thrown around it. The Brahmans
yielded to this morbid appetite for extravagant fiction,
and, as far as in them lay, outdid the Buddhists in its
gratification. There is some reason to believe that the
tale of the warrior-god Rama was of Buddhist Origin,
and in general the ‘descended’ god retains the Buddhist
attribute of gentleness; but the metamorphosis of
the Buddhist sage into the Hindu prince reveals the
wonderful fertility of the poet's imagination. Later
on, the taste of the people became yet more corrupt,
IO4. HINDUISM
and still the Brahmans ministered to its cravings;
so that, in the god Krishna, all the finer elements
of character have disappeared, and the poet strives to
appease the cravings of an imagination utterly de-
bauched. Buddhist legends were abundantly childish ;
but they never were impure. Impurity, however, is
an almost unfailing mark of Hindu literature; and
we venture to explain this, not by attributing it to
utterly corrupt taste on the part of the writers, but
rather to their determination to supplant the Buddhist
stories by stories still more wonderful, and at the
same time more stimulating to the polluted minds of
the people.
Thus, indirectly, Buddhism was to be supplanted.
How could it now maintain its existence P It was
beaten with its own weapons. But the Brahmans
were not satisfied with assailing it indirectly. They
made a direct attack upon it by representing Buddha
as the ninth ‘descent' of Vishnu. The gods and the
daityas (the latter pretty much corresponding to the
Titans of classical mythology) had warred with one
another, and the gods had been defeated ; whereupon
they implored Vishnu to destroy their victorious foes.
The god accordingly became incarnate in the form of
a naked ascetic on the banks of the Narmada river ;
and with glozing words overturned the religion of the
Vedas, and thus effected the destruction of those whom
he had so seduced. Of the many daring conceptions
of the Brahmans this may be called the most horrible.
Of all their divinities Vishnu is believed to be the
One in whom especially resides the attribute of truth ;
yet even he is declared to have become incarnate for
RECONSTRUCTION. THE AVATARAS 105
the purpose of disseminating a lie and plunging giants
and men into perdition | We apprehend it would be
difficult to find a lower depth than this even in the
lowest Pagan faith.
We have spoken of three of Vishnu's avataras.
These are sometimes said to have been twenty-two in
all ; but the great ‘ descents’ are ten. In a celebrated
passage of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna thus explains
to Arjuna the reason of the descents:
“When fades the true and flourishes the false,
'Tis then, 'tis then, that I myself create—
The good to save, the wicked to destroy,
To shield the right, from age to age reborn.”
A noble conception, certainly; but the avataras are,
in fact, very unlike the idealized picture supplied by
the poet.
It is not very easy to extract any meaning out of
the first three ‘ descents.” In the first of all the god
becomes a fish. It has been conjectured that, with
their wonted spirit of accommodation in matters of faith,
the Brahmans may have introduced this conception
in order to win over certain tribes that worshipped the
fish; or we should say that, when they could not ex-
pel the worship, they deified the fish. We are more
inclined, however, to the belief that we have, in this
descent of Vishnu, a tradition of the deluge which has
been metamorphosed in the wild style of the Brahmans.
Manu, the ancestor of the human race, faithful among
the faithless, was divinely warned of the coming
catastrophe. Accordingly he built a ship, and entered
it along with seven holy men. When the flood came,
IO6 HINDUISM
Vishnu assumed the form of a fish ; and the ship was
fastened to a horn on its head, and so drawn on and
attached to a lofty peak in the Himalaya mountains
till the deluge abated. This is very much the sort of
story which the bizarre imagination of the Hindus
would invent if they had heard of the deliverance of
the righteous Noah and his family of seven persons.
Another statement is that a daitya named Hayagriva
stole the Vedas from the god Brahma when he was
asleep, and that Vishnu, in the form of a fish, plunged
into the deep to rescue them. This seems to indicate
the restoration of religion.
The second descent of Vishnu was in the form
of a tortoise. Some have said that this conception
probably arose from a wish to win over worshippers
of the tortoise. During the deluge various precious
things had been lost in the ocean. Accordingly, for the
purpose of recovering these, the god, in the form of
a tortoise, took up his station at the bottom of the
mid-ocean. A mountain was placed by the deities on
his back, and the serpent Vasuki was twisted around
it. The god and demons then took hold of the serpent,
the former grasping his head and neck and the latter
the tail, and, pulling against each other, churned the
Ocean—the mountain Serving as a churning-stick.
Fourteen precious things were thus churned out. It
requires considerable ingenuity to discover the principle
of the selection of these so-called ‘jewels’—among
which are a marvellous horse, an elephant, the cow
of plenty, the moon, nectar, and (oddly enough) poison.
To give the rationale of things irrational is beyond us;
but this descent should naturally indicate the reap-
RECONSTRUCTION. THE AVATARAS 107
pearance of objects which had been engulfed by the
waters of the deluge.
The third descent was in the form of a boar. The
daitya Hiranyaksha had carried the earth down into
the abyss. Vishnu assumed the form of a boar,
fought with him for a thousand years, and brought
the earth up again. It looks very probable that this
account refers to the reappearance of the dry land
when the waters of the deluge had subsided.
The next descent was that of the man-lion. The
daitya Hiranyakasipu had obtained from the god
Brahma the boon that neither god nor man nor
animal should be able to slay him. He conquered
the three worlds, and carried off the sacrifices that
belonged to the gods. His son Prahlada was a
devoted worshipper of Vishnu; and the father in
wrath made every effort to slay him—throwing him
into the fire, plunging him in the deep, and so on.
All in vain. Prahlada still called on Vishnu, and was
rescued. The daitya indignantly asked, ‘Where is
your god P’ The son answered, ‘Everywhere.” “Is
he in this pillar P’ shouted the daitya, striking it.
Instantly the pillar opened; and Vishnu issued from
it in the form of a creature that was neither god nor
man nor beast, but a man-lion, and at Once tore the
daitya in pieces. We may, with some probability,
hold this legend to refer to a struggle between the fol-
lowers of some of the aboriginal faiths with advancing
Hinduism, which ended in the triumph of the latter.
The fifth descent is said to have taken place in
the Treta yuga, or second age of the world. Bali,
a descendant of Prahlada (mentioned above), was
IO8 HINDUISM
engaged in offering sacrifices, with a view to displace
Indra from his supreme dominion. To prevent him
from succeeding, Vishnu became incarnate in the
form of Vamana, a Brahman dwarf, and begged of
Bali as much territory as he could measure in three
steps. The unsuspecting king said that this was
a very poor request to be made to one who was
sovereign of the three worlds—heaven, earth, and
hell ; why not ask more? With a show of profound
humility, the incarnate deity replied that he did not
desire and could not accept of more. His guru
warned the monarch to beware of this extraordinary
Brahman and his equally extraordinary modesty ;
but Bali would not listen to his remonstrances. The
boon was granted. Whereupon Vamana, spreading
out his form to vast dimensions, strode with two
steps through heaven and earth, and then putting
his foot on Bali's head (or body, as it is otherwise
expressed), crushed him down to hell. There can
hardly be any doubt as to the historical meaning
of this legend. It evidently refers to the mode in
which the wily Brahmans obtained their supreme
authority, by wheedling the unsuspecting rulers of
the land. This explanation is confirmed by the fact
that Bali is still commemorated, at least in Western
India, and that the return of his happy reign is
earnestly implored".
* The people throw away all the dirt and sweepings of their houses,
and with exuberant joy and the clash of musical instruments, exclaim in
their uncultured rhymes— -
‘Let pain and Sorrow pack,
And Bali's reign come back l’
RECONSTRUCTION. THE A PATARAS rog
The sixth descent of Vishnu was Parasurama
(Rama with the axe). He was the son of a Brahman :
father and a Kshatriya mother. (In this we have a
reminiscence of the time when inter-marriage between
people of different castes was still allowed.) The
Kshatriya kings were tyrannizing over the Brahmans:
for example, the father of Parasurama had his cow
taken from him ; whereupon Parasurama, who, armed
with his tremendous axe was irresistible, slew the
offender. His sons retaliated by slaying Parasurama's
own father. It was now internecine war; and the
champion with the axe, travelling over the earth
twenty-one times, cleared it of the hated Kshatriyas,
with the exception of a few children, for whom their
mothers implored mercy at the Brahmans' retreats.
The meaning of this legend hardly requires explana-
tion. That the Kshatriya race was ever annihilated,
or nearly so, is utterly improbable; but it suited the
purpose of the usurping Brahmans to maintain that
none had henceforth a right to claim the time-honoured
name of Kshatriya.
The seventh descent was in the person of Rama, or
Ramachandra. His history is contained in the great
heroic poem called the Ramayana. It is highly
probable that the original form of the Rama legend
was of Buddhist origin, and written in the interests of
Buddhism. The Buddhist virtue of gentleness still
generally adheres to Rama; but the poet Valmiki
has, with no small skill, transformed the earlier legend,
and made it support the claims of Brahmanism. The
poem may have assumed its present form a little
before the Christian era. The hero-god Rama has
IIO - - HINDUISM
long been one of the most popular divinities; and
this is partly owing to his generally attractive
character, the womanly virtues of his wife Sita, and
the history, at once romantic and pathetic, of the
loving pair. Moreover, Valmiki writes in melodious
verse. The version of the poem in Hindi, which is
the most widely diffused of the vernacular tongues
of India, is also an attractive and highly popular
production.
Rama was the eldest son of Dasaratha, king of
Ayodhya (Oude). When a youth, he won his bride
,Sita by being able to bend a wonderful bow belonging
to her father, King Janaka of Mithila". His step-
mother intrigued against him ; and he and his attached
wife were sent into banishment, in the Dandaka forest,
which covered a great part of the country north of the
Godavari river. Sita, in Rama’s absence, is carried off
to Lanka (Ceylon) by its demon-king Ravana—a per-
sonage with ten heads and twenty arms”. Rama, with
the assistance of the monkey-king Sugriva, collects
an army of monkeys, and advances to the straits that
separate Ceylon from India. The way in which he
* This account does not seem to be in the Ramayana.
* Valmiki makes Sita thus bid farewell to her retreat :
“Oh Janasthana's flowering bowers, my dear and happy haunts,
farewell !
When Rama to his cot returns, his sorrowing Sita's story tell :
And thou, my loved Godavari, where whilom I so often strayed, .
And watched thy flocks of water-fowl, and heard their wild songs as
they played,
Let thy sad waters murmur it as home he wanders by thy shore,
And tell him with their mournful plash, that Sita meets his steps no
more.” -
(Quoted from an old number of the Westminster Review.)
RECOWSTRUCTION. THE A VATARAS III
bridged the straits is described with even more than
the usual lavishness of Hindu imagination ; inter alia,
Hanuman the monkey brought mountains to cast into
the sea, millions at a time, a mountain on each hair
of his body. Ravana is vanquished; Sita is recovered;
Rama returns in triumph to Ayodhya, and is crowned
king. But as Sita had lived for some time in the
house of Ravana, he cruelly dismissed her, although
of her chastity there was no question. Then Sita
entered the fire; which, however, refused to burn
her; and on this, her husband took her back. The
legend altogether is full of the romantic tales which
delight the Hindu, but from the extravagance of
which the Western mind turns with disrelish. Our
readers may have a good idea of Rama’s exploits
if they remember those of Jack the Giant-killer,
which probably charmed them in their childhood.
The Hindu imagination has never risen above the
childish stage.
Still more popular than the popular Rama is
Krishna, the ninth incarnation of Vishnu; but morally
he is immensely inferior. Krishna was the eighth
son of Vasudeva and Devaki. It had been predicted
that Kansa, the king of Mathura, would be killed by
one of the sons of Vasudeva and Devaki. The king
accordingly imprisoned Vasudeva and his wife, and
killed six of their children as they were successively
born. The seventh was miraculously saved. The
eighth was Krishna, whose name means ‘the black
One.’ The father fled from Mathura with the child,
and confided him to the care of a herdsman called
Nanda, who brought him up in Vrindavana, at some
II2 HINDUISM
distance from Mathura. The imagination of Hindu
poets luxuriates in the description of the sports of
Krishna and his young companions. Even as a child
he performed the most stupendous miracles. Being
swallowed by a frightful winged creature which Kansa
had sent to destroy him, he made it feel so uncomfort-
able that it vomited him up again ; whereupon he
tore its mouth open and killed it. At the same time
he performed all sorts of naughty tricks. He delighted
in stealing milk, curds, and butter. His foster-mother
had to bind him with a rope to keep him out of
mischief; but he made short work of the rope—he ate
it up. It would have been well had matters ended
there. He delighted to sport with the female cow-
herds of Vrindavana; and it is especially in describing
this part of his history that the prurient imagination
of the Hindu poets is seen to run riot. Of course we
cannot dwell on the subject at any length; a few
hints must suffice. He had eight chief wives; the
queen of all, Rukmini, had been betrothed to another,
but on her marriage-day Krishna carried her off in
a chariot and made her his own wife. The total
number of his other wives, or mistresses, was sixteen
thousand. The Gopis (female cowherds) went one
day to bathe in the river Yamuna (Jumna); and,
while they were doing so, Krishna stole their clothes
and carried them up into a tree, in the branches of
which he hid himself. He embarked with them at
another time in a boat on the river; the boat began
to leak terribly, and Krishna made the Gopis stop the
leak with their clothes. Sporting with the multitude
of women, he so multiplied himself that each believed
RECONSTRUCTION. THE AVATARAS 113
she had Krishna all to herself. The god Indra (by
no means a spotless character) was disgusted at
Krishna's intercourse with the Gopis, and poured
down torrents of rain on him and them ; whereupon
Krishna ‘lifted the chief of mountains, Govarddhana,
from its stony base,’ and for several days and nights
held it over their heads as an umbrella, supporting
it with one hand—indeed, as is generally said, on the
tip of his finger. And so on. The miracles ascribed
to Krishna are among the most extravagant, as they
are the most immoral, recorded in Hindu books.
It is of importance to note that Krishna is a diviner
being than Rama; that is to say, while Rama is but
a partial manifestation of divinity, with only half
the essence of Vishnu belonging to him, Krishna is
a complete manifestation—the four-armed Vishnu in
the fullness of deity. Partly for this reason, and
partly, we fear, because of the licentious stories told
regarding him, he is decidedly more popular than the
warlike Rama; and the multitudinous mistresses of
Krishna are more familiar to the mind of India than
Sita, with all her womanly grace and virtue. And
yet this dreadful being is extolled by the author of
the Bhagavad Gita, a man of high intellectual culture,
as the god of gods; and that supreme position is
vindicated for him in stately and sonorous strains
throughout that striking poem. How can we explain
this? It is exceedingly difficult to fix the dates of
any Sanskrit works, except the Vedas; but we believe
that, when the Gita was composed-–the later parts,
probably in the third century after Christ—the dis-
gusting legends regarding Krishna had assumed no
H
II.4. HINDUISM
definite shape; and the author of the Gita may have
ignored them, or indeed, have been unacquainted with
them. But farther, it is easy to suppose (as has
been mentioned above, p. 76) that he had become
acquainted with part of the evangelic history. Then,
just as the Ramayana appears to have metamorphosed
a Buddhist sage into a Hindu god, so it is probable
that the author of the Gita adopted the great concep-
tions regarding the divinity and incarnation of Christ,
and applied them to Krishna as a personage already
famous in Indian story. The Gita is inserted in the
vast Mahabharata ; but there is no probability of
its having originally formed a part of that strangely
Composite work: we may compare it to a mistletoe
growing on an oak. It is in the Mahabharata we
first see Vishnu exalted to supreme divinity. He
became incarnate in Krishna ; who may have been, as
Some believe, originally a tribal god of the Rajputs
(the great military race in Central India)—probably
a hero exalted into a god. The names of Christ and
Krishna are totally unlike in sense, and not like in
sound *; yet the former may have suggested the
latter as the personage whom the poet might represent
as the Supreme divinity. Still, this is a possibility
only, and the slight resemblance may be accidental.
Krishna, as conceived by the Hindus now, is a
strangely mixed character. He is the warlike prince
of Dwaraka, in Gujarat; he is the licentious cowherd
of Vrindavana; and he is the Supreme Divinity
* The word “Krishna’ is composed of K (not in any case Ah), a semi-
vowel which is represented by r or ri, a third letter represented by sh, and
a fourth by 71. But in some parts of India Krishna is pronounced Krista.
RECONSTRUCTION. THE A VATARAS 115
incarnate. He almost realizes the extraordinary
picture suggested in the first lines of Horace's
Ars Poetica. Unhappily the Hindu mind delights
especially in the foul tales told of him in the second
of these characters; and among the embellishments
of Hindu dwellings may often be found pictures
representing him sporting with the Gopis. The in-
fluence for evil which the story of Krishna's early life
has had in debasing the Hindu mind is immense.
We have still to add how this extraordinary being
died. After the great war between the Kauravas
and Pandavas, he retreated with his followers to his
capital Dwaraka, in Gujarat. After effecting the
destruction of the Yadavas, the race to which he
belonged, he himself was killed by the arrow of
a hunter, who mistook him for a deer as he was
sitting under a tree; and his parents, in consequence,
committed suicide.
A French writer, M. Jacolliot, has been capable of
the stupendous blunder of maintaining that in the
history of Christ we find much that has been borrowed
from the history of Krishna. No Oriental scholar
can tolerate such an idea. Chronology and geography
are wholly against it. Had it been true, it would
have been the most astonishing instance of trans-
figuration on record. The fierce warrior turned into
the Prince of peace; the debauched cowherd of
Vrindavana into a being possessed of every moral
excellence | By what process of moral alchemy could
such a transformation have been wrought? But it is,
alas! too easy to show how, from such muddy
sources as the Gospel of the Infancy, the Hindu poets,
H 2.
II6 HINDUISM
in a time of great moral debasement, might gradually
evolve the pestilential tale of which we have ventured
to recite only the less disgusting portions.
Of Buddha, the ninth descent of Vishnu, we have
already had occasion to speak at sufficient length
when treating of Buddhism. (See p. 104.)
The tenth descent is called the Kalki avatara. It
is still future. As the present, or fourth, age of the
world goes on, iniquity will more and more prevail.
‘Wealth and piety will decrease day by day, until
the world will be utterly depraved. . . . The people,
unable to bear the heavy burdens imposed by their
kings, will seek refuge among the valleys of the
mountains, and will live on wild honey, herbs, roots,
fruits, flowers, and leaves. . . . . No man's life will
exceed three and twenty years". Then, to redress
the awful evil, Vishnu will appear in the form of
a warrior, mounted on a white horse, and holding
a sword in his right hand. Associating a thousand
Brahmans with himself, he will utterly destroy all
scorners, all neglecters of religion, and all the enemies
of the Brahmans;–‘All Mlechchhas (foreigners),
thieves, and all whose minds are devoted to iniquity”.’
And so the “Age of Truth returns; and for a long
time all is purity and peace.
But only for a time. Other ages follow ; each
worse than the preceding. Here seems to be the
suitable place to mention the doctrine of the four
ages (yugas) of the world”. The first is the Krita
* So the Vishnu Purana. * Ibid.
* These have a remarkable resemblance to the four ages of classical
mythology.
RECONSTRUCTION. THE AVATARAS 117
or Satya Yuga—the Age of Truth, which extends
over the period of 1,728,000 years. The second is
the Treta, which lasts for 1,296,000 years. The third
is the Dwapara, of 864,000 years; and the last is the
A ali, lasting 432,Ooo years. The first three, it will
be seen, are multiples of the last by 4, 3, and 2.
The four ages together endure for 4,320,000 years.
A thousand such periods are a Kalpa, and constitute
a day of Brahma. The life of Brahma extends to a
hundred years—each comprising three hundred and
sixty of his days. The sum total might be given in
figures; we could not attempt to do it in words.
CHAPTER VII
7A7A. AEA/C ANOAA/S
HE descents of Vishnu are first fully de-
veloped in the two great heroic poems—the
Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Although not
equal in authority to the Vedas, Darsanas and
Puranas, yet they are held in high estimation, and
may be styled semi-sacred.
The Ramayana is probably the more ancient: at
least, certain parts of it seem older than anything
contained in the Mahabharata. But each work has
sustained alterations. The name Ramayana denotes
the going of Rama—the warrior god of whom we
have had occasion to speak at considerable length.
The author is said to have been Valmiki ; of whose
real existence there seems little doubt. There is
considerable unity in the plan of the poem, though
it can hardly be the work of a single author.
Valmiki is said to have lived at Chitrakut, a moun-
tain not far from the modern Allahabad. Of the
date when he lived we cannot speak with certainty;
it was probably about the Christian era". The poem
* Weber finds traces of Greek influences in the poem. He believes
that the rape of Helen and the siege of Troy were in the mind of the
THE EPIC POEMS II9
professes to consist of seven books, containing 24,000
slokas, each sloka being equal to four Octo-syllabic
lines of English verse. But there are two recensions
of the work ; one more concise in diction and more
archaic in its forms, and probably more like the
Original poem. Luxuriance, extravagance, we are of
course to look for in a Hindu book; but Valmiki is
a true poet, -- many passages are marked by a natural
pathos, and he is comparatively free from those con-
ceits which characterize so many Hindu writers.
Certainly, however, the whole is not of uniform merit.
We need not dwell at much length on the Ra-
mayana, as we have already traced the career of
Rama in speaking of the seventh avatara (p. Io9).
The subject of the poem, as it stands, is usually
said to be the extension of Aryan civilization to
Southern India and Ceylon, chiefly by means of
conquest. But, again, it may refer to a struggle
between the Hindus of India and the Buddhists of
Ceylon.
The second epic poem, the Mahabharata, is a much
larger work, consisting of eighteen books, and 22O,OCO
slokas—the most stupendous poem which the world
has seen. It is a vast encyclopedia of matters
historical, religious, and philosophical. It is ascribed
to Vyasa, i e. the arranger—a sage of whom nothing
certain is known. Different parts of the work must
be of different dates; though “the arranger' has
tried to give a kind of historical unity to the grand
poet when he describes Sita and the conquest of Lanka. Sir Monier
M. Williams also points out analogies between characters described in
the Iliad with several in the Ramayana.
i
I2O HINDUISM
storehouse of legends. In its present form, it
cannot well be older than the sixth or seventh
Christian century".
The subject of the work is the great war between
the Pandavas and their cousins the Kauravas. Of
the former there were five; of the latter a hundred.
At first they lived together under the care of Dhrita-
rashtra, the father of the Kauravas. Quarrels arose,
for under their tutor Drona the princes were taught
to guide the elephant, to drive the chariot, to launch
the javelin, to hurl the battle-axe, and to whirl the
mace; and in all these royal exercises the Pandavas
excelled their cousins. The poet's sympathies are,
from the outset, with the former ; to whom he ascribes
all manly virtues. The Kauravas try to destroy
them, but they escape. When wandering about,
they hear that Drupada, the king of Panchala, is to
hold a Swayamvara—a contest for the hand of his
daughter Draupadi. Multitudes of people go to
take part, or to be witnesses of the tournament, as
we may call it. Draupadi is to be the reward of him
who excels in archery. Arjuna—one of the noblest
characters in Hindu story—gains the precious prize;
but we are startled to read that the lady becomes
the wife of all the five brothers in common. This
circumstance Brahmanical commentators are eager
to explain and, as far as possible, excuse; although
* “That this huge composition was a production of successive ages
clearly results from the multifariousness of its contents, the difference
of style which characterizes its various parts, and even from the contra-
dictions which disturb its harmony.”—Goldstäcker (in Chambers' Cyclo-
fedia).
THE EPIC POEMS I2][
the fact of most of the brothers having other wives
of their own makes it difficult to do so".
The kingdom is then divided between the Kauravas
and the Pandavas, and for a time all is prosperity.
Yudhishthira, the eldest of the Pandavas, is a model
king ; and his subjects rejoice in his beneficent rule.
But Duryodhana, the head of the Kauravas, still
plots against his rivals. He invites them to a gam-
bling festival ; and Yudhishthira feels he cannot in
honour refuse the challenge. He is matched with
an unfair opponent, and loses. He stakes one thing
after another, and still loses. He stakes himself,
and loses. He stakes Draupadi (what right had he
to stake more than one-fifth part of her ?), and loses.
Draupadi, with dishevelled hair and weeping bitterly,
is dragged before the assembled chiefs; but after
a time she and her husbands are allowed to depart
in peace. Then, shortly after, another challenge is
given. Another game is to be played, and the losers
are to go into banishment for twelve years. Once
more the loaded dice are used ; the Pandavas are
beaten, and go mournfully into exile, with Draupadi
in bitter grief. So they remain in the woods for
twelve years—feeding on roots and fruits, and the
animals which the brothers slay with their arrows.
Bhima, the Hercules of the party, when they are
utterly exhausted with fatigue, carries the lady and
his brothers on his back and under his arms, and
calmly marches on. When twelve sad years are
come and gone, they act as servants to the king of
* Polyandry is still practised in Southern India by the military race,
the Nairs. Also in Bhotan, Kulu, &c., in the Himalayas.
I22 HINDUISM
Virata. The Kauravas, discovering their foes, attack
and carry off ‘a thousand cows' belonging to the
king. Arjuna (in this too resembling Hercules) has
in disguise been keeping the women's apartments,
but now goes forth as charioteer to the king's sons,
and performs prodigies of valour. So do his brothers;
and the Pandavas return in triumph home. But this
is only the commencement of renewed hostilities on
the part of the Kauravas. Whereupon Krishna, the
prince of Dwaraka, is sent as an ambassador to try
to secure peace ; but his efforts are vain. The
preparations for war go on ; and the two great hosts
ere long meet in battle-array on the plain of
Kurukshetra, near Delhi. Every chief in India
takes a side. The battle continues for eighteen days.
Huge elephants, war-horses and chariots, bows and
arrows, iron maces, drums, war-shells, horns, and
trumpets ; jackals howling, vultures Screaming,
lightnings flashing, thunders roaring, awful omens of
every kind ; all these things are lavishly thrown into
the description of the great hurly-burly. The chiefs
—all save one—are regardless of the omens. But
just as the shells sound to the encounter, the heart
of the noble Arjuna misgives him. He is struck with
horror at the thought of slaughtering his kinsmen;
and his resistless bow, Gandiva, drops from his hand.
It is at this point that the philosophical poem, the
Bhagavad Gita, is interpolated (see above, p. 71).
Krishna reproaches Arjuna for ‘weakness,’ and, with
divine authority, commands him to rush into the
fight. He does so, and his murderous arrows, fly thick
and fast. A series of single combats is then described,
THE EPIC POEMS I23
almost reminding us of the battle scenes of the Iliad.
The Pandavas are finally victorious ; and three of
the Kauravas are all that remain of the once mighty
host of foes. The triumphant warriors go to sleep
securely on the field of battle; but the Kauravas
come in the dark and slay them all except the five
great brothers and their wife, Female lamentations
follow. The funeral ceremonies are then performed ;
and the bodies are burnt. The five brothers have
now none to oppose them ; but they are not happy.
Friends and kinsmen have been slaughtered ; all is
desolation round them. Earth is no scene of peace;
they must seek it in Svarga, the heaven of Indra.
They accordingly depart with Draupadi, accompanied
by a dog. Arjuna flings his mighty bow and irresis-
tible arrows into the sea. They pass Dwaraka and
proceed northward to the Himalayas, and see at
last the mighty mountain Meru. But they are
Sorely worn. Draupadi first falls and dies. Then
brother after brother falls and dies. Still Yudhi-
shthira, followed by the faithful dog, holds on. He
reaches the entrance of Indra's heaven. Indra tells
him that he can enter heaven with his body, all his
brothers and Draupadi he will find there before him ;
but there is no admittance for dogs The prince
declares that he cannot forsake his faithful com-
panion. Whereupon he learns that the animal is
really Yama, the king of the dead, in disguise ; and
that Indra had been only testing him when he
refused to admit the dog. Still, one great trial
remains. The prince, on entering heaven, sees the
Kauravas, but not his brothers. He refuses to remain
124 HINDUISM
apart from these ; and learning that they are in hell,
he proceeds to share their sorrows there. But the
scene passes; all this has been intended only as
a test of his virtue; the seeming hell is changed to
heaven, and thereafter the brothers, along with
Draupadi, enjoy supreme felicity in the palace of
Indra.
We have thus presented an outline of the story
which is embodied in the great poem ; but it must
! be remembered that the narrative is frequently broken
in upon by disquisitions on matters moral, religious,
or metaphysical. Thus, besides the Bhagavad Gita,
which is thrust into the heart of the sixth book,
nearly the whole of books thirteen and fourteen is
occupied with a discourse chiefly on the duties of
rulers, which was delivered on the occasion of Yu-
dhishthira's coronation. The worthy Bhishma who
delivers it proses in a manner rather trying to the
reader, although we are not told that his hearers
ventured to complain of his prolixity ".
Whatever impression the philosophical and moral
portions may have made on the Hindu mind, there
is no question that the story contained in the Maha-
bharata has powerfully influenced nearly every part
of India. ‘The Five Pandavas' are almost every-
where mentioned as antique heroes of the noblest
kind ; and any great work in India that appears
* Two of the episodes thrust into the Mahabharata—viz. the Sanat-
sujatiya and the Anugita-rare translated and given along with the
Bhagavad Gita in the eighth volume of the Sacred Books of the East.
Neither of these works has attained much celebrity. Both are probably
later than the Bhagavad Gita.
THE EPIC POEMS 125
to surpass ordinary human power is generally ascribed
to the wondrous brotherhood. Next to Sita, the wife
of Rama, Draupadi–notwithstanding her startling
marriage relations—is regarded as a type of true wife-
hood ; though habitual remembrance of one with such
an environment of husbands cannot have been without
a corrupting influence on the female mind.
Altogether, the potency in the formation of Indian
thought of the two epic poems has been immense.
The most striking portions have been reproduced in
the chief vernacular languages, and so made accessible
to the common people. We hardly know of any
parallel case. No book or books had an influence
Corresponding to thcse great poems in the history
of Rome. The poems of Homer may, in popularity
and power, have equalled the two great Indian epics,
but certainly did not surpass them. On the legends
contained in these books the mind of India feeds
up to the present day. Unhappily the legends have,
in very many cases, been conveyed to the popular
mind through a polluted channel—that of the Puranas.
Of these it is now time to speak with some fullness.
But first, let us glance at Some important innova-
tions in Hinduism which are traceable in the Epic
poems. It is interesting to note the gradual fading
away of the Vedic faith, and the introduction not only
of new deities but of new ideas. Thus King Varuna,
Once a being of unequalled majesty, is on the way to
become merely a regent of the waters. The ascetic
Yogi has risen into great prominence and power.
The ancient spirit of pride and fierceness is modi-
fied. The sacrifice of animals is nearly ceasing. We
126 HINDUISM
: can hardly be wrong in ascribing chiefly to the
influence of Buddhism this very important modifica-
tion of the ancient faith.
Yet this softening of the spirit does not extend to
everything; thus, the dreadful rite of widow-burning
has become common. With this exception, the sacri-
fice of living creatures is falling into disuse; and a
belief in the meritorious character of giving gifts to
Brahmans is taking its place. Come what changes
there may, the priest unfailingly asserts himself".
* “The peculiarity of the priest, as represented in the Epic poems, is
that he glories in his sins.”—PROF. HoPKINS.
CHAPTER VIII
THA, POVM’AAVAS
HE term ‘Purana' properly signifies old.' The
works so called are generally ascribed to Vyasa,
the mythical arranger of the Vedas themselves; SO
that they would deserve the appellation ‘old’ if the
popular belief as to their authorship had any foun-
dation. But it has no foundation. The Puranas, in
their present form at all events, are very modern
compilations. It is, however, possible that ancient
materials may have been drawn upon in the com-
position of the so-called Puranas ; and this may
perhaps serve as an excuse for a designation which
seems to have been adopted in order to impart the
sanction of antiquity to novel compilations.
The Puranas are generally said to be eighteen in
number; but the list is differently given by different
authorities, and the claims of several usually named
are questionable *. There is a division of the Puranas,
* The usual list and order are as ſollows: I. Brahma P.; 2. Padma;
3. Vishnu; 4. Siva; 5. Bhagavata; 6. Narada; 7. Markandeya ; 8. Agni;
9. Bhavishya ; Io. Brahma Vaivarta; II. Linga ; I2. Varaba ; 13.
Skanda; 14. Vamana; 15. Kurma; 16. Matsya ; 17. Garuda ; 18. Brah-
manda. The Kurma P. substitutes the Vayu ſor the Agni. The Agni
substitutes the Vayu for the Siva. The Garuda substitutes the Vayu and
Nrisinha for the Garuda and Brahmanda. The Matsya omits the Siva.
The Vaishnava Puranas are Nos. 2, 3, 5, 6, Io, 12, 17, in the above
list. The Saiva ones are 4, 8, II, 13, 15, 16. No. 7 is chiefly in praise
I28 HINDUISM
generally accepted by Brahmans, into three classes :
the first includes those relating to Brahma; the
second, those that extol Vishnu ; the third, those
that extol Siva '. Each class contains six. But
this division is quite unnatural. Seven of the entire
number, or even eight, are mainly in praise of Vishnu ;
six support the honour of Siva ; while the rest are
certainly in no special way connected with Brahma.
The subjects treated in a Purana are usually stated
to be the following five : I. Primary creation ; 2.
Secondary creation, i. e. the destruction and renova-
tion of the universe ; 3. Genealogies of gods and
patriarchs; 4. Manzwantaras, i.e. the reigns of the
Manus; 5. The histories of the kings of the solar
and lunar races. But this description does not fully
apply to a single Purana, and some of them have
hardly any resemblance to it. They seem to have
been intended as repositories of all existing know-
ledge on matters connected with religion. Though
said to have been written in the first instance only
for women and Sudras, yet they became ere long
the authorized source of instruction for others also.
Religion, philosophy, Science, history, geography,
all that came, according to Hindu conception, under
these comprehensive designations, belonged to the
Puranas. The Agni Purana professes to teach even
archery, medicine, rhetoric, prosody, and grammar,
and to reveal these sciences with infallible authority.
of Durga. No. 14 praises both Vishnu and Siva. No. 9 is chiefly in
honour of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, and also of the god Tvashtri.
* It is given by the author of the oldest Sanskrit dictionary, Amara
Sinha, probably after the Christian era.
THE PURANAS I29
Generally speaking, the Puranas must have been
compiled between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries.
One or two may possibly be a century or so earlier
than the twelfth.
Along with these compositions we must mention
the Upa-Puranas, or minor Puranas. The character
of these is almost identical with that of the Puranas
themselves. They also are eighteen in number".
There is considerable uncertainty about many of them ;
and several are very seldom met with. They are as
sectarian as the Puranas. They are probably, in
most cases, later than the Puranas; to which they
may be called appendices.
The Puranas and Upa-Puranas draw largely from
the Ramayana and Mahabharata ; but as a rule they
are very far inferior, in point of literary merit, to the
two great epics. There is a kind of glitter about the
Bhagavata Purana; but the style of the books is, for
the most part, deplorably bad. All naturalness, and
truth, and even common sense have vanished ; and
little remains but extravagance in thought and false
rhetoric in language.
The religion of the Puranas is exceedingly unlike
that of the Vedas”. It is an extraordinary blending
of pantheism and polytheism. The pantheism is not
* Their names are as follows: I. Sanatkumara Purana ; 2. Nrisinha ;
3. Naradiya; 4. Siva ; 5. Durvasasa; 6. Kapila ; 7. Manava; 8. Ausa-
nasa; 9. Varuna; Io. Kalika ; II. Samba; I2. Nandi; I 3. Saura ; I4.
Parasara ; 15. Aditya ; 16. Maheswara ; I 7. Bhagavata (possibly a
mistake for Bhargava); 18. Vasishtha. This is the most usual list.
* “The picture of religion and life unfolded by them is a caricature of
that afforded by the Vedic works. It was drawn by priestcraft, interested
in submitting to its sway the popular mind, and unscrupulous as to the
means it used.’—Goldstäcker.
I
I30 HINDUISM
the Spiritualistic pantheism of the Vedanta, which
denies the reality of matter; the outward world is
believed to exist, and to be a part of God. But
again, there is a triad of gods—Brahma, Vishnu, and
Siva, in whom the Supreme Spirit, on becoming
conscious, manifests himself. It is customary to
style these beings Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer,
respectively; but the distinction is not at all well
retained either in the Puranas or elsewhere. The
idea of the unity of the three gods is a philosophical
refinement, rather than a popular belief. The partisan
of Vishnu holds his favourite deity to perform the
three functions; and the partisan of Siva asserts this
regarding Siva. Confused and conflicting statements
everywhere abound in reference to this question. The
Trimurtti, or union of the three great gods, is not
unfrequently represented ; and when this is done the
figure contains one body with three heads. The head
of Brahma is in the middle ; Vishnu is on his right,
and Siva on the left. The most famous figure of this
kind is the one in the chief cave in the island of
Elephanta, near Bombay. In this case Siva seems
to have absorbed into himself the two other deities.
The famous monosyllable Om, to which, when rightly
uttered, most stupendous powers are ascribed, is
generally said to denote the triad of gods; being
squivalent to a, u, m--a denoting Vishnu, at Siva, and
in Brahma. Lastly on this head, it must be remembered
hat there are said to be three qualities—goodness,
passion, and darkness"; which are embodied re-
spectively in Vishnu, Brahma, and Siva. The quality
* Sattva, rajas, and tamas. These are the three famous gunas,
THE PURAAWAS I31
of passion which belongs to Brahma may be inter-
changed with activity; but the ascription of darkncss
to a divine being is very startling, inasmuch as, ac-
cording to the Hindu definition, it is ‘the root of folly,
delusion, lust, and pride.’ It is so far satisfactory
that, in the Puranas taken as a whole, Vishnu is more
promincrit than Siva, who is possessed of such un-
divine attributes as these.
We cannot stop to draw nice distinctions between
the faith embodied in the Epic poems and that con-
tained in the Puranas. The great supersession of
earlier conceptions which we witness in the former is
carried out more fully in the latter; the difference is
in degree rather than in kind. In both classes of
writings the divergence from the Vedic faith is very
remarkable. Old deities have been obscured ; many
entirely new deities have appeared. The ‘thrice
eleven divinities of the Vedas are turned into three
hundred and thirty millions (or thrice eleven crores) of
gods—a fantastic hyperbole, probably grounded on
erroneous etymology. Of course, names have not
been given to more than a fraction of the mighty
host. ‘The haughty Indra, who, as we have seen
above, ‘takes precedence of all gods, becomes, in the
Puranas, quite a subordinate figure ; and Varuna,
who, in point of moral dignity, stands unique in the
Vedic pantheon, retains simply the regency of the
waters. Vishnu in the Veda is often associated with
Indra, but is decidedly inferior to him. He became,
in the estimation of his worshippers, the greatest of
literally “ſetters.’ The unconditioned is where these do not exist—as in
the Supreme Being of the Vedanta school.
I 2.
I32 HINDUISM
the gods. Krishna, who as time goes on becomes (as
in the Gita) not only the greatest incarnation of
Vishnu, but the all-comprehending Deity, was not
known in early days. Rama, who now stands next
to Krishna in popularity, was equally unknown. Siva,
Durga, Kali—these also are unknown to the Veda ;
but in modern times they have become mighty
divinities. It frequently happens also that there are
gods of very great local celebrity, who are not only
unknown to the Veda, but unknown to India generally.
Thus the glory of Vithoba, who is a form of Krishna,
is celebrated by Tukaram and other poets in the
most exalted strains ; but his name is barely known
beyond the limits of the Maratha country. Siva is
for the most part worshipped under the emblem of
the Linga (or phallus); but regarding such a worship
the Vedas are wholly silent.
No dogma of Hinduism, we said above (p. 50), has
stamped a deeper impress on the mind of India than.
that of Transmigration. There is one text in the
Veda which some have believed to imply the belief;
but there is little probability of this being the true
meaning'. It is not easy to trace its introduction
into Hindu thought ; but the wide diffusion of the
idea proves that it not unnaturally suggests itself as
an explanation of the unequal apportionment of good
and evil in the world . The Hindu begins with the
assumption that this rests on moral grounds; a man's
* The term bahuprajah, which the modern Hindu critic Sayana
rendered ‘subject to many births' or “having many children, very
probably means the latter. See Rig Veda i. 164. 72.
* Cicero calls it an ancient belief.
THE PURA NAS I33
birth and condition depend on previous character.
The Brahmans of later times have carried out this
conception, as they do every conception, into im-
measurable detail. They dwell on Transmigration
with great earnestness, and judicially declare the
specific birth that is the award for each specific
character. This is done with a minuteness and
gravity that provoke a smile. ‘Souls endued with
the character of truth (Satva) become gods; those
possessed of passion (rajas) become men; those that
have darkness (tamas) become beasts.' This bold
generalization, however, is not faithfully carried out.
Thus, those that possess most of the darkness-character
become worms, insects, fish, serpents, &c.; those who
have less become elephants, horses, lions, tigers, boars,
Sudras, and Mlechchhas (i.e. barbarians, foreigners);
while those that have still less of evil become public
play-actors, birds, cheats, Rakshasas (a kind of demon),
and vampires. (The legislator has apparently for-
gotten what was said about those who possess the
famas quality becoming beasts.) “He who kills a
I3rahman is born a thousand times as a dog, a boar, an
ass, a camel, a bull, a goat, a sheep, a stag, a bird, Or as
a low-caste man. A Brahman who drinks spirituous
liquor will be a worm, an insect, a grasshopper, a fly
feeding on ordure, or some mischievous animal.’ ‘If
a man steals grain, he becomes a rat ; if milk, a cow ;
if oil, a cockroach ; if salt, a cricket'—and so the list
runs on, with a minuteness of specification without
a parallel in the annals of legislation. The apportion-
ments of punishment are often rather startling.
Every crime committed against a Brahman is
I34 & HIWDUISM
especially heinous, and visited with corresponding
chastisement. Offences against the rules of caste
are equally dreadful. The successive births, we saw
already, are all but infinite in number. At last, when
(as by a series of purgatorial fires) its sin has been
removed and all the merited chastisement endured,
the Soul is reunited to the Supreme, from whom it
originally came—as a drop of water mingles with the
Ocean and is lost in its immensity. Then cease all
individual existence and all consciousness of existence.
This is the Indian idea of rest, of peace. But the
prospect of attaining this deathlike quiet is fearfully
dim and distant; and the Hindu mind contemplates
with a feeling of unspeakable distress the awful, all
but infinite, succession of migrations still awaiting it".
And only he who has attained to perfect purity can
escape this tremendous doom. So, then, they who
are most deeply conscious of imperfection are most
Overwhelmed by the agonizing prospect before them :
while it is the hardened sinner, whose conscience is
Seared as with a hot iron, that is best able to banish
from his mind the thought of coming retribution.
* The playſul yet pathetic lines are well known in which the Emperor
Iſadrian addressed his soul, as death was approaching—
‘Animula vagula blandula,
Hospes comesque corporis,
Quae nunc abibis in loca 2’ &c.
The feeling of curiosity expressed in Hadrian's lines becomes, in the
case of the Hindu, one of terror. He would ſain shut his eyes on the
dreadful ſuture; but it has a horrible fascination, which he cannot get
rid of, .
CHAPTER IX
7A/Z 7AAV7'R.A.S. 7"HE SA KTV I/ORSHIP
E come now to consider a class of works about
which there is a difference of opinion among
the Hindus; some exalting them above all the other
Sastras, and others refusing to acknowledge them as
in any sense sacred. We refer to the Tantras. The
name may mean ‘an instrument of faith.” Most of
them are probably later in origin than the Puranas.
The Tantras have not received the same amount of
attention as the works we have already referred to ;
and we cannot wonder that so debased a literature
should have repelled, rather than attracted, European
Scholars. We have no accurate list of the Tantras".
Five or six are pretty well known ; but the number of
Tantrika works is popularly believed to exceed that
of the whole of the other Sastras. Properly, a Tantra
comprises five subjects, viz. creation and destruction
of the world, worship of the gods, attainment of the
Supreme end, means of obtaining union with the
highest being. But (as in the case of the Puranas)
' The following are the names of the best known Tantras: Rudraya-
mala, Kalikatantra, Mahanirvana, Kularnava, Syamarahasya, Sarada-
tilaka, Mantramahodadhi, Kamada, Amnaya, Kalpa.
I36 HINDUISM
this theoretical division of subjects is frequently de-
parted from. A Tantra is written in the form of
a dialogue between Siva and his wife under one of her
many forms. The goddess asks questions, to which
Siva replies. The Puranas are intended for popular
instruction ; but a great air of mystery is thrown
around all that is revealed in the Tantras. Their
secrets must be communicated only to the initiated.
The Tantras inculcate the worship of the Sakti.
This word originally means power; and it especially
signifies the powers of the gods, particularly of
Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. In the modern form of
Hinduism as exhibited in the Puranas, these powers
are personalized and regarded as living beings—wives
of the deities". As Siva is, more than the other two,
the deity of destruction, his power, as exerted through
his wife—especially in the form of Kali—becomes
something truly terrific. It is startling to find all
that is most horrible and hideous embodied in the
character and worship of a female divinity; but the
logical Brahman shrinks from no moral consequences
flowing from his assumed premises; he will cut right
across the deepest instincts of humanity rather than
abandon his theory.
We must not forget that the roots of the dreadful
ideas and practices which we are about to describe
are found in the Vedas, and still more in the Yoga
philosophy; but probably the worship of the abori-
gines had a great influence on their development.
* Sarasvati, the goddess of speech and the arts, is the wife of Brahma;
Lakshmi, or Sri, the goddess of wealth, is the wiſe of Vishnu. Parvati,
or more generally Uma, Durga, or Kali, is the wife of Siva.
THE TANTRAS I37
Cruel, obscene, and magical rites, in the worship of
female goddesses, appear as early as the third
century A. D.
The Tantras, however, are not all equally offensive.
The worshippers of the Sakti (or Saktas, as they are
usually styled) are divided into two branches—those
of the right hand and those of the left. In the tenets
and rites of the former there is abundance of mystery,
magic, and downright folly; but the extreme of im-
morality is avoided. In the latter there is a sickening
exhibition of the vilest passions of man, all revelling
unchecked. The worship of the Paphian goddess,
and many of the rites of ancient Paganism, were
deplorably immoral ; but in the studied, elaborate
ritual of the Saktas there is an amount of evil which
is certainly unsurpassed, we believe unequalled, in any
other system. In a popular treatise like this it would
be unpardonable to give a full account of anything so
loathsome ; yet, without some distinct reference to it,
Hinduism cannot be fully understood.
The right-hand section of the Saktas have departed
from orthodox Hinduism in many respects. They
offer bloody sacrifices, and frequently beat the animal
to death with their fists. But the left-hand scotion
plunges into the most revolting excesses. It is in-
dispensable in the rites to employ at least one of
five things the names of which begin with the letter M
in Sanskrit--—which are flesh, fish, wine, women, and
certain magical gestures. A woman must be present,
as the living representative of the Sakti goddess.
She is first stripped of all her clothing; wine and
2 flesh are given to her and the company—which must
I38 HINDUISM
be composed of both sexes. The women drink first
out of goblets of cocoa-nut or human skulls. The
men then drink. No regard is paid to caste. Excitc-
ment, even intoxication, is produced by the abundant
use of liquor. The lights are extinguished ; and then
follow doings indescribable. Professor H. H. Wilson
rightly designates these as ‘most scandalous Orgies.’
The abominable character of the whole celebration is
heightened by the declaration of the sect that all is
done not for sensual gratification, but as an exalted
form of divine worship. Professor Wilson thinks that
this declaration may possibly be sincere; but if so, he
adds, its promulgators “must have been filled with
a strange frenzy, and have becn strangely ignorant
of human nature.’ It is, in fact, the most appalling
exhibition of what is visible in several forms of Hindu
worship—an effort to obtain the sanction of Heaven
for indulgence in the basest lusts. ‘Evil, be thou my
good l’exclaimed the lost archangel, knowing that cvil
was evil still ; but when the indulgence of the lowest
appetites of human nature is believed to be thc
sublimest kind of worship, it must imply a still decper
fall than his. And yet the left-hand Saktas, in the
most varied and repeated terms, declare that evil to
them becomes good ; and the designation they give
to all who do not adopt their creed and rites is that
of past (beasts).
It is distressing to see how little was done by the
Sanskrit writers to refute or denounce such abominable
practices. The great Sankara Acharya, who was
most laborious and earnest in suppressing other
heresics, docs not seem to notice this worst of all
THE 7ANTRAS I39
delusions'. Of course, any one who is known to
indulge in such practices must be expelled from caste,
as acting contrary to caste obligations. Still, the
number of those who are secretly enrolled as Saktas
is believed to be exceedingly great. All castes are
admissible, but the members are mostly Brahmans.
The sect flourishes chiefly in Bengal.
We have often occasion to state how much Hinduism
has drawn from Buddhism. The loan was in some
cases repaid. It is sad to see that the Buddhism of
Nepal and Tibet had been deeply influenced by the
obscenity of the Tantras by the ninth century A. D.
We must still mention that there are practices less
vile indeed, and yet in one sense more horrible; for
example, the rites by which power is gained over evil
spirits. The worshipper in this case comes alone to
a place where dead bodies are burned or buried, or
where criminals are executed. He seats himself on
a corpse, makes offerings, and uses incantations; and
if he can go through the dreadful ritual without fear,
he obtains a mastery over demons, and they become
his slaves. But woe to the poor wretch if his courage
ſail before the awful conjuration is complete
| Tukaram, the Marathi poet, however, denounces the Sakti worship
as the consummation of all wickedness.
CHA PTER X.
7"A E H WAV/O U SA, C 7'S
H INDUISM, as reconstructed after the fall of
Buddhism, is split up into a multitude of
divisions, or, as we may call them, sects. These are
fairly enough classed under two chief heads—the
Vaishnava sects, or those that hold Vishnu to be
supreme; and the Saiva, or those that ascribe pre-
eminence to Siva'. It is perfectly possible that
divisions pretty nearly corresponding to these may
have existed even in Vedic days, and that they assumed
far greater prominence while orthodox Brahmanism
was engaged in a death-struggle with Buddhism.
But the history of the sects can be traced with
certainty only from the twelfth century after Christ.
The worship of the Trimurtti does not seem at
any time to have deeply penetrated the general
mind. Even when it was professedly retained, one
god—Vishnu or Siva—was represented as supreme;
and the dogma of the triad was thus rendered
meaningless. Sectarianism has frequently been very
bitter, and has proceeded from words to murderous
blows.
* There are also Sauras, or sun-worshippers; Ganapatyas, or wor-
shippers of Ganesa or Ganapati, and others.
THE HINDU SECTS I4I
I. VAISHNAVA SECTS.
The chief of these are the following:—
I. The Ramanujas. These derive their name from
Ramanuja, a Brahman, who was born near Madras
about the middle of the twelfth century. Their
worship is mainly addressed to Vishnu and his
wife Lakshmi, or to any one of their many mani-
festations—especially Rama or his wife Sita, or
these two together. The sacred formula by which
a member is initiated into the sect is ‘Om, salutation
to Rama (Om Ramaya mama/). They hold the
doctrine of duality (dvaita); that is, they admit the
veritable existence of an external world as well as
that of spirit. The latter is not devoid of qualities
(as in the Vedanta), but is, in fact, possessed of all
good qualities. They admit also the existence of
individual souls, though at times they speak of them
as being, or to be, identified with God. They are
exceedingly particular in the preparation and eating
of food. If a stranger touch it, or even see it in the
process of cooking, or when they are eating it, they
throw it away—generally burying it. Marks con-
nected with Vishnu are painted, or occasionally
branded, on them, chiefly on the breast and upper
arms. They wear a necklace composed of the berries
of the tulasi plant (holy basil). Infinite importance
is attached to all the symbolic marks they bear ;
each becomes possessed of a kind of magical virtue.
This sect originally spread farthest in the south, and
there it retains a powerful influence. In the north
of India its Sway has been less considerable.
I42 HIVDUISM
2. The Ramanandas. This sect was founded by
Ramananda, a follower, if not an immediate scholar,
of Ramanuja. His date is uncertain ; it may be as
late as the beginning of the fifteenth century. He
resided at Benares, and it is especially in Northern
India that his school prevails. His teaching did not
differ very much from that of his master Ramanuja,
but it was a system of somewhat greater freedom.
He abolished the distinctions of caste among his
followers; all men devoted to a religious life were
brothers. In this he resembled Buddha, only going
Somewhat beyond him ; and he resembled him also
in his cnployment of the vernacular language. Its
likeness in several points to Buddhism explains the
prevalence of the system in the north of India.
The formula of initiation is Sri Rama (Blessed
Ramal). Ramananda had numerous disciples—
twelve chief ones, it is said. Several Hindi writers
whose writings have been very popular belonged to
this sect; and the legends contained in such works
as the Dhakta Mala of Nabhaji, are familiar to the
Hindu people, at least, in Northern, Central, and
Western India. Legends of Saints are almost as
popular as those of Rama and Krishna.
3. The sect we have now to speak of is devoted
to Krishna, not Rama. It is the sect founded by
Vallabha Acharya, who was probably born in 1479.
His early life was spent at Gokula, near Mathura,
on the banks of the Jumna. He travelled exten-
sively, preaching his peculiar doctrines, and finally
settled at Benares, where he had many disciples ".
* Especially among the trading classes of Bhatias and Banyans.
THE HINDU SECTS I43
His followers have multiplied, especially in Western
and Central India. The gurus, or spiritual chiefs,
of this sect are known by the name of Maharaj
(literally “great king'); and there may be sixty or
seventy who are so designated. The great charac-
teristic of the system is that it inculcates, not fasting
and mortification of the flesh, but the indulgence of
bodily appetites. It goes, in truth, almost as far
in this direction as the Tantras of which we spoke
above ; and it does so without any sense of shame
or attempt at concealment. The gurus themselves
Soon came to be believed to be representatives, im-
personations, of the god, and entitled to the same
homage. Everything, therefore, connected with the
Maharajas became holy, divine; the water in which
their feet were washed became nectar ; and even what
was ejected from their mouths was greedily devoured.
Could human folly go farther ? It did. In more
systems than one it had been said that tan, 1ſlan, d/laſe,
(body, mind, property), all were to be devoted to
the service of the guru ; but the atrocious doctrine
was carried out to its fullest extent by Vallabha and
his disciples. We do not need to point out what this
implies, especially in the case of female worshippers.
Of course, complaints arose. Ever since the writer
went to India he was in the habit of hearing vehement
denunciations of the wickedness of the Maharajas ;
and at last, in the year I 871, in a remarkable trial in
the Supreme Court at Bombay, the mystery of
iniquity was fully brought to light, to the horror
of all who were not leagued for its support. Kar-
sandas Mulji, a young man who boldly exposed the
I44 HINDUISM
atrocious deeds of the Maharajas, has since then
passed away ; and in him India has lost a single-
minded, energetic reformer whom she could very ill
spare". It was hoped that the power of the sect
was broken by the merciless exposure made at the
trial; but the great majority of the followers of those
wretched Maharajas remain as besotted as before.
Light, however, is slowly entering even into the
Danyan and Bhatia communities; and the system
of Vallabha Acharya must gradually pass away.
Meanwhile, it gives food for truly sorrowful musing
to see very large numbers of shrewd merchants and
traders, who have a keen eye to business and are
full of enterprise in all commercial operations,
accepting such doctrines, and surrendering their
wives and daughters to such horrible degradation.
The intellect clear as noonday on ordinary matters,
but on moral questions dark as Erebus !
4. The Mad/lavacharyas. This sect was founded
by a Brahman of the same name, who was born in
the year II.99 in South India, where his followers
are chiefly found. The main characteristic of this
school is that they affirm an eternal distinction
between the Supreme Spirit and the individual soul.
Thus they deny the doctrine of absorption, and the
merging of the individual into the universal soul
at death. Another peculiarity is a disposition to
arrive at an understanding or, if possible, a com-
* We fear this admirable young man died broken-hearted. The
opposition he encountered was more than his family could bear. They
submitted; performed humiliating penances, and were received back
into caste. Native reformers deserve much sympathy. Their life in
many cases is a kind of martyrdom.
THE HINDU SECTS I45
promise with the followers of Siva. Images of Siva,
his wife, and his son Ganesa, are found in their
temples along with those of Vishnu. Asceticism is
carried by them to a greater length than by most
other Vaishnava sects. They practise celibacy, and
generally live in maths, or monasteries, under a
Superior.
5. The followers of Chaitanya. These constitute a
very large body in Bengal and Orissa; but they have
not much influence beyond these provinces. Chai-
tanya was a Brahman of Nadiya, near Calcutta, born
in the year 1485. He is said to have married a
daughter of Vallabha Acharya ; but at the age of
twenty-five he became an ascetic. He was a man
of enthusiastic temperament, who believed he had
frequent visions of Krishna and his wives ; and it is
generally held that, in one of his fits of ecstasy,
he went into the sea at Puri, in Orissa, and, dazzled
by the glory of the sun shining on the waters, pro-
ceeded on till he was drowned. His followers consider
him an incarnation of Krishna.
According to Chaitanya, Krishna is the Supreme.
The worship consists chiefly in the repetition of the
name of the god. One spiritual leader of the sect has
been the envy of after times, because, living sequestered
from the world in a wood, he was enabled to repeat the
sacred name three hundred thousand times every day.
There are two very important characteristics of
this sect;-first, the immense importance they attach
to b/hakti or devotion; and secondly, their exaltation
of the guru, which often amounts to deification. As,
however, other Vaishnavas have the same character-
K
I46 - HINDUISM
istics, we defer our consideration of these two points
till we finish our enumeration of the other sects.
Finally, although the sect has greatly lost both
character and influence in Bengal, in which its professed
followers were and are most numerous, yet the name
of Chaitanya is still held in great reverence. Babu
Keshub Chunder Sen never lost an opportunity of
lauding him to the skies as a most illustrious and
enlightened teacher—one of the greatest of prophets.
Mr. Sen’s admiration was altogether extravagant ;
Chaitanya’s writings are nothing but wild rhapsodies
—emotion without thought. But the people of Bengal
are passionately desirous of having ‘a prophet of their
Own'; and the glory of Chaitanya will perhaps only
by slow degrees pass away.
6. The followers of Swami Narayan have lately
risen to considerable importance in Gujarat. The
leader was disgusted with the excesses of the Vallabha-
charyas, and inculcated purity of life. He prescribed
the worship of Krishna, along with a reverence for the
sun as the best symbol of divinity. His followers may
be somewhat under 200,Coo".
Various Vaishnava sects have sprung up of recent
years, among which the most remarkable are the
Rartabhajas in Bengal. This name means “worshippers
of the Creator.’ The Spashtadayakas and the Sahujas
are of less importance *.
The doctrine of bhakti, which is characteristic of
all the sects that have been mentioned, is of great
| Bishop Heber had an interesting interview with this man.
* A tolerably full account of the Hindu sects is given by Proſessor
H. H. Wilson. See his works as edited by Dr. R. Rost, vol. i.
THE HINDU SECTS I47
importance. The word properly means ‘devotion,'
or affection fixed on God. In popular Hinduism it
is maintained that there are three great means or zwaj's
to salvation—the way of works, the way of knowledge,
and the way of devotion. The ‘works’ are ceremonial
observances—especially as prescribed in the ritual of
the Veda (Brahmana). The ‘knowledge’ is speculation
on the Divine nature as exhibited in the Upanishads
and philosophical writings. The ‘devotion is attach-
ment to some particular deity. The term is almost
confined to the worship of Vishnu in some one of his
many manifestations—but particularly Krishna. The
idea of Ö/akſi is not found in early Hinduism. The
Vedas, indeed, speak of sraddha, or trust in the
deities; but about the emotional part of religion they
are almost or altogether silent. The introduction
of b/akſi, therefore, and the remarkable extent to
which it has influenced the later Hindu mind, are
matters which have been keenly discussed. Did the
idea of love and devotion—so far removed from ancient
orthodoxy—develop itself spontaneously in India, or
was it imported from without? Professor Weber of
Berlin is the great champion of the latter opinion ;
and his opponents do not appear to us to have
answered his formidable arguments. It may be true
that the Hindu mind was prepared for its reception
by its past experience. It had been wearied by
stupendous ceremonialism ; it was sick of subtle
speculation equally endless and profitless. The mind
was ready to receive the great idea that religion
consisted in love to Deity. The doctrine comes into
the Hindu system somewhat abruptly. It begins to
K 2.
I48 HINDUISM
appear in the Bhagavad Gita, the great eclectic poem
of which we have already treated. The idea is de-
veloped and systematized in the Bhakti Sutras of
Sandilya. If not primarily derived from Christian
teachings, we deem it abundantly probable that it was
influenced and developed by them. Of the possibility
and probability of Hindu thought having been affected
by Christianity we have already spoken".
The conception of b/hakti, or devotion to the god,
was soon carried to a wild extreme. It was held to
consist of five degrees : I. Quiet contemplation of the
deity. 2. Slavery, or absolute consecration to his
service. 3. Friendship for him. 4. Love to him,
resembling that of children to parents. 5. Passionate
attachment, like what the Gopis felt for Krishna.
When devotion to deity was likened to the last of the
five, the Hindu mind had embraced a conception
fearfully perilous, or rather, absolutely profane ; for
the love of the Gopis for Krishna was adulterous.
And this melting love was held to be a far higher
attainment than knowledge, ceremonial works, subju-
gation of the passions, or any moral excellence. The
worshipper was not to rest until tears of ardent
love were streaming down his cheeks. The worship
soon became impure. Descriptions of the relation
between Krishna and his votaries appeared which
were utterly licentious. By the twelfth century the
poet Jayadeva ‘displayed a sensual delirium which
defies all translation.’ It is a profoundly melancholy
task to trace this gradual degradation of the idea of
b/hakti. Originally, the belief that the Divine Being
* See above, p. 76 &c.
THE HINDU SECTS I49
demanded, not ceremonial observances or deep thought,
So much as the heart of his worshipper, seemed a true
and important gain to the religious consciousness.
But, as time went on, the attempt to resolve all
religion into emotion proved an absolute failure.
Extravagance succeeded extravagance. The heroic
legends of Vaishnavism gave place to the soft, seducing
tales of the sports of Krishna. Acts came to be held
as indifferent. He who had 6/akſ; could not sin ; or
else, the mere utterance of the name of his god
scattered to the winds a thousand crimes.
Along with this development of the idea of Ö/akti
came the exaltation of the guru, or religious teacher.
We saw already how, in earlier days, the man of
prayer—the Brahman–came to be raised above his
fellows, until the entire Brahmanical race were con-
sidered “gods on earth. In the sects—which professed
to regard all true worshippers as equal—this glorifi-
cation was reserved for the guru. Buddhism, with its
teachings about Buddhas and Bodhisatvas, doubtless
contributed to this tendency *.
All later writings of the Vaishnava school dwell with
great emphasis on the necessity of a sadguru, or true
guru. Thus :
“Without a sadguru you can obtain no good ;
First and foremost, let his feet be embraced ' '
Again :
‘Your field, your god, you must him call—
Your father, mother, all in all.'
* Jainism, also, with its tirthankaras, and Islam with its prophet, had
doubtless an influence. Of the effect of Christianity we have already
spoken.
I5O HINDUISM
So say the Marathi poets, expressing the general
opinion of their countrymen.
The very gods are said to require gurus. All
classes of men, of course, then require them—the men
of no caste as well as those of the highest.
It would seem as if, amidst the clashing of opinions,
when Sect was contending with sect, and the spirits of
men were weary of endless doubt, the idea of a holy,
true teacher as absolutely necessary, almost unavoidably
arose in India; but in this case, as in so many others
in the unhappy history of the Hindus, a conception
radically true was pushed to an absurd and lamentable
cxcess. The homage paid to the guru ere long rose–
chiefly, but not solely, among the Vallabhacharyas
—to deification. Nay, the guru was even more im-
portant than the gods; for (so the logic ran) “if the
deity is angry, the guru is our shelter; but if the guru
is angry, we have no shelter.” Among many Sects
the guru is elected because of real or supposed merit;
among the Vallabhacharyas and the followers of
Chaitanya the position is hereditary, be personal
qualifications what they may. Expulsion from the
order of gurus does not follow misconduct. A wicked
guru changes his place of residence, and seeks for new
disciples.
Finally, any man that chooses may become a guru.
He first attaches himself to some teacher ; and, when
he thinks himself qualified, he sets up on his own
account. It is true that in various books it is said
that only a Brahman has the needful qualifications;
but, practically, the rule is disregarded. The lowest
castes have their gurus as well as the highest; and
THE HINDU SECTS I5I
many a scoundrel among the lower classes, who zwill
not dig, but is not ashamed to beg, learns or invents
some 1/lantra, i. e. word of initiation, which he
whispers into the ear of some poor, credulous fellow,
and so enrols him as a disciple. The ſtantra is
generally the name of a deity or of several deities—as
A’ama Siła, or Siza Ramza, or Rama Krishna Hari.
The people of India, when appealed to, are quite
ready to admit that many, or most, of the gurus of
whom they have heard are bad men; but they do
not readily see that this interferes with their quasi-
magical power. Still, the earnest longing for a True
Teacher, and the doubt whether such a one can be
found on earth, gives great force to the pleading of
the Christian missionary when he points to Jesus
Christ as the one Being in whose teachings and
character the highest hopes of India regarding the
Sadguru have been more than completely realized.
II. SAIVA SECTS.
We have now to speak of the Saivas, or followers
of Siva. The worship of this deity never penetrated
the mass of the people so deeply as that of Vishnu;
there was little in the character or history of Siva
that resembled either the heroic exploits of Rama or
the seductive sports of Krishna. By the common
people Siva was approached with feelings of awe;
admiration or love was out of the question. Remark-
ably enough, Some of the greatest thinkers of India,
such as Sankara Acharya, were Saivas. We may
perhaps explain this by referring it to the dry, abstract
character of Sankara's intellect, which must have been
I52 HINDUISM
repelled by the highly emotional nature of Vishnu-
worship. Sankara was a noted champion of the
Vedanta philosophy, and vehemently maintained the
dogma of non-duality. His followers have added
the teaching of the Yoga; and a very large number
of them follow the revolting doctrines of the Tantras.
It is one proof of the fluctuating character of
sectarial divisions in India that we find the list of
Saiva sects supplied by one of Sankara's disciples to
differ very greatly from any enumeration that could
be given in the present day". The most important
of the latter are the following:—
I. The Dandis, or staff-bearers. They are so
called from their carrying a small stick, to which is
attached a cloth dyed with red-ochre—though this
is not an exclusive mark of Saivas. The Dandis, who
worship Siva under the terrific form of Bhairava,
have an incision made near the knee at their initiation
—the blood so drawn being an acceptable offering
to the deity. The Dasmamis are a sub-section of the
Dandis. The term signifies “the ten names’; it is
applied to the ten sections into which the regular
followers of Sankara are divided.
2. The Yogis. These profess to follow the Yoga
philosophy—especially in its most ascetic precepts.
Among the most potent of the practices which the
Yoga enjoins are continued suppressions of the breath,
fixing the eyes on the tip of the nose, and various
* The Rev. Baba Padmanji, who has carefully studied the forms of
modern Hinduism, gives the following list of Saiva sects: Dandi,
dasnami, yogi, jangam, paramahans, aghori, urdhvabahu, akasmukhi,
nakhi, gudad, rukhad, Sukhad, ukhad, kadalingi, Sannyasi, vairagi,
avadhut, nag. Even this long list is not exhaustive.
THE HINDU SECTS I53
postures, amounting in all to eighty-four. The
Kanphata Yogis are so named because, at the time
of initiation, their ears are bored and rings are inserted
into the wound. These are perhaps the lowest and
most ignorant of all. They are of any caste. They
smear the body with ashes; they are fortune-tellers,
or quacks who profess to cure disease by incantations;
while many sing and play, exhibiting monkeys and
other animals.
3. The jangamas—otherwise called Lingavats, or
Lingayits—wear the linga or symbol of Siva (phallus)
on their persons, generally in a box suspended by
a string round their necks. They disregard caste and
Brahmanical rites.
4. The Parama/hansas profess to be wholly occupied
with meditation on the Supreme Divinity. They go
naked, and pretend to be far above attending to any
natural want.
5. The Aghoris are exceedingly disgusting in their
habits. They will eat carrion or the vilest filth. For
the bodily tortures to which they subject themselves
they demand money. It is probable that formerly
human sacrifice formed a part of their dreadful
ritual.
6. The Urdhvaba/ius hold an arm, or in some cases
both arms, suspended above their heads until the
member becomes quite stiff and will not bend. This
is frequently done for a set time; and then, by friction
and lubrication with oil, the stiffened joint is restored
to its former condition. Or, the fist is closed, and by-
and-by the nails perforate the hand. But when the
vow is performed, they can be extracted.
I54. HINDUISM
7. The AAEasamukhis hold their face up to the sky
until the muscles of the neck become rigid ; and
they retain the head in that position.
But we must abandon the attempt to describe, or
even enumerate, all the Saiva sects. They are multi-
tudinous ; they split and split, ramifying endlessly.
The Vaishnava sects are more compact and massive.
Saiva sects have usually run more than Vaishnava
ones into fanatical asceticism. Exorcists, jugglers,
charm-sellers, mountebanks of all sorts, are also
generally devotees of Siva. The authorities in India
have, as a rule, tried to suppress their more indecent
and inhuman exhibitions *.
III. REFORMING SECTS.
We have seen into what deplorable extravagance
the Hindu sects have generally run. It was to be
cxpected that men of purer minds and higher aspira-
tions would from time to time appear, and strive to
purify religion from beliefs and practices manifestly
opposed to the dictates of conscience and right reason.
We may call Buddha the first great Indian reformer.
* There are certain terms which are applied to religious mendicants
somewhat loosely—such as Sannyasi, Vairagi (or Byragee, as it is often
spelled), Gosain, or, more exactly, Gosavi. Properly, however, the term
Sannyasi is a Saiva ascetic: the name denotes one who practises sannyas,
or renunciation of the world. A Wairagi is, properly, a follower of
Vishnu; the name denotes one who has become free from passion.
Gosavi is, properly, Go-svami, or “lord of the cow’—a name of Krishna;
so that it ought to denote a devotee of that god ; but the name in popu-
lar usage is not always so restricted. The term Fakir is rightly applied
only to Mohammadan mendicants. It properly signifies ‘poor.”
THE HINDU SECTS I55
We must, indeed, speak with caution regarding his
teachings, for none of his writings—-if such there ever
were—have survived. Buddhism originally seems to
have contained no theology; but the morality which
it inculcated was evidently pure.
When Islam first appeared in India as a victorious,
intolerant, and proselytizing system, it compelled
attention. It might be hated, but it could not be
ignored. But even before the time of the great
conqueror Mahmud of Ghazni, about the year I ooo,
the influence of Arabian thought was felt on the
coast of Malabar in South India; and in the great
religious movements which occurred in the south
from the ninth to the twelfth century, it appears to
enter as a factor of some importance. The Arab
merchants who visited ‘the pepper coast’ were often
fired with missionary zeal.
But the influence of Islam was still greater in the
north. We find unquestionable traces of it in the
teachings of the celebrated Kabir. Kabir is usually
said to have been one of the twelve disciples of
Ramananda, of whom we have spoken above. But
if he was really such, he departed widely from the
doctrines of his master. Many verses still extant
and popular are said to be of his composition; but
they probably were the production of his disciples.
He flourished about the year I 4co—four centuries
after Islam had appeared in Northern India, and
when multitudes of Hindus must have been familiar
with its vehemently iconoclastic character. Kabir
has been claimed by the Musalmans as one of them-
Selves; and Hindu writers have sometimes coincided
I56 HINDUISM
with them in the opinion". He had doubtless
come much in contact with Mohammadanism, and
had recognized its superiority in many respects to
Hinduism. The unity of God, as earnestly proclaimed
by Islam, must have strongly impressed him ; but
he was never able to get rid of Hindu conceptions
regarding the illusory character of the world, trans-
migration, the avataras, and several other points. He
inculcates devotion to the guru as earnestly as any
teacher; but he holds that all claims to guruship
should, in the first instance, be carefully tested.
In many respects Kabirism departs widely from
Hinduism. It rejects caste, denounces Brahmanical
arrogance and hypocrisy, and ridicules the Sastras.
Idolatry is sinful. The temple is only a place for
men to pray in. Renunciation of the world and
Contemplation are enjoined. The system runs easily
into quietism and mysticism. One noble character-
istic of it is the inculcation of moral purity; while
of ceremonial purity and outward forms of worship
it takes little or no account. It looks on life as
almost Sacred, and inculcates universal kindness—in
this respect reminding us of Buddhism. The worst
point in Kabirism is that the disciples are recom-
mended to conform outwardly to the usages of tribe
or caste; and they will even profess to worship
deities whom in their hearts they scorn. Kabirism
is not the stuff of which martyrs are made ; it is
gentle, yielding, and lacks the stronger virtues. Such
* Thus Mahipati, a Marathi poet, or rather chronicler, calls him
‘a Yavana devotee.” (Yavana means a Greek, a Greco-Bactrian, or, in
later writings, a Musalman.)
THE HINDU SECTS I57
as it is, it has spread widely over Northern, Western,
and Central India; and it has considerably affected
the later developments of Hindu thought. The
followers of this teacher are called Kabir Panthis.
A second reformer, who in many respects resembled
Kabir, was Nanak. He was born near Lahore in
1469, and died in 1539. He had been deeply im-
pressed by Mohammadanism ; but, rejecting the
Koran as well as the Hindu Sastras, he produced
a new Sastra written in the Panjabi language, and
called the Granth (book). Caste, as a civil institu-
tion, was retained. The object of Nanak evidently
was to effect a compromise between Islam and Hin-
duism ; but the iron of the former does not readily
combine with the clay of the latter. Even in the
fundamental question of the nature of Deity there
is a gulf between them which it is impossible to
bridge over. The sacred book—the Granth—which
was to supersede all others, is a poor production ;
in so far as it is comprehensible, it is pantheistic
much more than monotheistic. The doctrine of
b/hakti is strongly inculcated, as well as absolute
devotion to the guru. Morality, however, is not lost
sight of.
It is probable that the Sikhs (literally ‘disciples’),
as the followers of Nanak are called, would have had
a history similar to that of the followers of Kabir,
had it not been for persecution. Nanak himself was
a mystic quietist; and so were the first three of his
successors. Arjunmall, the fifth guru, mingled in
the political strifes of his age. His successors did the
same thing; and the ninth of the series was executed
158 HINDUISM
as a rebel by the Emperor Aurangzib. This roused
his son, Govind, to vehement opposition. He was
a man of no small mental power and immense
practical energy. He simplified religion, reducing
it pretty much to the adoration of one God and the
practice of morality. But both the desire of vengeance
and the example of the Mohammadans led him to
add that the true faith must be protected and
extended by the sword. Every true Sikh must be
a soldier. The foolish Hindu he should not con-
descend to salute; a Musalman he was bound, if
possible, to slay. The transformation of simple
religionists into ardent warriors has been witnessed
in other cases; but in no instance has the change
been more complete or equally enduring. It has
been maintained by the ‘Book of the Tenth King’
—a second Grant/A-which Govind added to that of
Nanak.
With varying fortunes, yet on the whole gaining
ground, the Sikhs fought on during the slow decline
of the Moghul empire. In 1764 they formally assumed
the position of an independent nation, and issued
coin without the name of the Emperor of Delhi.
Runjit Singh became virtually head of the community
in 1805, and under his strong hand the power of the
nation steadily increased. He died in 1839. Confusion
followed. Wars with the British came in 1845–6 and
in 1848–9; and the territory of the Sikhs was formally
annexed to the British dominions in 1849. The Sikh
community or nation is still large and important; but
its distinctive religious character seems slowly passing
away, though a revival is quite possible. Few or
THE HINDU SECTS I59
none will become Mohammadans ; the vast body
may slowly merge in the general mass of the Hindus.
Some have lately shown a great respect for Christian
doctrine; and it is possible that this feeling may ere
long issue in important movements.
There are various sects which, although not
nominally connected with Kabir, have been greatly
influenced by his tenets. The most important of
these are Dadu Panthis", the Baba Lalis, the Pran-
nathis, the Siva Narayanis, and the followers of
Swami Narayan. Each of these systems embodied
at the OutSet an earnest protest against idolatry, and
the moral corruption that clings to it; but in the
sects, as in orthodox Hinduism, there has always
been a deplorable gravitation downwards.
Among reforming sects we may justly reckon the
Vaishnavas of the Maratha country. The Marathi
literature is of considerable extent; it is chiefly
religious, and revolves around the deity Viththal,
or Vithoba, who is held to be a manifestation of
Krishna. The great place of pilgrimage is Pan-
dharpur—a town about seventy miles north-east of
Poona in the Deccan. A commentary on the
Bhagavad Gita, composed in Marathi verse by a
learned Brahman towards the end of the thirteenth
century, has given a marked tinge to all later Marathi
poetry; but the influence both of Buddhism and of
Kabirism has also been very great. Indeed, there
* I formed a high opinion of the sincerity of a leader of the Dadu
Panthis whom I met at Jeypore in Rajputana. He seemed to have far
more sympathy with Christianity than with the gross idolatry around
him. His religion appeared to be almost a pure theism. I)adu, the
founder, flourished about 16oo A. D.
I6o PHINDUISM
is great reason to hold that Pandharpur was
Originally a place of Buddhist pilgrimage. There is
much vivacity in the writings of Namadeva, one of
the more famous Marathi poets; and there is immense
emotion in those of Tukaram, the most popular of
all. The great object of the poets now mentioned
is to exalt the glory of Vithoba, the glory of his
dwelling-place, Pandharpur, and the glory of the river
Bhima, on the south bank of which the town is built.
Tukaram is perpetually breaking out in exclamations
like this :
“Much has been heard, much has been seen,
Much has been said, of the glory of holy places;
But equal to Pandharpur no holy place exists—
No, not were even Vaikuntha to be revealed.’
Seeing that Vaikuntha is the heaven of Vishnu,
the compliment to Pandharpur is pretty strongly put.
The idolatry of this sect is very decided—none,
indeed, more so. The image of Vithoba, standing
on a brick with arms akimbo, is extolled in the most
hyperbolical strains. A glance at that particular
form sends a thrill of rapture through the votary's
Soul ; though it is a repulsive image to ordinary eyes.
No devotion (b/hakti) could be more passionate than
that of Tukaram ; and when he cannot ‘meet ' the
deity he is utterly heartbroken. All this is sad
enough when we see it in one who really appears to
be seeking after God. But the ground on which we
have classed the worshippers of Vithoba among
reforming sects is that the morality which they incul-
cate is almost always pure, and generally very
decidedly so. There are, indeed, a few unhappy
THE HINDU SECTS I6I
passages in which Tukaram speaks with applause
of the lascivious sports of Krishna with the Gopis' ;
but, as a rule, the morality which the Marathi poets
uphold is as high as that of Kabir or of Buddha.
The history of Tukaram is partly given in his
own writings, but more fully in the works of Mahipati,
a Brahman who wrote towards the end of last cen-
tury. Tukaram lived in the days of the distinguished
chieftain Sivaji, rather more than 26o years ago.
By the time that Mahipati wrote, the compositions
of the poet were well known ; but his history had
become to a great extent mixed with fable. Many
miraculous acts are ascribed to him ; but the most
remarkable thing in the legend is his supposed
ascension into heaven, with his body, and without
dying. Every year there is a great celebration of
the wonderful event. Now, there is nothing else
resembling this in Hindu mythology. One thing
alone makes the slightest approach to it, viz. the
journey which the Pandava warriors, with their wife
Draupadi, accomplished up by the Himalaya moun-
tains into the heaven of Indra. But that was a long,
laborious ascent, in which the whole party sank
under the terrible fatigue, except the eldest brother
and the dog. Tukaram, on the contrary, is said to
have ascended triumphantly in a blazing chariot.
There is documentary evidence that, on a certain day,
the poet went on a pilgrimage ; and that from this
pilgrimage he never returned. The marvellous
legend then is explained. We have often pressed
* He speaks of their dhanya dhanya zyabhíchar—i.e. ‘the blessed,
blessed adultery.”
L
I62 HINDUISM
the Vaishnavas in Maharashtra with the fact that
there is no similar story told of any other saint
or poet, and that, for example, J flanesvar '—whom
they acknowledge to have been a greater man than
Tukaram—lies in his grave at Alandi, as he has
done for nearly six hundred years. We may probably
trace the legend to the influence of Christian mission-
aries. From the beginning of the sixteenth century,
Goa—under the Portuguese—was a centre of mis-
sionary activity ; and there were stations at several
places in the Maratha country. Even Tukaram must
have heard of the wonderful race of foreigners and
of their great achievements under such warriors as De
Castro and Albuquerque. Then, religious discussions
of an animated kind took place at the court of the
Emperor Akbar; and in these, Portuguese mis-
sionaries had an important share. Finally, though
there was no translation of the Christian Bible into
Marathi, there was a Christian Purana—a work
actually called a Purana—written in a dialect per-
fectly intelligible to the middle and lower classes
of Maharashtra. That work embodies a great
number of legends, as well as Biblical narratives
given in a quaint, exaggerated form. That the poet
himself may thus have become, to some extent,
acquainted with the facts and teachings of the Bible
is by no means improbable ; but we cannot affirm it
to be actually proved. But the case of Mahipati,
the biographer, is considerably different. He lived,
as we have seen, long after the poet, and when a halo
had already gathered round him. That Mahipati
* This is pronounced by the Marathas as Dnyanesvar.
THE HINDU SECTS I63
could have been ignorant of the more striking
Biblical narratives is barely possible. The desire
which we ascribe to him to exalt Tukaram as
a ‘world-teacher' (so he calls him) and a great
miracle-worker, would imply but a repetition, in very
similar circumstances, of the famous attempt made
by Philostratus in the third century to magnify Apol-
lonius of Tyana into a form of surpassing grandeur,
capable of rivalling, or eclipsing, that of Jesus Christ.
A vast amount of legendary lore exists among
all the Vaishnava sects respecting the intercourse
which Vishnu, in Some of his manifestations, has
sought to hold with his faithful worshippers. These
legends are embodied chiefly in the Bhakta Mala,
a work written in a dialect of Hindi by Nabhaji ;
and this book has profoundly impressed the popular
mind wherever the Hindi language is known.
Mahipati, of whom we have already spoken, has
imitated these narratives in simple Marathi verse;
and this has given them additional currency. The
great subject of them is the efficacy—the omnipotence
— of devotion to Vishnu. The deity is represented
as supremely gracious, Supremely condescending ; he
visits and assists his true worshippers even when
they are engaged in the lowest and most despised of
occupations, and he enables them to perform the
most astonishing exploits. Here, for example, is
a noble utterance—
‘’Twixt the low and lofty he no difference knoweth;
Still to faith he showeth
All his glory.’
But the poet cannot free himself from the character-
L 2
164 HINDUISM
istic tendency of the Hindu mind to run to extremes;
and when he has got hold of a fine sentiment he
speedily trails it in the dust. He tells us that the
deity stooped even to gather cow-dung with Jani,
to bear off dead cattle with Tsokha Mela (a work re-
served for outcasts), and even to carry about flesh for
a butcher ; and so on. Others affirm that, to reward
the faith of one of his votaries who was a barber, the
deity took his form and shaved the emperor in his
stead. Worse than this puerility—Kabir, to enter-
tain a company of devotees, repeatedly stole grain
from a shopkeeper's store. On one occasion when
he was so employed along with his son, the shop-
keeper discovered the thieves ; and the boy, when
making his way through the window, was caught
by the feet. To prevent discovery, Kabir im-
mediately cut off his son's head and carried it off.
Next day the authorities impaled, and publicly
exposed, the headless trunk. The devotees, on
passing that way, asked for an explanation. The
boy's mother told them all, and produced the head ;
whereupon they fixed it on again, and the boy was
none the worse ! Every specially holy man is
certain to be represented as a simpleton—all but
a fool—in the Vaishnava works.
Such are the tales which, in the later days of
Vaishnavism, have to a great extent supplanted the
legends of the gallantry and gentleness of the con-
quering Rama and the wifely virtues of the much-
suffering Sita.
CHAPTE R XI
Al/O/DAZA'AV AZZAV/O Ú/S// A.A.A.S ZTS AAW/O A.A.S. 7S
E now proceed to speak of Modern Hinduism
as a whole—to take a bird's-eye view of the
entire system. But it is by no means easy to convey
a correct idea of anything so vast and complicated.
The professed adherents of what is broadly called
Hinduism are in excess of a hundred and ninety
millions of human beings ; and in so great a number
there must—in the nature of things—be immense
diversities of belief and practice. We are all the
more prepared to expect such diversities when we
remember the history of Hinduism. When, more
than three thousand years ago, the faith entered
Northern India, it found the land tenanted by various
races who professed beliefs probably various in char-
acter, and certainly very different from Hinduism. The
intrusive Aryans conquered the aborigines, but did not
exterminate them ; and the victorious race mingled
its blood to a large extent with that of the vanquished.
In like manner, if not to the same extent, the
religions mingled. Original Hinduism would, in any
case, have sustained continued change and develop-
ment from within ; but the alteration was greatly
accelerated by the operation of causes acting from
I66 PHINDUISM
without, and especially by contact with other creeds.
We might well compare Hinduism to that remark-
able effusion of volcanic matter which Overspread,
at a remote time, many hundreds of miles of the
Deccan, entirely covering the sedimentary strata in
many places, turning them into metamorphic rocks
in others, and not unfrequently allowing them to crop
up almost unchanged in character.
What is Hinduism at this day P As to belief, it
includes a quasi-monotheism, pantheism, polytheism,
polydemonism, and atheism, or at least agnosticism.
As to worship, it includes meditation on Brahm,
the One, the All, without external rites or mental
homage; image-worship, fetish-worship, ghost-wor-
ship, and demon-worship.
But again, a man may be a good Hindu who
avows no belief at all, provided he pays respect to
Brahmans, does no injury to cows, and observes—
with scrupulous carc-the rules and customs of his
Caste. It has becn said that all duty is, to the
Hindu, Summed up in obedience to the regulations
of caste ; morality, religion, philanthropy, patriotism,
everything. With regard to the other things we
have mentioned, it is a very notable historical fact
that, when Sivaji, the founder of the Maratha empire,
roused his countrymen against their Mohammadan
oppressors, he did not summon thcm to contend
for ‘altar and hearth –pro aris et focis ; he called
them to hasten to the rescue of ‘Brahmans and
cows.’ Aye, the shrewd Maratha knew the men he
dealt with ; and the summons met with an enthu-
siastic response.
MODERN HIVDUISM I67
When we first look around us in India, we are
deeply impressed with the amazing number of its
idols. Images everywhere—in temples and out of
them, in the fields, by the wayside, in the houses ;
rude figures of stone, each bright and glaring with red
paint—trees or rocks marked with the same sub-
stance. But here is a Maratha village; let us go and
note the worship. Outside is a circle of stones, all
marked as divine by red or white colouring matter—
a remnant, doubtless, of the original village faith.
Next, near the gate, is a small shrine of Hanuman
or Maruti—the figure that of a black-faced monkey,
with his tail conspicuously flourishing round his
head : he is the special guardian of the village.
This deity, too, is probably aboriginal ; the strange
ways and half-human appearance of the monkey (the
forest-man, as they called him) must have surprised
and awed the settlers; and, when they took up their
abode in or near the woods which he appeared to
challenge as his own, they deprecated his displeasure
and tried to secure his favour. Gradually he came
to be regarded as a mighty warrior and an incarnate
divinity ; and hence, around the temples of Rama
particularly, crowds of monkeys gather, and are all
held to be sacred.
We now pass into the village. Here is a re-
spectable-looking Brahman sitting, or it may be
swinging, on a cot in the verandah of his clean and
pleasant-looking house. We address him with the
respect we feel; and, with some little delay, he returns
the salutation. We find on inquiry that he is
conning, not being profoundly versed in Sanskrit,
I68 HINDUISM
the Vivek Sindhu, a metrical work in Marathi by
Mukundraj, which is probably the oldest book in the
language. It inculcates the most absolute monism,-
there is but one thing in the universe; and, as Mukun-
draj phrases it—“Doer, doing, and deed are all iden-
tical.” We politely ask the Brahman if he understands
that proposition. He says he does. “Do you be-
lieve it?” He answers, “Yes." He declares himself
an out-and-out Vedantist : he holds there is but one
thing real, and that is Brahm, and he knows enough
of Sanskrit to say, A/am Brahma–‘I am Brahm.’
Such men are difficult to argue with ; but we would
fain inject a feeling into his conscience, and we ask,
‘How does your philosophy deal with the great
fact of sin P’ He quickly retorts, ‘What is sin, and
what is righteousness P They are illusions, both
of them, not real existences.” We explain a very
different view of the question, but seem to make no
impression. We part as friends, he telling us at the
end that both views are correct—his theory is true
to him, and our theory to us.
We go farther, and meet a company of people
who have just returned from a pilgrimage to Pan-
dharpur, and are holding a recitation. The party
consists of men and women—mostly of the middle
ranks, but with one or two Brahmans. They are
in the court attached to the shrine of Vithoba.
There is a leader in the centre of a company of
about sixteen people. He has begun to speak ;
he holds the sweet, feebly-tinkling vina in his hands;
he is full of Marathi poetry; he is telling a story
about the Princess Mirabai and her supreme devotion
MODERN HINDUISM I69
to Krishna, and how when, in uttermost distress,
she fled for refuge to him, the image of Krishna
opened, received the royal votaress within it, and
then closed upon her—the god thus taking her into
perfect union with himself. Every time that he
quotes a line of verse he chants it; the assistants
immediately catch it up and repeat it with a loud
clashing of the cymbals which every man holds in
his hands. The men are dancing with excitement,
and the leader is so carried away that the tears are
streaming down his cheeks. This is an exhibition
of bhakti, or devotion, of which we have had occa-
Sion to speak already. It is wonderfully catching;
the audience follows every word, and loud shouts
are heard from time to time of ‘Victory, victory to
Viththal ' ' (or Vithoba). Well, there is food for
reflection here. The idolatry is deplorable; the
legends are most wild and fantastic; but one seems
to see in the devotees a sense of human need,
a craving for Divine Support, and also an assurance
that help is given to true worshippers. This is
Surely better than the cold, heaven-daring pantheism
of the Brahman we first spoke to. These men will
admit the great fact of sin; though when we ask
how it is to be removed, they unhesitatingly reply,
‘By devotion, by gazing on the form of Vithoba, and
bathing in the river Bhima.’ They, however, listen re-
spectfully to a friendly statement of the True Atonement.
We pass on ; and here—is it outside or inside
the mouldering village-wall P—is a small shrine with
* Almost every village in the Deccan is surrounded by walls, the
upper part generally mud. In the troublous times that preceded the rise
I70 HINDUISM
a hideous image, gleaming with the unfailing red
lead. What is this? This is Vetal, a devil, a veri-
table fiend, and worshipped as such. In the far south
of India, among the Shanars and other aboriginal
races, a small white pyramidal structure that serves
both for demon and temple is exceedingly common ;
but it is rather startling to find demon-worship in
a village which is largely Brahmanical.
But it is time to speak of the men who have
religious functions to perform in the village. They
are two at least, even in the smaller villages. First
Comes the Bhat, or Brahman priest. He performs
the marriage ceremonies, names the children, casts
nativities, points out lucky and unlucky days, fixes
the proper time to sow and reap, and when the
corn is threshed, performs the needſul puja or
worship to it. He also reads the sacred texts Over
the dead. The bhat is employed in connexion with
almost every undertaking ; for there is always some
Omen to be explained, or some ceremony to be per-
formed. He is generally well off. He has, at any
rate, his regular allowance, which is generally paid
in kind. Then, every religious ceremony requires
an additional fee. For a poor person it may be as
low as a pice or a cocoa-nut ; but it is considerable
in the case of a rich man. In the month of Bha-
drapad, before taking food every devout Kunbi
(cultivator) should perform the ceremony of tirth ;
that is to say, every one ought to visit a Sacred Stream
of British power, the walls were needed as a defence. Now every mon-
soon washes away part of the mud entrenchment. No need of repairing
them under the pax Britannica.
MODERN HIWDUISM I71
and wash his sins away. But no stream of acknow-
ledged sanctity may be within easy reach, and
there is a more accessible mode of purification.
He has only to drink a little of the water in which
the blat has dipped the great toe of his right foot,
and the thing is done. For saith the sacred text—
“All the holy streams of the world go to the ocean;
All the holy streams in the ocean are in the Brahman's right foot.’
(The logic seems to limp, unless all that is in the
foot be collected in the toe.)
In the same month also is the ceremony of pitri
faks/, when offerings must be made to the souls
of ancestors. These are represented by Brahmans,
and Zhey must be fed. If only one can be received,
that One must be the blat ; but generally there are
Several Brahmans—possibly ten or twelve—all of
whom must be fittingly entertained ".
The next religious functionary is the Gurava–the
officiating priest at the village temple. If there are
several temples, he attaches himself to the most
important ; and volunteers are ready to attend the
others. The work of the gurava is to wash the idol
every morning by pouring water Over it, to put red
pigment composed of sandal-wood and oil on its
forehead, to ornament it with flowers and strew flowers
around it. He sweeps the temple, cleans it by
smearing the floor over with cow-dung once in Seven
or eight days, and lights a lamp, or it may be several
* The sacred men generally get fat at this season. So in the Deccan
the proverb runs : ‘Plump as a pony in the month of Sravan, or a 13hat
in Bhadrapad.” (In the month of Sravan there is plenty of green grass
for the pony.)
I72 HINDUISM
lamps, before the idol every night. On occasions
of feasting, the gurava also prepares the dishes—i.e.
leaves cunningly joined together—off which the
Hindus eat their food. He is generally also a musician,
and plays on the mridang, or small drum, both at
marriages and when there is a religious recitation at
the temple. This functionary is not so generously
supported as the blat ; but every family in the
village will give him—almost daily—a small quantity
of meal. He offers it to the gods after making
it into cakes, and then takes it home to his own
family. He has also generally some land. His office
is hereditary, like that of the bhat. He is a man
of respectable caste—higher than a Sudra, and he
wears a sacred string. In addition to the worship
usually performed by the gurava, the image is often
visited by other residents of the village, particularly
Brahmans. On such occasions some water is poured
over the image and prayers are made to it.
There is also in all respectable houses an apart-
ment called the gods' house—a chapel, we may term
it—in which the images of the family are kept,
ranged for the most part on a shrine in rows. There
is almost always a special family idol, a tutelary god
or goddess, which has probably been worshipped in
the house for generations. . In the morning a priest
comes, enters the chapel, takes down the deities,
bathes them in a pail of water, takes them out, dries
them well, sets them again in their places, anoints
them with red pigment, offers certain prayers, and,
when the worship is over, receives a small fee for his
trouble. Or this homage may be paid by the eldest
MODERN HINDUISM I73
son of the family. The male members of the family
then separately pray for a longer or shorter time
to the deities. The women and young children will
generally throw a few flowers on or near the images,
or place some fruits before them. And this is family
worship in India
Idols are made of various materials—such as gold,
silver, copper, brass, stone, clay, and occasionally
wood. Stone is the material most frequently used.
Pictures are also drawn on the walls, or on paper,
which is hung up ; and these pictures are worshipped
as readily as other images.
Our readers are probably already inquiring what
is the Hindu ideal of an idol. Is it a deity per se,
or is it only the resemblance of a deity P In other
words, is it a fetish, or an image in the strict sense
of the term P. Before answering the question we
require a careful definition of terms.
We understand by a fetish an object which is
regarded as being per se a divinity. It is some-
thing visible and tangible which is charged with
Supernatural power—one might say, as a Leyden
jar is charged with electricity.
An idol, on the other hand, is properly an eiða)\ov,
an imago—a resemblance, a likeness, or at all events
a symbol—of a being distinct from itself.
In theory, fetishism and idolatry are thus quite
distinguishable. But, in practice, idolatry very easily
runs—certainly in India, and probably everywhere—
into fetishism.
An intelligent Hindu, when asked why he worships
idols, will generally answer that he does not worship
I 74 HINDUISM
idols; he worships the spiritual being who is in the
idol. Properly speaking, there is a religious ceremony
by which life is communicated to the image ; and it
is only after this that it can be rightly worshipped.
The image now is living. It eats or drinks the
offerings made to it; smells the odour of the flowers;
sleeps, wakes, sometimes speaks; and can move from
one place to another".
All this is clearly fetishism. The idol is no longer
a mere symbol; it is itself a god. The ‘life,' which
by one ceremony has been brought into it, can by
another ceremony be taken out; but unless that is
done, the image is an independent deity. And thus
images of the same deity may possess very different
powers. We have seen the image of a god carried
in procession to pay a visit of high ceremony to
another image of the same god, like a friend visiting
a friend. But the fetishism of India goes much
farther than this. Any object whatsoever, if of very
remarkable appearance, is sure to be worshipped. It
will probably be marked with a red pigment to
indicate its supernatural character. Any shape, if
not easily explained, any object strikingly beautiful
or strikingly the reverse, is marked and worshipped.
There was fetishism in ancient Vedic days, but
* Avali, one of Tukaram's two wives, had no faith in Vithoba, to
whom her husband was passionately devoted. On being told that the
image drank milk when offered, she said, ‘I will put that to the test.’
So she made some milk ‘ hissing hot,’ put it in a vessel and held it to
Vithoba's lips. The poor god was burnt; he turnca his face to one side,
and lo! a blister appeared on his lip. And if any person doubts the
truth of the story, why, let him go to Dehu, Tukaram's village, and
there to this day he will see the image with the wry-neck. “Seeing is
believing,” says the Hindu devotce.
MODERN HINDUISM I75
evidently it has increased in the lapse of ages; and
it often appears in as gross a form in India as among
the lowest savages of Africa or Polynesia. Soon,
around the object that has attracted homage by its
singularity, there collects a mass of legendary lore.
The strange position, or fantastic shape, is due to
Some god or other who visited the spot; and the low
fetish thus gradually obtains a place in the Orthodox
Hindu system. There is nothing it comes in contact
with, which Hinduism cannot absorb and partially
assimilate; and thus the stupendous pantheon becomes
every day more Stupendous still.
It is wholly impossible to enumerate all the objects
worshipped in India. It is noteasy even to classify them.
We may first mention the sun, moon, and stars
of heaven. Next may come certain human beings;
especially Brahmans. But any very extraordinary
man, even if not a Hindu, may be recognized as ‘a
descent, or incarnation, of a divinity;-as happened
in the well-known case of General Nicholson. Among
animals the cow is pre-eminently a goddess. Monkeys,
peacocks, serpents, tortoises, are also worshipped.
So is the wild boar, as a representative of the Boar
Avatara,--but we have also seen the animal hunted,
killed, and eaten ; whereas the domestic swine is held
by Hindus in almost as much horror as by Moham-
madans. Again, certain animals are vehicles of certain
gods, and so become quasi divine ; as, for instance,
the bull of Siva and the rat of Ganesa.
In the vegetable kingdom the tulasi (holy basil)
may be said to stand pre-eminent. The pipal (Ficus
religiosa) is also worshipped; its leaves quiver like
176 AINDUISM
those of the aspen, and thus indicate the presence of
a divinity or divinities". The banyan (Ficus Indica),
too, is sacred ; probably on account of its very re-
markable mode of growth —
“a pillared shade,
High overarched, and echoing walks between.’
But there are at least six or seven other trees which
are hardly less divine; as, for example, the beautiful
asoka , the kusa grass, the custard apple, and so on.
Of the productions of the natural world, the One
most frequently worshipped is the salagram—a small
black stone, with markings like those of the ammonite
—which is found in various rivers. This is more
than a mere symbol; Tukaram calls it ‘Vishnu's
self.” Nearly every deity has some object especially
dear to him, and therefore sacred—some tree, or herb,
or stone. The objects that are, or may be, worshipped
are thus, as we have said, altogether countless.
We may indeed affirm that the Hindus will worship
anything and everything except the Supreme Being *.
A maxim which one hears every day in India is this :
Where faith is, there is God. Believe a thing to be
divine, and it is divine. Thus, a swine is regarded
as utterly unclean ; yet we have often asked this
question, “If a man believed a swine to be a god,
would it be so P’ and the answer, perhaps somewhat
slowly given, has been, ‘Yes, if a man really believes
* Bishop Heber speaks of ‘the peepul’s haunted shade.”
* “Best of trees the asoka, blooming, in the forest she espied,
Gemmed all o'er with glittering blossoms, vocal with the song
of birds.”—Kalidasa, Kaghuzamsa, bk, i.
* Bossuet has somewhere said of classical antiquity: “Tout était Dieu,
excepté Dieu lui-même.”
MODERN HIVDUISM I77
*
e
it, the Swine is a god.” “And, we have gonc on to
ask, would his faith in that case save him 2 and the
answer has been, Most certainly.’
So much for the immensity of Indian idol-worship,
But with regard to the non-cxistence of the worship
of the Supreme. We have frequently asked, ‘Where
is the temple of the Supreme P’ and the answer, given
with evident surprise at a question so unexpected, has
always been, ‘Temple of the Supreme P What do you
mean P there is no such temple.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because
He can have none. He is formless, nameless, in-
conceivable; and we cannot worship Him.” “And
therefore you worship idols?’ ‘Certainly. An idol
is indispensable. We need some visible object on
which our minds can rest.’
At a first glance India thus appears to be utterly,
infinitely, exclusively polytheistic. But, on entering
into conversation even with the simple villagers, you
are startled by the discovery that another system of
thought, which at first seems wholly irreconcilable
with polytheism, has been wrought into the very
texture of the Hindu mind. We mean pantheism.
Polytheism and pantheism are the warp and woof of
Hinduism. We have asked a hundred times, ‘Who
is it that speaks in you and me P’ and the answer has
always been, ‘The Supreme.' The commonest man
will say that his soul is a part of God. He will even
reason with you, and ask whether the Supreme is not
omnipresent ; and when you answer ‘Yes,’ he will say
that the case is therefore clear, for the Divine Spirit
which is in man necessarily excludes every other Spirit.
The soul is ‘a part of God.”
M
178 HIVDUISM
The pantheism which has extended so widely, and
sunk so deeply into the popular mind, is not indeed
the sublimated system of the Vedanta. We saw above
that the Vedanta denies the reality of an external
world, and affirms the existence of one Self, one sole
Spirit, in the universe; or rather, there is no universe
—nothing but the one Self and its illusions. But the
popular pantheism allows the existence of matter,
The Puranas speak of matter as the body of God—the
mountains being His bones, and rocks His nails, the
trees His hair, and so on. The common people seldom
do this ; they believe in their own bodies, though not
in their own souls. But, in truth, all is inconsistency.
Even Tukaram, who at one time contends earnestly
for the doctrine of dvaita, or dualism, at another
declares that his soul has blended with Deity, as salt
dissolved in water is blended with the water.
No characteristic of any religion can be more
important than the manner in which it deals with the
great fact of Sin. Many a Brahman will assert that
he holds sin to be a mere appearance, an illusion ;
and this is in accordance with Vedanta doctrine. Yet
the same man will go through a round of ceremonies
every morning and evening, and confess that he is a
sinner from his birth. The common Hindu will not
go to the extreme of asserting the non-reality of sin;
though he is wholly unable to explain how the Divine
Spirit, which dwells in him instead of a soul, is led
into the commission of evil. He is therefore quite
consistent in using means for the removal of sin.
We may glance at the teaching of Hinduism re-
garding heaven and hell. In earlier Vedic days
MODERN HINDU/SM I79
Yama, the first man, was placed in heaven. He there
gathers his descendants—the Pitris, or Fathers—around
him to the sound of music ; with them he quaffs the
Soma draught, and with them he also comes to join
the gods who are seated on the Kusa grass in the
place of worship, and he there partakes with them of
the libation. There is little or no reference to hell at
first. Fre long, in the Atharva Veda, hints are given
about dismal pits in which the wicked are confined;
but no detailcd statement is made regarding the pains
inflicted. Annihilation is sometimes threatened. At
a later time arose the doctrine of transmigration. We
might have expected that heaven and hell would, in
consequence, fade out of sight, inasmuch as both good
and evil deeds receive their due award in the present
life. Not so, however. The worshippers of Indra and
several other gods are translated at death to Svarga ;
those of Vishnu to Vaikuntha; those of Siva to
Kailasa ; and so on. The enjoyments are sensuous,
even sensual, Sometimes immoral.
Very remarkable is the transformation which Yama
gradually undergoes. He finally becomes the ruler of
hell, or rather of the hells; for they are very many. The
later Hindu writings give fearful descriptions of these.
Of course all these heavens and hells are transitory.
The hells are purgatories, in which
“Exercentur poenis veterumque malorum
Supplicia expendunt '.'
But when we speak of sin, we need to explain what
the Hindu conception of sin actually is. We referred
* Virgil, Aeneis, vi. 739. Virgil says that the Souls, after drinking
the water of Lethe, return to occupy new bodies.
M 2.
I8O HINDUISM
already to the declaration of 1'rofessor \Vcbcr that in
the Vc(las the religious notion of sin is altogether
wanting : and various writers of notc have uscd
cqually strong language in regard to the Greck and
Roman writings. But surcly there was what we may
call a vacillating sense of sin in (irceco and Romc ;
and there is as much among the Hindus now.
St. Paul declares that ‘God has never left Himself
without witness': and that ‘the Gentiles show the work
of the law written on their hearts.' Not universally; for,
in Some cases, conscience appears, to quote St. Paul
again, ‘to be seared with a hot iron ; familiarity with
cvil has in many destroyed the moral perceptions and
cmotions. Yet all the Hindus are not such. Con-
science, alas! is frequently asleep, often drugged with
opiates; but it is not dead, and it is generally capable
of being roused. Undoubtedly the ordinary Hindu
sees that there is a distinction between right and
wrong ; he fully admits also that he is bound to do
the right and shun the wrong ; although he is often
sorely astray as to what is right and what is wrong.
We therefore do not contend that ‘ the religious notion
of sin is altogether wanting.' The man will at once
concede that he ought to worship God, and that he
sins unless he does so. He will at once admit that
he Ought not to injure his neighbour; and that stealing,
lying, adultery, and such-like deeds, are sins which
Heaven will punish. Yet when all this is said, how
much is left unsaid One deplorable and fundamental
error into which Hindu teachers have fallen is that
they have inculcated an endless number of ceremonial
observances and rules of caste as of equal importance
MODERN HINDUISM I8I
with the clearcst moral duties—nay, in many cases,
as of greater importance. Conscience has thus been
bewildered. Although ſrom time to time there has
Come, in Some quarter or other, a reaction from extreme
ceremonialism, and the fundamental truths of morality
have been recognized and raised again almost to their
proper place, the happy change has been but temporary.
The ancient Sages, whose questionings and aspira-
tions are contained in the Upanishads, paid com-
paratively little attention to external rites. Meditation
on the Divine constituted to them nearly the whole
of religion. Salvation was attainable only through
knowledge. Farther, the important School of thought
which exalts devotion (b/a/ºti), makes, in theory at
least, equally little account of ceremonies ; devotion
is all in all, and through devotion salvation is obtained.
Still, viewed as a whole, Hinduism strikes every
observer as a most colossal system of Outward rites
and ceremonies ; one stands in blank amazement to
see human beings willingly bending their necks and
bearing a yoke so crushing. Salvation by works—that
is, by ceremonies and penances—is the doctrine held
by an Overwhelming majority of the people.
The means of deliverance from sin and of acquiring
righteousness are very numerous. The following are
the most efficacious and customary :
I. Pilgrimages to holy places, washing in a Sacred
stream, and beholding a deity.
2. Giving food, or money, to Brahmans.
3. Frequent repetition of the name of a deity.
4. Bodily austerities.
5. Eating the five products of the cow.
I82 HINDUISM
Pilgrimages were not known in Vedic days; no one
spot was deemcd more sacred than another. Rivers,
indeed, Soon began to be held in reverence, and this
doubtless on account of their manifest and manifold
utility; and it was the holiness of the river that
made the town on its banks holy. First the Indus,
‘the most copious of streams,’ as the Vedas call it,
attracted admiration ; then, as the race moved on,
came the Sarasvati : but both of these were afterwards
eclipsed by the Ganges. We trace the idea of sacred
places from about 200 B.C. It has gradually attained
immense development, and is still developing. India
is covered with holy places, or firſ/las ; they are found
from the lake Manasa in Tibet to Ramesvar, over
against Ceylon ; from Dwaraka in the west to Puri in
the east. Benares, on the Ganges, still holds the
high place it attained in early, though not the
Carliest, days. All the territory around, within a
radius of ten miles, is equally holy. Next come in
importance Prayag (Allahabad), at the confluence of
the Ganges and Yamuna (Jumna); Haridwar (also
written Hardwar)", at the point where the Ganges
breaks out into the plains from among the mountains;
and Ganga Sagar, where the Ganges joins the Occan.
These are very celebrated firſ/as. Tully equal in
importance to Benares is Puri, in Orissa, with its
notorious temple of Jagannath (Juggernaut); the
region around which for twenty miles is all holy.
Dwaraka, in Gujarat, said to have been the capital
| Haridwar means, the gate of Vishnu; Hardwar, the gate of Siva.
There have been most vehement disputes between the two sections of
worshippers as to the true spelling, and the deity specially honoured there.
MODERN HINDUISM 183
of Krishna, is also famous. Nasik, on the Godavari,
is sacred, as being associated with the history of Rama.
Pandharpur, on the Bhima, which is a tributary of the
river Krishna, has been at least four hundred years
a centre of immense attraction to the Marathas.
Ramesvar, situated on an island between India and
Ceylon, is visited by great multitudes from all parts
of India ; and devotees carry vessels of water from the
Ganges for the purpose of pouring it on the image.
The last-mentioned place contains one of twelve
celebrated lingas, or phallic symbols of Siva. Som-
nath in Gujarat; Omkar, on an island in the river
Narmada (Nerbudda); Badari Kedar, near the source
of the Ganges; and Tryambak, at the source of the
Godavari, are also among popular firſhas.
The numbers that frequent the tirthas differ in
different places. Those on the Ganges are visited at
certain recurring times by more than a million or
occasionally two millions. The holy season extends
over a considerable time—Crowds coming and going
daily. At Pandharpur there gather twice every year,
in July and December, from a hundred thousand to
a hundred and twenty-five thousand. The attendance
at Puri is also very great, amounting sometimes to
about three hundred thousand.
The ceremonies of purification differ somewhat in
different places. Very generally at a tirtha there are
men who call themselves Gangaputra—sons of the
Ganges—whose duty it is to help the pilgrims in the
performance of the customary rites. Every family
of these has a book in which are marked down the
names and residences of pilgrims who have in former
I84 HINDUISM
days visited the spot; and, on the arrival of any
visitant, these men eagerly ask his name, turn over
their records, and try to discover that he or his
family having formerly availed themselves of their
ministrations, he must do so now. They help the
pilgrim to find a suitable place in which to pitch
a tent or bit of cloth as a kind of shelter ; take him
to the temple, or temples; perform the ceremony of
shaving his head —a matter of much importance in
many places; and, above all, help him in the washing
away of his sins by bathing. They stand beside him
in the stream, repeating the appropriate prayers in
Sanskrit. A price is paid, which varies according to
the circumstances of the pilgrim or the importunity
of the priest.
The great prevalence of the system of pilgrimage
is truly remarkable. One cannot look upon it with
satisfaction. No doubt it relieves in some degree the
dull monotony of every-day existence; it enables
a man whose horizon has been bounded by his village
to see a little of the outside world. But the evils
accompanying it are exceedingly great. It is ex-
pensive. It makes a man neglect his daily work,
which, in the case of the Indian cultivator, is a very
serious matter. It makes the pilgrim run a serious
risk as to health and even life. At all the great
festivals wretched accommodation is certain, and an
outbreak of disease is frequent *. In the rainy season
* This is not performed everywhere. It obtains at Benares, Gaya,
Nasik, Pandharpur, &c. Women who are not widows cut off a portion
of their hair.
* Until of late the Government of India did very little with a view to
Secure the simplest sanitary arrangements. The consequence was that
MODERN HINDUISM 185
the dangers are aggravated. In Bengal, husbands
and fathers have often occasion to resist the attempts
made by female members of their families to go on
pilgrimage to Puri or elsewhere; for, when the caged
bird escapes, there is the danger of its never returning.
It might desire this ; but birds of prey are ready to
devour it. Men sent out from Puri traverse India,
proclaiming the glories of Jagannath and the blessed-
ness of going on pilgrimage. They especially tempt
widows; and it is against the representations of such
men that the heads of families require to be on their
guard. Regarding the deplorably erroneous view of
true religion which is fostered by the whole system
of pilgrimage, it is unnecessary to speak. It is a great
corruption of the earlier and simpler faith of India.
Finally, it ought to be noticed that the mind of the
pilgrims is much more set on “making righteousness,’
f.e. acquiring merit, than on being purified from sin.
The idea of acquiring merit, righteousness, is very
deeply implanted in the mind of every Hindu ; and
pilgrimages are among the most meritorious of works".
With regard to ascetic practices as a means of
salvation, they are far more general among the
Saiva than among the Vaishnava sects. We have
already spoken of asceticism, when treating of the
in a few days the sacred place and neighbourhood became utterly
disgusting, and the whole atmosphere poisoned. Latterly, Government
has interfered to a much greater extent; and, when cholera has broken
out, has issued proclamations warning the people against attending the
infected place.
* On Puri and the observances connected with the worship of the ‘lord
of the world,” consult Claudius Buchanan's Christian Researches and Sir
W. W. Hunter’s Orissa.
I36 HINDUISM
Yoga system and the Saiva sects. It would be almost
as cndless as useless a task to enumerate all the forms
of self-torture. In addition to the practices mentioned
on pp. I 52, &c., the most common are these:—vows
of silence; never lying down; lying on spikes; sitting
between five fires (the sun blazing overhead being
one); visiting a holy place—the more distant the
better—by rolling towards it like a log, or measuring
the ground by falling flat on the face, rising and lying
down again farther on.
One of the most powerful means of purification is
eating the five products of the cow. The cow being
holy, everything that issues from her body is holy;
even the dust raised by her feet will purify from
sin". The fivefold mixture is called panchagavya.
Marvellous is its potency:
‘Piercing through my bones and marrow, dwelleth sin within my flesh;
I3ut the famchagavya burns it, as the fire consumes the wood.’
Being not only potent, but easily accessible, this
means of purification is more frequently had recourse
to than any other. Sacred streams may be at some
distance, but the cow is always at hand. A feast
given to Brahmans generally accompanies the puri-
fying rite, and is its suitable completion.
Regarding this practice, which will appear to our
readers one of the most irrational of the innumerable
observances of Hinduism, it may be well to note in
conclusion that we see something very similar in the
* So Kalidasa —
“Rising from her holy footsteps, lightly curled the dust around ;
But it pulified the monarch, like the tirtha's sacred wave.”
A’aghuzamsa, blº, i.
MODERN HIVDUISM 187
Parsi ritual. One of the products of the animal—
we do not mean milk or butter—is greatly used as
a means of purification among the professed followers
of Zoroaster. It is applied to the body every day,
and a small quantity is drunk. There is, indeed, this
difference between the Hindus and Parsis: it is the
cow that is specially sacred to the former, but it is
a bull that the Parsis keep in their temples, in order
that the purifying liquid may never fail. It is with
hesitation we write of such things; but to omit a
point so characteristic would be to give an imperfect
account of these religions.
We may here mention the purifying rites' which
must be performed by all Hindus who belong to the
three highest castes. I. A ceremony to cause con-
ception ; 2. On the first indication of vitality, and to
secure the birth of a male child; 3. At the time of
birth ; 4. At the time of naming the child ; 5. On
taking the child out to see the moon. 6. To see the
sun; 7. On feeding it with rice, especially in the fifth
or eighth month ; 8. The tonsure of the hair except
one lock, in the second or third year; 9. Investiture
with the sacred string on the tenth or twelfth day
aſter birth; and Io. Marriage. These ceremonies:
amount to ten. Some authorities give two more —
arranging the mother's hair in the fourth, sixth, or
eighth month of pregnancy; and the return of the
young man to his home after completing his studies
under a guru. Investiture with the sacred string
takes place in the case of a Brahman in the eighth
* They are called sanskara—i.e. perſecting, completing. The word
“sacrament’ is generally rendered in Indian languages by Sanskara.
I88 PHINDUISM
year; in that of a Kshatriya in the eleventh, and
in that of a Vaisya in the twelfth. The youth thus
enters the honoured rank of the twice-born. In the
case of a female the rites are much fewer.
The legislator Gautama enumerates forty sacra-
ments or purificatory rites.
Ceremonies connected with the dead are regarded
as of great importance. First come the funeral rites.
The spirit of the deceased is understood to hover
for some time after death over the place where the
corpse is burned or buried. The spirit is unhappy,
and in its nakedness impure ; and all the relatives
of the deceased are also impure. The funeral rites,
which are celebrated after death for ten days, pacify
the troubled spirit. Balls, generally made of rice and
milk, along with water, are offered ; and the spirit
feeds on their essence. It acquires in this way a
Covering, or body, more substantial than the ‘subtile
body' which it possessed when it quitted the one of
flesh and blood. The spirit is no longer a preſa,
or ghost; it is now exalted into a pitri (ancestor),
and can be worshipped. Offerings are made to it,
consisting as before of balls chiefly of rice and milk;
and these are accompanied with the recitation of
sacred texts. This ceremony is called sraddha ".
The prescriptions connected with the observances
of the sraddhas run into infinite complexity. A book
which has lately appeared in Bombay contains on this
single subject more than a hundred closely-printed
pages. We will not weary our readers by going into
details that are as meaningless as they are endless.
* Derived from the Sanskrit sraddha, faith.
MODERN HINDUISM 189
Suffice it to say that there are daily offerings to the
///ris ; offerings on particular days of the moon :
occasional offerings, such as for a relative recently
deccased, or on domestic occurrences, such as thc
birth of a son. These may all be callcd Obligatory,
There are also voluntary sy-adºſ/as, which are performed
for the acquisition of merit. The proper times for
sraddhas are during the “dark half' or waning moon,
the day of new moon, at the Solstices, eclipses, &c.
It is interesting to note that, in more ancient days,
as appears from the legislation of Manu, offerings
were made which have been discontinued in modern
Hinduism. Thus Manu informs us that the pitris have
their hunger satiated for two months by the offering
of fish ; deer's flesh satisfies them for three; sheep's
flesh for four ; bird's flesh for five ; wild boar's for
cleven ; cow's milk for twelve ; red goat's flesh for ever.
Other specifications on this subject are no less precise.
It is the office of the nearest male relative to
present the ball of food to the deceased and to his
forefathers, both in the male and female lines. He
who does So establishes a claim to the inheritance.
It is the greatest of misfortunes that there should
be no male descendant. In that case no one is qualified
to present the sraddha ; and the pitris are reduced to
the uttermost distress, - so greatly are the dead
dependent on the living". Adoption, however,
remedies the evil; an adopted son (if the statutory
* Kalidasa puts this conviction in a somewhat grotesque form. King
IDilipa had no son ; wherefore he sorrowfully says—
‘Soon must cease the holy sradiſ/la ; and my fathers, seeing this,
Drink the water of the oſſering, warming it with sighs of woe.’
A’aghuzansa, bk. i.
I90 HINDUISM
prescriptions have been exactly complied with) is
fully qualified to present the necessary offerings to
the did manes.
We must still refer to caste. It is the stronghold
of the religion ; Dr. Wilson of Bombay says it is
‘the soul as well as the body of Hinduism.’ In truth,
a man may believe anything or nothing, and he may
neglect other precepts of the faith as much as he
chooses; yet, if he attend to the rules of caste, he
remains a good Hindu. A tuft of hair on the crown
of the head is, in most places, the great outward
badge of his being so. But still more important
is compliance with the prescribed rules as to what
he eats and drinks. A man is defiled by what goes
into his mouth—especially by eating food prepared
by a man of lower caste. Contact with such a man
is also polluting.
The orthodox legislation, as we saw above, was
one that highly exalted the Brahman, and sternly
depressed the Sudras, and the still lower divisions
of the people. Of course, under a Mohammadan or
Christian government, the measureless pretensions
of the Brahmans could not be conceded. For example,
such precepts as these—“Never shall a king slay
, a Brahman, though convicted of all possible crimes';’
‘Whatever exists in the universe is all the property
of the Brahman *,' could be treated only with contempt.
But, under purely Hindu rulers, it is amazing to what
cxtremes the Brahmans have insisted on the mainte-
nance of the ancient rules. Thus, before Poona was
taken from the Marathas by the British, no Mhar was
* Manu, viii. 379, &c. * Ibid. i. 93—Ioo.
MODERN HINDUISM I9 I
allowed to enter the city before nine o'clock or remain
in it after three ; and this for the remarkable reason
that before nine, and after three, he cast too long
a shadow, and if his shadow fell on a Brahman, it
polluted him.
The kingdom of Travancore in Southern India is
the part of the country in which Brahmanical ideas
now rule most strongly. The Namburi Brahmans
number only a little more than ten thousand ; but
their will is law. A late Maharaja had received
a good English education ; but, either from choice or
necessity, he acted precisely like a bigoted Hindu.
Various public improvements, such as roads and
bridges, were urgently required, but such things
must wait ; for the Brahmans must be fed and receive
largesses which the country can ill afford. Meanwhile,
certain classes which, until the British Government
interfered, were in a condition of abject slavery, are
not allowed to enter courts of justice nor public
markets, nor to remain on the public road if a man
of higher rank is using it. A Pulaya must remain
sixty-nine steps away from a Brahman; otherwise
the latter is polluted, and the former visited with
condign punishment.
Thus the idea that some classes are inherently
holy, and others inherently polluted and abominable,
has taken complete possession of the mind of the
higher castes in Travancore, and those in the neigh-
bouring region of Cochin. The fact may seem
extraordinary, seeing that in the Veda there is no
trace, or the least possible trace, of caste. Yet we
can see in the language used regarding the aborigines
I92 HINDUISM
– which breathes only passionatc hatred or contempt—
how ready the Aryans were, Qven in carly days, to
trample thcir cnemies in the dust. I listory is sorrow-
fully full of proofs of man's inhumanity to man
but it strikes us (not forgetting the case of the I [clots
of Sparta) that perhaps the most flagrant instance
of high treason against the rights of man as man is
seen in the legislation of Manu, and the practice of the
‘orthodox kingdom of Travancore".
Any one who carefully notes the form of Hinduism
around him will find it to differ considerably from
the description given in books. He is apt, therefore,
to think the books imperfect. But, in truth, to
describe the innumerable beliefs and observances
which are summed up under the exceedingly com-
prehensive term Hinduism would require a whole
library of books. Every part of India has its
peculiaritics of faith and worship. It has been said
that in the Konkan every village differs in its deities
from every other. The student of Hinduism must
observe as carefully as read, and so supplement what
the study of his books has taught him.
Some writers draw a distinction between Brahman-
ism and Hinduism, -the former term designating the
belief and practices of the highest caste, and the
latter the system in vogue among the common people.
The distinction is, so far, useful ; but the two things
have much in common. In this little work we have
dealt chiefly with Brahmanism. The following
remarks will bear on the popular belief.
* The number of distinct castes in Travancore is said to be 420.
The most degraded of the outcasts are the Pulayas.
MODERN HINDUISM I93
There is a distinction between great gods and little
gods, which we may compare to that drawn by the
Romans between the did majorum gențium and
minorum gențium. The second class is for the most
part neglected by the Brahmans; yet some beings
in it have been promoted to the higher rank. Thus
even Siva himself, though now often styled Mahadeva,
or the great god, was not originally a member of the
Aryan pantheon, and he is not named in the Veda.
Lower than the minor gods are the beings named
pisac/ and Ö/ºut, words which we may render
demon. Demon-worship was the religion of the
races who entered India before the Aryas. Every-
where it has left traces of its early prevalence; but
it is especially powerful in the south. Sometimes
the demon is represented by a hideous form ; in
various cases, his mouth, with enormous teeth, is
crushing and devouring children. In other cases he
has no visible form ; he may dwell in the earth or on
a tree. Or a kind of pyramid seems to stand at Once
for the demon and his dwelling. The unclean malig-
nant spirit often takes possession of man or woman, and
is exorcised with difficulty. Human beings, too, often
become demons after death. These malignant beings
are numberless; and their names are numberless.
Illimitable superstition rules with iron sway".
Feasts and Fasis.-One of the most characteristic
features of Hinduism is the immense number of feasts
* Everything incomprehensible is, especially in the south, attributed
to the demons. It is said that, when the people first saw a man on
a bicycle, they exclaimed in terror—‘Oh, look at the devil running away
with an Englishman l’
N
I94 HINDUISM
and fasts which it prescribes. It is quite impossible
to give even a brief description of the whole of these ;
and, were it possible, it would greatly try the patience
of the reader. But a fairly correct idea of these
observances may be obtained from a short statement
regarding ten Cr twelve of the most important. We
shall describe them especially as they are observed
in Western India. We take them in their chrono-
logical sequence.
I. Makar Sankranti-corresponding to January 12.
The celestial sign makar answers to Capricorn. On
that day the sun is said to begin his journey
northward. To the early Hindus, living in a cold
region, the approach of spring was an occasion of
the greatest joy; and the commencement of the
Sun's northward progress could not pass unmarked,
for then opened the auspicious half of the year'.
The sun especially is worshipped in this festival.
Bathing in the sea is prescribed wherever it is possible.
Rejoicings abound in public and private. Great
gatherings take place — as at Prayag, where the
Ganges and Jumna mingle ; and at Ganga Sagar,
where the Ganges meets the ocean.
In the Tamil country the festival is called “Pongal.'
Great attention is paid to the cattle. Their horns
are painted and adorned with chaplets, and the poor,
overworked beasts have, for once, a grand holiday.
2. Mahasivaratri—i.e. the great night of Siva
(February 12). The linga (phallus), which is the
emblem of Siva, is especially worshipped on this
* According to correct astronomy the sun enters Capricorn and com-
mences his northward journey on December 21.
MODERN HIVDUISM I95
Occasion. A legend of great celebrity is connected
with it. A wicked hunter, to escape the wild beasts,
mounted at night into a bel (bilva) tree, which is
sacred to Siva. Leaves were broken off, and fell
on a linga that stood below. Moreover the hunter
had fasted all day, for the sufficient reason that he
had nothing to eat. Siva was delighted at the
honour paid him by the falling leaves and the fast,
and sent a heavenly chariot to convey the hunter to
heaven. This event is commemorated in the festival.
First there is a fast during the day; at night the
worshippers repair to the temples of Siva, and remain
there from about eight o'clock till five next morning.
Worship is performed for them by a priest on four
different occasions; and thus the vigil lasts the whole
night. Generally the priest reads a list of Siva's
many names; and as each is mentioned the wor-
shipper throws a leaf of Öel on the linga.
3. Holi. This festival properly lasts ten days in
the end of February and beginning of March. It is
exceedingly popular in all parts of India. It corre-
sponds in many respects to the ancient Saturnalia, of
which the modern Carnival seems a mild survival.
The most marked feature of the Holi is the
extreme license with which it is attended. Red
powders or red-coloured liquids are thrown about ;
people are sent on absurd errands (as on All-Fools'
day in Europe); dances are kept up in commemo-
ration of the sports of Krishna with the Gopis (the
female cow-herds of Vrindavana). Bonfires are
kindled for the last three days. Matters get worse
towards the end of the festival, and on the last day
IN 2.
I96 PHINDUISM
it is hardly possible for a respectable woman to
leave her own house: she is at once assailed with
volleys of the vilest language conceivable. Legends
had to be invented to justify, or at least explain,
so disgusting a practice. We are told that a female
demon who was injuring children had to be driven
away by the use of such abominable words"—and
certainly they are enough to disgust even a demon.
But there can be no doubt that originally this was
a spring festival—a season of universal rejoicing
at the revived life of nature. It is very sad to see it
celebrated, not with innocent gladness, but with
obscene and riotous excess *. When the bonfires at
the conclusion are extinguished, the ashes are dis-
tributed, and people rub their bodies over with them.
4. Rama navami. This is commemorative of the
warrior-god Rama. It ends on the ninth day of
the light half of the month Chaitra ; hence the
term navami, which means ‘ ninth. For eight days
previous the temples of Rama are illuminated and
largely attended ; the history of Rama is read or
recited ; and the images of the god are arrayed with
costly ornaments. The last day is the anniversary of
the birth of the deity. At noon, when the birth
is believed to have taken place, the preacher, as we
may call him, who has been descanting on the great-
ness of Rama, exhibits a small image of the god, and
puts it into a cradle. The assembly prostrates itsclf
* In the Bhavishyottara Purana, ch. xvii. -
* It deserves to be noted that, in the Roman festival of Anna Perenna,
which was also celebrated in spring, the same evil practice prevailed.
As Ovid expresses it, “joci veteres obscaenaque dicta canuntur.’
MODERN HINDUISM I97
before it. Acclamations rise all around ; handfuls
of red powder are flung in token of joy; and all go
home exulting.
5. Naga panchami. This festival is held on the
fifth day of the light half of the month Sravan.
It is in honour of serpents. The figure of a serpent
is made of clay, or drawn on the wall, and worshipped.
Living Serpents are brought, and supplied with milk
and eggs. All this is done to deprecate the wrath of
the venomous reptile.
6. Naraſi paurnima. This festival is observed
chiefly by those who dwell on the sea-coast. It
is held on August 23, when the more stormy
period of the rainy season is believed to be over.
Flowers, and especially cocoa-nuts, are thrown as
offerings into the sea, in order to secure its favour, or
clse as a thank-offering because its rage has abated.
7. Krishna (or Gokul) }anmashtami, is celebrated
on the eighth day of the dark half of Sravan, in com-
memoration of the birth of Krishna. It is one of the
greatest of the sacred seasons. The worshippers fast
the whole day—that is, they can eat only certain
kinds of food, and uncooked. Boiled rice, for ex-
ample, is prohibited. At night they bathe, worship
a clay image of the infant Krishna, and adorn it with
leaves of the ſulasi and flowers. Next day is a great
occasion among all keepers of cattle, as Krishna in
his boyhood lived among such.
In Western India a deity, probably aboriginal,
called Kanhoba, has been identified with Krishna.
The chief devotee, on the night when Krishna is
supposed to have been born, becomes excited, uses
198 HINDUISM
wild gestures, mutters strange sounds, his whole body
quivering. This is a sign that ‘the god has come’
—i.e. he has entered the body of his worshipper.
This man is now himself worshipped. Others become
equally frantic, and are worshipped in their turn.
Sick persons are brought ; Kanhoba's devotees rub
ashes on their heads, pass their hands over them,
receive money, and dismiss them as healed.
8. Gamesa chafurthi, celebrated on the fourth of
the light half of Bhadrapad (September Io), is in
commemoration of Ganesa or Ganapati—‘the re-
mover of difficulties —a god with an elephant's head.
His vehicle is a rat; and therefore the clay image of
a rat, saddled and bridled, is often placed beside him.
The image of the god is gilded and glittering. The
deity has to be brought into the image, which is
done by elaborate consecration. It is then wor-
shipped. The exploits of Ganesa are enlarged on,
friends and relatives attending. A sumptuous feast
is then given to Brahmans. The deity remains as
an inmate of the house for several days, amounting
in some cases to ten. Thereafter he must depart.
First, the divinity which had been brought into the
image is extracted by the repetition of appropriate
formulae. The image is then seated in a palankeen,
and carried to the sea or a tank in a gaily attired
procession. It is flung into the water with the ex-
pression of much regret at parting and of hopes to
meet next year.
Once Ganesa, when riding on his rat, had a fall;
and the moon, who saw it, laughed at his equestrian-
ship. Whereupon the offended god cursed the moon
MODERN HINDUISM I99
and all who should look at her; but he condescended
afterwards to restrict the curse to those who should
behold her on his birthday. Accordingly, if any
Hindu accidentally or forgetfully sees the luminary
at that time, he becomes terribly afraid of the con-
sequences; which he probably seeks to avert by
provoking some neighbour to pour on him a flood
of maledictions. These are held to be a substitute for
the curse he has incurred. -
9. The Dussera, properly Dasahara, ending on the
tenth of the light half of Asvin (October 16), seems
to be connected with the autumnal equinox. It com-
memorates the victory of Durga, the wife of Siva,
over a buffalo-headed demon. In Bengal it is called
the Durga puja, and is a very splendid festival.
The clay image of the goddess, highly bedizened,
is treated with much the same ceremonies as have
been described in the case of Ganesa, and, after nine
days' worship, is conveyed with immense pomp and
flung into the river. An important part of the wor-
ship of Durga is bloody sacrifice. It is generally that
of a kid. Durga is ten-armed. Each hand bears
some destructive weapon ; and she is represented as
slaying a demon. This is the greatest festival in
I3engal.
As it is believed that the warrior god Rama
marched out on this day against Ravana, the demon-
king of Ceylon, the Marathas selected it as the proper
time to begin the great plundering expeditions to
which that warlike race was so much addicted. To
this day the implements of war are worshipped.
The bright flowers of the palasa (Butea frondosa)
2OO - HINDUISM
and other trees—which are held to represent gold—
are offered to the gods, and by friends to each other.
Io. Diwali (from dipavali), ‘the feast of lamps,
is celebrated on days corresponding to November
2, 4, and 5. The houses are cleaned, whitewashed,
and illuminated. In front of the house a quad-
rangular space is marked with pretty figures, drawn
with variously coloured kinds of chalk. This is done
on most festivals, but especially at the Diwali.
To draw the figures well is deemed a high ac-
complishment of the women. Gambling is per-
mitted—almost enjoined—during the feast. Fire-
works abound. The merchant closes his accounts,
and gets new ledgers and account-books. These are
consecrated and worshipped. It is the commence-
ment of the Hindú year.
II. Bali pratipada is celebrated on the first day
of the light half of Karttik (November 6). The
people clean their houses, bathe, fill baskets with the
rags and rubbish lying about, and throw it out of the
house. In the Maratha country they repeat the
words given above in the note to p. ICS.
12. Champa shasſiſi, on the sixth of the light half of
Margasirsh (December 11), is sacred in Western
India to the god Khandoba of Jijuri, near Poona.
This used to be a great occasion for men and women,
in the performance of vows, being suspended by
a hook run through the back and swung round in
front of the temple. But this cruel practice has been
forbidden by the British Government. The practice,
however, was not abandoned in the Madras Presidency
until very recently.
CHAPTER XII
A’A. CAAEA 7'OWZ.4 7/OAV
E have thus endeavoured to trace the history
of the Hindu religion from the commencement
up to the present time—through a period amounting
to more than three thousand years. It may be well
to give a brief summary of the conclusions to which
we have been led.
The foundation of the Hindu faith is laid in the
Veda, otherwise called the four Vedas. But from the
facts which the Veda supplies we are able to draw
some inferences regarding an earlier form of religion
which we may designate pre-Vedic. It can hardly
be doubted that the Indo-European race, before it
parted into five or six separate branches, recognized
the existence of a Supreme Divinity—a Being power-
ful, wise, and good. He was held to be the arranger
(we cannot say, the creator) and the ruler of all things.
Offerings were a very important part in the worship
of this Being ; and, among these, animal sacrifice held
a high place. We can hardly suppose that the
Supreme Divinity was the only Being to whom wor-
ship was paid ; yet we may well hesitate before we
call the religion polytheistic". Idolatrous it almost
certainly was not ; if images were used at all, it could
only have been very sparingly. The Supreme Divinity
was, in all probability, a spiritual Being, but localized
* Thus, we do not tax the Roman Catholics with polytheism, not-
withstanding the invocation of Saints and angels.
2O2 HINDUISM
in heaven; and we may believe that, with many,
Heaven and the God of heaven were conceptions
separable, but in fact not always separated. Worship
was, to a very large extent, domestic. We have little
or no evidence of the existence of a priestly order.
It is evident that the Hindus and Iranians (old
Persians) remained together for a considerable time
after the other divisions of the race had migrated
towards the West. Reverence for the fermented juice
of the Soma plant (in Zend Homa) is very marked in
the Veda and the Avesta; but it does not appear in
Greek or Roman writings. It may have been of very
early origin; in the tribes migrating to the West, it
would cease when the holy plant was no longer
visible;—or it may have begun after the eastern tribes
had parted from the western. It seems to have been
offered to the divinity as being the most wonderful and
precious beverage they knew ".
We come now to the Vedic religion. The earliest
hymns are ‘racy of the soil’; there is little, if any,
remembrance of the time when the Aryans lived
beyond the great mountains that form the northern
battlement of India. The religious thought of the
Vedic poets is deeply affected by their environment.
Varuna, the god of heaven, is still a mighty being and
possessed of high moral attributes; but a very different
deity has begun to overshadow him. Indra, the god
of the lower sky—the region of cloud and storm—is
now spoken of as Supreme, and the lofty, supersensuous
attributes of Varuna begin to pass out of view.
* In the parable of Jotham (Judges ix. I 3) wine is said to ‘cheer God
and man.”
RECAPITULATION 2O3
Deities multiply, yet slowly; the Veda generally
speaks of them as ‘thrice eleven.” None has any
ethical character except Varuna. The worship is
mainly nature-worship. Every part of nature is re-
garded as divine ; while there is some conception of
nature as a whole: so that we have polytheism, and
the commencement of both pantheism and fetishism.
Everything connected with religious rites becomes
also sacred, divine; thus, the Soma juice is now a
god—and one of the mightiest gods. Worship is
highly ritualistic. Sacrifice is both eucharistic and
propitiatory; it has developed in extent and deepened
in meaning, and mystical ideas gather thickly round
it. Sacerdotalism has commenced ; the selection and
arrangement of the hymns has been mainly made by
priestly hands. Domestic worship still retains a high
place; but there are great public celebrations made
in the open air, which require a vast array of sacri-
ficers, singers, and assistants. As the ceremonies
become more complex, and the knowledge of the old
language gradually fades, these men grow into a
priestly caste. The “men of prayer’ thus begin to be
exalted above their fellows; and a foundation is laid
on which posterity will build the great structure of
Brahmanism. It is almost exclusively for temporal
benefits that the deities are approached. Thus the
ethical character of the Vedic faith is decidedly low.
The preceding remarks apply to the Rig Veda ;
but we have also to take into account the Atharva.
Deterioration must have gone on rapidly; for the
latter book cannot well be more than a few hundred
years later than the former, and yet the far greater
2O4 HINDUISM
number of its hymns stand morally on a much lower
level than those of the more ancient work. We may
indeed explain the inferiority of the one collection to the
other, by supposing that there existed from the begin-
ning two forms of the religion—the higher being em-
bodied in the Rig Veda, and the lower in the Atharva.
But that corruption did go on is unquestionable ; and
when the Atharva, in process of time, was put in the
same place of honour with the more ancient hymns, it
became impossible to separate the better from the worse,
since all was alike divine'. The Atharva abounds in
incantations, imprecations, and prayers for the destruc-
tion of enemies. The Rig Veda acknowledges few or no
evil divinities; but the Atharva constantly deprecates,
by prayer and offerings, the wrath of demons. This
is a great descent from earlier conceptions.
The early ritual is unfolded to us in that part of
a Veda which is called the Brahmana. The earliest
can hardly be much older than the sixth century B.C.;
but the ceremonies which they explain and inculcate
may, in many cases, be more ancient. The Brahmanas
are intellectually very poor productions. The writers
were occupied with a round of ceremonies which
extinguished, or excluded, thought. The rites came
to be regarded as all in all ; the deities addressed
were of little importance in comparison. If the sacred
texts had been rightly uttered, and the sacred cere-
mony duly performed, the incantation was complete,
* Professor Max Müller is never a harsh critic of Indian thought or
institutions; yet one of his later utterances is the following: ‘That
the Veda is full of childish, silly, even to our minds monstrous con-
ceptions, who will deny ?” He evidently includes the Rig Veda in this
CellSll l’e.
RECAPITULATION 2O5
and the end was sure to be gained. Worship was
thus degraded into magic. The moral character of
the worshipper was of little or no consequence.
Towards the end of this period—perhaps about
5co B. C.—the doctrine of Transmigration began to
appear, and to exercise a continually deepening in-
fluence. This implied an immense departure from
earlier ideas. Asceticism also became prominent,
chiefly in connexion with the worship of the god
Siva. This had probably existed before ; but it
became more and more influential as Vedic con-
ceptions faded away.
A tendency to speculation—to musing rather than
to action—seems inherent in the Aryan mind; or else
it has been infused into it from very early days. The
growth of this tendency was kept in check during the
earliest period of the Aryan invasion of India ; but as
the Hindus steadily pressed eastward and southward,
following the course of the Jumna (Yamuna) and
Ganges, it began to assert itself. Moreover, excessive
ritualism necessitated a reaction. Speculation was
thus contemporaneous with ceremonialism. The de-
velopment of the latter was the work almost ex-
clusively of the Brahmans; but the former engaged
the minds of kings and other members of the Kshatriya
caste—probably even of the Vaisya, or third caste.
Still, it is probable that the leaders of thought were
generally Brahmans.
These hermit philosophers were no systematic
thinkers. Aspirations, guesses, rhapsodies—these are
all we get from them, perhaps all we could reasonably
expect. They did not mean to be heretical, and
2O6 HIVDUISM
they assumed the truth of the Vedic faith ; but their
whole strain of thought lessened the authority of the
established ritual. The ceremonies were well enough
for the vulgar; but there was another ‘way,’ far
nobler, for the truly wise to follow. That was the
way of knowledge.
The teaching of the Upanishads is not self-consistent;
but on the whole the current of thought is strongly
pantheistic. It maintains a spiritual unity, and gener-
ally regards all things else as mere appearance, un-
reality; the Soul being not really distinct from Brahm,
the One, the All. But Illusion, or Ignorance, is said
to be co-eternal with Brahm ; so that the doctrine is
Self-contradictory—asserting in the same breath one,
and two, eternal existences".
After the doctrine of the Upanishads seems to have
Come that of an original void, out of which all things
arose. This doctrine was formally enunciated in the
metaphysics of Buddhism. The fully developed
Sankhya doctrine of the existence of two eternal
agencies, Soul and Nature—a system essentially dual-
istic—was probably later in origin.
All along, there were schools of thought opposed to
the Orthodox—Sceptical and scoffing systems, which
ridiculed earnest thought and inculcated the pursuit
of worldly enjoyment. Among these the materialistic
School of the Charvakas was pre-eminent.
The formulated philosophy is usually said to consist
of six Darsanas or exhibitions,—which are arranged
* In the fully systematized philosophy Ignorance (or Illusion) is said
to be properly neither existent nor non-existent. In the Bhagavad Gita
-as we saw above—the same thing is asserted of Brahm.
RECAPITULATION 2O7
in pairs. These are the Nyaya and Vaiseshika ; the
Sankhya and the Yoga; and the former and later
Mimansa. Of these six the first two are closely
related, the latter being a kind of supplement to the
former. The Sankhya and Yoga agree in much ; but
the former is agnostic, while the latter acknowledges
a deity. Of the two Mimansas the former treats only
of Vedic interpretation, under heads logically arranged.
The latter, which is usually called the Vedanta (end,
or scope, of the Vedas), is a development of the
doctrine of the Upanishads; which, though containing
doctrines very different from the Hymns, had come
to be called a part of the Veda. Hence the name
Vedanta. The bracketing together of schools so
widely different as those of the two Mimansas is thus
intelligible.
The former Mimansa has thus no philosophical
doctrine. The later Mimansa inculcates a spiritualistic
pantheism, and requires separate consideration.
All the other systems seek to unfold the means of
attaining Salvation—that is, the emancipation of the
Soul. Salvation, they assert, can be attained only
through knowledge. All works, whether good or
bad, hinder salvation ; virtue is to be discarded as
earnestly as vice.
Vedantism is now by far the most prevalent system
of Indian philosophy; and it has affected the thinking
even of the common people so far as to make them
say that their souls are portions of God. It affirms
the existence of the sole Spirit or Self. There is no
material world save in appearance: it seems, but is
not. An eternal illusion or ignorance ‘projects its
208 HIVDUISM
appearance. The one Self is ‘intelligence and bliss’
(not an intelligent or blissful being). So the Vedantists
say, and try to think. The practical effect of such
thoughts (or words) is evil. A thorough-going
Vedantist looks on right and wrong as mere semblances,
and easily breaks through all moral restraints. Farther,
even a moral Vedantist must be all for himself. En-
deavour for the good of others is to him impossible;
he is entirely occupied with the effort to know and
feel his identity with the Self. Without any wish to
play on words, we are compelled to say he cannot
but be supremely selfish.
The lover of his kind cannot but be deeply saddened
by the spectacle of successive generations of men
dreaming life away in such unprofitable and foolish
dreams. To the sum of true thought Indian philo-
Sophy has contributed nothing that is of permanent
value. The great lesson which we have to learn from
it is the lesson of humility. In the review of all
those systems of philosophy—so contradictory, pre-
Sumptuous, and futile—what an emphasis of meaning
do the words of St. Paul receive : “After that, in the
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God,
it pleased God by the foolishness of the preaching to
save them that believe.” In the strength of its own
fancied wisdom the mind of India sought to scale the
heaven of heavens, and there blend itself with God.
Vain attempt But now a hand is outstretched from
the heaven of heavens to raise it to that height, and
SO impart to it a fellowship, yea a union, with Deity
more vital and more blissful than, in their wildest
dreams, the ancient sages ever ventured to conceive.
RECAPITULATION 209
So much for the philosophy, or esoteric faith, of
India. With regard to the popular system that still
reigns over nearly two hundred millions, we need not,
in this recapitulation, say much. The Puranas, in
which the orthodox system is embodied, have ex-
ceedingly little merit; they are tasteless and extra-
vagant productions. The faith which they inculcate
is an incongruous mixture of pantheism and polytheism.
The polytheism often runs into the grossest fetishism.
Each divinity has a history; but, for the most part, a
history of sin and shame. The fundamental distinction
between god and devil is not recognized; that is to
say, the characters and doings ascribed to the divinities
are often diabolical. The worship runs into endless
ceremonialism, which in most cases is as childish as
it is complex. Religion is transformed into magic.
Prayer is an incantation.
True, sects, and what we have called reforming
sects, dissatisfied with the orthodox system, have so
far modified it. The followers of Siva tend to extreme
asceticism and self-torture. The followers of Vishnu
have brought forward the doctrine of devotion ; but
in most cases the devotion is paid to Krishna, whose
worship leads necessarily to corruption. Viler practices,
as a part of religion, have flourished among the
followers of Vishnu than among almost any other
class of religionists. The Vallabhacharya sect affords
a conspicuous example of this.
Of the worship of the Sakti, as enjoined in the
Tantras, we need say nothing more ; it is painful even
to think of the moral degradation it involves.
These remarks may seem severe; and it may be
O -
2IO HINDUISM
contended that Christians can hardly do justice to
a faith so unlike their own as Hinduism is. Let me
quote then the testimony of a writer who cannot be
suspected of any bias in favour of orthodox Christianity.
Dr. Moncure Conway has visited India, and has seen
Hinduism with his own eyes. Of Hinduism as it
zwas he has a high opinion—far higher than we have ;
but we are now concerned with his estimate of
Hinduism as it is. He thus writes :
“When I went to the great cities of India . . . the
contrast between the real and the ideal was heart-
breaking. In all those teeming myriads of worshippers,
not one man, not even one woman, seemed to entertain
the shadow of a conception of anything ideal, or
spiritual, or religious, or even mythological, in their
ancient creed. . . . To all of them the great false
god which they worshipped—a hulk of roughly carved
wood or stone—appeared to be the authentic present-
ment of some terrible demon or invisible power, who
would treat them cruelly if they did not give him
some melted butter. Of religion in a spiritual sense
there is none. If you wish for religion, you will not
find it in Brahmanism.’
Coming from such a quarter, this is a terrible
indictment. We do not know that, in speaking of
Hinduism, any Christian missionary has used sterner
words. Yet assuredly such is the estimate which
every truth-loving man must form of the religion,
provided his eyes are open. The contemplation is
profoundly saddening.
“O miseras hominum mentes, O pectora caeca '
CHAPTER XIII
A ECAEAV7' H/AVD U RAEA'OR//EA’S
E have had occasion to refer to men who, in
- past ages, strove to purify Hinduism from
some of its more erroneous doctrines and debasing
rites. The most noted of these was Buddha ; but,
quite possibly, he was preceded by others whose
names are now forgotten.
We have above adverted to the interesting question
whether Christian ideas are incorporated in that
striking work the Bhagavad Gita, which has so
powerfully influenced the later Sanskrit literature.
Again, religious movements occurred in Southern
India from the ninth to the twelfth century, in which
we can trace with considerable probability not only
Christian, but Mohammadan, influences.
In the seventh century (about 639 A.D.), Christians
were welcome at the court of Siladitya, in Northern
India. We have also seen that, from about the
year I ooo, in Northern India, Islam, vehemently
iconoclastic and generally victorious in battle, exerted
a powerful influence on Hindu faith.
We must now come down to more recent days.
It was to be expected that the large influx of
Christian ideas, and Western ideas generally, which
O 2.
2I2 HINDUISM
has lately taken place, would powerfully affect
Hinduism. Christianity is advancing in some places
even rapidly; and, in every place where it is pro-
claimed, the progress is steady. The time when the
higher Hindus regarded with supreme contempt the
efforts of Christian teachers to proclaim the Gospel
has for ever passed away; although indifference may
still occasionally be professed. But the influence of
Christianity extends far beyond the circle of the
baptized. The Gospel is now performing among
the people of India that work which, before and
after the Christian era, was performed by ancient
Judaism among the inhabitants of the Roman
Empire. Speaking of the Jews, Seneca uses the
strong language: ‘The vanquished have given laws
to the victors'— Victoribus vict: leges dederunt. The
great conceptions which were entertained by the
Jews regarding God, and the Soul, and holiness, and
sin, and heaven and hell, could not but tell power-
fully on all thinking men. Even so in India at the
present day, wherever Christianity is preached, the
great truths in which it stands opposed to Hinduism
are steadily making way. The unity of God—the
evil of idolatry—the evil of caste—the goodness of
God—the surpassing elevation of the character of
Christ; a conviction, or half conviction, of these
and other fundamental verities is gradually extending
among the people. Ideas change before institutions.
Old customs moulder away but slowly, even when
the belief on which they were based has broken
down; but the mighty change goes on—silently, yet
irresistibly. The change commenced more than
RECENT HINDU. REFORMERS 2I3
a century ago in Bengal, in which the most noted
reformers of recent times have appeared.
The first of these innovators who attracted public
attention was Rammohun Roy, a Brahman, born in
the neighbourhood of Calcutta in 1774. He was,
from the outset, a man of inquiring mind ; and as
early as the age of sixteen he wrote a tract against
idolatry. Apparently the monotheism of Islam had
impressed him even before he knew much of Chris-
tianity. He had a good knowledge of Arabic and
Persian. The cruel practice of widow-burning called
forth his earnest opposition ; and he began to de-
nounce other cruel and superstitious observances as
corruptions of the ancient Hindu faith. To be a
reformer in those days entailed both obloquy and
persecution. His own nearest relatives were strongly
opposed to his revolutionary sentiments. Neverthe-
less he persevered. In 1814 he settled in Calcutta ;
and meetings were soon held in his house for the
discussion of religious subjects. In 1816 he published
in English a work on the Vedanta philosophy. In 1817
he began to study Christianity. In 1818 he published
a pamphlet against widow-burning. In Calcutta
he had frequent intercourse with missionaries and
other Europeans. He studied Greek and Hebrew,
that he might read the Bible in the original languages.
In 1820 he published a book with the remarkable
title—The Precepts of Jesus the Guide to Peace and
A/appiness. He often gave expression to the Con-
viction that the teachings of Christ were the best and
deepest he knew ; but he maintained that precious
truth was also contained in the ancient Hindu book,
2I4. HINDUISM
the Veda. It is important to remember that by the
Veda he meant the Upanishads—the philosophical
treatises appended to the Veda proper.
Meetings continued to be held at his house;
they were now weekly, and largely attended. In
January, I830, a hall for public worship was
opened. Every Wednesday extracts from the Vedas
(i.e. Upanishads) were read in Sanskrit, hymns sung
in Bengali, and a discourse was delivered, generally
in the same language. Caste, however, was to
Some extent maintained; the holy texts were
chanted by the holy men (the Brahmans) in an
adjoining room, into which none but Brahmans
could enter. The society called the Brahmo Somaj
—more correctly Brähma Samāj-was thus formed.
We may translate the name, Assembly of believers in
Bra/e/l.
The hymns sung at the meetings were usually of
Rammohun Roy's own composition. He was not
devoid of poetic sentiment, and he had much devo-
tional earnestness.
In November, 1830, being commissioned by the
Emperor of Delhi to proceed to England as his
envoy, he sailed for Liverpool, which he reached in
April, 1831. He was now a great man in public
estimation, having received from Delhi the title of
Raja. Much notice was taken of him both in
London and Paris. But health gave way, and he
died at Bristol in September, 1833 *.
* It is interesting to note that Rammohun Roy had continued to be
on very friendly terms with Christian missionaries, notwithstanding a
passage-at-arms which he had with Dr. Marshman of Serampore. When
RECENT HINDU REFORMERS 2I5
We have dwelt at considerable length on the events
in Rammohun Roy's history, because he occupied
a very conspicuous place as the pioneer of reform in
modern days, and because also of the high moral
courage which he exhibited in declaring his con-
victions even when he stood single against a host.
Intellectually, though by no means a small man, he
was still not so great as he was morally. He was
banished from his father's house : and even in
Calcutta he had to walk about armed—his life being
in danger. On some important questions he held
Opinions that were mutually irreconcilable ; or else,
from time to time, his views fluctuated . He never
was an orthodox Christian ; he did not believe in
miracles nor in the full divinity of Christ. But he
believed in Christ as divinely commissioned, and as
a Being whom God had ‘anointed and exalted above
all creatures and prophets.’ He even spoke of Christ
as ‘the Redeemer, Mediator, and Intercessor with
God on behalf of His followers, and held that He
will judge the world at the last day.
The cause for which Rammohun Roy had earnestly
IDr. Duff opened his educational institution in 1830, he received hearty
sympathy and very valuable help from Rammohun Roy. Dr. Duff and
his missionary associates took the deepest interest in his movements,
and showed him all possible sympathy in his trials. His earnest
pleadings against idolatry had aroused the most violent opposition ; and
even Europeans thought he was going too far. Speaking of this period,
he says: ‘This roused such a feeling against me that I was at last
deserted by every person except two or three Scotch friends, to whom,
and the nation to which they belong, I always feel grateful” (Zecture on
A’ajah A'ammohun Ā’oy, by Rev. Dr. K. S. Macdonald, p. 9).
* Such was the opinion of the late Rev. Krishna Mohun Banerjea—
himself a very distinguished reformer.
2I6 HIWDUISM
laboured suffered a great loss on his removal. But
in the year 1818, Debendernath Tagore, a young
man of great wealth and earnest character, had come
forward in the cause of religious reform. He joined
the Brahmo Somaj in 1842 (some say earlier), and
gave it a kind of constitution, introducing important
new rules. He preached in Bengali with equal
earnestness and eloquence. By 1844 the society was
fully organized. Every member now bound himself
to abandon idolatry and pray daily to the One God.
No distinct declaration had yet been made regarding
the authority of the Vedas; but it was felt that so
important a question must be decided. Four Brah-
mans were sent to Benares for the study of the sacred
books. In four or five years they returned to
Calcutta; and, after earnest discussions, the doctrine
of the infallibility of the Veda was rejected by Deben-
dernath and a majority of members in 1850. This
was a bold step—indeed, a radical revolution. He
published a short confession of faith, consisting of
four articles. The Brahmos discarded belief in any
written revelation, and declared the works of God
in nature a sufficient exhibition of truth and duty.
‘The rock of intuition’ began to be spoken of ; and
every attack made in Europe on what was called
‘book-revelation was eagerly repeated in India. In
fact, it would be a serious mistake to hold that the
changes we have been chronicling were spontaneous
movements of the Hindu mind. They seldom, or
never, were so.
But a new champion now appeared in the person
of Keshub Chunder Sen. He was born in November,
RECENT HINDU. REFORMERS 2I7
1838, not of a Brahmanical, but a Vaidya family—
the members of which were so far imbued with
English views, yet remained, in practice, Orthodox
Hindus. He received a fair English education. In
Carly life his ruling passion seems to have been
a desire of pre-eminence. Indeed, he never lost it.
By the year 1855 he had begun to interest himself
in reform ; and his whole character seems to have
deepened. He now gathered knowledge from all
sides, courting the society of Christian teachers. We
heard from his own lips that his religious views were
drawn in the first instance from the Bible and the
writings of Dr. Chalmers. But he read extensively;
and, among other books, he evidently studied the
writings of Theodore Parker, who for a time was
very popular in India. He joined the Brahmo Somaj
in 1857. Soon after this, Debendernath Tagore
returned to Calcutta after three years' absence, and
a mutual affection sprung up between him and
Reshub. The latter was pressed by his family to
conform to orthodox Hindu rites, but he firmly
refused. He taught a school in Bengali, and lectured
in English to the Brahmo Somaj, under Debender-
nath's patronage. In 1861 he abandoned all secular
work, resolving to devote himself to religious reform.
Up to a certain point his friend and patron could go
along with him. Thus, Debendernath allowed his
daughter to be married in 1861 without any idolat-
rous rites. Idolatry was rejected, and religious ritual
was remodelled. Debendernath farther agreed to
discard his own sacred thread. But here he drew
the line. Ancient customs not openly idolatrous he
218 HIWDUISM
would at all events allow. The friction between the
old man and the young became more and more
painful. Ardent, ambitious, self-reliant, Keshub was
uncontrollable; and when a marriage was celebrated
by him in August, 1864, between two persons of
different castes, Debendernath informed him that
their co-operation must cease. Keshub and his
friends were separated from the Somaj in February,
1866; and they formed a new society in November
of the same year. By August, 1869, they had built
and opened a new mandir—a place of worship—of
their own.
Since the separation, the original Somaj (Adi
Samaj) has been very little heard of. Raja Narayana
Bose, one of its leading members, has committed the
deplorable mistake of including the Tantras among the
recognized Hindu Scriptures. If the Adi Samaj has
moved at all, it has moved back towards orthodox
Hinduism ; and its influence in advancing practical
reform has not been appreciable.
Keshub now called his section ‘The Brahmo Somaj
of India. He gave public lectures—especially one
great lecture every year. That delivered in May,
I866, on 9esus Christ : Europe and Asia, attracted
much attention, and was believed to indicate on
Keshub's part a strong leaning to Christianity.
Another lecture, on Great Men, which was delivered
a few months later, implied a renunciation of some
of his advanced positions regarding Christ. He now
spoke of Him as only ‘the prince of prophets.’ His
followers largely shared his own ardour. Religious
festivals, attended with a large measure of excitement,
RECENT HINDU REFORMERS 2I9
began to be held—the first of them in November,
1867. The services contrasted strongly with the
languid worship of the old society. At the same
time, practical efforts in the direction of social reform
were energetically made. A Missionary Institute was
Set up. Much was accomplished on behalf of women.
A Female Normal School was established ; and in
March, 1872, a Native Marriage Act was passed by
Government, which legalized the union of two persons
of different castes, and fixed on fourteen as the
lowest age for the marriage of females. This was
a most important measure; for the custom of child-
marriages is one of the worst and most inveterate of
Indian ills. Further, it prohibited bigamy, and
allowed widows to remarry—two things of infinite
importance. Efforts were also made for the pro-
motion of temperance ; many of the younger
generation of Hindus, when educated, having yielded
to the temptation of drink. Before this, however,
Keshub had paid a visit to Britain. He did so pretty
early in 1870, and, in April of that year, a meeting
was called in London to welcome him ; in which
Dean Stanley, Lord Lawrence, Dr. James Martineau
and other distinguished men took part. He was also
granted a private interview with the Queen. He
was allowed to preach in a great many places of
worship connected with the Unitarians. Of orthodox
Christians he saw comparatively little.
By the year 1873 it was becoming plain that an
explosion among the members of the Somaj was
at hand. The autocracy exercised by Mr. Sen was
felt by many to be a heavy yoke. He believed
22O HINDUISM
in ‘Great Men’ as fully as Carlyle did in ‘Heroes”;
and from him, indeed, Keshub had drawn much of
his teaching on the subject. He held that, from
time to time, Divine Providence raises up men en-
dowed with special powers, and intended to introduce
new forms of religion; and he expected—if he did
not exact—the homage due to a teacher so commis-
sioned. Yet, all the while, his words disclaimed the
personal authority which he exercised. The murmurers
were in a minority, but the disaffection was steadily
increasing.
Regarding the Somaj and its doings, the language
employed by Keshub, and still more by his followers,
was always that of the loftiest self-assurance. Every
effort was called a victory, and celebrated in strains
of triumphant exultation. This tone of exaggeration
alarmed many of his friends outside as much as his
new ideas—though some of these were certainly
Strange enough.
He had instituted important practical reforms;
but to several innovations demanded by not a few
he was strongly opposed. He held that many were
rushing on too fast in the emancipation of women :
whose visible attendance at public meetings he dis-
liked as, at all events, premature. Perhaps he was
right ; but many Brahmos, and Brahmo ladies, thought
otherwise, and he was obliged to give in. Keshub
had loudly complained that, in the management of
the original Somaj, Debendernath had been an
irresponsible dictator. It soon came to be widely
whispered that he himself was equally exclusive.
The crisis which was certain to come arrived in 1878,
RECENT HINDU REFORMERS 22I
when Mr. Sen's daughter was married to the Raja
of Kuch Bihar. The bride and bridegroom were
both somewhat under the age which had been fixed
as the earliest allowable by the Brahmo Marriage
Act, which he himself had been mainly instrumental
in getting passed. Vehement remonstrances were
addressed to him ; and a party proposed his deposi-
tion as minister of the Brahmo Mandir. Keshub
called in the police, and only by their aid was he
able to keep possession of the building.
A great revolt from his authority immediately
succeeded ; and the Sadharana Brahmo Somaj was
regularly constituted on May 15. An appeal had
been made to the provincial societies; and no fewer
than twenty-one of these, consisting of fully four
hundred members, male and female, joined the new
body. This number amounted to fully two-thirds
of the whole. It must have been a terrible blow
to Mr. Sen. He and his friends denounced the rebels
in very bitter language; and the strife became
scandalously hot. “The irony of fate ’ was in it;
the Brahmos had often reprobated the divisions
among Christian churches; and now ‘the church
of the future, as Keshub had begun to denominate
the Somaj, was carrying on civil war, and with
poisoned weapons.
In calmly looking back on the struggle, it is
plain that both sides were to blame. The seceders
took the unkindest view of everything Keshub did,
and attributed it to sordid motives. On the other
hand, although not always wanting in power of
accommodation, he scornfully tossed aside all remon-
222 HINDUISM
strances, and declared himself guided in the whole
proceeding by an express intimation of the will of
Heaven.
In one point of view, the great secession was a
relief to Mr. Sen. Men of abilities equal, and educa-
tion superior, to his own, had hitherto acted as
a drag on his movements. He was now freed from
their interference, and could deal with his remaining
followers as he pleased. Though undoubtedly there
were among these some able men, yet their admira-
tion of the leader was unbounded ; and perhaps they
hardly sought to check his inventiveness. Ideas that
had been working in his mind now attained rapid
development.
Within two years (in 1880), the old name of the
Society was changed into that of the ‘New Dis-
pensation.” In a public lecture regarding this new
creation, Mr. Sen used very daring language. He
claimed equality for it with the Jewish and Christian dis-
pensations—nay, virtually, if not formally, Superiority;
and for himself a Divine commission and “singular'
authority. “When men,” said he, “are hopelessly
gone in the way of misery and ruin . . . it is then
that Providence sends to the world one of those men
whose life has been sold to His almighty will.” Such
a man he fully believed himself to be. This con-
viction steadily deepened. In 1888 the organ of
his sect declared that the ‘New Dispensation could
have no religious union with those that ridicule
the inspiration of Keshub Chunder Sen.’ He de-
scribed the New Dispensation as ‘the harmony of
all scriptures and prophets and dispensations; . . .
RECENT HINDU REFORMERS 223
the science which finds, and explains, and harmonizes
all religions.” Its function, as Mr. Sen understood
it, was certainly a marvellous one. “It gives to
history a meaning, to the action of Providence a con-
sistency, and to successive dispensations a continuity.
. . It is the wonderful solvent which fuses all dis-
pensations into a new chemical compound.’
As Mr. Sen expressly put it, all religions are true.
He did not say merely that there is truth in all.
The two propositions are, of course, widely different.
Much of a rhetorician and a poet, he never was
an accurate thinker ".
In May, 1879, Mr. Sen had expressed himself in
remarkable words regarding the claims of Christ.
“None but Jesus, none but Jesus, none but Jesus
ever deserved this precious diadem, India ; and none
but Jesus shall have it.' Such language, of course,
arrested attention in Europe, and awakened high
expectations. But the Jesus of whom Mr. Sen spoke
so earnestly was an imaginary being, and not the
historic Christ. And notwithstanding his continual
cry for catholicity, this conception became more and
more one-sided—more and more national. The real
Christ is neither Asiatic nor European ; He realizes
the highest ideal of humanity. The Christ to whom
Mr. Sen seemed more and more to turn was an
Asiatic, a Hindu–a Hindu ascetic—in fact, a yogi.
Every Christian belief and rite Mr. Sen, in like
* The Sunday Mirror, the organ of the Society, stated the matter
thus: “Our position is not that truths are to be found in all religions,
but that all the established religions of the world are true.” This was
in Oct. I 881.
224 HINDUISM
manner, contrived somehow to Hinduize. Was all this
from policy, or was his mind beginning to give way P
It seems strange that the name of Christ does
not occur in the formally enunciated Creed of the
New Dispensation (1880). It inculcated belief in
the following articles:
I. One God, one Scripture, one Church. 2. Eternal
progress of the soul. 3. Communion of prophets
and saints. 4. Fatherhood and Motherhood of God.
5. Brotherhood of man and sisterhood of woman.
6. Harmony of knowledge and holiness, love and work,
yoga and asceticism, in their highest development.
7. Loyalty to Sovereign.
This strange summary suggests many questions ;
but we content ourselves with remarking that it
contains no reference to Sin or Redemption, any
more than to the name of the Redeemer. All along
Mr. Sen had spoken earnestly of the Fatherhood
of God and Brotherhood of Man ; although assuredly
it was to Christianity, not Hinduism, he owed these
great conceptions. He now added the ‘sisterhood
of woman, and the ‘Motherhood of God.' I pre-
sume he drew this last item from his old favourite,
Theodore Parker; but he probably would have called
it a repetition, or exaltation, of the old Hindu belief
that there is a female counterpart of every divinity.
Some have said that it was probably introduced with
a view to conciliate the worshippers of Durga and
Kali—those great goddesses of Bengal. If it was
for the latter reason, Mr. Sen doubtless would have
said that there is an element of truth even in the
worship of these sanguinary deities.
RECENT HINDU REFORMERS 225
No modern sceptic could be more intolerant of
what he called dogma. “Who would stumble on, cried
he, “with the huge millstone of lifeless dogmas hanging
round his neck P’
As early as 1868 a great leaning to Ritualism
had been noticed in the services of the Somaj;
and this had gone on ever increasing. Under the
New Dispensation it became altogether extravagant.
A public proclamation was now issued, purporting
to be from God as ‘India's Mother.’ The whole thing
was startling; and many, even of Keshub's friends,
declared it to be really, if unintentionally, profane.
Next, in the ‘Flag Ceremony” on January 30,
1881, the flag or banner of the New Dispensation
received a homage which was barely distinguishable
from adoration.
One of the great deities in the Veda is Agni
(ignis), the god of fire ; and the ceremonies con-
nected with this ancient worship retain a high place
in Hinduism to this day. It was painful to see
the New Dispensation give its sanction to it in the
following way. A pile of wood was lighted ; clari-
fied butter, such as the old Rishis used, was poured
upon it, and prayers were addressed to it, ending
in these words, “O brilliant Fire, in thee we behold
our resplendent Lord.” In a land wedded to idolatry,
as India is, such things were fearfully perilous.
In March, 1881, Mr. Sen and his friends introduced
celebrations in imitation of the two Christian Sacra-
ments. To all Christian minds this was unspeakably
distressing; yet we are far from saying that Mr. Sen
intended anything like mimicry. He had noted the
P
226 - HINDUISM
beauty and solemnity of the rites of Baptism and
the Eucharist; and he imagined he could secure
what was essential in them in a way more in accor-
dance with Indian usages". Instead of bread and
wine he employed rice and water. Round both were
flowers and leaves. He read part of the twenty-
second chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke ; but, in
the prayer which he offered, there was no reference
whatsoever to the death of Christ, or to the com-
memorative character of the Eucharist. But we
cannot dwell on this part of the subject; even the
few things we have mentioned will deeply pain our
readers, as assuredly they do ourselves. It is strange
that Mr. Sen never seems to have thought that
Christians could be offended by this parody of an
awfully solemn rite. Other institutions followed,
mostly copies of Christian ones. One of the most
notable of these was the Apostolic Durbar, or Court
of Apostles, who were to be the commissioned heralds
of the New Dispensation.
An attached friend and adherent of Keshub—Mr.
P. C. Mozumdar—wrote in August, 1881 : ‘Keshub
is continually becoming more metaphysical and more
mystical. . . . Recently he has very much given
himself up to symbolism. There has been a good deal
of flags, flowers, fires, and sacraments of all kinds ".’
In 1882 Mr. Sen gave a lecture entitled ‘The
Marvellous Mystery—the Trinity.’ There was im-
* As the organ of the New Dispensation expressed it, ‘The ceremony
of adapting the sacraments to Hindu life was performed with due
solemnity.’
* Max Müller's Biographical Assays, p. 154.
RECENT HINDU REFORMERS 227
measurable presumption in the way he dealt with
this profoundest of mysteries. He said, ‘Europe be
silent while a humble Asiatic discourses on the doctrine
of the Trinity.’ He then propounded a theory closely
akin to the heresy called Sabellianism.
In 1882 he also introduced dancing into the service
of his church. ‘The shout, the gallop, and the joyous
whirl round and round went on, till the space in front of
the pulpit “became hot as a furnace. Next, in January,
1883, Mr. Sen delivered a public lecture on Asia's
message to Europe. This was the last time he spoke
publicly in English. We had seen him shortly
before in a private interview ; and hopes of his future
usefulness, which had begun to fade, had been some-
what revived by the way in which he had expressed
himself. But the lecture was in no way satisfactory.
For one thing, it was too evident that Keshub's
powers were ſailing. There was no fire, no rush of
feeling, in his utterance; there was fluency, but no
real eloquence. And the great ruling sentiment of
the lecture was that Asia is the mother-land of
religions; that Europe must accept what has been
given to Asia ; and that the thing requisite to con-
stitute the faith of the future—the religion of humanity
—is the blending of all the systems into one. One
could not help thinking what the prophet Elijah
would have said, if he had been told that Baal and
Jehovah were two forms of one divinity. Could the
speaker himself really hold that the stupendous fusion,
or confusion, he recommended was desirable or pos-
sible P He had said, when in England in 1870,
Hinduism has degenerated into a most horrid and
's- P 2
228 HIWDUISM
abominable system of idolatry and polytheism ; ’
was that his opinion still 2 If he meant that the
religions to be fused together, ‘into a new chemical
compound,' should first be purified from their cor-
ruptions, why did he not say so 2 Many came away
from the exhibition Sad at heart".
He had now really begun to apologize for idolatry:
“Every idol worshipped by the Hindus represents an
attribute of God.” This was said in August, 1880.
I do not profess myself fully able to understand
Mr. Sen's character. I by no means tax him with
insincerity; but I found it difficult to reconcile his
private and public utterances, and I was startled by
a reference he made, in another private interview, to
his ‘policy.” Yes, he was politic, and, at the same
time, wildly visionary. I have spoken of an interview
I had with him shortly before the lecture just referred
to. Two missionary friends were with me. Our
conversation extended over two hours; and all the
characteristic truths of Christianity were considered,
such as the Trinity; the Divinity of Christ; the
atonement wrought by Him ; salvation by faith in
Christ; regeneration and sanctification as effected by
the Holy Spirit; communion with God and Christ;-
and on these great doctrines none of us could discover
any palpable difference between Keshub’s views and
* On August 5, 1882, Keshub wrote to Prof. Max Müller: “There
was a time when an aggressive warfare had to be kept up, and we had
to put down idolatry with iconoclastic fury. But the New Dispensation
is a work of construction. It fulfils, does not destroy ; it builds, does
not demolish.’ Translating this into plain English, does it not mean
that henceforth he would tolerate idolatry? We must ask again: Was
this said from policy, or was Keshub's mind giving way?
RECENT HINDU REFORMERS 229
our own. Two points, indeed, remained on which the
diversity was great. He did not believe in miracles;
therefore not in the bodily resurrection of Christ.
But the whole interview was deeply solemn ; and, at
the end, we all united in prayer for Divine teaching.
None of the survivors can forget that remarkable
cvening and the brotherly fellowship which we all had
together.
It is only right to say that Mr. Sen's references to
missionaries were ever kind and friendly. He had
controversies with some of them ; and, on several
occasions, his Brahmo shield was pierced by the
Christian spear . But the sense of defeat never
ruffled his temper. He said when in England,
‘Honour, all honour, to that sacred band of energetic
and self-sacrificing missionaries who have gone out to
India on a sacred mission. Honour, all honour to
them.’ And all honour, say we, to the Brahmo leader
who, both in England and India—and sometimes in
opposition to the feeling of his audience—could utter
such sentiments as these.
After the death of Mr. Sen there was a great
misunderstanding between his family and the so-called
‘Apostolic Durbar’ on the one side, and some of his
old followers on the other—particularly Mr. Protap
C. Mozumdar. Mr. Mozumdar is closely connected
with Mr. Sen’s family, but was unable to fall in with
the extravagant veneration with which they and the
“Durbar’ cherished Keshub's memory. They held
his pulpit too sacred to be entered by any other
* His especial opponents were the Rev. Lal Behari Day and the
Rev. Dr. Dyson.
230 HIWDUISM
person—it must remain unoccupied ; the carpet on
which he stood in the Mandir (church) was treated as
a sacred object; indeed, what amounted almost to
relic-worship appeared in connexion with the me-
morials of Keshub.
We have traced the career of Mr. Sen with attention ;
but it is not needful that the later history of the ‘New
Dispensation 'should occupy us long,
Before Keshub's death bitter disputes had arisen
among its members. ‘They pierced his heart and
made it bleed profusely. After his death the dis-
putcs continued, and even increased. Mr. P. C.
Mozumdar has contended earnestly for the rights of
the Congregation, in opposition to the despotism of the
‘Apostolic Durbar. Of late there has come a very
unhappy change—a return to Vedantism ; and this is
expressly avowed. As our readers have already scen,
the doctrine of the Vedanta is wholly pantheistic.
Very recently the leaders have invited a Unitarian
missionary to visit Calcutta; but they disclaim any
desire to be considered as united, or even closely
connected, with him. We are sorry for this. With
all its sad defects, Unitarianism is far in advance of
the present tenets of the ‘New Dispensation.’
The Sadharana Somaj, which broke off from
Keshub's party in 1878, is—or at least was—a body
of considerable influence. It has perpetrated no
follies, and keeps clear of mysticism. As a reforming,
philanthropic Society, it has done good. It has gone
farther in what it would call the emancipation of
woman than Keshub’s party has done, or is likely to
do. This Somaj began modestly enough. At first
RECENT HINDU REFORMERS 23I
it promised well; but it soon grew almost as boastful
as Keshub's party. Ere long, however, the language
became that of mortification and defeat. Disputcs
also arose; and leading members quitted the Somaj.
in disgust. We hear little about it at present.
We desire to speak with much respect of the two
Original leaders of this Somaj. One of them was
a graduate of Cambridge and a Calcutta barrister—
an able, thoughtful man. The other was a Brahman,
well acquainted with English, and also possessed of
no small measure of Sanskrit lore.
Both the Sadharana Somaj and the New Dispensa-
tion have been affected of late years by what is called
a ‘revival of Hinduism.’ There is nothing to surprise
us in this movement. No reasonable man expected
Hinduism to expire quietly. The orthodox party—
a very large party indeed—are in alarm. Christianity,
open and avowed, advances steadily, if perhaps slowly;
and ideas that are traceable to Christianity seem to
pervade the air. Orthodox Hindus, therefore, fight
vehemently against the invader, and, even when they
fear that the ancient creed is (to use a Brahman's
words) ‘sick unto death,’ they earnestly strive to
cherish and prolong its sinking life.
These are the men of whom not a few join the
National Congress, to contend for political privileges,
while they bitterly oppose every reform, social or
religious. A more enlightened party desire Social,
and to some extent religious, reform ; but at the same
time they have no kind feeling towards Bible Chris-
tianity; and the ill-omened words may sometimes be
heard from their lips, ‘Our national religion.’ This
232 HINDUISM
they imagine, if stripped of its grosser parts, with
gleanings from Christianity, might still serve as a faith
for India. Our remarks apply specially to Bengal,
but they are largely true of India generally".
Movements not unlike that of the Brahmo Somaj
have occurred in other parts of India. One of the
earliest attempts at reform was made in Bombay from
about the year 1846, by Mr. Dadoba Pandurang.
He and his friend Mr. Nana Narayan, as well as his
brother—now the esteemed Dr. Atmaram Pandurang
—and Mr. Ramachandra Balkrishna, had much inter-
course with missionaries; two of the four, indeed,
asked to be received into the Christian Church by
baptism, though they afterwards drew back. It was
in or about the year mentioned that Dadoba Pan-
durang, who was superintendent of the Government
Normal School, formed the Parama hansa Sabha,
which was a kind of eclectic society. The members
met Once a week, and commenced their proceedings
with prayer. They pledged themselves to disregard
the distinctions of caste. Branch societies were formed
at four or five out-stations, and the society was some-
what lively for a time. It became extinct in 1860.
But about 1850, an association more distinctively
religious had been formed in Bombay under the name
of the Prarthana Sabha, or Prayer Union. The main
articles enumerated in its constitution were the
following: -
I. I believe in one God. 2. I renounce idolatry.
3. I will do my best to lead a moral life. 4. If I
* Consult Dr. Murdoch's interesting paper, Zhe Brahma Sama, and
o/her Modern Eclectic Systems in India.
RECENT HINDU REFORMERS 233
Commit any sin through the weakness of my moral
nature, I will repent of it and ask the pardon of God.
The Society, after some time, began to languish ;
but in 1867 it was succeeded by the Prarthana Somaj,
which still exists in Bombay, with branches in Poona,
Ahmedabad, Surat, and a few other places. Able
men have joined the Somaj, such as Professor Bhan-
darkar and the Hon. G. M. Ranade. Doubtless
there are differences among the members in their
feelings; but the glowing tributes which Mr. Sen
Sometimes paid to Christ and Christianity seem
unknown in the Prarthana Somaj. Brahmanical
intellect mainly rules it. Its religious hymns are
largely drawn from the writings of the Marathi poet,
Tukaram—the idolatrous portions being left out.
It is very difficult to say whether the Prarthana
Somaj is making progress. Their organ complains
from time to time that it is advancing so slowly.
There are several branches of the society in the
cities of Western India. The programme of the annual
conference held in March, 1896, is before us. The
meetings lasted ten days. The most notable point
of the whole was a ‘love-feast (a name borrowed
from Christianity), in which about fifty men—men
only—seem to have participated. They were eager
to explain that all the food had been cooked by
Brahmans. There was then no breach of the rules of
caste; to these they still submit, though, we presume,
they despise them.
A similar movement, not powerful yet interesting,
has taken place in Madras. Mr. Sen paid a visit to
the city of Madras in February, 1864, and produced
234 HINDUISM
a deep impression by his lectures. Shortly afterwards
a society was formed under the name of Veda Somaj,
in connexion with which weekly lectures were held,
and considerable activity exhibited. Branches were
formed in various cities of Southern India. By 1868
the leading men in the Society had passed away, and
a reconstruction took place under a young man whose
name deserves special notice—Sridharalu Naidu. He
had been impressed by what he had heard of the
Brahmo Somaj in Bengal, and resolved to study the
system at head quarters. His means were scanty, and
it was with difficulty he could make his way to Calcutta.
After about eight months' earnest inquiry into the
principles of the Somaj, he returned to Madras, and
in June, 1871, formed ‘The Brahmo Somaj of Southern
India.’ The Somaj sent a memorial to the Viceroy
in favour of the Brahmo Marriage Bill ; and when it
had passed the Legislative Council, Sridharalu per-
formed the first Brahmo marriage in September, 1871.
He was diligent in the use of the press, and in making
missionary tours. The record of his doings leaves on
the mind the impression of a single-eyed, earnest man,
who nobly devoted his life to the prosecution of high,
unselfish ends. Our so-called Indian reformers have
often been mere talkers; but he was a true reformer,
and his deeds were in accordance with his words.
The funerals of former sectaries of the Madras
Society had been conducted with idolatrous rites;
but, before his death, Sridharalu wrote with his own
hand the words: “My funeral should be simple, with
only Brahmic prayers.’ He died in January, 1874.
His successor survived him only a year; and the
RECENT HINDU REFORMERS 235
Somaj did very little till 1878. Then a dispute arose
between one party which accepted the views of the
‘New Dispensation' of Calcutta and another which
allied itself with the Sadharana Somaj. A split took
place in 1882. Since that time neither of the two
branches seems to have accomplished or even at-
tempted much.
Another remarkable movement of the Indian mind
has been exhibited in the formation of what is called
the Arya Somaj. Its founder was a Gujurati Brahman,
born in Kathiawar. His father was a devoted wor-
shipper of Siva, and taught his son to be the same.
The son was of an inquiring turn of mind, and soon
began to doubt whether the idols were real deitics.
He paid much attention to the Vedas. The sudden
death of a sister led him to serious thoughts about
the world to come. His father was preparing to get
him married ; and, to avoid this, he fled from home—
was recovered, but again escaped. Ere long he
joined the order of religious mendicants called San-
nyasi, receiving the name of Dayananda Sarasvati.
He continued to travel about for years, still intent
on acquiring religious knowledge. Iły the year 188o
the man and his opinions began to attract public
attention. By this time he had come to see that
only the Hymns of the Veda could be received as
fully authoritative, since the Brahmanas and Upani-
shads (the ritual and philosophical treatises) contained
much that was wrong, or at least doubtful. He
declared that the Hymns taught strict monotheism
—the many names, Agni, Indra, and all the rest
being various designations of one being. Idolatry he
236 HIWDUISM
renounced. He said he found in the Vedic Hymns
express references to many principles and facts which
only modern Science has discovered.
The Hymns, as we saw when treating of the Veda,
certainly do not countenance idol-worship ; but the
hope of Dayananda to prove them monotheistic was
founded on a delusion—as much so as the attempt,
which he also made, to read the latest discoveries of
science in them. All real Sanskritists scouted these
ideas as preposterous ; it was a desperate effort to
save the reputation of the Veda at all hazards.
Dayananda carried on disputations, like the schoolmen
of medieval times, in many places: and his eloquence
secured a following of young men who were not well
acquainted with ancient Hindu literature. But at
a great convocation of learned Brahmans in Calcutta,
his views—in so far as they differed from the ordinary
belief—were declared to be unsound. This was a
heavy blow ; nevertheless the indefatigable Pandit
continued travelling, lecturing, publishing, till he died
in Rajputana, in October, 1883, at the age probably of
fifty-nine.
The Arya Somaj still lives, and flourishes perhaps
more than any other modern offshoot of Hinduism.
It professes to accept the teaching of Dayananda.
The Hymn-book of the Arya Somaſ, as published
in London in 1886, contains first the Gayatri,
badly transliterated in Roman characters, with a
long ‘Explanation,’ which gives a very wrong view of
the meaning of that celebrated text. Then come
twenty pieces that may be called religious hymns.
These are compositions chiefly of Watts, Cowper,
RECENT HINDU REFORMERS 237
and Montgomery. There are five other poetical
pieces, purely patriotic. Two of them must have
been composed by imperfectly educated Hindus,
for they are very faulty in rhyme, rhythm, and ex-
pression. Then follows a hymn in Roman characters,
with an English version. The whole ends with a
statement, in eight short clauses, of the principles
of the Arya Somaj. In no part of the book is there
any mention of the name of Christ.
To a certain extent Dayananda was a reformer. He
rejected the system of caste and image-worship. He
forbade child-marriages, and allowed widows to remarry.
We believe the Arya Somaj, in these points, adheres
to the views of its founder. They are important
points undoubtedly. But unhappily the members
of the Somaj are among the most violent opponents
of Christianity. Clamour and insult would seem to
be their favourite weapons in dealing with Christian
missionaries".
We have lately heard of a great dispute in the
Arya Somaj of the Punjab. One party sees no sin
in eating animal food ; the other is strongly opposed
to it.
The Bombay branch seems equally hostile to the
Prarthana Somaj and to Christianity.
The state of things in the East has perhaps been
in so far affected by the remarkable assembly held
at Chicago in 1893. Representatives of nearly every
kind of religious belief were there. Most of the
Orientals came arrayed in quaint, picturesque attire ;
and they attracted, of course, immense attention.
* See The Arya Somay, by the Rev. H. Forman.
238 HINDUISM
‘Foreigners,’ says an American paper, ‘were in
demand ; ' and curiosity was whetted to its sharpest
edge.
We have no desire to speak slightingly of the
‘Parliament of Religions.’ It is true that most of those
who had any knowledge of the Eastern mind were,
from the outset, very doubtful of the expediency of
the movement; but, to others, it naturally seemed
a reasonable hope that, if men came together in
a friendly spirit to compare their different religious
beliefs, the gain would be appreciable. We do not
know, however, that the hope has been fulfilled.
We fear the men from the East mistook the
politeness with which they were received as guests
for sympathy with their opinions. Very singular, at
all events, have been the accounts they have trans-
mitted to Asia regarding the effect of their expositions
of the Oriental creeds. They had carried the war
into the enemy's country, and were everywhere
victorious ! America, as some of them wrote, was
tired of Christianity
Without disrespect to others, we may select Mr.
P. C. Mozumdar as a representative of the truly
advanced and intelligent Hindus. He said, ‘Repre-
sentatives of all religions, may all your religions
merge in the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood
of man, so that Christ's prophecy may be fulfilled, and
mankind become one kingdom under God as our
Father.' Excellent, so far.
But Mr. Protap Chunder Mozumdar seems to have
made much less impression than a young man who
has assumed the honorific title of Swami—a step which
RECENT HINDU REFORMERS 239
Mr. Sen never ventured to take. Mr. Mozumdar
appeared in plain Western dress; the Swami stood
arrayed in all the colours of the rainbow. The ladies
clustered round him in admiration.
We need not dwell on the Swami’s teaching. Let
one specimen suffice. ‘Ye are the children of God ;
the sharers of immortal bliss ; holy and perfect beings.
Are you, divinities on earth, sinners ? It is a sin to
call men so. This is Neo-Hinduism with a vengeance.
We are truly sorry for the man who can thus trifle
with his hearers and with deeply solemn questions".
* See Dr. Murdoch's tractate on Swami Vivekananda; published by the
Christian Literature Society. The warmest friends of Keshub Chunder
Sen were astonished and distressed by his later proceedings; for he had
completely departed from his earlier views. What could explain his
aberrations? had reason given way? It now turns out that latterly he
fell under the influence of a most extraordinary mystic, called Ramakrishna
Paramahansa. This man, according to Mr. P. C. Mozumdar, ‘accepted
the doctrines and practices of every religious cult.” Max Müller justly
says that there is ‘nothing so hideous as the popular worship of Kali.’
And yet Ramakrishna saw in Kali only the motherhood of God I See
a paper by Max Müller in Nineteenth Century for August, 1896. The
young man, ‘Swami Vivekananda,’ of whom we have been speaking, is
a disciple of this school. “All religions,’ says he, “are sacred to me.’
Yet this man is a B.A. of the University of Calcutta. How just was
Hegel's language—‘the dream-state of the Hindu mind ' .
CHAPTER XIV
SUM//l/.4/º V AAWD COAVC/ U.S/OAV
HE systems of reformed Hinduism to which
we have been adverting are all of them
interesting and instructive. We may also call them
hopeful—hopeful in the sense that they seem to be
transitional and preparatory. They form a middle
ground between Hinduism and Christianity, from
which more earnest souls will gradually find their way
to the Gospel.
But other systems of thought are at work in India,
on which we cannot look with any measure of com-
placency. Their presence was, doubtless, to be
expected ; but their influence is mainly, or wholly,
evil.
Thus, for a considerable time the works of Comte
were extensively read in India; and some, if not
many, professed to accept the tenets of Positivism.
One, however, hears little on the subject now.
But for several years past the people who call
themselves Theosophists have been bustling and
loquacious—most eager to be accepted as interpreters of
ancient Indian lore. As they are atheistic, their natural
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIO.V 24. I
ally is Buddhism ; but (unless our memory fails us)
they assert that esoteric Buddhism, esoteric Hinduism,
and esoteric Zoroastrianism all coincide"—a pro-
position that manifests gross ignorance on the part of
those who advance it. A lady—Madame Blavatsky—
was the moving spirit in this school ; but she professed
to be in communication with certain Mahatmas—
personages residing on the Himalaya mountains,
possessed of much occult Science and various astonish-
ing endowments. These gentlemen, in addition to
ordinary bodies, rejoice in astral ones (the nature of
which we cannot explain); and in these they reveal
themselves in very amazing ways to those who believe
in them and Madame Blavatsky. We have read a great
many numbers of the organ of this sect, The Theoso-
p/list, but there is much in it which we do not profess
to understand. One thing alone was plain—that the
lady and her coadjutor, Colonel Olcott, had determined
to oppose in every possible way the victorious march
of Christianity in India. It soon seemed, however,
as if the whole thing had collapsed. Another lady
who was associated with Madame Blavatsky came
forward and publicly declared that the letters and
appearances (astral bodies and all) of the so-called
Mahatmas were an imposture from first to last. As
one reads the evidence, the feeling of indignation is
quenched only in a sense of the infinitely ludicrous
character of the whole exhibition. Can such things
be in this scientific, nineteenth century of ours ? For
not a few believed, and some still believe, in the
* So it was certainly affirmed in Zhe Zheosophist.
Q
242 PHINDUISM
lady and her Himalayan sages. But, as Pascal said,
Æes incrèdules les plus crédules ".
To add to the terrible confusion of Indian
thought, books inculcating decidedly atheistic prin-
ciples are largely circulated. There has been for
years an atheistic propaganda, chiefly in Britain,
which supplies such publications as Mr. Bradlaugh's
to Indian students *. Of course Christians and Brahmos
make Common cause against such offensive pro-
ductions.
Such, then, is the strange conflict of opinion which
we now witness in India. It has often been noticed
that there is a remarkable similarity between the state
of religious belief in the Roman Empire in the first
and second centuries of the Christian era, and what
exists in India at the present day. There is doubtless
a striking similarity ; yet there is also a dissimi-
larity. For one thing, the obstacles to the spread
of Christianity in India seem decidedly greater than
they were in ancient Greece and Rome.
The population of India is more than double that
of the Roman Empire. In Greece and Rome there
were no books holding the position which is assigned
to the Sastras. In India religion is made to consist
of an infinite number of minute observances. Au-
* In exposing this amazing folly, and worse than folly, the Christian
College Magazine of Madras did important service.
* So also in Japan. It was a remarkable and touching thing to be
asked, as we were, by a Japanese theologian, whether it was not possible
for Christians and Buddhists to unite in an effort to repel the evil prin-
ciples inculcated by books sent from Britain and America. He belonged
to the Shin-shiu sect, which has exalted Amida Buddha to he rank of
Deity.
SUMMA R Y AND CONCLUSION 243
thority and ceremonialism have combined to crush
the religious consciousness. Caste is all but omni-
potent. The soul is in fetters. There is no individuality
in India. Farther, foolish and evil as much of ancient
Paganism was, it was not so wicked or SO childish as
modern Hinduism.
In the Empire a period of scepticism had been
followed by a reaction to superstition, which is trace-
able at least from the time of Augustus Caesar.
Eastern and Western beliefs then became strangely
mingled together; the blending which Keshub Chunder
Sen, in his later days, so earnestly contended for, was
begun. But the great fusion of creeds soon threatened
to turn out a great confusion, which only enhanced
the distress of truth-seeking souls.
Christianity had arisen, and was slowly advancing,
not in rural districts so much as in cities. In India
the advance of Christianity is witnessed both in cities
and in rural districts—rather more in the latter.
Judaism, also, as we have seen, was spread throughout
the Empire, and was to Some extent the forerunner
of the Gospel. In India the Gospel is its own
forerunner ; that is to say, the great truths of natural
religion which it republishes are widely accepted,
even while its distinctive doctrines are still repelled.
This is like the dawn preceding, and heralding, the
Sunrise.
One important point of difference between the ancient
Empire and India is the extent to which education
is carried—or likely to be carried—in the latter.
Education in its higher branches is entirely subversive
of Hinduism. As conducted in schools directly
Q 2
244 HINDUISM
connected with Government, it exercises on belief
an influence almost simply destructive. One must
watch with anxiety the extension of purely secular
instruction over India. Still, an infidel ſlation is
hardly conceivable; and Christianity must, ere long,
come in to fill the intolerable void. A national
system of education will involve, sooner or later,
a national renunciation of Hinduism.
Should infidelity spread widely in Europe, it is
certain that the conversion of India will be inde-
finitely delayed. But the signs of the times do
not seem to us to betoken the triumph of unbelief
in the West. Is there any real conflict now be-
tween religion and science 2 We think not. And
certainly the missionary spirit—which is essentially
a spirit of faith and love—is continually deepening
in Europe and America; and it will tell more power-
fully every year on the worn-out religions of the
East.
We are very far from affirming that such systems
as Brahmanism and Mohammadanism will soon
have wholly perished. In Europe the final triumph
of the Gospel came aſter a struggle of centuries; and
it may be so in India. Yet, on the other hand, the
Hindus are a gregarious people ; and they may,
ere long, begin to move in masses into the Christian
Church,--and probably, the lower classes first.
The case of Japan is in Some respects analogous
to that of India—though the former is accepting
Western thought with more rapidity than the latter.
It seems probable that Japan may soon profess itself
a Christian nation. Such a revolution would deeply
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 245
impress the minds of all educated men, and accelerate
the advent of a similar change in India'.
The last great attempt—apart from persecution—
to arrest the onward march of the Gospel in early
days, was made by the Neo-platonists—Plotinus,
Porphyry, and others. In several respects this school
resembled the Brahmo Somaj. Its philosophy tended
more and more to be a vast eclecticism—or rather
syncretism—in which the tenets of nearly all religions
and believing schools were run into one crude mass.
The reaction from a chilling scepticism (which was
itself a reaction from its opposite) carried them very
far into superstition. Philosophers began to talk of
ecstasy and raptures, and the felt, yea visible, presence
of Deity. In opposition to the Christian Church,
they excogitated a catholic church of philosophy,
speaking much of a ‘golden chain' of sages who had
all taught the same pure theology. How like is all
this to Mr. Sen's attempt to reconcile all systems
of belief! We must not, indeed, overlook one point
of difference. The Neo-platonists ignored Christ as
far as possible ; the New Dispensation has not done
So, though it too much projects a Christ of its own
devising. But in other respects the parallel is striking
and instructive. Neo-platonism failed, as the succes-
* It is also quite possible that the expectation of the Japanese Chris-
tians regarding India may yet be fulfilled—they may send missionaries
to help in its evangelization. ‘Tell the people of India, they said,
when we were among them some years ago, “to become Christians without
delay. If they do not, we must go and persuade them. They sent us
Buddhism. We shall more than repay the obligation: we shall give them
gold for brass—the pure doctrine of Christ for the mixed teachings of
Sakhya Muni.’
246 HINDUISM
sive forms of Gnosticism had failed ; and the march
of the Gospel was ever steadily onward. Even so,
the Brahmo Somaj, in all its forms, must fail. God
forbid that we should say this boastfully, or as if it
were only one school of human thought vanquishing
another | We know full well the exceeding reluctance
of India to adopt foreign systems of belief, and the
pride she takes in her own ancient sages. Well, we
do not ask her to submit to the reasonings of men ;
but we do beseech her to listen to the message of love
and reconciliation which Christ has brought from
heaven. And when she has done so, oh then let the
heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad ; for a new
day will have dawned both on India and the world.
And that thrice blessed consummation may not be so
far off as many say it is.
CHAPTER XV
A/ZA/D ("/S// COMPAA’/2/) IV/7// C ///0/S 7/4 AT/7')"
N the preceding pages we have had occasion from
time to time to draw a contrast between the
Hindu Sastras and the Bible ; and the difference
between these two books must not unfrequently have
suggested itself to the reader even when no express
comparison was made. But it is right to consider
this important topic at greater length.
The first thing that strikes us is the difference in
the size of the books. The Bible is composed of
about forty different compositions; but is not a large
work. The Sastras, though much smaller than the
authoritative Scriptures of the Buddhists, are yet
exceedingly voluminous. Many of them are written
in a style which even educated men find very difficult
to understand; and, if they have to be studied in the
original, only a very small part of them can possibly
be mastered by one man.
The component parts of the Sastras are, in some
respects, not unlike the component parts of the Bible.
Prose and verse are found alike in the Hindu and
Christian books. Hymns, as the expression of
devotional sentiment, abound in both scriptures.
#
&
248 PHINDU/SM
Ritual to regulate worship, and political and social
laws, form an important part of the Sastras and also
of the Hebrew Scriptures.
So far, in the form of composition, there is a
resemblance between the books. But the diversities
are immense. Science is largely introduced, and
authoritatively taught, in many of the Sastras; while
it is most sparingly introduced, and never authorita-
tively taught, in the Bible. Then, history, except in
the form of wild poetic legends, is absent from the
Sastras. So is prophecy—almost wholly so in its'
predictive form. There is, farther, nothing in the
Sastras corresponding to the epistolary portions of
the New Testament.
It is interesting to observe that both Hinduism
and Christianity can historically be divided each into
two great periods. The rise of Buddhism was a great
cataclysm in the history of Hinduism ; and the system
that was constructed on the fall of Buddhism was
widely different from the more ancient faith. So the
religion presented in the Old Testament is, in several
respects, different from the Christianity of the New
Testament. We believe, then, that we ought to com-
pare ancient Hinduism with the faith unfolded in the
Old Testament, and then contrast modern Hinduism
with Christianity. We do this, in order that we may
be thoroughly just to Hinduism ; since, for example,
it would not be fair to compare Vedic conceptions
with those of the New Testament, which were ex-
pressed a thousand years or so later. Yet let it be
remembered that, on the part of a Christian con-
troversialist, this concession is exceedingly large;
HIWDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY 249
inasmuch as, to an orthodox Hindu, the Veda
contains the supreme Revelation authoritative in all
ages, whereas the Christian believes in a progressive
Revelation, in which the earlier part is related to the
later as the flower-bud to the expanded flower.
We have seen that modern Hinduism differs widely
from the ancient faith. But in the ancient faith
itself there was no unity. It grew both by develop-
ment from within and by the accretion of foreign
elements from without. We have spoken above of
the startling contrast between the first and fourth
Vedas. But even in the Rig Veda—the oldest and
best—there is no consistency. We have in one place
Something like monotheism ; in another, the germ
of pantheism ; in a third, polytheism. The Upani-
shads, which are associated with the Hymns, contradict
each other; but with a strong tendency to pantheism,
which differentiates them from the earlier writings.
Gods went on multiplying with time; some wholly
unknown in the Veda assumed a high position, others
were degraded or even wholly disappeared. Institu-
tions changed ; thus, idol-worship and caste, which
were unknown at first, became universal.
On the contrary, though there was growth in
knowledge, one form of religious belief pervades the
whole Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi. Men
of the most varied ranks—from kings to herdsmen,
and during the long period of a thousand years—give
utterance to the same high thoughts regarding things
spiritual and divine. The Bible is not a collection
of units; it is one—an organic whole. The first verse
of Genesis expresses a grand conception which was
250 HINDUISM
also the belief of the latest of the prophets: “In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Progress, development, there was ; but never by the
absorption of foreign and incongruous elements. Event
Succeeded event, each full of instruction ; prophet suc-
ceeded prophet; clearer light was shed on the Divine
character and government; the mind of the people
was educated ; – but the old belief was never cast aside
—it was only more fully appreciated and more firmly
held. Clearly this wonderful unity is a convincing evi-
dence that the Old Testament is of Divine inspiration.
The one form of religious thought to which we have
been alluding is the strongest, strictest monotheism.
Polytheism is now, to any educated mind, an impossible
belief; but the monotheism of the nineteenth century
is not more absolute than that maintained by Moses
or Abraham, fifteen hundred or two thousand years
before the Christian era.
Again with regard to the character of God. The
deities in the Sastras are unmoral—often immoral.
Even in the Vedas they are so—the only deity to
whom moral excellence is ascribed being Varuna ;
and, as time went on, the gods became worse and
worse. They demand homage; when that is given,
they support their votaries through right and wrong.
On the contrary, the God of the Hebrew Scriptures
is pure–thrice holy; He is as much opposed to evil
as light is to darkness. Power, wisdom, and goodness
belong to Him in an infinite degree. Being holy,
He demands holiness in His worshippers. He
demands “truth in the inward parts’; and outward
homage, when the heart is impure, is a grievous offence,
HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY 25I
In the Vedic religion there was at first no image-
worship ; but in the course of generations it became
more firmly rooted among the Hindus than perhaps
in any other nation. Scattered over India there are
probably a full thousand millions of idols. In form
the divinities are often monstrous—in this, very
different from the gods of ancient Greece. Max
Müller somewhere speaks of ‘the hidden wisdom
of the second commandment.’ History testifies that
there is, at least in all earlier stages of religious
thought, a strong tendency to externalize religion,
and to surround it with symbols which, in common
minds, soon usurp the place of the thing signified.
The idolatry of India easily runs into the grossest
fetishism—than which there can be nothing more
debasing to the human mind. Now, few things in
the Hebrew Scriptures are more remarkable than
their perpetual, stern denunciations of idolatry.
Most wisely, and not too vehemently, did the
ancient prophets thunder against the worship of
images. The Jewish people, like other nations, were
long prone to yield to the sweet seduction of idolatry;
but the scathing denunciations of the prophets, and
also the strict discipline through which Divine
Providence made them pass, at length converted
them into a nation of earnest monotheists.
What we have said of discipline reminds us of
another important difference between Hinduism and
Judaism. The expression God in history is full of
significance. God reveals Himself in providence
as well as in the works of creation ; and few subjects
are more deserving of study than what is called ‘the
252 - HIWDUISM
philosophy of history.” Now, the Vedas and Upani-
shads contain no history; and the same thing holds true
of the philosophical books. They express thoughts,
not facts. In the Epic poems and Puranas what is
put forward as history stands self-convicted as the
lawless product of imagination. But how different
is the Bible ! Dean Stanley has justly said that
‘Christianity alone of all religions claims to be
founded not on fancy or feeling, but on fact and
truth.” In the Bible there stands recorded a long
and lofty succession of events, facts; and these fitted
to convey the most important lessons regarding the
Divine character and will. If the historical details
were struck out of the Bible, the loss would be infinite.
Deeds are often more significant than words. Ac-
cordingly, we find that the events recorded in the
earlier part of the Bible made a most profound im-
pression on the mind of the Israelites, not only at the
time, but during after ages. And they are full of
instruction still.
We have seen how Sacerdotalism, from exceedingly
small beginnings, gradually shot up in India into
rank luxuriance, and became a veritable Upas tree,
distilling poison. Nothing of this kind ever occurred
in Judaism. The priest held a place of honour, but
could not act the tyrant over the bodies or consciences
of men. Had the priests remained the only religious
instructors of the people, this would have been an
almost necessary result; and farther, religion would
have consisted mainly in external things—rites and
ceremonies. But in Israel the order of prophets
perpetually recalled the people to the inner soul
HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY 253
of religion—asking, ‘What doth the Lord require of
thee, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with thy God P’ The functions of the pro-
phetical order were thus of immense importance, both
for individuals and for the community. Milton
affirms of the prophetic writings—
“In them is plainest taught and easiest learnt
What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so,
What ruins kingdoms and lays cities flat.”
But in speaking of the prophets we can by no
means overlook the importance of their predictions.
The Bible speaks of past, present, and future. The
character of the references to futurity is truly re-
markable. While the prophets perpetually threaten
sinful men and sinful nations with chastisement from
the hand of God, they delight to dwell on the future
with exulting hope. They disclose a Divine purpose
—a purpose of mercy formed before the foundations
of the world were laid, running through the ages, and
steadily advancing towards a glorious consummation.
lºven when, to all human appearance, the cause of
God and the cause of man seemed lost, the prophets
of Israel never despaired of the future of the world.
All would come right at last. Heaven's high decree
should stand in spite of the rage of God's enemies;
and the heart of the long-sinful earth should beat at
last in full unison with the heart of heaven. Em-
phatically, the Bible is the book of hope. In this it
is entirely unlike the Hindu books. They are marked
by a despondency ever ready to darken into despair.
At present the Kali Yuga is advancing ; and the
world is plunging deeper and deeper into ignorance,
254 HIVDUISM
vice, and misery. The patriot may die for his
Country—the martyr for his God; but their doings
and sufferings are of no avail to stem the tide of evil.
True, after aeons of misery, the Age of Truth comes
back ; but it does so only to pass away again, and
torment us with the memory of lost purity and peace.
The experience of the world is thus an eternal reno-
vation of hope and of disappointment. Progress
towards abiding good there is none. The whole
conception which Hinduism forms of human life is
overwhelmingly sad. Hope for ourselves, and effort
for the good of others, are rendered impossible.
The summary of duty contained in the Decalogue,
as has often been observed, is singularly brief, clear,
and comprehensive. There is no summary in the
Sastras at all corresponding with it.
The rest of the Sabbath can be proved, on physio-
logical grounds, to be needful both for man and beast.
Politically, too—as Adam Smith has expressed it—it
is ‘of inestimable value.’ Its spiritual value is equally
inestimable, as producing a break amidst the en-
grossing avocations of life, and affording time for
calm reflection and the undisturbed worship of God.
But in Hinduism there is no such institution. Rest
to man and beast comes irregularly; at one time there
is too much of it, and at another too little.
It would be very instructive to compare throughout
the legislation of Manu with that of Moses. We
can notice only some outstanding points. One of
the most prominent things in Manu is the place
assigned to caste. Some men are held to be essen-
tially, and in virtue of their blood, pure ; others are
HIVDUISM AND CHRISTIAAVITY 255
neither pure nor impure ; others are cssentially, and
in virtue of their blood, impure. The idea of the
dignity of man as man would have been scouted by
Manu as utterly ridiculous". -
One becomes sick at heart when he thinks of what
Caste has done and is doing. Even politically it is
a curse. It goes on multiplying divisions; men of
the same caste, if from different localities, will not
cat with each other. Society splits and splits. All
feeling of brotherhood is destroyed; that of morality
is also destroyed ; and if the Hindus are ever to
become One nation, they must first cast off Hinduism.
On the contrary, the Hebrew legislation recog-
nized nothing resembling caste. All Israelites were
brethren—all equally children of Abraham ; ay,
Jehovah had said of Israel as a whole, without ex-
ception, ‘Israel is My son, even My first-born.” Such
a thought cm nobled a man, even the poorest man--
‘coelumque tueri
Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.”
It seems to us a truly remarkable fact that Jewish
legislation never warranted the use of torture. It
has been allowed in perhaps all other codes of law—
—and, in most, until of late—as a means of extracting
evidence and punishing crime. Whence this supe-
riority of Judaism P. Were the Jews humane above
Other races P No ; but their legislation was divine.
* The frightful extent to which the idea of birth-pollution is carried by
Brahmanism came fully under our notice in Southern India. Some high-
caste men said to the lowest classes : “We who are men cannot endure
the presence of such impure wretches as you. Do you think the gods will
allow you to approach them 2 They will kill you, if you do. You had
better make the best terms you can with the devils, and worship them.’
256 HINDUISM
We do not assert that the Mosaic institutions were
intended for all stages of advancement; but for
a society like that which existed in ancient Palestine
they seem the wisest possible. The Jews were
occupied partly with agricultural, partly with pas-
toral, pursuits. The land was divided among the
families according to their size, and it could not be
permanently alienated from its possessors. Owner-
ship and occupation of land generally went together;
the evils of absentee landlordism were unknown.
Extreme wealth on the one hand and pauperism on
the other were as far as possible guarded against.
The poor were few, and were sufficiently cared for.
Millionaires and “ lapsed masses’ seem to have been
equally unknown. Various perplexing questions re-
garding land-tenure which are hotly discussed in
the present day, were solved, or superseded, in
ancient Israel. Michaelis and other writers have
shown that, viewed even as sanitary and police regu-
lations, the Mosaic institutions were full of wisdom;
and the question has been repeatedly asked whether
the remarkable longevity of the Jews is not depen-
dent on the extent to which they are still able to
carry out these requirements.
In the various matters now mentioned Hindu legis-
lation was immensely inferior to the Hebrew.
It has been noticed that the position of women
in India, which was originally somewhat honourable,
became more and more degraded as time went on.
Gradually there came in such dreadful institutions
as the burning of widows—the prohibition of the
marriage of widows, and their cruel treatment—
HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY 257
child-marriages—polygamy—the practice of Kulin
Brahmans in Bengal marrying fifty or a hundred
wives. . There is nothing in Hindu law rendering
polygamy—even such polygamy—illegal". Nowhere
have the rights of women been more disregarded than
in India. The true idea of the family is almost de-
stroyed.
It was not so in Israel. Woman occupied from
the first a place of respect, which she never lost. The
pictures which are given of family life are exceedingly
attractive. The wiſe was honoured. ‘The heart of
her husband doth safely trust her: ' ' in her tongue is
the law of kindness”—such a description rises to the
highest ideal of domestic love and happiness.
It is true that polygamy was in certain circum-
stances allowed, though not approved ; and so was
divorce. Evidently customs already existing had, in
certain circumstances—and to prevent worse evils
—to be retained. The Mosaic institutions were dis-
ciplinary—intended to elevate and fit a people whose
souls had been debased by slavery, to become the
true worshippers of the living God.
The ceremonial systems both of ancient Hinduism
and Judaism were complex, though that of the former
was especially so. We do not find fault with this
in Hinduism, any more than in Judaism. Positive
precepts (which rest simply on authority) seem in-
dispensable for the rousing of conscience at a certain
stage of society; and that they should be at first
intermingled with moral precepts need cause us no
surprise. The distinction of animals and meats into
* H. Cowell's Lectures on Hindu Zaw, p. 164.
R
258 HINDUISM
clean and unclean appears to be very ancient. In
Parsiism, for example, certain animals are pure, as
being made by Ahuramazda ; certain others are im-
pure, as being the work of Ahriman (Angro-mainyus),
the Evil Power. No such idea as this ever appears
in the Bible. According to Hinduism, certain animals,
particularly the cow and the monkey, are sacred;
certain other creatures are by nature unholy. The
distinction of clean and unclean in Judaism was not
based on any such ground as this ; when feelings of
natural repugnance or sanitary ideas did not rule,
the distinction rested on the Divine command. It
served to keep conscience on the alert and test
obedience, until the time should come when it could
safely be laid aside.
There are some remarkable similarities in the view
of Sacrifice taken by both the Hindu and Jewish
systems. In both it occupies a very important place;
and in both its origin is referred to primeval times.
But the dissimilarities are very great. Human
sacrifice existed in Vedic days—though rarely prac-
tised except at great sacrifices (p. 42, note). Among
the Hebrews it was sternly prohibited ; and they
were solemnly warned against being seduced into the
commission of the dreadful rite by its frequent occur-
rence among the Surrounding nations.
Animal sacrifice gradually attained a prominence
among the Hindus far greater than among the
Hebrews; everything in heaven and earth was held
to be affected by it. It was believed to be mighty
per se; it had no typical meaning. Then, after it
had risen to colossal dimensions, it was gradually
HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY 259
undermined by philosophic speculation, and finally
overturned by Buddhism. It perished; being held
to be not only unmeaning, but wicked and absurd.
Nor has it revived in orthodox Hinduism ; for the
sacrifices that are still frequently offered in connexion
with Kali and other goddesses are not survivals of
Vedic worship, but corruptions borrowed from the
sanguinary aboriginal systems of demonolatry.
In Judaism, sacrifice was intended to ‘sanctify to
the cleanness of the flesh **--that is, it removed
ceremonial defilement, and restored a man to the
privileges of citizenship in Israel. But farther, it
was typical,—prophetic of the great offering of Jesus
Christ; a picture, So far as any picture could be given,
of the sublimest event in all history—the self-sacrifice
of the Son of God. This is not an interpretation
forced on Jewish sacrifices by Christian writers; “the
typical import of sacrifice did actually develop itself
in the heart of Judaism without any New Testament
influence”.’ The cessation of sacrifice in Christianity
thus implied nothing wrong in its past existence;—
on the contrary, it implied its utility and even necessity
for the time; but when the prophesied event took
place the prophecy necessarily ceased. The type
was useless when the great Antitype had come.
But it is time to speak of Hinduism as contrasted
with the fully developed faith presented in the New
Testament.
Were we to compare the New Testament only with
* So the Revised Version.
* Kurtz on The Sacrificial Worship of the Old Testament, p. 121.
(Clark's Theological Library.)
R 2
26o - HINDUISM
the Puranas, we should be selecting for criticism the
weakest part of Hinduism. Let us, therefore, take
into account the Hindu Sastras generally—only ex-
cluding the abominable Tantras.
Much that has been already said regarding the Old
Testament applies with equal force to the New ; for
example, there is the perfect harmony that reigns
through all its parts. Nor is it only consistent with
itself; it is equally so with the Old Testament;-the
two Testaments form a whole—a perfect unity. On
the contrary, the Puranas are for the most part
intensely sectarian ; one denounces beliefs and rites
which another enjoins. The Puranas thus make the
great confusion we have already spoken of still worse
confounded. -
Again, as into the Old Testament so into the New,
history largely enters. And what a history ! The
life, and death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ: these
chiefly. If the facts recorded in connexion with these
things are true—and that they are so we must now
assume—then they are infinitely the most stupendous,
the most glorious, events which this earth has witnessed.
If it were possible to prove them false, how would the
universe be impoverished
One of the most important points in later Hinduism
is the doctrine of the Avataras—the ‘descents’ to
earth of the divinity Vishnu. When we turn to con-
trast with these the Christian doctrine of the Incarna-
tion, we almost feel rebuked, as if guilty of profanation.
We need not repeat the Hindu teaching regarding the
Avataras ;-oh, how has it sullied and defiled the
great conception from which it probably arose—that
HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY 26I
of man requiring the presence and help of Heaven
Even when the doctrine rises to its greatest height—
which it does in the Gita—it affirms that Vishnu is
periodically born to “rescue the good and destroy the
evil.’ It is enough, as a contrast, to remind our
readers that Christ came from heaven to earth ‘to
Seck and save that which was lost.’ The idea of man
Seeking God is not foreign to Hinduism ; but it knows
nothing of God seeking man—Seeking fallen man,
pitying him and restoring him.
We might say much of the teachings of Christ;
but we forbear. Men who are far from orthodox
Christianity have spoken with eloquence and high
admiration of the Sermon on the Mount, His parables,
and all His doctrine ; and they have affirmed that
there is no probability of any future age hearing
purer and loftier thoughts expressed. We therefore
pass On.
Christ not only spoke the truth; He lived it. He
exemplified in act what He taught in words.
‘He wrought te
With human hands the creed of creeds;
In loveliness of perfect deeds
More strong than all poetic thought.”
There is a most beautiful commingling in His char-
acter of the stronger and the softer virtues; fortitude
above heroic, reconciled with a tenderness more than
motherly. And far more than this. Self-denial and
self sacrifice — for God, for man, for truth—this we all
regard as the highest reach of the human spirit, as
the blossom and fragrancy of created excellence; and
there are names in history—that of the martyr dying
262 HINDUISM
for his God, or the mother, it may be, dying for her
children—on which ‘attend the tears and praises of
all time.' But, after all, what is the highest and
holiest exhibition of such heroic goodness but a dim
and distant reflection of the self-emptying and self-
sacrifice of the Son of God P
It would be easy to quote from many writers of
the most ‘liberal’ schools of thought the strongest
possible declarations regarding the matchless excel-
lence of Christ's character, and the immense influence
which it has exerted, and must exert, on the human
race. Let one testimony suffice. ‘It was reserved
for Christianity to present to the world an ideal
character which, through all the changes of eighteen
centuries, has inspired the hearts of men with an
impassioned love, and has shown itself capable of
acting on all ages, nations, temperaments, and con-
ditions; has not only been the highest pattern of
virtue, but the highest incentive to its practice, and
has exercised so deep an influence that it may be
truly said that the simple record of three short years
of active life has done more to regenerate and soften
mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and
all the exhortations of moralists'.”
We therefore cannot force ourselves to contrast the
Incarnation of Christ with the so-called Hindu in-
carnations—in which the divinity successively takes
the form of a fish, a tortoise, a boar, a man-lion,
a dwarf, a destroyer, a warrior, a licentious cow-herd,
and an arch-deceiver. “When we turn from such
* Lecky, History of European Morals, ii. 8.
HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY 263
representations to the “Word made flesh,” we seem
to have escaped from the pestilential air of a charnel-
house to the sweet, pure breath of heaven '.'
It is important to remark that, among the Hindu
Sages also, whose doings are recorded, there is not
one who could be taken as a pattern of conduct.
Nearly all of them were guilty of flagitious deeds;
most of them were excessively irritable—ready to pour
out curses on any one, god or man, who crossed their
imperious will. If then ‘ example is better than
precept,’ it will easily be seen how sorrowfully poor
is the Hindu.
No question is more important than that of the
mode in which a religion deals with the great fact
of Sin. So far as our experience goes, every sin is
ascribed by the Hindus to the Divine Being as its
ultimate cause. This dreadful blasphemy destroys
all sense of personal demerit, or at least renders it
exceedingly slight. Where it exists, the idea of sin
seldom rises above that of ceremonial impurity ; which
ceremonial cleansing can fully remove. What a con-
trast between this shadowy conception and the
Christian doctrine of sin Of evil as wholly opposed
to the Divine character, as a violation of Eternal
Right, as hateful to God, and as poisonous to the
human soul, the Hindu Sastras speak not. Of the
majesty of conscience as the vicegerent of God—which
the philosopher Kant likens to the awful magnificence
of the starry heavens—they also speak not ; nor have
they any conception of the magnitude of the cata-
* Hinduism , a Sketch and a Contrast, p. 53. (In the series of
I’resent Day Tracts.)
264 HINDUISM
strophe when conscience, like a dethroned monarch,
is chained and blinded by evil, rebellious passions.
And having no right sense of the character of sin,
the Sastras fail to recognize either the difficulty or the
preciousness of pardon. They indeed speak of atone-
ment—yes, of many atonements. But what is a Hindu
atonement P Some paltry device such as we have
mentioned above—such as pilgrimage, washing in
a sacred stream, feeding Brahmans, or gazing on an
idol and passionately praising it. Such things leave
no impression on the heart as to the character or
desert of sin.
And when these miserable ‘ atonements’ fail, then
there really is no pardon. Indeed, the doctrine of
transmigration implies that there is no forgiveness
with God, and that the transgressor must himself
drink to the lowest dregs the cup of bitterness which
he has filled. Oh, when conscience is really awake,
and evil is seen in its true character, with what
a rapture of relief does the sinner turn to the Chris-
tian Scriptures and their revelation of the great
atoning sacrifice of Christ ! Christ was more than a
Teacher, and an Example, and a Martyr: ‘His blood
cleanseth from all sin '—He was a Saviour. The Cross,
steadily gazed upon, fills the human spirit at once
with contrition, and hatred of sin, and overflowing
joy. The love of God in Christ—in Christ the
crucified—when once apprehended, cleaves the hard
heart in twain, and summons forth the far-down
streams of penitence and love. Love is love's recom-
pense. We love Him because He first loved us.
True love compels obedience: it delights to obey.
HINDU/SM AND CHRISTIANITY 265
We live to Him who died for us. The atonement
made by Jesus Christ for sin is the divinest revelation
of Divinity; a manifestation of the highest perfections
of the Eternal Mind in their highest exercise.
And the redemption wrought for man implies not
only pardon but spiritual renovation—deliverance from
the power, as well as from the punishment, of sin.
Assuredly the former is not a less precious blessing
than the latter; one might almost call it more precious.
It is interesting to compare Christianity and Hin-
duism in regard to their practical power in purifying
and elevating human nature.
We cannot expect much from Hinduism. Not one
of the Hindu deities is morally pure. The Vedic
Conception of the august and pure Varuna, the god
of heaven, has ages ago faded away; and no one—
certainly not the One-and-All of Pantheistic Vedantism
—has occupied his place. Now it is a widely accepted
maxim that the deity and devotee are like each
other'. But to imitate the Hindu gods is to Sully
and debase the soul of man.
We fully and gladly admit that many good maxims
and precepts are scattered through the multitudinous
Hindu books, as they are in Greek and Roman
writings. We do not stay to consider how far these
are overbalanced by statements of a different char-
acter; but meanwhile let us attend only to the best
of them. These occasionally rise to the height of the
teachings of Confucius ; some may rank with those
* * Summa religionis est imitari quem colis.’—CICERO. Religiosis-
simus est cultus imitari.’—LACTANTIUS. Yatha dezºastal/ha bhakſa 'i."—
Sanskrit Proverb.
266 HINDUISM
of Epictetus, Seneca, or Marcus Aurelius ; a few are
similar to ethical precepts of the Bible.
But unhappily the knowledge of duty does not
ensure its performance; and the saying has become
proverbial—
‘Video meliora proboque,
Deteriora sequor.”
So much as regards the individual soul. It seems
needless to speak of the influence of Hinduism on
Society. The dreadful doctrine of Caste—its most
characteristic feature—is ruinous to Social well-being.
Equally, or almost equally, pernicious is the doctrine
regarding women generally and widows in particular.
These things being so, the reader may ask how
everything does not go to wreck and ruin. The truth
is, the people are better than their religion. Out
of the immense chaos called Hinduism they extract
certain portions; the better-minded extract the better
portions, and to a large extent forget the rest. The
instincts of the human heart are higher and truer
than the teachings of the religion. Thus, when the
vile tales about gods and goddesses, which abound
in nearly all the later books, would sweep the mind
of woman into ruin, her infant's smile restores her
to her better self. Domestic life is thus, so far,
preserved ; and while that anchor holds, society will
not strike upon the rocks that stand so perilously
1) Callſ.
There is no doctrine in Hinduism akin to that of
the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier. The poor Hindu,
when perchance he seeks to rise above temptation,
does not know, as the Christian does, that a hand from
HINDUISM A VD CHRISTIANITY 267
above is stretched out to support and guide his
tottering steps and help him onward and upward.
But how profound is the wisdom of the apostle's
words: ‘Sin shall not have dominion over you ; for
you are not under the law [with mere precepts,
promises, and threats], but under grace.’ The perfection
of the individual, and, through that, the perfection of
society, is the Christian ideal. Christ taught His
disciples thus to pray: “Our Father which art in
heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in
heaven.' The Christian waits in fullness of expecta-
tion, and continually strives for the realization of this
magnificent ideal. It may not come soon ; but it
will come. As for himself, he looks forward to death
without fear. To him it is a quiet sleep, and the
resurrection draws nigh. Then, glorified in soul
and body, the companion of angels and saints, strong
in immortal youth, he will serve, without let or hin-
drance, the God and Saviour whom he loves.
How different from this sublime hope is the belief
of the Hindu ! His great effort—if he has embraced
the Vedanta philosophy—is to persuade himself that
he is, even at present, identified with Brahm, and will,
by-and-by get rid of all conscious existence. The
expectation of the ordinary man is that, after passing
through almost innumerable births—an expectation
which is terrific to the Hindu–the soul, like a drop of
water mingling with the ocean, will be absorbed or swal-
lowed up and lost in the One, the immeasurable All.
Again, one of the greatest facts in man's experience
is suffering. Hinduism acknowledges this, and gives,
268 HINDUISM
as we have seen, a strongly pessimistic view of human
life. It affirms all suffering to be penal. Many an
innocent sufferer has the trials of life fearfully enhanced
by this belief'. And when death comes to tear
from their embrace those whom they love, they sorrow
as those ‘who have no hope.’ Tell the mother who
is clinging desperately to the body of her dead child,
refusing to part with it, that there is another world in
which she may hope to meet that child again, and
she will think you are adding mockery to her woe.
No, her belief is this—parted once, parted for ever ;
no reunion is possible. But when the Christian
commits his loved ones to the dust, he does so in the
full assurance that ‘ those who sleep in Jesus will God
bring with Him.’ He calmly waits for a blessed
resurrection.
Even so, amid the varied trials of life, Hinduism
can supply no comfort. Since all suffering is held
to be the just award of sin committed in a former
life, divine sympathy with the bruised and bleeding
heart there is none. Alas for the sorrowing Hindu !
The Christian turns to that blessed Being who
‘Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses '
—whose invitation— entreaty rather, and command—
was, and is, this : ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” What
marvellous words ! Yet innumerable breaking hearts
have put them to the test, and found them true; for still,
* For example, young widows (so called, though many of them were
never wives), who are subjected to dreadful oppression by Hindu law,
often torture themselves with the fear of having committed some horrible
offence in a previous birth. Otherwise, they ask, how could they be
made so miserable 2
HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY 269
even in the heaven of glory, He is ‘touched with
a feeling of all our infirmities.’
Of the ‘enthusiasm of humanity,'—the holy passion
of philanthropy, Hinduism can, of course, know
nothing. Its theology declares that good works as
well as bad works hinder a man's final salvation.
Apathy, cessation from all action, is the natural result.
Christianity exhorts man to action: “Show me,’ it
says, “thy faith by thy works.’ The Christian is to be
a worker for God—ay, a fellow-worker with God.
Hence, when true to his faith, he continually strives
to teach the ignorant, comfort the sorrowful, and
recall the erring to God and goodness. The Christian
scorns not the meanest, and despairs not regarding
the vilest, of the human race. Every erring soul
is precious, and must be lovingly and perseveringly
dealt with, if haply it will turn to God and live.
These remarks are lengthening out too much, and
we touch with a rapid pen what yet remains.
There are striking declarations in the Bible regard-
ing the connexion between Christ and His true
followers, This is represented as far more than
communion ; it is actual union. He is in them ;
they are in Him. He is the Vine; they are the
branches. He is the Head of the body; they are
the members. The union is generally expressed
in figurative language; but it is nevertheless a fact.
‘I live,’ said the Apostle Paul, ‘yet not I, Christ
liveth in me.' We cannot attempt an explanation
here of this wonderful union. We content ourselves
with noting that there is no conception in the Sastras
which at all resembles it. Both philosophical and
270 - HINDUISM
religious teaching in India often refer to connexion
between the deity and the worshipper; but it is not
a union of spirit with spirit which they assert, but
a complete identification of the divine and human,—
pantheism in the very strictest sense.
We have not in Hinduism any doctrine which
resembles the grand conception of the Church—
whether the Church visible, or the Church invisible.
Nor have we anything like the sublime doctrine of
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the individual
members, and in the united body of believers.
We have had occasion to speak of caste—which
is a main characteristic of Hinduism—in terms of
strong reprobafion. It is utterly foreign to Christianity.
We saw above how the Old Testament inculcated
a feeling of brotherhood which should link Israelite
to Israelite, and, so far as the selfish passions of the
human heart allowed, make the nation one great
family. In the New Testament the view is widened,
and the family is to consist of all believing men of all
nations. “In Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew,
Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; neither male nor
female.' All believers are equal in the Father's sight,
—all are brethren. Nay, the feeling must overpass
the limits of the professing Church ; we are com-
manded to ‘add to brotherly kindness, charity’—that
is, a love co-extensive with the human race. What is,
if possible, more remarkable still, Christians are com-
manded to ‘honour all men.' Respect must be paid
to man as man ; and, while we mourn over the fall
of those who have surrendered themselves to evil, we
must earnestly and hopefully labour for their recovery.
HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY 271
We have been speaking of the great moral blemishes
of Hinduism. Of less importance, but still notable
enough, is its opposition to scientific truth. The
Sastras do not refer to science incidentally; they
formally teach it — that is, they communicate, as
authoritatively revealed from heaven, such science
as existed at the times in which they were written.
And, so doing, they go continually astray".
The Christian Scriptures, as we have mentioned,
come—if they ever do come—on scientific questions
only incidentally; they never authoritatively state
them. Their reticence is truly remarkable. All other
writers of the first century blunder perpetually in
questions of science. Josephus, the Jewish historian,
Greek and Roman authors, and the Christian Fathers,
all introduce scientific matter, and necessarily go
wrong. This makes the silence of the New Testament
the more remarkable and significant.
Nor is it only on matters of science that this
majestic silence is maintained. Even in connexion
with religion there are many questions that the
Hindu Sastras largely discuss, on which Christianity
preserves an exceeding reticence. Her silence is
eloquent. Whatever bears on man’s necessities and
' Thus, in astronomy, the planets are said to be nine in number.
The sun is one of them, and Rahu and Ketu (the ascending and
descending nodes) are also planets, and cause eclipses by swallowing
the sun and moon. The sun is nearer us than the moon. In the works
called Siddhantas a different system of astronomy is taught ; but
it is the Ptolemaic, not the Copernican. We must not waste time
by detailing the geography. It represents the world as composed of
seven concentric islands or continents, which are surrounded by as
many oceans, consisting respectively of wine, clarified butter, milk, fresh
water, &c.
272 HINDUISM
duties is inscribed in characters of light on the pages
of the Bible; whatever is purely speculative and
fitted only to gratify curiosity is carefully withheld.
Hinduism revels in physical descriptions of heaven
and hell. The Bible plainly states their existence,
but does not describe the physical enjoyments of the
One or the physical sufferings of the other; and,
when it refers to these things, it does so almost
exclusively in figurative language.
Finally, one striking feature of the Hindu books
is the way in which good and evil are mingled in
them. It would be quite possible to make a selection
of sentiments from the Sastras which would command
respect and even admiration. But, in the Original,
it happens in cases innumerable that a true thought is
linked with falsehood, and a pure sentiment stands
side by side with one that is dishonourable or dis-
gusting. Max Müller says he has long tried in vain
to explain this strange inconsistency. The learned
professor has a much higher idea than we have of
‘what India can teach us”; but even he confesses
that the Sastras contain ‘much that is not only
unmeaning, artificial, and silly, but even hideous and
repellent.’
Of the Christian Scriptures we need only say, in the
words of the Psalmist, ‘The words of the Lord are
pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth,
purified seven times.’
APPENDIX
I, HYMNS OF THE VEDA.
WE have given various quotations from the Veda ; but
lest it should be said that detached paragraphs give no proper
idea of the work, it may be well to subjoin an entire hymn.
We select the first in the Rig Veda, as translated by Prof.
H. H. Wilson.
The hymn is addressed to Agni, or Fire—
I.
.
9.
I glorify Agni, the high priest of the sacrifice, the divine, the
ministrant, who presents the oblation [to the gods], and is the
possessor of great wealth.
. May that Agni who is to be celebrated by both ancient and modern
sages conduct the gods hither.
. Through Agni the worshipper obtains that affluence which increases
day by day, which is the source of fame and the multiplier of
mankind.
. Agni, the unobstructed sacrifice, of which thou art on every side
the protector, assuredly reaches the gods.
. May Agni, the presenter of oblations, the attainer of knowledge,
he who is true, renowned, and divine, come hither with the gods.
. Whatever good thou mayest, Agni, bestow upon the giver [of the
oblation], that verily, Angiras, shall revelt to thee.
... We approach thee, Agni, with reverential homage in our thoughts
daily, both morning and evening;
. Thee, the radiant, the protector of sacrifices, the constant illumi-
nator of truth, increasing in thine own dwelling.
Agni, be unto us easy of access, as a father is to his son ; be ever
present with us for our good.
But as a prose version necessarily gives an imperfect idea
of any hymn, we subjoin part of a metrical translation of
a hymn addressed to the winds (Maruts). The version is
Prof. Whitney's, who follows Roth’s metrical version in
German, with a few slight changes"—
THE POET SPEAKS :
I. Upon what course are entered now together,
Of common age, of common home, the Maruts?
* Oriental and Zinguistic Studies, p. 144.
S
274 APPENDIX
With what desire, and whence, have they come hither?
The heroes make their whistling heard for longing.
2. Whose prayers and praises are the youths enjoying?
Say, who hath turned the Maruts to his offering 2
As they go roving through the air like falcons,
How shall.we stay them with our strong devotion?
THE MARUTS SPEAK :
How comes it, Indra, that thou goest lonely,
Though else so blithe ? Tell us what ails thee, master.
Thou'rt wont to talk with us as we go onward;
Lord of the coursers, what hast thou against us?
INDRA SPEAKS :
I love the prayers, the wishes, the libations;
The odours rise; the Soma-press is ready;
They draw and win me with their invocation ;
My coursers here carry me forward to them.
Whereupon the winds offer to go with him; but Indra rather
testily complains that, though eager to join him in feasting,
they had let him formerly go forth alone to slay the demon.
But they flatter him; and he expresses pleasure. Finally
THE POET SPEAKS AGAIN :
Who hath exalted you like us, ye Maruts 2
As friends go forth to friends, so come ye hither.
Ye bright ones, fan to ardour our devotions;
Of these my pious labours be ye heedful.
This is your praise, and this your song, O Maruts
Made by Mandāra's son, the singer Månya.
Come hither with refreshment for our strength'ning !
May we win food and meadows rich in water
Of the poetical merit of such hymns we shall leave the
reader to form his own opinion. As to their religious
character, it is evident that they are devoid of all true
spiritual feeling.
II. THE GAYATR.I.
The most holy prayer — if prayer it be — occurring in
the Veda is called the Gāyatri. The name is delived from
the metre in which it is composed. It is thus rendered by
Prof. H. H. Wilson—
We meditate on that desirable light of the divine Savitri, who influ-
ences our pious rites".
* Rig V. iii. 62. Io. It may be well to give the Sanskrit; it reads
thus—tal saviţur Zaremyam bhalgo devasya dhimahā dhāyo yo mak
Arachodayāt. *
APPENDIX 275
Professor Sir M. Monier Williams translates it—
Let us meditate (or, we meditate) on that excellent glory of the divine
Vivifier. May he enlighten (or stimulate) our understandings.
This prayer is repeated by Brahmans many times every
morning and evening, and also at noon. It can hardly be
omitted in any important rite. The Gayatri is a prayer to
the sun, or rather a meditation on him.
III. THE ATHARVA VEDA.
About twenty years ago there was discovered in Kashmir a
text of the Atharva Veda, which is considerably different from
the one hitherto known. It contains a greater mass of matter,
liturgical and legendary, and abounds more in charms and
incantations. Dr. Roth holds that this is very probably the
genuine text of the Atharvan; and that the shorter text is
only an expurgated edition of the original. If the opinion
of this distinguished scholar be correct—and that it is so
can hardly be matter of doubt—then still stronger expres-
sions of censure are required than those which we have used
in our references to the poor, low, magical character of the
fourth Veda ".
IV. THE UPANISHADS.
We submit one or two specimens of these compositions.
We select from the Chāndogya Upanishad a very cele-
brated passage, beginning with the text which Keshub
Chunder Sen continually quoted as teaching monotheism.
This was assuredly a mistake ; it asserts absolute pantheism—
“In the beginning, my dear, there was that only which is, one only,
without a second. Others say, in the beginning there was that only
which is not, one only, without a second ; and from that which is not
that which is was born.
“But how could it be thus, my dear?’ the father continued. ‘IIow
could that which is be born of that which is not ? No, my dear; only
that which is was in the beginning, one only, without a second.
“It thought, may I be many—may I grow forth. It sent forth fire.
That fire thought, may I be many, may I grow forth. It sent forth water.
And therefore whenever anybody anywhere is hot and perspires, water
is produced on him from fire alone.
* See the A’eport of the Congresso Internazionale degli Orientaliste.
Aºrenze, 1878, p. 89.
S 2
276 APPENDIX
* Water thought, may I be many, may I grow forth. It sent forth
earth (food). Therefore, whenever it rains anywhere, most food is then
produced. From water alone is eatable fruit produced".’
But let us select a portion of an Upanishad which has
been rendered into verse. We take Sir M. Monier Williams's
rendering of part of the important Iša Upanishad—
Whatever exists within this universe
Is all to be regarded as enveloped
By the great Lord, as if wrapped in a vesture.
There is one only being who exists,
Unmoved, yet moving swifter than the mind;
Who far outstrips the senses, though as gods
They strive to reach him ; who, himself at rest,
Transcends the fleetest flight of other beings,
Who, like the air, supports all vital action.
He moves, yet moves not; he is far, yet near.
(It would be more literal to substitute in these lines if ſor
he and him, and which for who.)
V. THE CODES OF LAW.
The Mānava Dharma Sästra (Law Book of Manu) has
attracted attention ever since it was rendered into English
by Sir W. Jones. His Hindu friends assured him that it was
the basis of all sacred law in India, having been dictated by
a divine being, Manu, at the creation of the world. It is
now held to be a late redaction of the usages of a particular
gens, or clan, the Manavas. Its date has been, and still is,
matter of high dispute. Sir William Jones believed it might
be as ancient as 1280 years B. c. The late Dr. Burnell con-
tended that, even in its original form, it was not composed
before 4oo A. D. The date we have assigned (p. 82) may
provisionally be accepted as more probable than either of
these extremes.
As to the mode in which law was developed in India, Sir H.
Sumner Maine compares it to what would have happened in
Western Europe if the Canonists had gained a complete
ascendency over common lawyers and civilians. In that case,
Western law would have been ‘deeply tinged in all its parts
with ecclesiastical ideas, as all Hindu legislation is ".
* Chāndogya Upanishad; Prapāthaka 6; Khanda 2 (see Sacred Books
of the East. Upanishads, Part I).
* Zarly Law and Custom, p. 44.
APPEAWDIX 277
We have referred to the two great codes of Manu and of
Yājnavalkya. There is another code, but later and of less
importance—that ascribed to Parāsara.
VI, VIRODHA BHAKTI.
One of the most singular modes of dealing with the gods
is what is called Virodha bhakti-literally, antagonistic worship.
The deity is reviled, defied, or, it may be, beaten. He is thus
either compelled to grant the worshipper (!) his request, or
else he is provoked and destroys the daring wretch. In the
latter case the votary is absorbed into deity, or, at all events,
is translated to heaven.
I am not sure whether we can bring under this head the not
unfrequent habit of ridiculing the gods. In Western India the
following satire on the awkward figure of Ganesais well known—
Poor Ganpati bewails his rat,
Borne off by vile felonious cat;
‘My legs are short; how can I trudge?
And how shall this big belly budge 2'
Ganapati, or Ganesa, it must be noted, usually rides on
a rat. He has an elephant's head, an immense belly, and
short legs. And this is the god whom the poet Campbell has
styled ‘Ganésa sublime.’
VII. MODERN BRAHMANICAL WORSHIP.
This ritual has become, in the lapse of ages, immensely
complicated. A full description would be intolerably tedious.
The following statements will suffice.
We speak first of worship in the temple. In the case of
the god Siva the rites are as follows—
The Brahman first bathes, then enters the temple, and bows to the
god. IIe anoints the image with clarified butter or boiled oil; pours
pure water over it, and then wipes it dry. He grinds some white pow-
der, mixing it with water; dips the ends of his three fore-fingers in it,
and draws them across the image. He sits down, meditates, places rice
and durzwa grass on the image—places a flower on his own head, and
then on the top of the image; then another flower on the image, and
another, and another—accompanying each act with the recitation of
sacred spells; places white powder, flowers, b2/wa leaves, incense, meat-
offerings, rice, plantains, and a lamp before the image; repeats the name
of Siva with praises, then prostrates himself before the image. In the
evening he returns, washes his feet, prostrates himself before the door,
opens the door, places a lamp within, offers milk, sweetmeats, and fruits
to the image, prostrates himself before it, locks the door, and departs.
278 APPENDIX
ef
Very similar is the worship paid to Vishnu-
The priest bathes, and then awakes the sleeping god by blowing a shell
and ringing a bell. More abundant offerings are made than to Siva.
About noon, fruits, roots, soaked peas, sweetmeats, &c., are presented.
Then later, boiled rice, fried herbs, and spices; but no flesh, fish, nor
fowl. After dinner, betel nut. The god is then left to sleep, and the
temple is shut up for some hours. Towards evening curds, butter, sweet-
meats, fruits, are presented. At sunset a lamp is brought, and fresh
offerings made. Lights are waved before the image; a small bell is
rung; water is presented for washing the mouth, face, and ſect—with
a towel to dry them. In a few minutes the offerings and the lamp are
removed : and the god is left to sleep in the dark".
The prescribed worship is not always fully perſormed.
Still, sixteen things are essential, of which the following are
the most important—
Ist. Preparing a seat for the god, invoking his presence, bathing the
image, clothing it, putting the string round it, offering perfumes, flowers,
incense, lanps, offerings of fruits and prepared eatables, betel nut, prayers,
circumambulation. An ordinary worshipper presents some of the offer-
ings, mutters a short prayer or two, when circumambulating the image;
the rest being done by the priest”.
We give one additional specimen of the ritual—
As an atonement for unwarily eating or drinking what is forbidden
eight hundred repetitions of the Gayatri prayer should be preceded by
three suppressions of the breath, water being touched during the recital
of the following text: ‘The bull roars; he has four horns, three feet,
two heads, seven hands; and is bound by a three-fold cord ; he is the
mighty, resplendent being, and pervades mortal men “.’
The ‘bull’ is understood to be justice personified.
All Brahmanical ceremonies exhibit, we may say, ritualism
and symbolism run mad.
The prescribed forms of worship out of the temple are
equally minute. We extract a few things from the very
lengthened statement by Colebrooke—
On rising, the Brahman rubs his teeth with a twig of a particular ſig-
tree, praying. If no proper twig be procurable, he rinses his mouth
twelve times with water. He then bathes, in a river if possible. He
sips water, sprinkles some water before him, utters three prescribed
prayers, throws water eight times on his head, or towards the sky, and
concludes by throwing water on the ground to destroy demons. He
* We have condensed this statement from Ward. The description
applies chiefly to Pengal.
* So writes Van Kennedy, a good authority. The lites, however,
vary somewhat in different places.
* Asiatic Researches, v. 356.
APPENDIX 279
plunges thrice in the stream, repeating sacred texts, washes his mantle,
puts it on, and sits down to worship the rising sun. He ties the lock of
hair on the crown of his head, recites the Gayatri prayer, holding much
Áusa grass in his left and three blades of it in his right hand, or wearing
a ring of it on the third finger of the right. He thrice sips water, re-
peating the Gayatri, each time rubbing his hands as if washing them.
finally touching with his wet hand his feet, head, breast, eyes, ears, nose,
and navel. If he happen to sneeze or spit, he must touch his right ear ;
“for,” saith the legislator Parasara, ‘fire, water, the Vedas, the sun,
moon, and air, all reside in the right cars of Brahmans.’ Impurity is
removed by the touch. He closes his eyes and meditates on 13rahma,
Vishnu and Siva. He then meditates the Gayatri, during three sup-
pressions of breath. Closing the left nostril with the two longest fingers
f his right hand, he breathes through the right nostril. Then closing
likewise that nostril with his thumb, he holds his breath, while he medi-
tates the Gayatri ; then he removes both fingers from the left nostril
and emits the breath he had suppressed. He sips water and prays;
throws, as before, water eight times on his head, or towards the sky,
and once on the ground, and prays. He fills the palm of his hand with
water, holds it to his nose, draws in the fluid by one nostril, retains it for
some time, then expels it by the other nostril towards the north-east.
Sips again and prays. Worships the sun, standing on one foot, resting
the other against his ankle or heel, and looking towards the east. Prays.
The Gayatri is invoked, and then it is inaudibly muttered a hundred or a
thousand times, the repetitions being counted on a rosary, &c., &c., &c'.
We really must pause both for the reader's sake and our
own ; but the description of the morning worship is only half
finished.
It will afford room for earnest reflection to note that an
intellectual race like the Brahmans should have prescribed,
and largely practised, observances so utterly childish and
fantastic, deeming them worship acceptable to Heaven.
VIII. THE BRAHMO SOMAJ.
The more recent accounts of the Brahmo Somaj do not
indicate any approximation towards each other of the three
parties into which it is divided. Mr. Mozumdar said:
“Most unfortunately there is so much personal rancour,
such exclusiveness and embittered party feeling still in them
all, that I see as little hope of future harmony and progress in
one as in the others.’ He adds: ‘I will, for that reason, have
no Somaj of my own.' We fear the old bitterness remains.
* Asiatic Wesearches, v. p. 345, &c., or Colebrooke's AEssays (edited by
Cowell), ii. 14 I.
28o APPENDIX
IX. SPECIMIENS OF THE BETTER TEACHINGS OF HINDUISM.
It may be well—indeed it is only just—to give some
additional specimens of the higher precepts and maxims
that are found in Hindu books. They occur both in the
Sanskrit and vernacular writings. We come upon them
with a feeling of surprise, as being entirely contrary to the
general spirit of the religion.
Thus, nothing can be in more direct opposition to the
rules regarding Caste than the following Šloka—
Who at thy gate for shelter makes request,
High though thy rank, and his the lowest be,
Let him receive full hospitality—
Believe me, all the gods are in a guest.—Hitopadeśa, i. 65.
It is singular that this verse is omitted in the last Bombay
edition. Was it too startling for the Brahmans ?
We have said that superstition rules in India with iron
sway; Omens, lucky and unlucky days are thought of per-
petually. Yet the Marathi poet Tukaram says this—
Pronounce the name of Vitthal,
Then forward thrust thy foot!
All lucky seasons and signs are thine
If the thought of Vitthal be in thy heart.
Substitute God for Viſ/hal, and the sentiment is quite
Christian.
Dr. John Muir and Sir Monier M. Williams have supplied
us with translations of many striking sayings. We borrow the
following from Dr. Muir—
Let no man do to another that which would be repugnant to himself:
this is the sum of righteousness; the rest is according to inclination.—
Mahābhārata, xiii. 5571.
O king, thou seest the faults of others, though only as large as
mustard seeds; but seeing, thou Seest not thine own, though of the bulk
of bilva fruits.-/bid. i. 3069.
The carrying of the triple staff, silence, a load of matted locks,
a shaven head, a garb of bark or skins, religious observances, oblations,
the agnihotra offering, abode in a forest, the drying up of the body—all
these things are false, if the disposition be not pure.—Abid. iii. 13,445.
Constructing the ship of self command, cross over the river whose
waters are the five senses; and cross over lust, anger, and death, and
the evils of the world.—Aöid. xii. I 2,060.
The soul itself is its own witness; the soul itself is its own refuge;
offend not thy conscious soul, the supreme internal witness of men.—
AZanu, viii. 84.
Even here below an unjust man attains no happiness.-Zóid. iv. 17o.
I N ID E X
In the following list of words, the vowels a, e, i, o, u, and the diphthongs at and
aze, are to be pronounced as in Italian—very nearly as in the following words:—
father, there, police, tone, rule, aisle, ozzt (English), or ales (German).
The mark (-) denotes that the vowel is long. . The chief difficulty in the case of
the vowels is with the letter a, when short. . It then sounds nearly as in America.
The consonants d, d/, t, th, l, m, make the tongue strike the teeth. In d, dh,
#, #4, ſ, zz, it strikes the roof of the mouth.
S is pronounced as in the English word sure. Thus the often-recurring word
* sounds as if written Shāstra. Ph always is as in up-hill; th is as in not-
Žere.
Aditi, worship of 28. Atheistic propaganda in India, 242.
Age of Truth, 116. Augustine, 63.
Aghoris, sect of, 153. Avali, wife of Tukārām, story of 17.4.
Agni, the Fire, worship of 25. Avatāras, or Descents, the, log.
Ahrimân (Angro-mainyus), 258. Avestā, the, worship taught in, 27.
Ahura, orahuramazdā–Varuna Asura,
2ö. Bābā Lālis, sect of, 159.
Ahura mazdā, 28, 258. Baba Padmanji, Rev., 152.
Akāśamukhis, sect of 154. Bādarāyana, 53.
Akbar (emperor), 162. Bali, legend of King, Ioz.
Akshapada, 53. Bali pratipadā, feast of 200.
Alandi (village), 162. Banyan tree, worship of, 176.
Amara Sinha, 128. Barth on the Veda, 39 ; on the Yoga, 62.
Anna Perennä, 196. Bentinck, Lord William, 9o.
Anugitā, 124. Bergaigne on Varuna and Indra, 23.
Apollonius of Tyana, 163. Berkeley, Bishop, 59.
Apostolic Durbar (so-called), the, rever- Bhagavad Gitä, the, date of 69; author
ence of, for Mr. Sen, 229. of, 70; the story of, 71 ; dialogue be-
Arab merchants, 155. tween Arjuna and Krishna, 71; teach-
Aranyakas, the, or ‘forest treatises,” ings of 72 ; contradictions of, 74;
third part of a Veda, 15. glories in caste, 74; exaltation of
Arjuna, story of 71, 123. Krishna, 74 ; language of, resembles
Arjunmall, the Sikh guru, 157. the Bible, 75; theory of Dr. Lorin-
Arya Samāj, the, 235. ser, 75; judgement of M. Cousin on,
Aryans, probable date of entrance of, 77; probable influence of Christianity
into India, 18; original faith of 20. On, I I4.
Asceticism in Upanishads, 52. Bhakta Mālā, the, contents of 163.
Aśoka tree, worship of, 176. Bhakti, or devotion, doctrine of 147.
Aśoka, Emperor of India, IOO. Bhakti Sūtras, 148.
Astronomy (Hindu), 271. Bhat, or Brahman priest, 17o.
Aśvamedha, the, sacrifice of the horse, Bhima, strength of 121.
30. Bhimä river, 160.
Aśvins, the two, worship of, 26. Birth-pollution, extent of, 255.
Atharva Veda, the contents of, 16; re- Blavatsky, Madame, opinions of 241.
cently discovered recension of 275. Boar, Vishnu becomes a, Ioz.
282
INDEX
Brahmā, duration of life of 117.
Brahma, or Brahman, and Brahmā,
distinction between, 64.
Brähman, the necessity of the, 4o;
pride and usurpations of 41 ; educa-
tion of, 41 ; position of, 84; Supremacy
of 84 ; life of 85.
Brähmana, the second part of a Veda,
15; description of 34; date of 34 ;
no temple worship, 35; worship,
personal or social, 35; consisted of
offerings, prayer, and praise, 35 ;
sacrifice of the horse, 36; of human
beings, 37; ideas connected with
sacrifice, 37.
Brāhmanaspati, the lord of prayer, 30.
Brahmanism, development of, 81 ; su-
premacy Cf, 84; struggle of, with
Buddhism, 94.
Brahmo, Somaj (properly Brähma
Samāj), formation of, 214; full
organization of, 216; Mr. Sen sepa-
rates from, 218; decline of, 218.
Brahmo Somaj of . India, formation
of, 218 ; services of 219 ; revolt from,
221 ; see New Dispensation, 222.
Brahmo Somaj of S. India, the, forma-
tion of 234.
Brihaspati, the guru of the gods, 79.
Buddha, date of death of 95; teachings
of, of ; tenderness of 97; character
of 98; counsels of 99 ; brotherhood
taught by, IoI ; an incarnation of
Vishnu, Io.ſ.
Buddhism, philosophy of, 97 ; atheism
of, 98; faults of 99 ; superiority of,
99; missionary, spirit of, IOO }, con-
test of, with Brahmanism, Ioo; defeat
of, 1oo; persecution of, IO I ; disap-
pearance of, from India, 101 ; influ-
ence of, IO2.
Bühler on codes of law, 82.
Burnouf on the Hindu mind, 78.
Butler, Archer, on Hindu philosophy, 78.
Byron (quoted), 26.
Caro (quoted), 51.
Caste, incubus of 84.
Castes, the four regular, 82 ; in Tra-
vancore, 19 I.
Castrén, 21.
Chaitanya and his followers, 145.
Chalmers, Rev. Dr., 217.
Champa šashti, feast of 200.
Chārvākas, the, teachings of, 78.
Cicero on transmigration, 132.
Colebrooke (quoted), 278.
Coleridge on ritualism, 34.
Comte, influence of, on India, 240.
Conway, Dr. Moncure, estimate of
Hinduism by, 210.
Cousin, M., judgement of, on the Gità,
77.
Cow, worship of 32, 175; five products
of the, a means of purification, 186.
Cowell. Prof., 56.
Custard apple, worship of, 176.
Dáidù Panthis, sect of, 159.
Daemons. 30.
Dalton, 57.
I)andaka forest, the, 1 Io.
IDandis, sect of, 152.
Darśanas, the six, description of, 13,
list of, 53; the Sūtras, 53; pairs of,
54; contradictions of, 55 ; the Nyāya
system, 56; the Vaiśeshika systein.
57; refinement of Hindu schools. 57 :
the Sănkhya system, 58; doings of
Prakriti, 50 ; the system of Kapila,
59; the Yoga philosophy, Go; the
Mimánsá, 62; the Vedānta philo-
sophy, 62; influence of Sankara
Acl irya, 63 ; four conditions of the
soul, 64; necessity of knowledge, 65;
importance of meditation, 65; con-
tradictions of 66; ethical character
of the Vedānta, 66; summary of, 67 ;
points of agreement in, 68.
Dāśaratha, King of Ayodhyā, or Oude,
legend of, 1 Io.
IDasnämis, sect of 152.
Daśyus, 83.
Dayānanda Sarasvati, history of 235.
Dead, ceremonies connected with the,
31, 188, 189.
Debendernath Tagore, history of 216.
Democritus, 57.
De Quincey (quoted), 39.
Deva (god), etymology of, 30.
Devaki, mother of Krishna, i II.
Devotion, or bhakti, doctrine of, r. 17.
Dhritarāshtra, father of the Kauravas,
I 20.
Diwāli, feast of 200.
Draupadi, story of 121.
Dravidian race, the, civilization of,
I8.
I)rona, the tutor, 120.
Drupada, King, 120.
Duff, Dr., friendship of, for Rammohun
Roy, 214.
Durgā (goddess), 136.
Duryodhana, plots of, 121.
Dussera, or Dašaharā, feast of 199.
Dvāpara Yuga, the, 117.
Earth, the (Prithivi), worship of 28.
Education, spread of, 243.
Ekamevādvitiyam, 63, 65.
Fakir, meaning of the term, 154.
Feasts and Fasts—
Makar Sankrinti, 194.
Mahāśival àtri, 194.
Holi, 195.
Rāma navami, 196.
Nāga panchami, 197.
Nārali paurnimä, 197.
INDEX
283
Feasts and Fasts (continued)–
Krishna, or Gokul, Janmåshtami, 197.
Ganeśa chaturthi, i98.
Dussera, or Dašaharā, 199.
IDiwāli, 200.
Bali pratipadā, 200.
Champa šashti, 200.
Female deities, 28.
Fish, worship of, Ioš. *
Fliedner, Pastor (quoted), 96.
Forest life in India, 44.
Fººges of the world, the doctrine of,
I IO.
Funeral rites, 183.
Gambling, legislation respecting, 91.
Ganapati or Ganeśa, 198.
Ganapatyas, 140.
Ganeśa chaturthi, feast of, 198.
Gangiputra, duties of, 183.
Ganges, 40.
Gautama (philosopher), 53.
Gautama (legislator), 188.
Gāyatri, the, 274.
Geography, Hindu, 271.
Goldstücker on Purānas, 39, 129.
Gopis and Krishna, legend of, I i2.
Gospel of the Infancy, the Arabic, de-
scription of, 76.
Go-svāmī or Gosävi, a, description of,
I54.
Gough, 51, 52, 65.
Govārddhana, the mountain, legend of,
I [3.
Govinda, the Sikh guru, 158.
Granth, sacred book of the Sikhs, 157,
I5ö.
Gurava, the, work of 171.
Guru, the exaltation of, 149; training
of 150.
Hadrian's address to his soul, 134.
Hanumān the monkey, legend of, I I I.
Haug, Dr., 30.
Heaven, ancient worship of, 22.
Heber, ..º. 98, 146.
Hegel (quoted), 27, 73.
Hinduism, antiquity of, Io; approaching
end of, 1o , spirit in which it should
be studied, 16; to be fairly treated,
I2; to be studied chronologically, 12;
the Săstras, 12 ; the four Vedas, 13;
the six Darśanas, 13; the eighteen
Purānas, 13; ,direct and indirect
revelation, 13; Sruti, 13; Smriti, 13;
Sanskrit dramatic literature, 14 ; the
Tantras, 14; uncertainty of Hindu
canon, 14 ; reconstruction of lo2.
Hinduism, modern, number of followers,
165; belief, 166; worship, 166; number
of idols, 167; a village Brahman, 167;
a company of pilgrims, 168; duties of
the Bhat or Brahman priest, 17O ;
ceremony of Zīrf/a, , 176; of pizzº
faksh, 171; duties of the gurava, 171;
the gods' house, 172; idol worship,
172; ſetishism, 173; other objects of
worship, 175; pantheism, 177; con-
ception of sin, 178; means of purifica-
tion, 181; pilgrimages, 182; holy
places, 182; numbers of pilgrims,
183; ceremonies of purification, 183;
evils of pilgrimages, 184 ; eating the
five products of the cow, 186; ten
purifying rites, 187; funeral rites, 188;
offerings to ancestors, 188; importance
of male descendants, 189; rules of
caste, 190; means of defilement, 190;
Brahman pretensions, 190; feasts and
fasts, 193; Makar Sankrānti, 194;
Mahāśivarātri, 194; Holi, 195; Rāma
navami, 196; Nāga panchami, 197;
Nārali paurnimä, 197; Krishna, or
Gokul, Jºãº 197; Galeša
chaturthi, 198; Dussera, or Dašaharā,
I99; Diwāli, 200; Bali pratipadā,
200 ; Champa Śashti, 200.
Hinduism compared with Christianity:
size of the Sästras and the Bible, 247;
contents of 247; diversities of 248;
rise of Buddhism, 2.48; incons'stency
of Hinduism, 2.49; unity of the Bible,
249; monotheism of the Bible, 250 ;
character of God, 250; idolatry, 251 ;
God in history, 251 ; thoughts, not
facts, 252 : facts of the #. 252 :
sacerdotalism, .252 ; prophecy, 253;
the Bible a book of hope, 253; Hindu
books despairing, 253; summary of
duty, 254; the Sabbath, 254; legis-
lation of Moses and Manu coinpared,
254; curse of caste, 255; Mosaic land
laws, 256: position of woman, 256;
polygainy, 257; ceremonial systems,
257; sacrifices, 258; New Testament
history, 260 ; the Incarnations (Ava-
tāras), 26or teachings of Christ, 261 ;
character of Christ, 261 ; testimony
of Lecky to Christianity, 262 ; differ-
ences as to views of sin, 263 ; atone-
ment, 264; pardon, 264; hopes of
the Christian, 264; belief of the Hindu,
265; suffering, 267; no comfort, 268;
philanthropy, 269; union of Christ
with His followers, 269; brotherhood
of Christians, 270, ; science, 271 ; in-
consistency of the Sästras, 272; God's
Word pure, 272.
Hindus in Northern India, life of 91.
Hiranyakašipu, legend of, 1oz.
Holi, feast of, I Q5. -
Homa of the Iranians, connected with
Soma of the Hindus, 29.
Hook-swinging, coo.
Horse, sacrifice of the, 36.
Hymns of Rig Veda, 17.
Hymns, the, contents of 38; language
of, 40; confessions of ignorance in,
46; speculations on the origin of the
world, 46.
284
INDEX
Idols, amazing number of 167.
India and the West, intercourse between,
Q.
Indra, conception of 23; character of
24; , his love of Soma, 36; anger of
against Krishna, 113.
Islám, influence of, in India, 155.
Išwara, the supreme ruler, 56.
Jacolliot, M., 115.
#. 53.
aintsm, I49.
jamshid (king), 32.
Janaka, King of Mithilä, legend of,
I IO.
Jangamas, sect of 153.
Jayadeva (poet), 148.
Jumna river, 40, II2.
Kabir, story of, 155; theft of, 164.
Kabirism, doctrines of, 156.
Kāli (goddess), worship of 136, 259.
Kali Yuga, the, 117.
Kālidasa (quoted, 176, 186, 189.
Kalki avatāra, the, 116.
Kalpa, a length of, I 17.
Kānhobă, 197.
Kansa, king of Mathură, legend of,
II [.
Kapila, the philosophy of 59.
Karma, 99.
Karsandās Mulji, 143.
Kartābhaja sect, the, 146.
Kauravas, the, wars of 121.
Keshub Chunder Sen, history of 216;
separates from Somaj. 218; forms
new Brahmo Somaj, 218; services of,
219; visit of, to Britain, 219; auto-
cracy of 219; marriage of daughter
of, 221 ; revolt from, 221; forms the
New Dispensation, 222; on the claims
of Christ, 223; creed of the New Dis-
pensation, 224; ritualism of, 225;
proclamation of 225; the ‘Flag
Ceremony, 225; the ſire ceremony,
225; introduces two sacraments, 225;
last lecture by, 226; conversation
with, 228; references of, to mission-
aries, 229; reverence for memory of,
229.
Khandobi, 200.
Kolarian race, the, civilization of 18.
Krishna, story of 72, 122; exaltation
of 74; Vishnu, incarnated as, I I I ;
legend of, I I I ; popularity of, I 13 ;
evil influence of, i 15; death of, 115.
Krishna, or Gokul, Janmäshtami, feast
Or, IQ7.
Krishna Mohun Banerjea, Rev., 215.
Krita or Satya Yuga, the, 1 16.
Kshatriya caste, the, 82.
Kulin Brahmans, 257.
Kural, 72.
Kurtz (quoted), 259.
Kurukshetra, battle of 122.
Kuša grass, worship of, 176.
Kusumānjali, 56. -
Lakshmi (goddess), 136.
Lassen, 70.
Lecky, testimony of, to Christianity, 262.
Linga or phallus, worship of 132.
Lingayits, 153. -
Lorinser, Dr., theory of, on the Bh.
Gitä, 75.
M (letter) in the worship of Śakti, 137.
Mādhavāchārya sect, the, 144.
Mahābhārata, the, extent of, I 19 ; Sub-
'ject of 120 ; wars between Pāndavas
and Kauravas, 121 ; influence of, on
Hindus, 125; on the Yavanas (Greeks
or Greco-Bactrians), 69.
Mahārājas, worship of 143.
Mahāśivarātri, feast of, 194.
Mahipati, 161, 162, &c.
Maine, Sir H. S. (quoted), 276.
Makar Sankrānti, feast of, 194.
Man-lion, a, Vishnu becomes, iO7.
Mantra or Sanhità, first part of a Veda,
I5.
Manu, the code of, 82; date of 82 ;
caste tyranny of 84; legend of, iO5.
Manwantaras, 128.
Marăthi literaturc, 159.
Marshman, Dr., 214.
Māruti, 167.
Mºts. or Storm-winds, the, worship of,
20.
Māyā, 65.
Mendicants, r, ligious, list of 154.
Mimänsā, Purva, 53, 54.
Mimänsā, Uttara, 54.
imānsā, the system of, 62.
Mīrābāi (princess), 168.
Mithra (in Zend) = Mitra, 29.
Mitra (light of day), 28.
Mohammadanism, influence of 155.
Moon, the, worship of, 26.
Mozumdar, Mr. P. C., opinions of 229,
27C).
Mä. Dr. J., his opinion of Vedic
theology, 20; translations by, 280.
Mukundrāj, 168.
Müller, Max (quoted), 89, 204, 272.
Nābhāji, 163.
Nāga panchami, feast of, 197.
Nāgārjuna, 97.
Nāmadeva, writings of, 160.
Nâmburi Brahmans, 191.
Nānak, history of, 157.
Nanda, the herdsman, legend of, I I I.
Nārali paurnimä, feast of, 197.
New Dispensation, the, formation of,
222; creed of, 224; ritualism of 225;
a proclamation, 225; the Flag Cere-
mony, 225; fire ceremony, 225; in-
troduction of two sacraments, 225;
recent language of 231.
INDEX
285
Nihilism, 97.
Nyāya system of philosophy, the, 56.
Olcott, Colonel, 241.
Om, ºf of the word, 130.
Ordeal, trial by, 91.
Panchagavya, 186.
Pāndavas and Kauravas, the war be-
tween, 7 I, I2O.
Pandharpur, pilgrimage to, 160.
Pändurang, Mr. D., forms Parama
hansa sabhā, 232.
Panjāb (Punjaub), 18.
Panjāb, the, Aryans in, 18.
Parama hansa sabhā, formation of,
232.
Paraſnahansas, sect of, 153.
Parāśara, code of, 277.
Parašurāma, legénd of, 84; Vishnu,
incarnated as, Io9.
Parker, Theodore, 217.
Pārsi mode of purification, 187.
Parvati (goddess), 136.
Patanjali, 53.
Philostratus, 163.
Pilgrimages, growth of 181; places of,
the ; 182; the Sarasvati, 182 ;
Benares, 182 ; Prayåg (Allahabad),
182; Haridwair (or Har-dwār), 182 ;
Gangá Ságar, 182 ; Puri, 182; Dwa-
rakā, 182 : Nāsik, 183; Pandharpūr,
183; Rămeșvar, 183; Somnath, i83;
Omkar, 183; Badari Kedair, 183;
Tryambak, 183; Tirthas, or holy
places, 182 ; evils of 184.
Pipal (Ficus ºeligiosa), worship of, 175.
Pitri paksh, ceremony of 171.
Pitris or Fathers, worship of, 31.
Plato, 50.
Prahlāda, legend of, 1oz.
Prajāpati, 37.
Prakfiti, dóings of 58; union of, with
Purush, 59.
Präſlanāthis, sect of 159.
Prārthanà Sabhā, constitution of 232.
Prārthanà Somāj, the, 233.
Pulayas, ;
Purāna (Christian), 162.
Purāmas, the eighteen, description of,
13; origin of, 127; list of 127; sub-
jects of, 128; date of 129; the Upa-
Purānas, 129; religion of 129; deities
of 131 ; dogma of transmigration,
I32.
Purush, union of, with Prakriti, 59.
Pythagoras, 50.
Rājā Nārāyana Basu (Bose), views of,
54.
Rajas, principle of 58.
Rāma with the axe, Vishnu, incarnated
as, IOQ.
Rāma, or Rāmachandra, Vishnu incar-
nated as, Io9; legend of 116.
Rāma, legend of, descent of, Io9.
Rāma navami, feast of, 196.
Rāmānanda sect, the, 142.
Rāmānuja sect, the, 141.
Rāmāyana, epic poem, description of,
I 18, 119; contents of, I 19.
Rammohun Roy, history of 214.
Rāvana, King of Ceylon, legend of, IIo.
Recapitulation: pre-Vedic religion, 201;
reverence for the Soma plant, 202;
Vedic , religion, 202; deities an
worship, 202 : deterioration, 203;
the Aharº Veda, 203; ritual, 204;
the Brähmana, 204; the doctrine of
transmigration, 205; development of
speculation, 205; teaching of the
Upanishads, 206; , dualistic system,
206; . schools of thought,
206; philosophy of the Darśanas,
2O6; doctrines of the two Minánsás,
2O7; Vedāntism, 207; lessons of its
philosophy, 208; teaching of the Pu-
rănas. 209; the sects, 209; worship of
the Sakti, 209; testimony of Dr.
Moncure Conway as to modern Hin-
duism, 2 Io.
Reforming sects, the—
Kabiris, 155.
Sikhs, 157.
Dādū Panthis, 159.
Bābā Lālis, 159.
Prānanāthis, 159.
Siva Nārāyanis, 159.
Swāmi Näräyanis, 159. -
Vaishnavas of the Mārāthā country,
.159. tº tº * * *
Religions of antiquity, the, extinction
Of, 9.
Romaka Siddhānta, the, 70.
Runjit Singh, burning of, 9o.
Sacrifice, 37.
Sacrifice of the horse, 36.
Sādhārana Brahmo Somâj, formation
of, 221 ; progress of, 230.
Sahuja sect, the, 146.
Saiva sects, the—
Dandis, 152.
Dasnämis, 152.
Yogis, 152.
Jangamas, 153.
Paramahansas, I53.
Aghoris, 153.
Urdhvabāhus, 153.
. Akāśamukhis, 154. ,
Şaktas, worshippers of Sakti, 137.
Sakti, the (goddess) worship of, 137.
Şāma Veda, contents of, 16.
Sândilya, 148.
Sanhitā, or Mantra, ſirst part of a
, Veda, 15.
Sankara Achärya, influence of, 63.
Sänkhya system, the, 58.
Sannyasi, meaning of the word, 154.
Sanskrit works, the number of, 12.
286
INDEX
Sarasvati, the river, life near, 92.
Sästras, the, description of, 12.
Sati (Suttee), the rite of 89.
Sattva, principle of 58.
Sauras, 140.
Seneca on the Jews, 212.
Seven rivers, country of the, 18.
Shanars, 17o.
Shelley (quoted), 47.
Sikhs, 157, 158.
Sin, Hindu conception of, 178; means
of purification from, 181.
Şitä, wife of Rāma, legend of, 1 Io.
Siva, worship of, 52.
Sivāji, 161.
Siva Nārāyanīs, sect of, 159.
Smriti, or indirect revelation, 13.
Soma of the Hindus, connected with
Homa of the Iranians, 29.
Soma sacrifice, 36.
Spashtadāyaka sect, the, 146.
Specimens of the better teachings of
, Hinduism, 280.
Sraddhā, or trust in the deities, 147.
Srāddha, or ceremonies connected with
, the dead, 188, &c.
Sri (goddess), 136.
Sridharalu Naidu, history of 234.
Sruti, or direct revelation, 13.
Storm-winds, the, worship of, 26.
Südra caste, the, 82.
Sugriva, the monkey-king, legend of,
I IO.
Sun, the worship of, 26
Sūtras, the, 53, 82.
Svayamvara, or tournament, I2O.
Swāmi Nārāyana sect, the, 146.
Syrian Christians, 76.
Tamas, principle of 58.
Tantras, the, authority of, 14; origin
and list of, 135; divisions of, 136;
teachings of, 136; worship of the
Sakti, 137; right-hand and left-hand
worshippers, 137; horrible rites for
gaining power over evil spirits, 139.
Theosophists in India, 240.
Tirtha, ceremony of 170.
Tirthankaras, 149.
Tortoise, a, Vishnu becomes, IO6.
Transmigration, doctrine of, in . Upa-
nishads, 49; moral characteristics of,
51 ; origin of, 132.
Travancore, caste tyranny in, 191.
Treta Yuga, the, I 17.
Triad of gods, 28, 130.
Trimūrtti, * or union of the three
reat gods, I3O, I4O.
t; Melã, 164, 4.
Tukārām, poetry of, 16o; history of,
161 ; quoted, 50, 139, 149, 16O
Tulasi, or holy basil, worship of 175.
Umā (goddess), 136.
Upanishads, the, age of 16; meaning
of the word, 43; text of, 45; date of,
46; guesses at truth in, 47; sorrow
of, 48; pantheistic teaching of 49 ;
sequence of 49; practical end of, 49 ;
doctrine of transmigration in, 56;
Inoral characteristics of 51; asceticism
in, 52; worship of Siva, 52.
Upa-Purāmas, the, 13, 129.
Urdhvabāhus, sect of, 153.
Ushas, the dawn, worship of, 26, 28.
Vaikuntha, 160.
Vairāgi (or Byragee), a, description of,
I54.
Vaiśeshika philosophy, the, 57.
Vaishnava sects, the-
Rāmānujas, 141.
Rāmānandas, 142.
Vallabhāchāryas, 142.
Mādhavachāryas, 144.
Chaitanya's followers, 145.
Swāmi Nārāyana, 146.
Kartābhajas, 146.
Spashtadāyakas, 146.
Sahujas, 146.
Vaishnavas, of the Marāthā country, 159.
Vaiśya caste, the, 82.
Vallabha Achārya, story of 142.
Wilmiki, poetry of, I Io.
Vāmana, Vishnu becomes incarnated as,
IOS.
Varnasankara (mixture of classes), 74.
Varuna, pre-eminence of, 21 ; same as
Ahura, 28.
Väsudeva, father of Krishna, III.
Visuki, the serpent, legend of, Ioë.
Väyu, the Wind, worship of, 26.
Veda Somaj, the, 234.
Vedānta philosophy, the, 62.
Vedānta Sāra, 63.
Vedas, the four, description of, 13;
etymology of name, 15; written in
Sanskrit, I5; parts of, 15; Samhitā,
or Mantra, 15; the Brähmana, 15;
the Aranyaka, 15; Upanishad, 15 ; age
of different parts, 16; names of four
divisions of 16; contents of SãmaVeda,
16; of Yajur Veda, 16; of Atharva Veda,
16; of Rig Veda, 17; age of the hymns
of 17 ; diversity of, 17; descriptions
of Aryans in, 18; hostility to, 19;
invader's curse, 19; nature worship
of 19 ; contradictions of, 20; original
faith of Aryans, 20; pre-eminence of
Varuna, 21 ; etymology of, 21 ; char-
acter of Varuna, 22; Indra, conception
of 23; declension in religious belief,
24; worship of Agni, the Fire, 25; the
Sun, the two Ašvinas, and Ushas, the
Dawn, 26; the Winds, the Earth, the
Waters, and the Moon, 26; the horn-
age taught in, 27; number of deities,
27; chaos in pantheon, 27; female
deities, 28; triads in, 28; connexion
between Iranian and Hindu religions,
I
IVDEX
287
28; Ahura = Varuna Asura, 28; Mithra
= Mitra, 28; connexion between
Soma and Homa, 29; importance of
sacrificial ſire, libation, and prayer,
30; degradation of gods in Avesta,
3O ; conflict between Iranians and
Indians, 31 ; worship of, 31 ; worship
of the Pitris, 31; contents of Atharva
Veda, 32.
Vetala, a devil, worship of 17o.
Vishnu, descents of, iO3; becomes
Buddha, Io; ; a fish, 105; a tortoise,
IO6; a boar, 107; a man-lion, 107;
a Brahman dwarf, IoS, Rāma with
the axe, 109; Rāma, 109; Krishna,
I I I ; popularity of, I I I evil influence
of, I 15; death of 115; the Kalki
avatara, IIG.
Viśvāmitra, legend of 84.
Withobă, glory of 132.
Withthal, or Vithobā, worship of, 159.
Vivek Sindhu, 168.
Vritra, conflict of, with Indra, 2
Vyāsa, a mythical personage, 62.
Waters, the, worship of, 26.
Ways to salvation, 147.
Weber, Prof., 118, 147.
Widow-burning, 89, 213, 256.
Williams, Prof. Sir Monier, 119.
Wilson, Prof. H. H., on Suttee, 89, on
Sakti worship, 138.
Winds, the, worship of 26.
Wºº the position of 83; legislation
regarding, 87.
wordsworth (quoted), 47.
Worship (forms of), 285, 287.
Worship (domestic), 202, 203.
Worship in Vedic times, 35 ; it had no
temple, 35 ; was personal or social,
35; consisted in offerings, prayer, and
praise, 35 ; offerings of Soma, 36;
sacrifice of the horse, 36; of human
beings, 37; ideas connected with
sacrifice, 37; necessity of the Brah.
man, 40 ; becomes more elaborate
and complex, 4 I ; reaction in, 43.
Yājnavalkya, code of, date of 90.
Yajur Veda, contents of, 16; on sacri-
ficial animals, 36.
Yama, 31, 123.
Yamunā river, 40, I 12.
Yavanas, the, spoken of 69.
Yino, the Ruler (Jamshid), 32.
Yinno = Yama, 32.
Yoga philosophy, the, 53, 60.
Yogis, sect of, 152.
Yudhishthira, a model king, 12 1.
Yugas, the four, I 16.
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