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HINDUISM
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HINDUISM , a See also:term generally employed to comprehend the social institutions, past and See also:present, of the See also:Hindus who See also:form the See also:great See also:majority of the See also:people of See also:India; as well as the multitudinous See also:crop of their religious beliefs which has grown up, in the course of many centuries, on the See also:foundation of the Brahmanical scriptures. The actual proportion of the See also:total See also:population cf India (294 millions) included under the name of " Hindus " has been computed in the See also:census See also:report for 19or at something like 7o% (206 millions); the remaining 30% being made up partly of the followers of See also:foreign See also:creeds, such as Mahommedans, Parsecs, Christians and See also:Jews, partly of the votaries of indigenous forms of belief which have at various times separated from the See also:main stock, and See also:developed into See also:independent systems, such as See also:Buddhism, Jainism and See also:Sikhism; and partly of isolated See also: That the theory of the triple manifestation of the deity was indeed only a See also:compromise between Brahmanical aspirations and popular worship, probably largely influenced by the traditional sanctity of the number three, is sufficiently clear from the fact that, whilst Brahma, the creator, and at the same See also:time the very embodiment of Brahmanical class See also:pride, has practically remained a mere figurehead in the actual worship of the people, Siva, on the other See also:hand, so far from being merely the destroyer, is also the unmistakable representative of generative and reproductive' See also:power in nature. In fact, Brahma, having performed his legitimate part in the mundane See also:evolution by his original creation of the universe, has retired into the background, being, as it were, looked upon as funclus officio, like a See also:venerable figure of a former See also:generation, whence in epic See also:poetry he is commonly styled pitamaha, " the grandsire." But despite the artificial See also:character of the Trimurti, it has retained to this See also:day at least its theoretical validity in orthodox Hinduism, whilst it has also undoubtedly exercised considerable See also:influence in shaping sectarian belief, in promoting feelings of See also:toleration towards the claims of See also:rival deities; and in a tendency towards identifying divine figures newly sprung into popular favour with one or other of the principal deities, and thus helping to bring into See also:vogue that notion of avatars, or periodical descents or incarnations of the deity, which has become so prominent a feature of the later sectarian belief. Under more favourable See also:political conditions,' the sacerdotal class might perhaps, in course of time, have succeeded in imposing something like an effective common creed on the heterogeneous medley of races and tribes scattered over the See also:peninsula, just as they certainly did succeed in establishing the social See also:prerogative of their own See also:order over the length and breadth of India. They were, however, fated to fall far See also:short of such a consummation; and at all times orthodox Brahmanism has had to wink at, or ignore, all manner of See also:gross superstitions and repulsive practices, along with the popular worship of countless hosts of godlings, demons, See also:spirits and ghosts, and mystic objects and symbols of every description. Indeed, according to a See also:recent See also:account by a See also:close observer of the religious practices prevalent in See also:southern India, fully four-fifths of the people of the See also:Dravidian See also:race, whilst nominally acknowledging the spiritual guidance of the Brahmans, are to this day practically given over to the worship of their nondescript See also:local See also:village deities (grama-devata), usually attended by See also:animal sacrifices frequently involving the slaughter, under revolting circumstances, of thousands of victims. Curiously enough these local deities are nearly all of the See also:female, not the male See also:sex. In the estimation of these people " Siva and Vishnu may be more dignified beings, but the village deity is regarded as a more present help in trouble, and more intimately concerned with the happiness and prosperity of the villagers. The origin of this form of Hinduism is lost in antiquity, but it is probable that it represents a pre-See also:Aryan See also:religion, more or less modified in various parts of See also:south India by Brahmanical influence. At the same time, many of the deities themselves are of quite recent origin, and it is easy to observe a deity in making even at the present day." 2 It is a significant fact that, whilst in the worship of Siva and Vishnu, at which no animal sacrifices are offered, the officiating priests are almost invariably Brahmans, this is practically never the See also:case at the popular performance of those " gloomy and weird See also:rites for the propitiation of angry deities, or the See also:driving away of evil spirits, when the pujaris (or ministrants) are See also:drawn from all other castes, even from the Pariahs, the out-caste See also:section of Indian society." As from the point of view of religious belief, so also from that of social organization no clear See also:line of demarcation can be caste. drawn between Brahmanism and Hinduism. Though it was not till later times that the network of class divisions and subdivisions attained anything like the degree of intricacy which it shows in these latter days, still in its origin the caste-system is undoubtedly coincident with the rise of Brahmanism, and may even be said to be of the very essence of it.3 The See also:cardinal principle which underlies the system of caste is the preservation of purity of descent, and purity of religious belief and ceremonial usage. Now, that same principle had been operative from the very See also:dawn of the See also:history of Aryanized India. The social organism of the Aryan tribe did not probably differ essentially from that of most communities at that See also:primitive See also:stage of See also:civilization; whilst the See also:body of the people—the Vi§ (or aggregate of Vai§yas)—would be mainly occupied with agricultural and See also:pastoral pursuits, two professional classes—those of the See also:warrior and the See also:priest—had already made See also:good their claim to social distinction. As yet, however, the tribal community would still feel one in race and traditional usage. But
' " It is, perhaps, by See also:surveying India that we at this day can best represent to ourselves and appreciate the vast See also:external reform worked upon the See also:heathen See also:world by See also:Christianity, as it was organized and executed throughout See also:Europe by the combined authority of the See also:Holy See also:Roman See also:Empire and the See also: Be this as it may, the physical See also:appearance of the population of this central region of northern India—Hindustan and See also:Behar—clearly points to an intermixture of the tall, fair-coloured, See also:fine-nosed Aryan with the short-sized, dark-skinned, broad-nosed Dravidian; the latter type becoming more pronounced towards the See also:lower strata of the social order.' Now, it was precisely in this part of India that mainly arose the body of literature which records the See also:gradual rise of the Brahmanical See also:hierarchy and the early development of the caste-system.
The problem that now See also:lay before the successful invaders was how to See also:deal with the indigenous people, probably vastly outnumbering them, without losing their own racial identity. They dealt with them in the way the See also: Though the See also:Brahman, who by this time had firmly secured his supremacy over the kshatriya, or See also:noble, in matters spiritual as well as in legislative and administrative functions, would naturally be the See also:prime mover in this regulation of the social ' Thus, in -See also:Berar, " there is a strong non-Aryan See also:leaven in the dregs of the agricultural class, derived from the primitive races which have gradually melted down into settled life, and thus become fused with the general community, while these same races are still distinct tribes in the See also:wild tracts of hill and jungle." Sir Alfred C. Lyall, As. St., i. 6. order, there seems no See also:reason to believe that the other two upper classes were not equally interested in seeing their hereditary privileges thus perpetuated by divine See also:sanction. Nothing, indeed, is more remarkable in the whole development of the caste-system than the jealous pride which every caste, from the highest to the lowest, takes in its own See also:peculiar occupation and See also:sphere of life. The distinctive badge of a member of the three upper castes was the sacred triple See also:cord or See also:thread (sutra)—made of See also:cotton, See also:hemp or See also:wool, according to the respective caste—with which he was invested at the upanayana cefemony, or See also:initiation into the use of the sacred savitri, or See also:prayer to the See also:sun (also called gdyatri), constituting his second See also:birth. Whilst the Arya ,was thus a dvi ja, or twice-See also:born, the Sudra remained unregenerate during his lifetime, his See also:consolation being the See also:hope that, on the faithful performance of his duties in this life, he might hereafter be born again into a higher grade of life. In later times, the strict adherence to caste duties would naturally receive considerable support from the belief in the transmigration of souls, already prevalent before See also:Buddha's time, and from the very general acceptance of the doctrine of See also:karma (" See also:deed "), or retribution, according to which a See also:man's present station and manner of life are the result of the sum-total of his actions and thoughts in his former existence; as his actions here will again, by the same automatic See also:process of retribution, determine his status and See also:condition in his next existence. Though this doctrine is especially insisted upon in Buddhism, and its designation as a specific term (See also:Pali, Kamma) may be due to that creed, the notion itself was doubtless already prevalent in pre-Buddhist times. It would even seem to be necessarily and naturally implied in Brahmanical belief in See also:metempsychosis; whilst in the doctrine of Buddha, who admits no soul, the theory of the See also:net result or See also:fruit of a man's actions serving here-after to form or condition the existence of some new individual who will have no conscious identity with himself, seems of a peculiarly artificial and mystic character. But, be this as it may, " the doctrine of karma is certainly one of the firmest beliefs of all classes of Hindus, and the fear that a man shall reap as he has sown is an appreciable See also:element in theaverage morality . . . the See also:idea of forgiveness is absolutely wanting; evil done may indeed be outweighed by meritorious deeds so far as to ensure a better existence in the future, but it is not effaced, and must be atoned for " (Census Report, i. 364). In spite, however, of the artificial restrictions placed on the intermarrying of the castes, the mingling of the two races seems to have proceeded at a tolerably rapid See also:rate. Indeed, the paucity of women of the Aryan stock would probably render these mixed unions almost a See also:necessity from the very outset; and the vaunted purity of blood which the caste rules were calculated to perpetuate can scarcely have remained of more than a relative degree even in the case of the Brahman caste. Certain it is that mixed castes are found referred to at a comparatively early period; and at the time of Buddha—some five or six centuries before the Christian era—the social organization would seem to have presented an appearance not so very unlike that of modern times. It must be confessed, however, that our See also:information regarding the development of the caste-system is far from complete, especially in its earlier stages. Thus, we are almost entirely See also:left to conjecture on the important point as to the original social organization of the subject race. Though doubtless divided into different tribes scattered over an extensive tract of land, the subjected See also:aborigines were slumped together under the designation of Sudras, whose See also:duty it was to serve the upper classes in all the various departments of See also:manual labour, See also:save those of a downright sordid and degrading character which it was left to vratyas or outcasts to perform. How, then, was the See also:distribution of crafts and habitual occupations of all kinds brought about? Was the process one of spontaneous growth adapting an already existing social organization to a new order of things; or was it originated and perpetuated by regulation from above? Or was it rather that the status and duties of existing offices and trades came to be determined and made hereditary by somesuch artificial system as that by which the Theodosian See also:Code succeeded for a time in organizing the Roman society in the 5th See also:century of our era ? "It is well known " (says See also:Professor See also:Dill) " that the tendency of the later Empire was to stereotype society, by compelling men to follow the occupation of their fathers, and preventing a See also:free circulation among different callings and grades of life. The man who brought the See also:grain from See also:Africa to the public stores at See also:Ostia, the See also:baker who made it into loaves for distribution, the butchers who brought pigs from Samnium, Lucania or Bruttium, the purveyors of See also:wine and oil, the men who fed the furnaces of the public See also:baths, were See also:bound to their callings from one generation to another. It was the principle of rural See also:serfdom applied to social functions. Every See also:avenue of See also:escape was closed. A man was bound to his calling not only by his See also:father's but also by his See also:mother's condition. Men were not permitted to marry out of their gild. If the daughter of one of the baker caste married a man not belonging to it, her See also:husband was bound to her father's calling. Not even a See also:dispensation obtained by some means from the imperial See also:chancery, not even the power of the Church could avail to break the See also:chain of See also:servitude." It can hardly be gainsaid that these artificial arrangements See also:bear a very striking See also:analogy to those of the Indian caste-system; and if these class restrictions were comparatively short-lived on See also:Italian ground, it was not perhaps so much that so See also:strange a plant found there an ethnic See also:soil less congenial to its permanent growth, but because it was not allowed sufficient time to become firmly rooted; for already great political events were impending which within a few decades were to lay the mighty empire in ruins. In India, on the other hand, the institution of caste—even if artificially contrived and imposed by the Indo-Aryan priest and ruler—had at least ample time allowed it to become firmly established in thesocial habits, and even in the affections, of the people. At the same time, one could more easily understand how such a system could have found general acceptance all over the Dravidian region of southern India, with its merest sprinkling of Aryan blood, if it were possible to assume that class arrangements of a similar See also:kind must have already been prevalent amongst the aboriginal tribes See also:prior to the See also:advent of the Aryan. Whether a more intimate acquaintance with the See also:manners and customs of those See also:rude tribes that have hitherto kept themselves comparatively free from Hindu influences may yet throw some See also:light on this question, remains to be seen. But, by this as it may, the institution of caste, when once established, certainly appears to have gone on steadily developing; and not even the See also:long period of Buddhist ascendancy, with its uncompromising resistance to the Brahman's claim to being the See also:pole arbiter in matters of faith, seems to have had any very appreciable retardant effect upon the progress of the See also:movement. It was not only by the formation of ever new endogamous castes and sub-castes that the system gained in extent and intricacy, but even more so by the See also:constant subdivision of the castes into numerous exogamous See also:groups or septs, themselves often involving gradations of social status important enough to seriously affect the possibility of intermarriage, already hampered by various other restrictions. Thus a man wishing to marry his son or daughter had to look for a suitable match outside his See also:sept, but within his caste. But whilst for his son he might choose a wife from a lower sept than his own, for his daughter, on the other hand, the See also:law of hypergamy compelled him, if at all possible, to find a husband in a higher sept. This would naturally See also:lead to an excess of women over men in the higher septs, and would render it difficult for a man to get his daughter respectably married without paying a high See also:price for a suitable bridegroom and incurring other heavy See also:marriage expenses. It can hardly be doubted that this See also:custom has been largely responsible for the See also:crime of female See also:infanticide, formerly so prevalent in India; as it also probably is to some extent for See also:infant marriages, still too common in some parts of India, especially Bengal; and even for the all but universal repugnance to the re-marriage of widows, even when these had been married ix early childhood and had never joined their husbands. Yet violations of these rules are jealously watched by the other members of the sept, and are liable—in accordance with the general custom in which communal matters are regulated in India—to be brought before a See also:special See also:council (panchdyat), originally consisting of five (pancha), but now no longer limited to that number, since it is chiefly the greater or less strictness in the observance of caste rules and the orthodox ceremonial generally that determine the status of the sept in the social See also:scale of the caste. Whilst community of occupation was an important See also:factor in the original formation of non-tribal castes, the See also:practical exigencies of life have led to considerable laxity in this respect—not least so in the case of Brahmans who have often had to take to callings which would seem altogether incompatible with the proper spiritual functions of their caste. Thus, " the See also:prejudice against eating cooked See also:food that has been touched by a man of an inferior caste is so strong that, although the Shastras do not prohibit the eating of food cooked by a Kshatriya or Vaisya, yet the Brahmans, in most parts of the country, would not eat such food. For these reasons, every Hindu See also:household—whether Brahman, Kshatriya or Sudra —that can afford to keep a paid See also:cook generally entertains the services of a Brahman for the performance of its cuisine—the result being that in the larger towns the very name of Brahman has suffered a strange degradation of See also:late, so as to mean only a cook " (Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya, Hindu Castes and Sects). In this caste, however, as in all others, there are certain kinds of occupation to which a member could not turn for a livelihood without incurring serious defilement. In fact, adherence to the traditional ceremonial and respectability of occupation go very much hand-in-hand. Thus, amongst agricultural castes, those engaged in See also:vegetable-growing or See also:market-gardening are inferior to the genuine See also:peasant or See also:yeoman, such as the Jat and See also:Rajput; whilst of these the Jat who practises widow-marriage ranks below the Rajput who prides himself on his tradition of ceremonial orthodoxy—though racially there seems little, if any, difference between the two; and the Rajput, again, is looked down upon by the Babhan of Behar because he does not, like himself, See also:scruple to handle the plough, instead of invariably employing See also:low-caste men for this manual labour. So also when members of the Baidya, or physician, caste of Bengal, ranging next to that of the Brahman, See also:farm land on See also:tenure, " they will on no account hold the plough, or engage in any form of manual labour, and thus necessarily carry on their cultivation by means of hired servants " (H. H. Risley, Census Report). The scale of social See also:precedence as recognized by native public See also:opinion is concisely reviewed (ib.) as revealing itself " in the facts that particular castes are supposed to be modern representatives of one or other of the original castes of the theoretical Hindu system; that Brahmans will take See also:water from certain castes; that Brahmans of high See also:standing will serve particular castes; that certain castes, though not served by the best Brahmans, have nevertheless got Brahmans of their own whose See also:rank varies according to circumstances; that certain castes are not served by Brahmans at all but have priests of their own; that the status of certain castes has been raised by their taking to infant-marriage or abandoning the re-marriage of widows; that the status of others has been modified by their pursuing some occupations in a special or peculiar way; that some can claim the services of the village See also:barber, the village See also:palanquin-See also:bearer, the village See also:midwife, &c., while others cannot; that some castes may not enter the courtyards of certain temples; that some castes are subject to special taboos, such as that they must not use the village well, or may draw water only with their own vessels, that they must live outside the village or in a See also:separate See also:quarter, that they must leave the road on the approach of a high-caste man and must See also:call out to give warning of their approach." " The first point to observe is the predominance throughout India of the influence of the traditional system of four original castes. In every See also:scheme of grouping the Brahman heads the See also:list. Then come the castes whom popular opinion accepts as the modern representatives of the Kshatriyas; and these are followed by the See also:mercantile groups supposed to be akin to the Vaisyas. When we leave the higher circles of the twice-born, the difficulty of finding a uniform basis of See also:classification becomes apparent. The anc ent designation Sudra finds no great favour in modern times, and we can point to no See also:group that rs generally recognized as representing it. The term is used in Bombay, Madras and Bengal to denote a considerable number of castes of moderate respectability, the higher of whom are considered ' clean ' Sudras, while the precise status of the lower is a question which lends itself to endless controversy." In northern and north-western India, on the other hand, " the grade next below the twice-born rank is occupied by a number of castes from whose hands Brahmans and members of the higher castes will take water and certain kinds of sweetmeats. Below these again is rather an indeterminate group from whom water is taken by some of the higher castes, not by others. Further down, where the test of water no longer applies, the status of the caste depends on the nature of its occupation and its habits in respect of See also:diet. There are castes whose See also:touch defiles the twice-born, but who do not commit the crowning enormity of eating See also:beef . . In western and southern Inara the idea that the social See also:state of a caste depends on whether Brahmans will take water and sweetmeats frcm its members is unknown, for the higher castes will as a See also:rule take water only from persons of their own caste and sub-caste. In Madras especially the idea of ceremonial pollution by the proximity of an unclean caste has been developed with much elaboration. Thus the table of social precedence attached to the See also:Cochin report shows that while a See also:Nayar can pollute a rnan of a higher caste only by touching him, people of the Kammalan group, including masons, blacksmiths, carpenters and workers in See also:leather, pollute at a distance of 24 ft., toddy-drawers at 36 ft., Pulayan or Cheruman cultivators at 48 ft., while in the case of the Paraiyan (Pariahs) who eat beef the range of pollution is no less than 64 ft." In this bewildering See also:maze of social grades and class distinctions, the Brahman, as will have been seen, continues to hold the dominant position, being respected and even worshipped by all the others. " The more orthodox Sudras carry their veneration for the priestly class to such a degree that they will not See also:cross the See also:shadow of a Brahman, and it is not unusual for them to be under a See also:vow not to eat any food in the See also:morning, before drinking Bipracharanamrita, i.e. water in which the toe of a Brahman has been dipped. On the other hand, the pride of the Brahmans is such that they do not See also:bow to even the images of the gods worshipped in a Sudra's See also:house by Brahman priests " (Jog. Nath Bh.). There are, however, not a few classes of Brahmans who, for various reasons, have become degraded from their high station, and formed separate castes with whom respectable Brahmans refuse to intermarry and See also:consort. See also:Chief amongst these are the Brahmans who See also:minister for " unclean " Sudras and lower castes, including the makers and dealers in spirituous liquors; as well as those who officiate at the great public shrines or places of See also:pilgrimage where they might be liable to accept forbidden gifts, and, as a matter of fact, often amass considerable See also:wealth; and those who officiate as paid priests at cremations and funeral rites, when the wearing See also:apparel and bedding of the de-ceased are not unfrequently claimed by them as their perquisites. As regards the other two " twice-born " castes, several modern groups do indeed claim to be their See also:direct descendants, and in vindication of their See also:title make it a point to perform the upanayana ceremony and to See also:wear the sacred thread. But though the Brahmans, too, will often acquiesce in the reasonableness of such claims, it is probably only as a matter of policy that they do so, whilst in reality they regard the other two higher castes as having long since disappeared and been merged by See also:miscegenation in the Sudra See also:mass. Hence, in the later classical See also:Sanskrit literature, the term dv:ja,or twice-born, is used simply as a synonym for a Brahman. As regards the numerous groups included under the term of Sudras, the distinction between " clean " and " unclean " Sudras is of especial importance for the upper classes, inasmuch as only the former—of whom nine distinct castes are usually recognized—are as a rule considered See also:fit for employment in household service. The picture thus presented by Hindu society—as made up of a confused congeries of social groups of the most varied standing, each held together and kept separate from others by a traditional body of ceremonial rules and by the gy notion of social gradations being due to a divinely instituted order of things—finds something like a counterpart in the religious life of the people. As in the social sphere, so also in the sphere of religious belief, we find the whole scale of types .represented from the lowest to the highest; and here as there, we meet with the same failure of See also:welding the confused mass into a well-ordered whole. In their theory of a triple manifestation of an impersonal deity, the Brahmanical theologians, as we have seen, had indeed elaborated a doctrine which might have seemed to form a reasonable, authoritative creed for a community already strongly imbued with pantheistic notions; yet, at best, that creed could only See also:appeal to the sympathies of a comparatively limited portion of the people. Indeed, the sacerdotal class themselves had made its universal acceptance an impossibility, seeing that their See also:laws, by which the relations of the classes were to be regulated, aimed at permanently excluding the entire body of aboriginal tribes from the religious life of their Aryan masters. They were to be left for all time coming to their own traditional idolatrous notions and practices. However, the two races could not, in the nature of things, be permanently kept separate from each other. Indeed, even prior to the definite See also:establishment of the caste-system, the mingling of the lower race with the upper' classes, especially with the aristocratic landowners and still more so with the See also:yeomanry, had probably been going on to such an extent as to have resulted in two fairly well-defined intermediate types of colour between the priestly order and the servile race and to have facilitated the ultimate See also:division into four " See also:colours " (See also:verne). In course of time the process of intermingling, as we have seen, assumed such proportions that the priestly class, in their pride of blood, See also:felt naturally tempted to recognize, as of old, only two " colours," the Aryan Brahman and the non-Aryan Sudra. Under these conditions the religious practices of the lower race could hardly have failed in the long run to tell seriously upon the spiritual life of the lay body of the Brahmanical community. To what extent this may have been the case, our limited know-ledge of the early phases of the sectarian worship of the people does not enable us to determine. But, on the other hand, the same process of racial intermixture also tended to gradually draw the lower race more or less under the influence of the Brahmanical forms of worship, and thus contributed towards the shaping of the religious system of modern Hinduism. The grossly idolatrous practices, however, still so largely prevalent in the Dravidian South, show how superficial, after all, that influence has been in those parts of India where the admixture of Aryan blood has been so slight as to have practically had no effect on the racial characteristics of the people. These present-day practices, and the attitude of the Brahman towards them, help at all events to explain the aversion with which the strange rites of the subjected tribes were looked upon by the worshippers of the Vedic See also:pantheon. At the same time, in judging the apparently inhuman way in which the Sudras were treated in the caste rules, one has always to hear in mind the fact that the belief in metempsychosis was already universal at the time, and seemed to afford the only rational explanation of the apparent injustice involved in the unequal distribution of the good things in this world; and that, if the Sudra was strictly excluded from the religious rites and beliefs of the See also:superior classes, this exclusion in no way involved the question of his ultimate emancipation and his union with the See also:Infinite Spirit, which were as certain in his case as in that of any other sentient being. What it did make impossible for him was to attain that union immediately on the cessation of his present life, as he would first have to pass through higher and purer stages of mundane existence before reaching that goal; but in this respect he only shared the See also:lot of all but a very few of the saintliest in the higher See also:spheres of life, since the ordinary twice-born would be liable to sink, after his present life, to grades yet lower than that of the Sudra.
To what extent the changes, which the religious belief of the Aryan classes underwent in See also:post-Vedic times, may have been due to aboriginal influences is a question not easily answered, though the later creeds offer only too many features in which one might feel inclined to suspect influences of that kind. The See also:literary documents, both in Sanskrit and Pali, dating from about the time of Buddha onwards—particularly the two epic poems, the .lfahab'rarala and Rarnayana.—still show us in the main the personnel of the old pantheon; but the character of the gods has changed; they have become anthropomorphized and almost purely mythological figures. A number of the chief gods, sometimes four, but generally eight of them, now appear as lokapales or world-guardians, having definite quarters or intermediate quarters of the See also:compass assigned to them as theirspecial domains. One of them, See also:Kubera, the See also:god of wealth, is a new figure; whilst another, See also:Varuna, the most spiritual and ethical of Vedic deities—the See also: These fair damsels See also:play, however, yet another part, and one far from complimentary to the dignity of the gods. In the epics consider-able merit is attached to a life of seclusion and ascetic practices by means of which man is considered capable of acquiring supernatural See also:powers equal or even superior to those of the gods—a notion perhaps not unnaturally springing from the pantheistic conception. Now, in cases of danger being threatened to their own ascendancy by such practices, the gods as a rule proceed to employ the usually successful expedient of despatching some lovely nymph to lure the saintly men back, to worldly pleasures. Seeing that the epic poems, as repeated by professional reciters, either in their original Sanskrit See also:text, or in their See also:vernacular versions, as well as dramatic compositions based on them, form to this day the chief source of intellectual enjoyment for most Hindus, the legendary matter contained in these heroic poems, however marvellous and incredible it may appear, still enters largely into the religious convictions of the people. " These popular recitals from the Ramayan are done into See also:Gujarati in easy, flowing narrative See also:verse . . . by Premanand, the sweetest of our bards. They are read out by an intelligent Brahman to a mixed See also:audience of all classes and both sexes. It has a perceptible influence on the Hindu character. I believe the remarkable freedom from infidelity which is to be seen in most Hindu families, in spite of their strange gregarious habits, can be traced to that influence; and little wonder " (B. M. See also:Malabari, See also:Gujarat and the Gujaratis). Hence also the universal reverence paid to serpents (naga) since those early days; though whether it simply arose from the superstitious dread inspired by the insidious reptile so fatal to man in India, or whether the verbal coincidence with the name of the once-powerful non-Aryan tribe of Nagas had something to do with it must remain doubtful. Indian myth represents them as a race of demons sprung from Kadru, the wife of the See also:sage Kasyapa, with a See also:jewel in their heads which gives them their sparkling look; and inhabiting one of the seven beautiful worlds below the earth (and above the hells), where they are ruled over by three chiefs or kings, Sesha, Vasuki and Takshaka; their fair daughters often entering into matrimonial alliances with men, like the mermaids of western See also:legend. In addition to such essentially mythological conceptions, we meet in the religious life of this period with an element of more serious aspect in the two gods, on one or other of whom the religious fervour of the large majority of Hindus has ever since concentrated itself, viz. Vishnu and Siva. Both these divine figures have grown out of Vedic conceptions—the genial Vishnu mainly out of a not very prominent See also:solar deity of the same name; whilst the stern Siva, i.e. the kind or gracious one—doubtless a euphemistic name—has his prototype in the old fierce See also:storm-god See also:Rudra, the " Roarer," with certain additional features derived from other deities, especially Pushan, the See also:guardian of flocks and bestower of prosperity, worked up therewith. The exact process of the evolution of the two deities and their advance in popular favour are still somewhat obscure. In the epic poems which may he assumed to have taken their final shape in the early centuries before and after the Christian era, their popular character, so strikingly illustrated by their inclusion in the Brahmanical triad, appears in full force; whilst their cult is likewise attested by the coins and See also:inscriptions of the early centuries of our era. The co-ordination of the two gods in the Trimurti does not by any means exclude a certain rivalry between them; but, on the contrary, a supreme position as the true embodiment of the Divine Spirit is claimed for each of them by their respective votaries, without, however, an See also:honourable, if subordinate, place being refused to the rival deity, wherever the latter, as is not infrequently the case, is not actually represented as merely another form of the favoured god. Whilst at times a truly monotheistic fervour manifests itself in the adoration of these two gods, the polytheistic instincts of the people did not fail to extend the pantheon by groups of new deities in connexion with them. Two of such new gods actually pass as the sons of Siva and his consort Parvati, viz. Skandaalso called Kumara (the youth), Karttikeya, or Subrahmanya (in the south)—the six-headed See also:war-lord of the gods; and Ganese, the lord (or See also:leader) of Siva's troupes of attendants, being at the same time the See also:elephant-headed, paunch-bellied god of See also:wisdom; whilst a third, See also:Kama (Kamadeva) or Kandarpa, the god of love, gets his popular epithet of Ananga, " the bodiless," from his having once, in frolicsome play, tried the power of his arrows upon Siva, whilst engaged in austere practices, when a single glance from the third (forehead) See also:eye of the angry god reduced the mischievous urchin to ashes. For his chief attendant, the great god (Mahadeva, Mahesvara) has already with him the " holy " See also:Nandi—presumably, though his shape is not specified, identical in form as in name with Siva's sacred See also:bull of later times, the appropriate See also:symbol of the god's reproductive power. But, in this repect, we also meet in the epics with the first clear See also:evidence of what in after time became the prominent feature of the worship of Siva and his consort all over India, viz. the feature represented by the linga, or phallic symbol. As regards Vishnu, the epic poems, including the supplement to the Mahabharata, the Harivamsa, supply practically the entire framework of legendary matter on which the later Vaishnava creeds are based. The theory of Avataras which makes the deity—also variously called Narayana, Purushottama, or Vasudeva—periodically assume some material form in order to See also:rescue the world from some great calamity, is fully developed; the ten universally recognized " descents " being enumerated in the larger poem. Though Siva, too, assumes various forms, the incarnation theory is peculiarly characteristic of Vaishnavism; and the fact that the principal See also:hero of the Ramayana (Rama), and one of the prominent warriors of the Mahabharata (See also:Krishna) become in this way identified with the supreme god, and remain to this day the chief objects of the adoration of Vaishnava sectaries, naturally imparts to these creeds a human See also:interest and sympathetic aspect which is wholly wanting in the worship of Siva. It is, however, unfortunately but too true that in some of these creeds the devotional ardour has developed features of a highly objectionable character. Even granting the reasonableness of the triple manifestation of the Divine Spirit, how is one to reconcile all these idolatrous practices, this worship of countless gods and godlings, demons and spirits indwelling in every imaginable See also:object See also:round about us, with the pantheistic doctrine of the Ekam Advitiyam, " the One without a Second "? The Indian theosophist would doubtless have little difficulty in answering that question. For him there is only the One Absolute Being, the one reality that is all in all; whilst all the phenomenal existences and occurrences that See also:crowd upon our senses are nothing more than an illusion of the individual soul estranged for a time from its divine source—an illusion only to be dispelled in the end by the soul's See also:fuller knowledge of its own true nature and its being one with the eternal See also:fountain of blissful being. Butto the man of ordinary understanding, unused to the rarefied See also:atmosphere of abstract thought, this conception of a transcendental, impersonal Spirit and the unreality of the phenomenal world can have no meaning: what he requires is a deity that stands in intimate relation to things material and to all that affects man's life. Hence the exoteric theory of manifestations of the Supreme Spirit ; and that not only the manifestations implied in the triad of gods representing the cardinal processes of mundane existence—creation, preservation, and destruction or regeneration--hut even such as would tend to supply a rational explanation for superstitious imaginings of every kind. For " the Indian See also:philosophy does not ignore or hold aloof from the religion of the masses: it underlies, supports and interprets their polytheism. This may be accounted the See also:keystone of the fabric of Brahmanism, which accepts and even encourages the rudest forms of See also:idolatry, explaining everything by giving it a higher meaning. It treats all the worships as outward, visible signs of some spiritual truth, and is ready to show how each particular See also:image or rite is the symbol of some aspect of universal divinity. The Hindus, like the pagans of antiquity, adore natural objects and forces—a See also:mountain, a river or an animal. The Brahman holds all nature to be the vesture or cloak of indwelling, divine See also:energy, which inspires everything that produces See also:awe or passes man's understanding " (Sir Alfred C. Lyall, Brahminism). During the early centuries of our era, whilst Buddhism, where countenanced by the political rulers, was still holding its own by the See also:side of Brahmanism, sectarian belief in the Hindu gods seems to have made steady progress. The caste- sectart- andsm. system, always calculated to favour unity of religious practice within its social groups, must naturally have contributed to the advance of sectarianism. Even greater was the support it received later on from the Puranas, a class of poetical See also:works of a partly legendary, partly discursive and controversial character, mainly composed in the interest of special deities, of which eighteen principal (maha-purana) and as many secondary ones (upa-purana) are recognized, the See also:oldest of which may go back to about the 4th century of our era. It was probably also during this period that the female element was first definitely admitted to a prominent place amongst the divine objects of sectarian worship, in the shape of the wives of the principal gods viewed as their sakti, or female energy, theoretically identified with the See also:Maya, or See also:cosmic Illusion, of the idealistic Vedanta, and the Prakriti, or plastic matter, of the materialistic Sankhya philosophy, as the See also:primary source of mundane things. The connubial relations of the deities may thus be considered " to typify the mystical union of the two eternal principles, spirit and matter, for the See also:production and See also:reproduction of the universe." But whilst this See also:privilege of divine worship was claimed for the consorts of all the gods, it is principally to Siva's consort, in one or other of her numerous forms, that adoration on an extensive scale came to be offered by a special See also:sect of votaries, the Saktas. In the midst of these conflicting tendencies, an See also:attempt was made, about the latter part of the 8th century, by the distinguished See also:Malabar theologian and philosopher Sankara Acharya to restore the Brahmanical creed to Sank- ara. something like its pristine purity, and thus once more to bring about a uniform system of orthodox Hindu belief. Though himself, like most Brahmans, apparently by predilection a follower of Siva, his aim was the revival of the doctrine of the Brahma as the one self-existent Being and the See also:sole cause of the universe; coupled with the recognition of the practical worship of the orthodox pantheon, especially the gods of the Trimurti, as manifestations of the supreme deity. The practical result of his labours was the foundation of a new sect, the Smartas, i.e. adherents of the smriti or tradition, which has a numerous following amongst southern Brahmans, and, whilst professing Sankara's doctrines, is usually classed as one of the Saiva sects, its members adopting the See also:horizontal sectarial See also:mark peculiar to Saivas, consisting in their case of a triple line, the tripundra, prepared from the ashes of burnt cow-dung and painted on the forehead. Sankara also founded four Maths, or convents, for Brahmans; the chief one being that of Sringeri in See also:Mysore, the spiritual See also:head (Guru) of which wields consider-able power, even that of See also:excommunication, over the Saivas of southern India. In northern India, the professed followers of Sankara are mainly limited to certain classes of mendicants and ascetics, although the tenets of this great Vedanta teacher may be said virtually to constitute the creed of intelligent Brahmans generally. Whilst Sankara's chief title to fame rests on his philosophical works, as the upholder of the strict monistic theory of Vedanta, he doubtless played an important part in the partial remodelling of the Hindu system of belief at a time when Buddhism was rapidly losing ground in India. Not that there is any evidence of Buddhists ever having been actually persecuted by the Brahmans, or still less of Sankara himself ever having done so; but the traditional belief in some See also:personal god, as the principal representative of an invisible, all-pervading deity, would doubtless appeal more directly to the minds and See also:hearts of the people than the colourless ethical system promulgated by the Sakya See also:saint. Nor do Buddhist places of worship appear as a rule to have been destroyed by Hindu sectaries, but they seem rather to have been taken over by them for their own religious uses; at any rate there are to this day not a few Hindu shrines, especially in Bengal, dedicated to Dharmaraj, " the See also:prince of righteousness," as the Buddha is commonly styled. That the tenets and practices of so characteristic a faith as Buddhism, so long prevalent in India, cannot but have left their marks on Hindu life and belief may readily be assumed, though it is not so easy to lay one's See also:finger on the precise features that might seem to betray such an influence. If the general tenderness towards animals, based on the principle of ahimsa, or inflicting no injury on sentient beings, be due to Buddhist teaching, that influence must have made itself felt at a comparatively early period, seeing that sentiments of a similar nature are repeatedly urged in the Code of Manu. Thus, in v. 46-48, " He who does not willingly cause the See also:pain of confinement and See also:death to living beings, but desires the good of all, obtains endless See also:bliss. He who injures, no creature obtains without effort what he thinks of, what he strives for, and what he fixes his mind on. Flesh-See also:meat cannot be procured without injury to animals, and the slaughter of animals is not conducive to heavenly bliss: from flesh-meat, therefore, let man abstain." Moreover, in view of the fact that Jainism, which originated about the same time as Buddhism, inculcates the same principle, even to an extravagant degree, it seems by no means improbable that the spirit of kindliness towards living beings generally was already widely diffused among the people when these new doctrines were promulgated. To the same tendency doubtless is due the gradual decline and ultimate discontinuance of animal sacrifices by all sects except the extreme See also:branch of Sakti-worshippers. In this respect, the veneration shown to serpents and monkeys has, however, to be viewed in a some-what different light, as having a mythical background; whilst quite a special significance attaches to the sacred character assigned to the cow by all classes of Hindus, even those who are not prepared to admit the claim of the Brahman to the exalted position of the earthly god usually conceded to him. In the Veda no tendency shows itself as yet towards rendering divine See also:honour to the cow; and though the importance assigned her in an agricultural community is easily understood, still the exact process of her deification and her See also:identification with the mother earth in the time of Manu and the epics requires further elucidation. An idealized type of the useful quadruped—likewise often identified with the earth—presents itself in the mythical Cow of Plenty, or " wish-cow " (Kamadhenu, or Kamadugha, i.e. wish-milker), already appearing in the Atharvaveda, and in epic times assigned to Indra, or identified with Surabhi, " the fragrant," the sacred cow of the sage Vasishtha. Possibly the growth of the legend of Krishna—his being reared at Go-kula (cow-station) ; his See also:tender relations to the gopis, or cowherdesses, of Vrindavana; his epithets Gopala, " the cowherd," and Govinda, " cow-finder," actually explained as " recoverer of the earth " in the great epic, and the go-loka, or " cow-world," assigned to him as his heavenly abode—may have some connexion with the sacred character ascribed to the cow from early times.
Since the time of Sankara, or for more than a thousand years, the gods Vishnu and Siva, or Hari and Kara as they are also
Worship. commonly called—with their wives, especially that
of the latter god—have shared between them the
practical worship of the vast majority of Hindus. But, though
the people have thus been divided between two different religious
camps, sectarian animosity has upon the whole kept within
reasonable limits. In fact, the respectable Hindu, whilst owning
special See also:allegiance to one of the two gods as his ishtd devata
(favourite deity), will not withhold his See also:tribute of adoration from
the other gods of the pantheon. The high-caste Brahman will
probably keep at his See also:home asalagram See also: Whilst some of these—e.g. the Sankranti (called Pongal, i.e. " boiled See also:rice," in the south), which marks the entrance of the sun into the sign of Capricorn and the beginning of its northward course (uttarayana) on the 1st day of the See also:month Magha (c. See also:Jan. 12); the See also:Ganesa-caturthi, or 4th day of the light fortnight of Bhadra (See also:August–See also:September), considered the birthday of Ganesa, the god of wisdom; and the Holi, the Indian Saturnalia in the month of Phalguna (See also:February to See also: Amongst the many thousands of Lingas, twelve are usually regarded as of especial sanctity, one of which, that of See also:Somnath in Gujarat, where Siva is worshipped as " the lord of Soma," was, however, shattered by Mahmud of See also:Ghazni; whilst another, representing Siva as Visvesvara, or "Lord of the Universe," is the chief object of adoration at See also:Benares, the great centre of Siva-worship. The Saivas of southern India, on the other hand, single out as peculiarly sacred five of their temples which are supposed to enshrine as many characteristic aspects (linga) of the god in the form of the five elements, the most holy of these being the shrine of See also:Chidambaram (i.e. " thought-See also:ether ") in S. See also:Arcot, supposed to contain the ether-linga. According to Pandit S. M. Natesa (Hindu Feasts, Fasts and Ceremonies), " the several forms of the god Siva in these sacred shrines are considered to be the bodies or casements of the soul whose Siva is said to have first appeared in the beginning of the present age as Sveta, the White, for the purpose of benefiting the Brahmans, and he is invariably painted white; whilst Vishnu, when pictured, is always of a dark-See also:blue colour. natural bases are the five elements—earth, water, See also:fire, air and ether. The See also:apprehension of God in the last of these five as ether is, according to the Saiva school of philosophy, the highest form of worship, for it is not the worship of God in a tangible form, but the worship of what, to ordinary minds, is vacuum, which nevertheless leads to the attainment of a know-ledge of the all-pervading without physical accessories in the shape of any linga, which is, after all, an emblem. That this is the case at Chidambaram is known to every Hindu, for if he ever asks the priests to show him the God in the temple he is pointed to an empty space in the holy of holies, which has been termed the Akasa, or ether-linga." But, however congenial this refined symbolism may be to the worshipper of a speculative turn of mind, it is difficult to see how it could ever satisfy the religious wants of the common man little given to abstract conceptions of this kind. From early times, detachment from the world and the practice of austerities have been regarded in India as peculiarly conducive to a spirit of godliness, and ultimately to a state of ecstatic communion with the deity. On these grounds it was actually laid down as a rule for a man solicitous for his spiritual welfare to pass the last two of the four stages (dsrama) of his life in such conditions of renunciation and self-See also:restraint. Though there is hardly a sect which has not contributed its See also:share to the element of religious See also:mendicancy and See also:asceticism so prevalent ih India, it is in connexion with the Siva-cult that these tendencies have been most extensively cultivated. Indeed, the See also:personality of the stern God himself exhibits this feature in a very marked degree, whence the term mahayogi or " great ascetic " is often applied to him. Of Saiva mendicant and ascetic orders, the members of which are considered more or less followers of Sankara Acharya, the following may be mentioned: (r) Dandis, or See also:staff-bearers, who carry a wand with a piece of red See also:cloth, containing the sacred cord, attached to it, and also wear one or more pieces of cloth of the same colour. They worship Siva in his form of Bhairava, the " terrible." A sub-section of this order are the Dandi Dasnamis, or Dandi of ten names, so called from their assuming one of the names of Sankara's four disciples, and six of their pupils. (2) Yogis (or popularly, Jogis), i.e. adherents of the Yoga philosophy and the system of ascetic practices enjoined by it with the view of See also:mental See also:abstraction and the supposed attainment of superhuman powers—practices which, when not merely pretended, but rigidly carried out, are only too See also:apt to produce vacuity of mind and wild fits of frenzy. In these degenerate days their supernatural powers consist chiefly in See also:conjuring, sooth-saying, and feats of jugglery, by which they seldom fail in imposing upon a credulous public. (3) Sannyasis, devotees who " renounce " earthly concerns, an order not confined either to the Brahmanical caste or to the Saiva persuasion. Those of the latter are in the See also:habit of smearing their bodies with ashes, and wearing a See also:tiger-skin and a necklace or See also:rosary of rudraksha berries (Elaeocarpus Ganitrus, lit. " Rudra's eye "), sacred to Siva, and allowing their See also:hair to grow till it becomes matted and filthy. (4) Parama-hamsas, i.e. " supreme geese (or swans)," a term applied to the world-soul with which they claim to be identical. This•is the highest order of asceticism, members of which are supposed to be solely engaged in meditating on the Brahma, and to be " equally indifferent to See also:pleasure or pain, insensible of See also:heat or See also:cold, and in-capable of satiety or want." Some of them go about naked, but the majority are clad like the Dandis. (5) Aghora Panthis, a vile and disreputable class of mendicants, now rarely met with. Their filthy habits and disgusting practices of gross promiscuous feeding, even to the extent of eating See also:offal and dead men's flesh, look almost like a direct repudiation of the strict Brahmanical code of ceremonial purity and cleanliness, and of the rules regulating the matter and manner of eating and drinking; and they certainly make them objects of loathing and terror wherever they are seen. On the general effect of the manner of life led by Sadhus or " holy men," a recent observer (J. C. See also:Oman, Mystics, Ascetics and See also:Saints of India, p. 293) remark;: Sadhuism, whether perpetuating the peculiar idea of the efficiency of austerities for the acquisition of far-reaching powers over natural phenomena, or bearing its testimony to the belief in the indispensableness of detachment from the world as a preparation for the ineffable joy of ecstatic communion with the Divine Being, has undoubtedly tended to keep before men's eyes, as the highest ideal, a life of purity, self-restraint, and contempt of the world and human affairs. It has also necessarily maintained amongst the laity a sense of the righteous claims of the poor upon the charity of the more affluent members of the community. Moreover, sadhuism, by the multiplicity of the independent sects which have arisen in India, has engendered andfavoured a spirit of tolerance which cannot escape the See also:notice of the most superficial observer." An independent Saiva sect, or, indeed, the only strictly Saiva sect, are the Vira Saivas, more commonly called Lingayats (popularly Lingaits) or Lingavats, from their practice of wearing on their See also:person a phallic emblem gapats. of Siva, made of See also:copper or See also:silver, and usually enclosed in a case suspended from the See also:neck by a See also:string. Apparently from the movable nature of their badge, their Gurus are called Jangamas (" movable "). This sect See also:counts numerous adherents in southern India; the Census Report of rgor recording nearly a million and a half, including some 90 or 8o different, mostly endogamous, castes. The reputed founder, or rather reformer, of the sect was Basava (or Basava), a Brahman of the See also:Belgaum district who seems to have lived in the rrth or r2th century. According to the Basava-purana he early in life renounced his caste and went to reside at Kalyana, then the See also:capital of the See also:Chalukya See also:kingdom, and later on at Sangamesvara near See also:Ratnagiri, where he was initiated into the Vira Saiva faith which he subsequently made it his life's See also:work to propagate. His doctrine, which may be said to constitute a kind of reaction against the severe See also:sacerdotalism of Sankara, has spread over all classes of the southern community, most of the priests of Saiva temples there being adherents of it; whilst in northern India its votaries are only occasionally met with, and then mostly as mendicants, leading about a neatly caparisoned bull as representing Siva's sacred bull Nandi. Though the Lingayats still show a certain animosity towards the Brahmans, and in the Census lists are accordingly classes as an independent group beside the Hindus, still they can hardly be excluded from the Hindu community, and are sure sooner or later to find their way back to the Brahmanical See also:fold.
Vishnu, whilst less popular with Brahmans than his rival, has from early times proved to the lay mind a more attractive object of adoration on account of the genial and, Avatars. so to speak, romantic character of his mythical per-
sonality. It is not, however, so much the original figure of the god himself that enlists the sympathies of his adherents as the additional elements it has received through the theory of periodical " descents " (avatara) or incarnations applied to this deity. Whilst the Saiva philosophers do not approve of the notion of incarnations, as being derogatory to the dignity of the deity, the Brahmans have nevertheless thought fit to adopt it as apparently a convenient expedient for bringing certain tendencies of popular worship within the pale of their system, and probably also for counteracting the Buddhist doctrines; and for this purpose Vishnu would obviously offer himself as the most attractive figure in the Brahmanical trinity. Whether the incarnation theory started from the original solar nature of the god suggestive of See also:regular visits to the world of men, or in what other way it may have originated, must remain doubtful. Certain, however, it is that at least one of his Avatars is clearly based on the Vedic conception of the sun-god, viz. that of the See also:dwarf who claims as much ground as he can See also:cover by three steps, and then gains the whole universe by his three mighty strides. Of the ten or more Avatars, assumed by different authorities, only two have entered to any considerable extent into the religious worship of the people, viz. those of Rama (or Ramachandra) and Krishna, the favourite heroes of epic See also:romance. That these two figures would appeal far more strongly to the hearts and feelings of the people, especially the warlike Kshatriyas,' than the austere Siva is only what might have been expected; and, indeed, since the time of the epics their cult seems never to have lacked numerous adherents. But, on the other hand, the essentially human nature of these two gods
r As in the case of Siva's traditional white complexion, it may not be without significance, from a racial point of view, that Vishnu, Rama and Krishna have various darker shades of colour attributed to them, viz. blue, hyacinthine, and dark See also:azure or dark See also: would naturally tend to modify the character of the relations between worshipper and worshipped, and to impart to the modes and forms of adoration features of a more popular and more human kind. And accordingly it is exactly in connexion with these two incarnations of Vishnu, especially that of Krishna, that a new spirit was infused into the religious life of the people by the sentiment of fervent devotion to the deity, as it found expression in certain portions of the epic poems, especially the Bhagavadgita, and in the Bhagavatapurana (as against the more orthodox Vaishnava works of this class such as the Vishnupurana), and was formulated into a regular doctrine of faith in the Sandilya-sutra, and ultimately translated into practice by the Vaishnava reformers. The first successful Vaishnava reaction against Sankara's reconstructed creed was led by Ramanuja, a southern Brahman of the 12th century. His followers, the Ramanujas, or Sri-Vaishnavas as they are usually called, worship Vishnu (Narayana) with his consort Sri or See also:Lakshmi (the goddess of beauty and See also:fortune), or their incarnations Rama with Sita and Krishna with Rukmini. Ramanuja's doctrine, which is especially directed against the Linga-worship, is essentially based on the tenets of an old Vaishnava sect, the Bhagavatas or Pancharatras, who worshipped the Supreme Being under the name of Vasudeva (subsequently identified with Krishna, as the son of Vasudeva, who indeed is credited by some scholars with the foundation of that monotheistic creed). The sectarial mark of the Ramanujas resembles a capital U (or, in the case of another division, a Y), painted with a white See also:clay called gopichandana, between the hair and the See also:root of the See also:nose, with a red or yellow See also:vertical stroke (representing the female element) between the two white lines. They also usually wear, like all Vaishnavas, a necklace of tulasi, or See also:basil See also:wood, and a rosary of seeds of the same See also:shrub or of the See also:lotus. Their most important shrines are those of Srirangam near See also:Trichinopoly, Mailkote in Mysore, Dvaraka (the See also:city of Krishna) on the See also:Kathiawar See also:coast, and Jagannath in See also:Orissa; all of them decorated with Vishnu's emblems, the tulasi plant and salagram stone. The Ramanuja Brahmans are most punctilious in the preparation of their food and in regard to the privacy of their meals, before taking which they have to bathe and put on woollen or See also:silk garments. Whilst Sankara's mendicant followers were prohibited to touch fire and had to subsist entirely on the charity of Brahman householders, Ramanuja, on the contrary, not only allowed his followers to use fire, but strictly forbade their eating any food cooked, or even seen, by a stranger. On the speculative side, Ramanuja also met Sankara's strictly monistic theory by another recognizing Vishnu as identical with Brahma as the Supreme Spirit animating the material world as well as the individual souls which have become estranged from God through unbelief, and can only attain again conscious union with him through devotion or love (bhakti). His tenets are expounded in various works, especially in his commentaries on the Vedanta-sutras and the Bhagavadgita. The followers of Ramanuja have split into two sects, a northern one, recognizing the Vedas as their chief authority, and a southern one, basing their tenets on the Nalayir, a Tamil work of the Upanishad order. In point of doctrine, they differ in their view of the relation between God Vishnu and the human soul; whilst the former sect define it by the See also:ape theory, which makes the soul cling to God as the See also:young ape does to its mother, the latter explain it by the See also:cat theory, by which Vishnu himself seizes and rescues the souls as the mother cat does her young ones.
Madhva Acharya, another distinguished Vedanta teacher
and founder of a Vaishnava sect, born in See also:Kanara in A.D. 1199,
was less intolerant of the Linga cult than Ramanuja,
Madhvas. but seems rather to have aimed at a reconciliation of
the Saiva and Vaishnava forms of worship. The Madhvas
or Madhvacharis favour Krishna and his consort as their special
objects of adoration, whilst images of Siva, Parvati, and their
son Ganesa are, however, likewise admitted and worshipped in
some of their temples, the most important of which is at Udipi
in South Kanara, with eight monasteries connected with it.
509
This shrine contains an image of Krishna which is said to have been rescued from the See also:wreck of a See also:ship which brought it from Dvaraka, where it was supposed to have been set up of old by no other than Krishna's friend See also:Arjuna, one of the five Pandava princes. Followers of the Madhva creed are but rarely met with, in Upper India. Their sectarial mark is like the U of the Sri-Vaishnavas, except that their central line is black instead of red or yellow. Madhva—who after his initiation assumed the name Anandatirtha—composed numerous Sanskrit works, including commentaries on the Brahma sutras (i.e. the Vedanta aphorisms), the Gita, the Rigveda and many Upanishads. His philosophical theory was a dualistic one, postulating distinctness of nature for the divine and the human soul, and hence independent existence, instead of absorption, after the completion of mundane existence.
The Ramanandis or Ramavats (popularly Ramats) are a numerous northern sect of similar tenets to those of the Ramanujas. Indeed its founder, Ramananda, who probably Ramats. flourished in the latter part of the 14th century,
according to the traditional account, was originally a Sri-Vaishnava See also: The sectarial mark of his sect differs but slightly from that of the See also:parent stock. The distinctive features of their creed consist in their making Rama and Sita, either singly or conjointly, the chief objects of their adoration, instead of Vishnu and Lakshmi, and their attaching little or no importance to the observance of privacy in the cooking and eating of their food. Their mendicant members, usually known as Vairagis, are, like the general body of the sect, drawn from all castes without distinction. Thus, the founder's twelve chief disciples include, besides Brahmans, a See also:weaver, a currier, a Rajput, a Jat and a barber—for, they argue, seeing that Bhagavan, the Holy One (Vishnu), became incarnate even in animal form, a Bhakta (believer) may be born even in the lowest of castes. Ramananda's teaching was thus of a distinctly levelling and popular character; and, in accordance therewith, the Bhakta-See also:mala and other authoritative writings of the sect are composed, not in Sanskrit, but in the popular dialects. A follower of this creed was the distinguished poet Tulsidas, the composer of the beautiful See also:Hindi version of the Ramayana and other works which " exercise more influence upon the great body of Hindu population than the whole voluminous See also:series of Sanskrit See also:composition " (H. H. Wilson). The traditional list of Ramananda's immediate disciples See also:inch'..ies the name of See also:Kabir, the weaver, a remarkable man who would accordingly have lived in the latter part Kabir. of the 15th century, and who is claimed by both Hindus and Moslems as having been born within their fold. The See also:story goes that, , having been deeply impressed by Ramananda's teaching, he sought to attach himself to him; and, one day at Benares, in stepping down the See also:ghat at daybreak to bathe in the Ganges, and putting himself in the way of the teacher, the latter, having inadvertently struck him with his See also:foot, uttered his customary exclamation " See also:Ram Ram," which, being also the initiatory formula of the sect, was claimed by Kabir as such, making him Ramananda's See also:disciple. Be this as it may, Kabir's own reformatory activity lay in the direction of a compromise between the Hindu and the See also:Mahommedan creeds, the religious practices of both of which, he criticized with equal severity. His followers, the Kabir Panthis (" those following Kabir's path "), though neither worshipping the gods of the pantheon, nor observing the rites and ceremonial of the Hindus, are nevertheless in close touch with the Vaishnava sects, especially the Ramavats, and generally worship Rama as the supreme deity, when they do not rather address their homage, in See also:hymns and otherwise, to the founder of their creed himself. Whilst very numerous, particularly amongst the low-caste population, in western, central and northern India, See also:resident adherents of Kabir's doctrine are rare in Bengal and the south; although Rama-naps. " there is hardly a See also:town in India where strolling beggars may not be found singing songs of Kabir in the original or as translated into the local dialects." The mendicants of this creed, however, never actually solicit See also:alms; and, indeed, "the quaker-.like spirit of the sect, their abhorrence of all violence, their regard for truth and the inobtrusiveness of their opinions render them very inoffensive members of the state " (H. H. Wilson). The doctrines of Kabir are taught, mostly in the form of dialogues, in numerous Hindi works, composed by his disciples and adherents, who, however, usually profess to give the teacher's own words. The peculiar conciliatory tendencies of Kabir were carried on with even greater zeal from the latter part of the 15th century by one of his followers, Nanak Shah, the promulgator of the creed of the Nanak Shahis or Sikhs—i.e. (Sanskr.) sishye, disciples, whose guru, or teacher, he called himself—a peaceful sect at first until, in consequence of Mahommedan persecution, a See also:martial spirit was infused into it by the tenth, and last, guru, Govind Shah, changing it into a political organization. Whilst originally more akin in its principles to the Moslem faith, the sect seems latterly to have shown tendencies towards drifting back to the Hindu pale. Of Ramananda's disciples and successors several others, besides Kabir, have established schismatic divisions of their own, which do not, however, offer any very marked See also:differences of creed. The most important of these, the Dadu Panthi sect, founded by Dadu about the See also:year 1600, has a numerous following in Ajmir and Marwar, one section of whom, the Nagas, engage largely in military service, whilst the others are either householders or mendicants. The followers of this creed wear no distinctive sectarial mark or badge, except a See also:skull-cap ; nor do they worship any visible image of any deity, the repetition (japa) of the name of Rama being the only kind of adoration practised by them. Although the Vaishnava sects hitherto noticed, in their adoration of Vishnu and his incarnations, Krishna and Rama-Eroticism chandra, usually See also:associate with these gods their and wives, as their saktis, or female energies, the sexual Krishna element is, as a rule, only just allowed sufficient See also:scope worship. to enhance the emotional character of the rites of worship. In some of the later Vaishnava creeds, on the other hand, this element is far from being kept within the See also:bounds of moderation and decency. The favourite object of adoration with adherents of these sects is Krishna with his See also:mate—but not the devoted friend and counsellor of the Pandavas and deified hero of epic See also:song, nor the ruler of Dvaraka and wedded lord of Rukmini, but the juvenile Krishna, Govinda or See also:Bala Gopala, " the cowherd lad," the See also:foster son of the cowherd Nanda of Gokula, taken up with his amorous See also:sports with the Gopis, or wives of the cowherds of Vrindavana (See also:Brindaban,near Mathura on the Yamuna), especially his favourite See also:mistress Radha or Radhika. This See also:episode in the legendary life of Krishna has every appearance of being a later See also:accretion. After barely a few allusions to it in the epics, it bursts forth full-blown in the Harivansa, the Vishnu-purana, the Narada-Pancharatra and the Bhagavata-purana, the tenth See also:canto of which, dealing with the life of Krishna, has become, through vernacular versions, especially the Hindi Prem-See also:sagar, or " ocean of love," a favourite romance all over India, and has doubtless helped largely to popularize the cult of Krishna. Strange to say, however, no mention is as yet made by any of these works of Krishna's favourite Radha; it is only in another Purana—though scarcely deserving that designation—that she makes her appearance, viz. in the Brahma-vaivarta, in which Krishna's amours in Nanda's cow-station are dwelt upon in fulsome and wearisome detail; whilst the poet Jayadeva, in the 12th century, made her love for the See also:gay and inconstant boy the theme of his beautiful, if highly voluptuous, lyrical See also:drama, Gita-govinda. The earliest of the sects which associate Radha with Krishna in their worship is that of the Nimavats, founded by Nimbaditya or Nimbarka (i.e. " the sun of the Nimba See also:tree "), a teacher of uncertain date, said to have been a See also:Telugu Brahman who subsequently established himself at Mathura (See also:Muttra) on the Yamuna, where the headquarters of his sect have remained ever since. The Mahant of their monastery at Dhruva Kshetra near Mathura, who claims direct descent from Nimbarka, is said to place the foundation of that establishment as far hack as the 5th century– oobtiess anexaggerated claim; but if Jayadeva, as is alleged, and seems by no means improbable, was really a follower of Nimbarka, this teacher must have flourished, at latest, in the early part of the 12th century. He is indeed taken by some authorities to be identical with the mathematician Bhaskara Acharya, who is known to have completed his chief work in A.D. 1150. It is worthy of remark, in this respect, that—in accordance with Ramanuja's and Nimbarka's philosophical theories—Jayadeva's presentation of Krishna's fickle love for Radha is usually interpreted in a mystical sense, as allegorically depicting the human soul's striving, through love, for See also:reunion with God, and its ultimate attainment, after many backslidings, of the longed-for goal. As the chief authority of their tenets, the Nimavats recognize the Bhagavata-purana; though several works, ascribed to Nimbarka—partly of a devotional character and partly expository of Vedanta topics—are still extant. Adherents of this sect are fairly numerous in northern India, their frontal mark consisting of the usual two perpendicular white lines, with, however, a circular black spot between them. Of greater importance than the sect just noticed, because of their far larger following, are the two sects founded early in the 16th century by Vallabha (Ballabha) Acharya and Chaitanya. In the forms of worship favoured by votaries of these creeds the emotional and erotic elements are allowed yet freer scope than in those that preceded them; and, as an effective See also:auxiliary to these tendencies, the use of the vernacular dialects in prayers and hymns of praise takes an important part in the religious service. The Vallabhacharis, or, as they are usually called, from the title of their spiritual heads, the Gokulastha Gosains, i.e. " the cow-lords (gosvamin) residing in Gokula," are very numerous in western and central India. Vallabha, the son of a Telinga Brahman, after extensive journeyings all over India, settled at Gokula near Mathura, and set up a shrine with an image of Krishna Gopala. About the year 1673, in consequence of the fanatical persecutions of the See also:Mogul See also:emperor, this image was transferred to Nathdvara in See also:Udaipur (Mewar), where the shrine of Srinatha (" the lord of Sri," i.e. Vishnu) continues to be the chief centre of worship for adherents of this creed; whilst seven other images, transferred from Mathura at the same time, are located at different places in Rajputana. Vallabha himself went subsequently to reside at Benares, where he died. In the doctrine of this Vaishnava See also:prophet, the adualistic theory of Sankara is resorted to as justifying a joyful and voluptuous cult of the deity. For, if the human soul is identical with God, the practice of austerities must be discarded as directed against God, and it is rather by a free See also:indulgence of the natural appetites and the pleasures of life that man's love for God will best be shown. The followers of his creed, amongst whom there are many wealthy merchants and bankers, direct their worship chiefly to Gopal Lai, the boyish Krishna of Vrindavana, whose image is sedulously attended like a revered living person eight times a day—from its early rising from its See also:couch up to its retiring to repose at See also:night. The sectarial mark of the adherents consists of two red perpendicular lines, See also:meeting in a semicircle at the root of the nose, and having a round red spot painted between them. Their principal doctrinal authority is the Bhagavata-purana, as commented upon by Vallabha himself, who was also the author of several other Sanskrit works highly esteemed by his followers. In this sect, children are solemnly admitted to full membership at the early age of four, and even two, years of age, when a rosary, or necklace, of 108 beads of basil (tulsi) wood is passed round their necks, and they are taught the use of the octo-syllabic formula Sri-Krishnah saranam mama, " Holy Krishna is my See also:refuge." Another special feature of this sect is that their spiritual heads, the Gosains, also called Maharajas, so far from submitting themselves to self-discipline and austere practices, adorn themselves in splendid garments, and allow them-selves to be habitually regaled by their adherents with choice kinds of food; and being regarded as the living representatives of the " lord of the Gopis " himself, they claim and receive in their own persons all acts of See also:attachment and worship due to the deity, even, it is alleged, to the extent of complete self-surrender. In the final See also:judgment of the famous See also:libel case of the Bombay Maharajas, before the Supreme Court of Bombay, in See also:January 1862, these improprieties were severely commented upon; and though so unsparing a critic of Indian sects as Jogendra Nath seems not to believe in actual immoral practices on the part of the Maharajas, still he admits that " the corrupting influence of a religion, that can make its female votaries address amorous songs to their spiritual guides, must be very great."
A modern offshoot of Vallabha's creed, formed with the avowed object of purging it of its objectionable features, was started, in the early years of the 19th century, by Sahajananda, a Brahman of the Oudh country, who subsequently assumed the name of Svami Narayana. Having entered on his missionary labours at Ahmadabad, and afterwards removed to Jetalpur, where he had a meeting with Bishop See also:Heber, he subsequently settled at the village of Wartal, to the north-west of See also:Baroda, and erected a temple to Lakshmi-Narayana, which, with another at Ahmadabad, forms the two chief centres of the sect, each being presided over by a Maharaja. Their worship is addressed to Narayana, i.e. Vishnu, as the Supreme Being, together with L-akshmi, as well as to Krishna and Radha. The sett is said tb be gaining grchintl in Gu arat. Chaitanya, the
founder of the great Vaishnava sect of Bengal, was the son of a high-caste Brahman of Nadiya, the famous Bengal seat of Sanskrit learning, where he was born in 1485, two years after the birth of See also: His doctrine of Bhakti distinguishes five grades of devotional feeling in the Bhaktas, or faithful adherents: viz. (santi) See also:calm contemplation of the deit ; (dasya) active servitude; (sakhya) friendship or personal regard; deity; tender See also:affection as between parents and children ; (madhurya) love or passionate attachment, like that which the Gopis felt for Krishna. Chaitanya also seems to have done much to promote the celebration on an imposing scale of the great Puri festival of the Ratha-yatra, or " See also:car-procession," in the month of Ashadha, when, amidst multitudes of pilgrims, the image of Krishna, together with those of his See also:brother Balarama and his See also:sister Subhadra, is drawn along, in a huge car, by the devotees. Just as this festival was, and continues to be, attended by people from all parts of India, without distinction of caste or sex, so also were all classes, even Mahommedans, admitted by Chaitanya as members of his sect. Whilst numerous observances are recommended as more or less meritorious, the ordinary form of worship is a very See also:simple one, consisting as it does mainly of the constant repetition of names of Krishna, or Krishna and Radha, which of itself is considered sufficient to ensure future bliss. The partaking of flesh food and spirituous liquor is strictly prohibited. By the followers of this sect, also, an extravagant degree of reverence is habitually paid to their gurus or spiritual heads. Indeed, Chaitanya himself, as well as his immediate disciples, have come to be regarded as complete or partial incarnations of the deity to whom adoration is due, as to Krishna himself ; and their modern successors, the Gosains, share to the fullest extent in the devout attentions of the worshippers. Chaitanya's movement, being chiefly directed against the vile practices of the Saktas, then very prevalent in Bengal, was doubtless prompted by the best and purest of intentions; but his own doctrine of divine, though all too human, love was, like that of Vallabha, by no means free from corruptive tendencies,—yet, how far these tendencies have worked their way, who would say? On this point, Dr W. W. See also:Hunter—who is of opinion that " the death of the reformer marks the beginning of the spiritual decline of Vishnu-worship," observes (Orissa, i. III), " The most deplorable corruption of Vishnu-worship at the present day is that which has covered the temple walls with indecent sculptures, and filled its innermost sanctuaries with licentious rites" . . . yet . "it is difficult for a person not a Hindu to pronounce upon the real extent of the evil. None but a Hindu can enter any of the larger temples, and none but a Hindu priest really knows the truth about their inner mysteries "; whilst the well-known native See also:scholar See also:Babu Rajendralal See also:Mitra points out (Antiquities of Orissa, i. 111) that " such as they are, these sculptures date from centuries before the birth of Chaitanya, and cannot, therefore, be attributed to his doctrines or to his followers. As a Hindu by birth, and a Vaishnava by family religion, I have had the freest See also:access to the innermost sanctuaries and to the most See also:secret of scriptures. I have studied the subject most extensively, and have had opportunities of judging which no See also:European can have, and I have no hesitation in saying that, ' the mystic songs' of Jayadeva and the ' ocean of love ' notwithstanding, there is nothing in the rituals of Jagannatha which can be called licentious." Whilst in Chaitanya's creed, Krishna, in his relations to Radha, remains at least theoretically the chief partner, an almost inevitable step was taken by some See also:minor sects in attaching the greater importance to the female element, and making Krishna's love for his mistress the guiding sentiment of their faith. Of these sects, it will suffice to mention that of the Radha-Vallabhis, started in the latter part of the 16th century, who worship Krishna as Radhavallabha, " the See also:darling of Radha." The doctrines and practices of these sects clearly See also:verge upon those obtaining in the third principal division of Indian sectarians which will now be considered. The Saktas, as we have seen, are worshippers of the sakti, or the female principle as a primary factor in the creation and reproduction of the universe. And as each of the principal gods is supposed to have associated with him his ownparticular sakti, as an indispensable complement enabling him to properly perform his cosmic functions, adherents of this persuasion might be expected to be recruited from all saktas. sects. To a certain extent this is indeed the case; but though Vaishnavism, and especially the Krishna creed, with its luxuriant growth of erotic legends, might have seemed peculiarly favourable to a development in this direction, it is practically only in connexion with the Saiva system that an independent cult of the female principle has been developed; whilst in other sects—and, indeed, in the ordinary Saiva cult as well—such worship, even where it is at all prominent, is combined with, and subordinated to, that of the male principle. What has made this cult attach itself more especially to the Saiva creed is doubtless the character of Siva as the type of reproductive power, in addition to his See also:function as destroyer which, as we shall see, is likewise reflected in some of the forms of his Sakti. The theory of the god and his Sakti as cosmic principles is perhaps already foreshadowed in the Vedic couple of See also:Heaven and Earth, whilst in the speculative See also:treatises of the later Vedic period, as well as in the post-Vedic Brahmanical writings, the assumption of the self-existent being dividing himself into a male and a female half usually forms the starting-point of cosmic evolution.' In the later Saiva See also:mythology this theory finds its See also:artistic See also:representation in Siva's androgynous form of Ardha-narisa, or ".halfwoman-lord," typifying the union of the male and female energies; the male half in this form of the deity occupying the right-hand, and the female the left-hand side. In accordance with this type of productive energy, the Saktas See also:divide themselves into two distinct groups, according to whether they attach the greater importance to the male or to the female principle; viz. the Dakshinacharis, or " right-hand-observers " (also called Dakshina-margis, or followers " of the right-hand path "), and the Vamacharis, or "left-hand-observers" (or Vama-margis, followers " of the left path "). Though some of the Puranas, the chief repositories of sectarian doctrines, enter largely into Sakta topics, it is only in the numerous Tantras that these are fully and systematically developed. In these works, almost invariably composed in the form of a colloquy, Siva, as a rule, in See also:answer to questions asked by his consort Parvati, unfolds the mysteries of this occult creed. The principal seat of Sakta worship is the north-eastern part of India—Bengal, See also:Assam and Behar. The great majority of its adherents profess to follow the right-hand practice; and apart from the implied purport and the emblems of the cult, their mode of adoration does not seem to offer any very objectionable features. And even amongst the adherents of the left-hand mode of worship, many of these are said to follow it as a matter of family tradition rather than of religious conviction, and to practise it in a sober and temperate manner; whilst only an extreme section—the so-called Kaulas or Kulinas, who appeal to a See also:spurious Upanishad, the Kaulopanishad, as the divine authority of their tenets--persist in carrying on the mystic and licentious rites taught in many of the Tantras. But strict secrecy being enjoined in the performance of these rites, it is not easy to check any statements made on this point. The Sakta cult is, however, known to be especially prevalent though apparently not in a very extreme form—amongst members of the very respectable Kayastha or writer caste of Bengal, and as these are largely employed as clerks and See also:accountants in Upper India, there is reason to fear that their vicious practices are gradually being disseminated through them. The divine object of the adoration of the Saktas, then, is Siva's wife—the Devi (goddess), Mahadevi (great goddess), or Jagan-mata (mother of the world)—in one or other of her numerous forms, benign or terrible. The forms in which she is worshipped in Bengal are of the latter See also:category, viz. See also:Durga, "the unapproachable," and See also:Kali, " the black one," or, as some take it, the wife of Kale, " time," or death the great dissolver, viz. Siva. In honour of the former, the Durga-puja is celebrated ' This notion not improbably took its origin in the mystic cosmogonic hymn, Rigv. x. 129, where it is said that—" that one (existent, neutr.) breathed breathless by (or with) its svadha (? inherent power, or nature), beyond that there was nothing whatever . . . that one live (germ) which was enclosed in the void was generated by the power of heat (or fervour) ; See also:desire then first came upon it, which was the first See also:seed of the mind . . . fertilizing forces there were, svadha below, prayati (? will) above." during ten days at the time of the autumnal See also:equinox, in See also:commemoration of her victory over the See also:buffalo-headed demon Mahishasura; when the image of the ten-armed goddess, holding a weapon in each hand, is worshipped for nine days, and See also:cast into the water on the tenth day, called the Dasahara, whence the festival itself is commonly called Dasara in western India. Kali, on the other hand, the most terrible of the goddess's forms, has a special service performed to her, at the Kali-puja, during the darkest night of the succeeding month; when she is represented as a naked black woman, four-armed, wearing a See also:garland of heads of giants slain by her, and a string of skulls round her neck, dancing on the See also:breast of her husband (Mahakala), with gaping mouth and protruding See also:tongue; and when she has to be propitiated by the slaughter of goats, See also:sheep and buffaloes. On other occasions also Vamacharis commonly offer animal sacrifices, usually one or more kids; the head of the victim, which has to be severed by a single stroke, being always placed in front of the image of the goddess as a blood-offering (See also:bali), with an earthen lamp fed with See also:ghee burning above it, whilst the flesh is cooked and served to the guests attending the ceremony, except that of buffaloes, which is given to the low-caste musicians who perform during the service. Even some adherents of this class have, however, discontinued animal sacrifices, and use certain kinds of fruit, such as eoco-nuts or pumpkins, instead. The use of wine, which at one time was very common on these occasions, seems also to have become much more restricted; and only members of the extreme section would still seem to adhere to the practice of the so-called five m's prescribed by some of the Tantras, viz. mainsa (flesh), matsya (See also:fish), mad ye (wine), maithuna (sexual union), and mudra (mystical finger signs)—probably the most degrading cult ever practised under the pretext of religious worship. In connexion with the principal object of this cult, Tantric theory has devised an elaborate system of female figures representing either special forms and personifications or attendants of the " Great Goddess." They are generally arranged in groups, the most important of which are the Mahavidyas (great sciences), the 8 (or 9) Mataras (mothers) or Mahamataras (great mothers), consisting of the wives of the principal gods; the 8 Nayikas or mistresses; and different classes of sorceresses and ogresses, called Yoginis, Dakinis and Sakinis. A special feature of the Sakti cult is the use of obscure Vedic mantras, often changed so as to be quite meaningless and on that very account deemed the more efficacious for the acquisition of superhuman powers; as well as of mystic letters and syllables . called bija (germ), of magic circles (chakra) and diagrams (yantra), and of amulets of various materials inscribed with formulae of fancied mysterious import. This survey of the Indian sects will have shown how little the character of their divine objects of worship is calculated to exert that elevating and spiritualizing influence, so characteristic of true religious devotion. In all but a few of the minor groups religious fervour is only too apt to degenerate into that very state of sexual excitation which devotional exercises should surely tend to repress. If the worship of Siva, despite the purport of his chief symbol, seems on the whole less liable to produce these undesirable effects than that of the rival deity, it is doubt- less due partly to the real nature of that emblem being little realized by the common people, and partly to the somewhat repellent character of the " great god," more favourable to evoking feelings of awe and terror than a spirit of fervid devotion. All the more are, however, the gross stimulants, connected with the adoration of his consort, calculated to work up the carnal instincts of the devotees to an extreme degree of sensual frenzy. In the Vaishnava See also:camp, on the other hand, the cult of Krishna, and more especially that of the youthful Krishna, can scarcely fail to exert an influence which, if of a subtler and more in- sinuating, is not on that account of a less demoralizing kind. Indeed, it would be hard to find anything less consonant with godliness and divine perfection than the pranks of this juvenile god; and if poets and thinkers try to explain them away by dint of allegorical See also:interpretation, the See also:plain man will not for all their refinements take these amusing adventures any the less au pied de la lettre. No See also:fault, in this respect, can assuredly be found with the legendary Rama, a very See also:paragon of knightly honour and virtue, even as his consort Sita is the very See also:model of a noble and faithful wife; and yet this cult has perhaps retained even more of the character of mere hero-worship than that of Krishna. Since by the universally accepted doctrine of See also:karman (deed) or karmavipaka (" the maturing of deeds ") man himself—either in his present, or some future, existence—enjoys the fruit of, or has to atone for, his former good and See also:bad actions, there could hardly be See also:room in Hindu See also:pantheism for a belief in the remission of See also:sin by divine See also:grace or vicarious substitution. And accordingly the " descents " or incarnations of the deity have for their object, not so much the spiritual regeneration of man as the deliverance of the world from some material calamity threatening to overwhelm it. The generally recognized principal Avatars do not, however, by any means constitute the only occasions of a direct intercession of the deity in worldly affairs, but—in the same way as to this day the eclipses of the sun and moon are ascribed by the ordinary Hindu to these luminaries being temporarily swallowed by the See also:dragon Rahu (or Graha, " the seizer ")—so any uncommon occurrence would be apt to be set down as a special manifestation of divine power; and any man credited with exceptional merit or achievement, or even remarkable for some strange incident connected with his life or death, might ultimately come to be looked upon as a veritable incarnation of the deity, capable of influencing the destinies of man, and might become an object of local adoration or superstitious awe and propitiatory rites to multitudes of people: That the transmigration theory, which makes the spirit of the departed hover about for a time in quest of a new corporeal abode, would naturally lend itself to superstitious notions of this kind can scarcely be doubted. Of peculiar importance in this respect is the worship of the Pitris (" fathers ") or deceased ancestors, as entering largely into the everyday life and family relations of the Hindus. At stated intervals to offer reverential homage and oblations of food to the forefathers up to the third degree is one of the most sacred duties the devout Hindu has to See also:discharge. The periodical performance of the commemorative rite of See also:obsequies called Sraddha—i.e. an See also:oblation " made in faith " (saddha, See also:Lat. credo)—is the duty and privilege of the eldest son of the deceased, or, failing him, of the nearest relative who thereby establishes his right as next of kin in respect of See also:inheritance; and those other relatives who have the right to take part in the ceremony are called sapinda, i.e. sharing in the pindas (or balls of cooked rice, constituting along with libations of water the usual offering to the See also:Manes)—such relationship being held a See also:bar to intermarriage. The first Sraddha takes place as soon as possible after the antyeshti (" final offering ") or funeral ceremony proper, usually spread over ten days; being afterwards repeated once a month for a year, and subsequently at every anniversary and otherwise voluntarily on special occasions. Moreover, a simple See also:libation of water should be offered to the Fathers twice daily at the morning and evening devotion called sandhya (" See also:twilight "). It is doubtless a sense of filial See also:obligation coupled with sentiments of piety and reverence that gave rise to this practice of offering gifts of food and drink to the deceased ancestors. Hence also frequent allusion is made by poets to the anxious care caused to the Fathers by the possibility of the living head of the family being afflicted with failure of offspring; this dire prospect compelling them to use but sparingly their little See also:store of provisions, in case the supply should shortly cease altogether. At the same time one also meets with See also:frank avowals of a superstitious fear lest any irregularity in the performance of the obsequial rite's should cause the Fathers to haunt their old home and trouble the See also:peace of their undutiful descendant, or even prematurely draw him after them to the Pitri-loka or world of the Fathers, supposed to be located in the southern region. Terminating as it usually does with the feeding and feeing of a greater or less number of Brahmans and the feasting of members of the performers' own caste, the Sraddha, especially its first performance, is often a matter of very considerable expense; and more than ordinary benefit to the deceased is supposed to accrue from it when it takes place at a spot of recognized sanctity, such as one of the great General conclusions. places of pilgrimage like Prayaga (See also:Allahabad, where the three Kanjut. The Wakhjir pass, See also:crossing the head of the Taghdumbash sacred See also:rivers, Ganga, Yamuna and Sarasvati, meet), Mathura, and especially Gaya and Kasi (Benares). But indeed the tirthayatra, or pilgrimage to holy bathing-places, is in itself considered an See also:act of piety conferring religious merit in proportion to the time and trouble expended upon it. The number of such places is See also:legion and is constantly increasing. The See also:banks of the great rivers such as the Ganga (Ganges), the Yamuna (Jumna), the Narbada, the Krishna (See also:Kistna), are studded with them, and the water of these rivers is supposed to be imbued with the essence of sanctity capable of cleansing the pious bather of all sin and moral taint. To follow the entire course of one of the sacred rivers from the mouth to the source on one side and back again on the other in the sun-See also:wise (pradakshina) direction—that is, always keeping the stream on one's right-hand side—is held to be a highly meritorious undertaking which it requires years to carry through. No wonder that water from these rivers, especially the Ganges, is sent and taken in bottles to all parts of India to be used on occasion as healing See also:medicine or for sacramental purposes. In Vedic times, at the Rajasuya, or inauguration of a king, some water from the holy river Sarasvati was mixed with the sprinkling water used for consecrating the king. Hence also sick persons are frequently conveyed long distances to a sacred river to heal them of their maladies; and for a dying man to breathe his last at the side of the Ganges is devoutly believed to be the surest way of securing for him salvation and eternal bliss. Such probably was the belief of the ordinary Hindu two thousand years ago, and such it remains to this day. In the light of facts such as these, who could venture to say what the future of Hinduism is likely to be? Is the regeneration of India to be brought about by the modern theistic movements, such as the Brahma-samaj and Arya-samaj, as so close and sympathetic an observer of Hindu life and thought as Si: A. Lyall seems to think ? " The Hindu mind," he remarks, " is essentially speculative and transcendental; it will never consent to be shut up in the See also:prison of sensual experience, for it has grasped and holds firmly the central idea that all things are manifestations of some power outside phenomena. And the tendency of contemporary religious discussion in India, so far as it can be followed from a distance, is towards an ethical reform on the old See also:foundations, towards searching for some method of reconciling their Vedic See also:theology with the practices of religion taken as a rule of conduct and a system of moral See also:government. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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