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t\hv<xvy  of  t:he  Cheolocjicai  ^tminary 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


From  the  Library  of 
Professor 
Benjamin  Breckinridge  Warfielcl 
Bequested  by  him 
to  the  Library 

:Bu^ol 


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BRAHMANISM    AND    HINDUISM. 


HORACE    HART,    PRINTER   TO    THE    UNIVERSITY 


PORTRAIT   OV   MR.    GAURI-SAlSrKAR   TTDATSANKAR,    C.S  I. 
NOW    SVAmT   SRI    SACCIDANANDA-SARASVATI. 

Seated,  aa  a  Brahman  SannyasT,  in  meditation  (described  at  p.  xxi  of  the  Preface). 


\ 


BRAHMANISM  and  HINDUISM; 

OR, 

RELIGIOUS    THOUGHT   AND    LIFE 

IN    INDIA, 

AS    BASED    ON    THE    VEDA    AND    OTHER    SACRED    BOOKS 

OF    THE    HINDUS. 


BY 

/  \ 

SIR   MONIER  MONIER-WILLIAMS,  K.C.I.E., 

; 

M.A.,    HON.   D.C.L.     OXFORD,     HON.    LL.D.     CALCUTTA,     HON.    PH.D.     GOTTINGEN,     V.  P.    OF   THE     ROYAL 

ASIATIC   SOCIETY,    HON.    MEMBER   OF   THE   ASIATIC    SOCIETIES    OF    BENGAL    AND    BOMBAY, 

AND    OF    THE   ORIENTAL  AND    PHILOSOPHICAL   SOCIETIES   OF   AMERICA, 

BODEN    PROFESSOR   OF    SANSKRIT,    ETC. 


FOURTH  EDITION, 
ENLARGED    AND    IMPROVED. 


NEW    YORK: 

MACMILLAN    AND    CO. 

1891. 


PREFACE. 


-♦-»- 


The  present  volume,  although  It  professes  to  be 
only  a  new  edition  of  a  book  which  has  already  met 
with  considerable  acceptance  ^,  contains  so  many 
improvements  and  additions  that  it  may  be  regarded 
as  almost  a  new  work,  and  as  needing  a  new  Preface. 

Its  aim  has  been  stated  in  the  first  page  of  the 
introductory  observations,  but  there  is  one  expression 
in  the  second  line  which  requires  explanation.  The 
word  '  Englishmen  '  must  be  understood  to  include  all 
English -speakers  everywhere. 

It  has  been  my  earnest  endeavour  in  the  following 
pages  to  give  such  a  clear  account  of  a  very  obscure 
and  intricate  subject  as  shall  not  violate  scholarly 
accuracy,  and   yet  be  sufficiently  readable   to  attract 


^  The  first  edition  was  called  '  Religious  Thought  and  Life  in  India ' 
(denoted  by  the  initials  RTL.  in  the  new  edition  of  my  Sanskrit- 
English  Dictionary  published  by  the  University  of  Oxford),  that  title 
being  given  to  it  because  it  was  intended  to  be  the  first  volume  of  a  series 
treating  of  the  religions  of  India.  When,  however,  my  volume  on 
'  Buddhism '  appeared — a  volume  printed  in  larger  type — it  was  thought 
better  to  distinguish  the  third  edition  of  the  present  work  by  the  title 
'  Brahmanism  and  Hinduism,'  and  this  title  has  also  been  adopted  for 
this  new  edition. 


vi  Preface. 

intelligent  general  readers,  not  merely  among  the 
38  millions  of  the  United  Kingdom,  but  among  the 
60  millions  of  the  United  States  of  America  and 
among  the  rapidly  developing  populations  of  the 
colonies  of  Great  Britain. 

Nor  do  I  despair  of  its  attracting  a  few  readers  in 
India  itself,  where  many  thoughtful  English-speaking 
Hindus — educated  by  us — are  not  always  able  to  give 
a  clear  explanation  of  their  own  religious  creeds  and 
practices.  At  any  rate  those  of  my  fellow-countrymen 
who  are  now  livins^  in  India  and  workino^  amonor  the 
natives  in  their  own  country,  will  probably  be  interested 
in  much  of  what  I  have  here  written,  and  will  sym- 
pathize with  me  in  my  difficulties. 

To  all,  in  short,  who,  speaking  a  language  destined 
to  become  the  dominant  speech  of  the  civilized  globe, 
are  likely  to  take  an  interest  in  the  origin,  growth,  and 
present  condition  of  a  religious  system  radically  and 
diametrically  opposed  to  Christianity,  and  yet  presenting 
many  remarkable  points  of  contact  with  Christianity — 
a  system,  too,  which  of  all  non-Christian  religions  is 
perhaps  the  best  key  to  the  study  of  '  Comparative 
Religion,'  as  Sanskrit  is  the  best  key  to  the  study  of 
'  Comparative   Grammar ' — this  volume  is  addressed. 

And  I  may  here  draw  attention  to  the  fact  that 
the  founder  of  the  Boden  Professorship  had  a  religious 
object  in  providing  by  his  munificent  bequest  for  the 
study  of  Sanskrit  in  the  University  of  Oxford  ^ ;  and  if 
the  Boden  Professor  is  to  carry  that  object  into  effect, 

■^  The  words   are  : — '  To  enable   his    countrymen   to   proceed   in    the 
conversion  of  the  natives  of  India  to  the  Christian  religion.' 


Preface.  vii 

he  is  bound  to  bring  his  knowledge  of  Sanskrit  to  bear 
not  only  on  the  promotion  of  philological  studies,  but 
also  on  the  elucidation  of  Indian  religious  systems 
with  a  view  to  their  refutation. 

This  is  no  easy  task  and  its  difficulty  is  enhanced 
by  the  close  intertwining  of  religion  with  social  and 
domestic  life  in  every  part  of  India. 

It  is  often  asserted  that  the  Hindus  are  the  most 
religious  people  in  the  world.  Those  who  make  this 
assertion  ought,  of  course,  to  define  what  they  mean 
by  the  word  '  religious.'  What  is  really  meant,  I  think, 
is  that  amonof  all  the  races  of  mankind  the  Hindus 
are  the  greatest  slaves  to  the  bondage  of  immemorial 
tradition — not  so  much  in  its  bearing  on  religious 
beliefs,  or  even  on  moral  conduct,  as  on  social  usages, 
caste  practices,  and  domestic  ceremonial  observances. 

In  proof  of  this  it  is  only  necessary  to  refer  to  their 
marriage-customs  (see  p.  355);  but  other  evidences  of 
this  bondage  force  themselves  on  the  attention  of 
the  inquiring  traveller  at  almost  every  step  of  his 
journeyings — in  highways  and  by-ways,  on  the  hills 
and  in  the  valleys,  in  towns  and  in  villages,  in  the 
dwellings  of  rich  and  poor,  prince  and  peasant. 

And  yet,  strange  to  say,  these  traditional  customs, 
usages,  and  ceremonial  observances,  although  they 
constitute  the  chief  element  in  a  Hindu's  religion,  are 
nowhere  throughout  India  regulated  or  enforced  by  the 
delegates  or  representatives  of  any  supreme  Head  or 
central  religious  authority.  No  doubt  one  explanation 
of  this  fact  may  be  that  an  Indian's  excessive  respect 
for  tradition  makes  the  establishment  of  any  central 


viii  Preface, 

source  of  ecclesiastical  power,  and  the  exercise  of  any 
regularly  organized  religious  government  unnecessary. 

Reverence  for  opinions  and  practices  held  sacred  by 
his  ancestors  is  ingrained  in  every  fibre  of  a  Hindu's 
character,  and  is,  so  to  speak,  bred  in  the  very  bone  of 
his  physical  and  moral  constitution. 

Day  by  day  the  pious  Hindu  offers  homage  to  his 
father,  grandfather,  and  progenitors,  including  all  the 
seers,  holy  men,  and  patriarchs  of  antiquity. 

And  even  if  this  were  not  so,  any  centralization  of 
religious  authority  w^ould  be  almost  impossible,  be- 
cause the  Indian  body  politic  is  divided  into  a  count- 
less number  of  distinct  castes,  communities  and  sects, 
each  of  which  has  its  own  usages  and  its  own  form  of 
self-government,  consisting,  perhaps,  of  a  kind  of  coun- 
cil and  presiding  Head,  whose  office  is  to  prevent  the 
violation  of  its  own  traditions,  customs,  and  rules. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  too,  that  there  is  one 
tradition  respected  by  all  castes  and  all  sects  alike — 
namely  the  superiority  of  the  Brahmans  and  their  right 
to  superintend  domestic  ceremonies.     But  see  p.  386. 

Nevertheless  it  might  certainly  be  expected  that  at 
any  rate  the  Brahmans  to  whom  obedience  is  by 
common  consent  due,  would  be  subject  to  some  one 
supreme  Head — to  some  one  centralized  spiritual 
government  or  authority — from  which  their  sacer- 
dotal powers  would  be  derived.  But  no  such  central 
authority  exists  in  India.  And  the  Brahmans  are 
themselves  split  up  into  priests  and  laymen,  besides 
countless  subdivisions  each  with  its  own  rules  carried 
out  by  its  own  separate  council  and  leaders. 


Preface.  ix 

Unquestionably  this  absence  of  all  religious  organi- 
zation among  the  dense  populations  of  our  Indian  em- 
pire has  led  to  an  almost  total  want  of  order  and 
unity ;  yet  it  is  attended  with  one  beneficial  result. 
Inasmuch  as  India,  with  all  its  intense  religiousness, 
with  all  its  exaggerated  sacerdotalism  and  ceremo- 
nialism, is  free  from  the  despotism, — Is  unfettered  by 
the  dictation  of  any  one  autocratic  pontiff. 

At  the  same  time  It  must  be  understood  that  the 
almost  infinite  divisions  of  caste  and  varieties  of  caste- 
observance  rest  on  one  unvarying  substratum  of 
theological  doo^ma  of  which  the  Brahmans  are  the 
keepers  and  exponents.  It  may  be  very  true  that  a 
Hindu  who  is  bound  to  conform  strictly  to  the  social, 
domestic,  and  individual  observances  prescribed  by  his 
own  caste,  is  nevertheless  allowed  great  laxity  of  opinion 
in  regard  to  his  religious  creed.  It  may  also  be  true 
that  he  is  permitted  to  choose  for  himself  his  own 
special  or  favourite  divinity,  without  accepting  all  the 
gods  of  the  Hindu  Pantheon.  It  may  even  be  true 
that  while  accepting  Hinduism  he  may  be  at  the  same 
time  a  believer  in  Buddhism,  in  Muhammadanism,  in 
Judaism,  in  Christianity;  or  may  call  himself  a  Thelst, 
a  Deist,  a  Polythelst,  a  Theosophlst,  or  even  an 
Agnostic.  Still  for  all  that,  all  the  varieties  of  caste- 
usage,  all  the  multiplicity  of  domestic  ceremonies,  all 
the  diversities  of  sceptical  belief  are,  so  to  speak, 
'  roped  together '  by  one  rigid  and  unyielding  line  of 
Brahmanlcal  pantheistic  doctrine. 

Any  one  who  glances  at  the  table  of  contents  ap- 
pended to  these  prefatory  remarks  will  see  at  once  that 


X  Preface. 

a  great  proportion  of  the  volume  before  him  Is  em- 
ployed in  expounding  the  evolution  of  that  doctrine. 

I  fear,  however,  that  some  inquirers  may  possibly 
consult  its  pages,  who  have  little  time  to  pursue 
step  by  step  the  gradual  development  of  Indian  re- 
ligious thought,  as  I  have  endeavoured  to  trace  it. 
These  need,  as  an  Introduction,  a  more  concise  answer 
to  the  question,  What  is  a  Hindu  and  what  is 
Hinduism  ? 

For  their  benefit,  therefore,  I  will  here  endeavour 
to  condense  some  of  the  more  important  points  which 
are  set  forth  at  full  length  in  the  succeeding  pages. 

And  first  I  may  point  out  that  the  name  Hindu 
is  now  usually  restricted  to  those  who  are  adherents 
of  the  form  of  religion  which  the  present  volume  aims 
at  explaining. 

It  Is,  Indeed,  a  solemn  thought  that  at  least  200 
minions  of  our  fellow-subjects  are  adherents  of  that 
religion.  And  yet  It  Is  a  remarkable  characteristic  of 
Hinduism  that  it  neither  requires  nor  attempts  to 
make  converts.  Nor  Is  it  by  any  means  at  present 
diminishing  In  numbers.  Nor  is  it  at  present  being 
driven  off  the  field,  as  might  be  expected,  by  being 
brought  Into  contact  with  two  such  proselyting  religions 
as  Christianity  and  Muhammadanism.  On  the  contrary, 
it  Is  at  present  rapidly  increasing ;  for  a  man  becomes 
a  Hindu  by  merely  being  born  a  Hindu ;  so  that  every 
day  adds  to  the  adherents  of  Hinduism  through  the 
simple  process  of  the  daily  Increase  of  births  over 
deaths,  which  in  India  Is  everywhere  considerable. 

And  far  more  remarkable  than  this — It  will  be  seen 


Preface,  xi 

from  what  I  have  written  in  Chapter  ill,  that  another 
characteristic  of  Hinduism  is  its  receptivity  and  all- 
comprehensiveness.  It  claims  to  be  the  one  religion 
of  humanity,  of  human  nature,  of  the  entire  world.  It 
cares  not  to  oppose  the  progress  of  any  other  system. 
For  it  has  no  difficulty  in  including  all  other  religions 
within  Its  all-embracing  arms  and  ever-widening  fold. 

And,  In  real  truth,  Hinduism  has  something  to  offer 
which  is  suited  to  all  minds.  Its  very  strength  lies  in 
its  infinite  adaptability  to  the  infinite  diversity  of 
human  characters  and  human  tendencies.  It  has  its 
highly  spiritual  and  abstract  side  suited  to  the  meta- 
physical philosopher — its  practical  and  concrete  side 
suited  to  the  man  of  affairs  and  the  man  of  the  world 
— its  aesthetic  and  ceremonial  side  suited  to  the  man 
of  poetic  feeling  and  Imagination — its  quiescent  and 
contemplative  side  suited  to  the  man  of  peace  and 
lover  of  seclusion.  Nay,  it  holds  out  the  right  hand 
of  brotherhood  to  nature-worshippers,  demon-wor- 
shippers, animal-worshippers,  tree-worshippers,  fetish- 
worshippers.  It  does  not  scruple  to  permit  the  most 
grotesque  forms  of  idolatry,  and  the  most  degrading 
varieties  of  superstition.  And  it  is  to  this  latter  fact 
that  yet  another  remarkable  peculiarity  of  Hinduism  is 
mainly  due — namely,  that  In  no  other  system  of  the 
world  is  the  chasm  more  vast  which  separates  the 
religion  of  the  higher,  cultured,  and  thoughtful  classes 
from  that  of  the  lower,  uncultured,  and  unthinking 
masses. 

The  former  religion  I  call  Brahmanism,  the  latter 
I  call  Hinduism;   but,  as  I  have  shown  at  len^^th  in 


xii  Preface, 

the  present  volume,  the  two  are  really  one,  and  the 
higher,  purer,  and  more  spiritualistic  system  has  led 
to  the  lower,  more  corrupt,  and  more  materialistic 
form  of  doctrine,  through  the  natural  and  inevitable 
development  of  its  root-ideas  and  fundamental  dogma. 

In  brief,  Hinduism  is  founded  on  that  highly  subtle 
theory  of  pantheistic  philosophy  which  was  excogitated 
by  the  Brahmans  at  the  time  when  they  began  to  think 
out  for  themselves  the  problem  of  existence  several 
centuries  before  the  Christian  era — a  theory,  which 
every  human  intellect  most  naturally  thinks  out  for 
itself — a  theory,  too,  which  is,  in  some  respects,  almost 
identical  with  that  thought  out  by  Spinoza  and  the 
profoundest  thinkers  of  modern  Europe. 

Indeed,  if  I  may  be  allowed  the  anachronism,  the 
Hindus  were  Spinozaites  more  than  2,000  years  be- 
fore the  existence  of  Spinoza ;  and  Darwinians  many 
centuries  before  Darwin ;  and  Evolutionists  many 
centuries  before  the  doctrine  of  Evolution  had  been 
accepted  by  the  Scientists  of  our  time,  and  before  any 
word  like  Evolution  existed  in  any  language  of  the 
world. 

The  Hindus,  in  fact,  have  for  centuries  believed 
that  their  one  god  Brahma  (neuter) — their  one  im- 
personal spiritual  Essence  or  Energy — identified  with 
everything,  and  constituting  everything — is  for  ever 
evolvinor  itself  out  of  its  own  inner  substance ;  like 
a  vast  tree  ^  with  countless  branches  for  ever  expanding 

^  The  name  for  the  one  Self-existent  God,  Brahma,  is  neuter  and  de- 
rived from  the  same  root  as  Vriksha,  'a  tree' — namely,  the  root  Vrih 
or  Brih^   'to  grow.'      By  referring,  however,  to  p.  95,  note  2,  of  this 


Preface,  xiii 

itself  out  of  an  eternal  seed,  and  then  for  ever  drawing 
back  and  being  re-absorbed  into  itself,  and  disappear- 
ing again  and  again  into  formlessness  and  impersonality. 

And  the  first  evolution,  according  to  their  belief,  is 
the  development  of  a  triple  personality ;  first,  as  God, 
the  personal  Creator,  called  Brahma  (masculine) ; 
secondly,  as  God  the  personal  Preserver  or  Maintainer, 
called  Vishnu  (masculine) ;  thirdly,  as  God  the  per- 
sonal DIssolver  or  Disintegrator  (but  also  the  Re- 
creator  and  Regenerator  after  dissolution),  called  Siva 
(masculine).  These  three  masculine  deities  are  some- 
times regarded  as  co-equal  and  represented  by  three 
noble  heads  rising  out  of  one  body.  Often  their  func- 
tions are  held  to  be  interchangeable,  or  sometimes 
one,  sometimes  the  other,  may  be  thought  to  be  the 
greatest  of  the  three  (see  pp.  45,  65). 

Brahmanism,  then,  in  its  simplest  form,  consists  in  a 
fixed  belief  that  the  one  eternal  impersonal  Essence — 
the  sole,  really  existing  Being — expands  itself  into 
three  principal  divine  co-equal  personalities,  which  are 
constantly  manifested  and  ultimately  re-absorbed. 

Then  a  further  belief  was  soon  developed  out  of 
this  earlier  creed — a  belief  that  each  of  the  three  male 
divinities  possesses  maternal  or  feminine  attributes  as 
well  as  masculine.  And  hence  it  followed  that  each 
personal  god  became  in  due  course  associated  with  a 
wife — regarded  as  half  the  god's  essence  (p.  389). 

volume,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  earliest  word  for  the  one  Spirit  of  the 
Universe  was  Atman  (masc).  Then  to  distinguish  the  spirit  of  man  from 
the  Universal  Spirit,  the  latter  was  afterwards  called  Paramatman,  '  the 
Supreme  Spirit.'  Mahatma — a  word  now  much  used  by  Theosophists — 
is  pure  Sanskrit  and  means  '  having  a  great  spirit,'  '  noble-spirited.' 


xiv  Preface, 

Then,  again,  the  process  of  divine  developments  was 
soon  supposed  to  go  on  Indefinitely.  There  are,  there- 
fore, any  number  of  gods,  goddesses,  and  superhuman 
beings  in  a  Hindus  pantheon,  although  his  Ishta- 
devata,  or  '  Favourite  deity,'  is  generally  either  Vishnu 
or  Siva,  or  some  deity  connected  with  these  two  per- 
sonalities. Nay,  according  to  the  Hindu  pantheistic 
theory,  all  great,  useful,  and  good  men  are  personal 
manifestations  of  the  one  Impersonal  Spirit — and  every 
man's  individualized  spirit,  released  from  his  body  by 
death,  must  migrate  into  higher  or  lower  corporeal 
states,  and  so  pass  through  innumerable  forms  of 
existence,  according  to  his  deeds,  until  it  is  re-absorbed 
into  the  one  self-existent  Spirit  of  the  Universe. 

Every  man's  future,  then,  depends  upon  himself. 
Moreover  his  passage  through  these  various  changes 
of  existence  may  take  place  as  much  in  other  worlds 
as  in  the  present ;  but  wherever  such  changes  occur 
they  must  remain  fixed  until  another  change  is  caused 
by  dissolution.  Hence  all  the  distinct  classes  of  men 
— such  as  Brahmans,  soldiers,  agriculturists  and  ser- 
vants— remain  unalterably  distinct  from  each  other 
from  birth  to  death,  without  any  more  power  of  alter- 
ing their  condition  than  if  they  were  quadrupeds,  birds, 
reptiles  or  fish  (see  p.  53). 

This  may  give  some  idea  of  the  close  connexion  of 
the  Indian  caste  system  with  the  Hindu  religion,  and 
of  the  iron  sway  which  it  exercises  over  the  people,  and 
of  its  consequent  influence  for  evil,  though  in  some 
cases  for  good  also  (see  Chapter  xviii).  f 

It  might  be  thought,  perhaps,  that  the  Idea  of  men    j 


Preface,  xv 

and  women  being,  as  it  were,  portions  of  the  divine 
Essence,  would  have  a  good  effect  in  ennobling  life. 
But  unhappily  the  pantheistic  philosophy  of  India  leads 
to  many  monstrous  paradoxes,  and  one  of  these  is 
that  the  divine  Essence  may  become,  through  the  force 
of  an  awful  law,  devilish  or  demoniacal. 

A  Hindu,  therefore,  holds  that,  as  there  are  any 
number  of  good  incarnations,  so  there  are  any  number 
of  evil.  And  this  is  not  all.  It  is  held  that  two 
antagonistic  principles  are  for  ever  opposing  and 
counteracting  each  other  in  the  universe  around  us, 
and  that  the  vast  pantheon  is  counterbalanced  by  an 
equally  vast  pandemonium.  There  are,  in  short, 
demons  without  number  and  of  all  kinds,  just  as  there 
are  gods  without  number  and  of  all  kinds ;  demons 
peopling  the  atmosphere  around  us  ;  demons  both  good 
and  bad,  male  and  female;  the  good  for  ever  engaged 
in  unceasing  conflict  with  the  bad,  the  bad  for  ever 
impeding  every  good  work,  for  ever  causing  accidents, 
diseases,  plague,  pestilence  and  ruin  (see  Chapter  ix). 

Then,  again,  there  is  another  noteworthy  paradox 
involved  in  a  Hindu's  pantheistic  creed.  For,  although 
human  beings  are  believed  to  be  portions  of  Brahma 
the  one  God,  yet  that  God  nevertheless  delights  in 
acting  as  a  hard  taskmaster  towards  all  these  portions 
of  himself,  imposing  on  them  intolerable  burdens. 
Hence  a  pious  Hindu  who  considers  himself  to  be 
part  of  the  one  God,  will  still  feel  himself  impelled  by 
some  law  of  necessity  to  propitiate  that  god  by  the 
severest  self-imposed  religious  tasks  (pp.  393,  560).  It 
should  be  noted,  too,  that  the  idea  of  God  as  an  angry 


XVI  Preface. 

avenger  is  an  essential  element  In  later  Hinduism. 
The  god  of  destruction  delights  in  destruction  for  its 
own  sake  (p.  82).  But  his  wife,  the  goddess  Kali,  is 
the  more  bloodthirsty  of  the  two.  Blood  of  some  kind 
she  will  have.  Thousands  of  goats  and  buffaloes  are 
therefore  daily  offered  upon  her  altars  throughout 
India  (see  pp.  189,  431,  575). 

Finally  there  is  the  paradox  of  a  purely  spiritual 
Essence  identifying  itself  with  animals,  trees,  images 
and  stones. 

How,  then,  can  the  intelligent  and  well-educated 
Hindu — trained  by  us  to  think  accurately,  and  in- 
structed by  us  in  the  facts,  phenomena,  and  laws  of 
European  science — acquiesce  in  these  extravagances  ? 
'  There  Is  but  one  God ' — an  educated  native  would 
probably  say,  in  explanation  of  the  apparent  incon- 
gruity:— '  There  is  but  one  God  by  whatever  form  He 
is  worshipped  in  Asia  or  in  Europe.  He  (the  one  God) 
is  in  His  essence  Impersonal  and  formless,  though  He 
delights  in  manifesting  Himself  in  infinite  develop- 
ments. In  infinite  evolutions  and  personalities  ;  and 
thouorh  He  chooses  to  lo^nore  Himself  in  the  distinct 

o  o 

individualities  created  by  Himself.  Hence  the  separate 
existence  of  you,  and  of  me,  and  of  the  world  around 
us,  is  a  mere  illusion.  When,  through  protracted  self- 
discipline,  the  Illusion  is  made  to  vanish,  we  are  again 
absorbed  into  the  one  God.  Idols  are  not  intended 
to  be  worshipped ;  they  are  merely  useful  as  helps  to 
devotion.  They  enable  ignorant  people  to  form  some 
idea  of  God's  countless  manifestations.  They  are  a 
necessary  assistance  to  the  masses  of  our   illiterate 


Preface,  xvii 

population,  whose  mental  condition  is  that  of  children, 
and  who  cannot  read  those  written  descriptions  of  God 
which  exist  in  the  Scriptures  of  all  nations,  and  equally 
give  God  human  attributes — figure,  face,  hands,  and 
feet.' 

Such  would  probably  be  an  intelligent  Hindus 
apology  for  his  national  religion.  And  by  this  pecu- 
liar method  of  mental  enorineerina-  is  the  devious  tor- 
tuosity  of  the  Hindu  pantheistic  system  made  straight, 
and  the  vast  chasm  which  separates  the  creeds  of  the 
educated  and  uneducated  classes  bridged  over.  And 
thus,  too,  it  is  that  the  most  highly  educated  natives 
acquiesce  apathetically  in  all  the  strange  and  monstrous 
forms  of  their  country's  superstitions,  and  are  quite 
content  to  remain  Hindus  in  name  and  in  religion  to 
the  end  of  their  lives. 

The  above  summary  will,  I  trust,  be  useful  as  an 
introduction  to  the  study  of  the  evolution  of  Indian 
reliofious  thoucrht  and  life,  as  I  have  striven  to  elucidate 
it  in  the  present  volume.  At  any  rate  it  may  help  to 
make  clear  how  it  is  that  the  religion  of  the  Hindus — 
rooted  in  a  super-subtle  form  of  spiritual  Pantheism — 
has  branched  out  into  numerous  ramifications  which 
have  gradually  extended  themselves  over  the  entire 
area  of  an  immense  site,  without  check  or  restraint, 
without  order,  organization  or  coherency,  by  a  process 
of  successive  growth,  decay,  recuperation,  and  accretion 
carried  on  for  more  than  three  thousand  years. 

To  denote  the  composite  and  complex  character  of 
this  wholly  unsystematic  system,  we  have  called  it 
'  Brahmanism    and    Hinduism,'    but    we    have    been 

b 


xviii  Preface. 

careful  to  make  It  understood  that  these  names  are 
not  accepted  by  its  own  adherents  (see  p.  20). 

Its  present  aspect  may  be  compared  to  an  immense 
mosaic  which,  having  had  no  one  maker,  has  been 
compacted  together  by  a  succession  of  artificers  and 
inlaid  with  every  variety  of  strange  and  fanciful  image. 
Or  rather  perhaps  may  we  liken  It  to  a  colossal  edifice 
formed  by  a  congeries  of  heterogeneous  materials, 
without  symmetry  or  unity  of  design — a  vast,  over- 
grown, irregular  structure — which,  although  often  falling 
Into  decay  in  Its  outlying  extremities,  still  rises  from 
its  ruins,  still  goes  through  repeated  processes  of 
repair,  still  holds  its  own  with  obstinate  pertinacity, 
and  still  belies  the  expectations  of  those  who  are 
looking  for  Its  downfall. 

It  will  be  readily  admitted,  then,  that  the  duty  of 
finding  my  way  through  such  a  confused  congeries  of 
matter  has  been  one  requiring  much  time  and  labour. 

But  even  more  beset  with  difficulties  has  been  the 
task  of  trying  to  clear  the  way  for  others — of  trying 
to  assist  the  investigations  of  students  bent  on  pene- 
trating the  mysteries  of  Brahmanical  philosophy,  and 
arriving  at  the  inner  meaning  of  forms,  symbols,  and 
observances,  which  even  the  most  pious  Hindu  is  often 
himself  unable  to  explain,  except  by  saying  that  they 
have  descended  from  his  forefathers. 

I  need  scarcely  say,  therefore,  that  my  explanations 
have  been  written  under  a  deep  sense  of  the  respon- 
sibility which  these  difficulties  have  laid  upon  me. 

I  have  felt.  Indeed,  that  even  the  most  profound 
Orientalists  who  have  never  come  In  contact  with  the 


Preface.  xix 

Indian  mind,  except  through  the  study  of  books  or 
possibly  through  making  the  acquaintance  of  a  few- 
stray  Indian  travellers  in  European  countries,  commit 
themselves  to  mischievous  and  misleading  statements, 
when  they  venture  to  dogmatize  in  regard  to  the 
present  condition — religious,  moral,  and  intellectual — 
of  the  inhabitants  of  India  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  ablest  men  who  have  passed  a  great  portion  of  their 
lives  in  some  one  Indian  province,  without  acquiring 
any  scholarlike  knowledge  of  Sanskrit — the  master- 
key  to  Hindu  religious  thought — are  liable  to  imbibe 
very  false  notions  in  regard  to  the  real  meaning  of  the 
religious  practices  carried  on  before  their  eyes,  and  to 
do  serious  harm  if  they  attempt  to  propagate  their 
misapprehensions  in  books,  pamphlets,  and  reviews. 

The  present  volume,  therefore,  is  not  merely  the 
outcome  of  fifty  years  study  of  Sanskrit  literature.  It 
is  the  result  of  my  personal  researches  in  India  itself, 
and  is  put  forth  from  the  vantage-ground  of  personal 
contact  and  personal  intercourse  with  the  Hindus  in 
their  ow^n  land.  I  have,  during  my  tenure  of  the  Boden 
Professorship  at  Oxford,  felt  it  my  duty  to  visit  India 
three  times,  and  to  make  three  journeys  through  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  entire  peninsula  from 
Cashmere  to  Cape  Comorin,  from  Bombay  to  the 
confines  of  Tibet. 

Possibly  those  who  know  my  companion  volume  on 
Buddhism  (the  2nd  edition  of  which  was  published  last 
year  ^)  may  be  disposed  to  inquire  how  it  is  that  the 

^  '  Buddhism  in  its  connexion  with  Brahmanism  and  Hinduism  and  in 
its  contrast  with  Christianity  (John  Murray,  Albemarle  Street).' 


XX  Preface. 

present  work  has  not  as  many  oases  In  its  desert  of 
dry  matter.  But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
Buddhism  offers  an  unusual  focus  of  interest  in  the 
personal  character  and  biography  (however  legendary) 
of  its  founder;  whereas  Brahmanism  and  Hinduism 
have  no  one  central  personality  capable  of  attracting 
the  attention  of  general  readers.  Nevertheless,  those 
who  work  their  way  conscientiously  and  persistently 
through  all  that  I  have  here  written  will  not  fail,  I 
think,  to  find  their  fatigue  alleviated  by  a  few  refresh- 
ing and  attractive  episodes,  if  not  by  any  very  exten- 
sive tracts  of  interesting  and  pleasant  reading. 

Perhaps  I  may  draw  especial  attention  to  the  later 
chapters,  beginning  at  Chapter  xli.  Perhaps,  too,  I 
may  here  state  that  the  chapters  on  modern  Indian 
Theists  were  submitted  by  me  to  the  venerable 
Debendra-nath  Tagore  himself,  when  I  was  staying  at 
Calcutta,  and  were  revised  by  him  in  his  own  hand- 
writinor. 

It  will  be  seen  at  once  that  Chapters  xxi  and  xxii 
are  almost  entirely  new,  and  a  large  number  of  additions 
and  improvements  will  be  discovered  in  nearly  every 
page  of  the  entire  volume  by  any  one  who  compares 
this  edition  carefully  with  its  predecessor. 

Furthermore  it  will  be  observed  that  the  Index 
has  been  improved  and  enlarged  in  a  corresponding 
manner ;  while  at  the  same  time,  in  almost  every 
case,  the  figures  in  the  present  Index  suit  the  pagina- 
tion of  the  previous  editions. 

In  conclusion  I  may  be  permitted  to  repeat  what  I 
stated  in  the  Preface  to  the  first  edition,  that  the  most 


Preface.  xxi 

cursory  perusal  of  the  following  pages  will  show  that 
my  sympathy  with  the  natives  of  our  great  Dependency 
and  my  cordial  appreciation  of  all  that  is  good  and  true 
in  their  own  sacred  literature  (see  p.  533)  and  in 
their  codes  of  morality,  have  not  led  me  to  gloss  over 
what  is  false  and  impure  in  their  systems  of  belief  and 
objectionable  in  their  social  practices. 

M.  M.-W. 

Enfield  House,  Ventnor, 
October^  1891. 


NOTE. 

The  interesting  portrait  opposite  to  the  title-page  of  this 
volume  requires  some  explanation.  The  portrait  is  also  to 
be  found  in  my  volume  on  Buddhism,  but  is  only  inserted 
there  to  illustrate  the  connexion  between  Brahmanism  and 
Buddhism.  It  is  really  an  engraving  from  an  excellent 
photograph  of  an  eminent  Brahman  which  was  taken  not 
long  ago  at  Bombay,  and  may  be  regarded  as  furnishing 
good  evidence  of  the  fact  that  orthodox  Brahmanism  has 
not  yet  died  out  in  India.  By  referring  to  p.  ofii  it  will  be 
seen  that  every  Brahman,  when  he  arrives  at  the  fourth  stage 
of  life,  ought  to  become  a  Sannyasi — that  is,  to  withdraw 
from  all  active  duties  and  devote  the  rest  of  his  days  to 
religious  meditation.  The  person  represented  was  an  able 
prime  minister  of  the  native  State  Bhaunagar,  and  in  conse- 
quence of  his  eminence  was  created  a  C.  S.  I.  by  our  Govern- 
ment. He  has  recently  retired  from  his  high  office  and 
become  a  Sannyasi.  A  Rudraksha  rosary  is  suspended  round 
his  neck  (see  p.  67).  In  front  of  his  raised  seat  are  various 
ceremonial  implements.     Near  the  right-hand  corner  of  his 


xxli  Preface, 

seat  is  a  Kamandalu  or  water-gourd.  In  front  of  the  seat, 
on  the  right  of  the  figure,  is  an  Upa-patra  or  subsidiary 
vessel  used  with  the  Kamandalu.  In  the  middle  is  the 
Tamra-patra  or  copper  vessel  for  containing  the  water  used 
at  the  performance  of  ceremonies,  and  on  the  left  is  the 
Panca-patra  for  the  purifying  water  measured  out  with  the 
AcamanI,  or  spoon  used  at  Acamana  (see  p.  402).  Near 
the  left-hand  corner  are  the  wooden  clogs.  In  his  left  hand 
is  the  Danda  or  staff  called  Sudarsana.  It  is  a  mystical 
weapon  employed  against  evil  spirits  and  consists  of  a 
bamboo  with  six  knots.  The  mystic  white  roll,  which  begins 
above  the  left  hand  and  ends  before  the  fifth  knot,  is  called 
the  Lakshmi-vastra.  The  projecting  piece  of  cloth,  folded 
in  the  form  of  an  axe  (Parasu),  represents  the  weapon  of 
Parasu-rama  (see  pp.  no,  270)  with  which  he  subdued  the 
enemies  of  the  Brahmans. 

With  reference  to  p.  460,  I  am  informed  by  Mr.  William 
Crooke,  of  the  Bengal  Civil  Service,  that  in  Upper  India 
the  village  potter  (Kumbhar,  Kumharj  is  '  very  low  in  social 
rank.  He  is  one  of  the  begdr  or  persons  bound  to  contribute 
their  productions  to  visitors  free  of  charge.' 


CONTENTS. 


-M- 


INTRODUCTORY  OBSERVATIONS. 


PAGE 


Three  principal  stages  or  phases  of  the  Hindu  religion.  Defini- 
tion of  Vedism,  Brahmanism,  and  Hinduism.  First  seat  of  the 
Aryans.  Origin  of  religion  among  the  primitive  Aryans.  Worship 
of  natural  objects i-6 

CHAPTER  I. 

Vedism. 

Four  Vedas.  Gods  of  the  Veda.  Ideas  expressed  by  the  term 
sacrifice.  Use  of  Soma  plant.  Animal  sacrifice.  Remarkable  hymns 
of  the  Veda.     Examples  of  hymns.     Social  condition  of  the  people     7-19 

CHAPTER  II. 

Brahmanism. 

Four  phases.  I.  Ritualistic  Brahmanism.  Development  of  the 
idea  of  sacrifice.  II.  Philosophical  Brahmanism.  Upanishads. 
Siitras.  Subtle  and  gross  bodies.  Safikhya  philosophy.  Vedanta. 
Tri-unity  of  entities.  Three  corporeal  envelopes.  Vedanta  and 
Sankhya  systems  compared.  Nyaya  philosophy.  Metempsychosis.  , 
HI.  Mythological  Brahmanism.  Buddhism.  Tri-murti.  Descents 
of  Vishnu.     IV.  Nomistic  Brahmanism.     Three  codes  of  law     .      20-53 

CHAPTER  III. 
Hinduism.    General  Observations. 
Distinction  between  P~ahmanism  and  Hinduism.     The  philoso- 

•  •       •      • 

pher  Safikara.  Inter-relationship  and  distinction  between  Saivism 
and  Vaishnavism.  Six  principal  sects.  Doctrine  of  incarnation. 
Saiva  and  Vaishnava  mark.' .     Rosaries.     Symbols  and  images         54-72 


xxiv  Contents. 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Saivism. 


PAGE 


Definition  of  Saivism.  Worship  of  Rudra-Siva.  Description  of 
Siva.  Saiva  sects.  Ceremonies  performed  at  Walkesvar  temple. 
Ceremonies  performed  at  Bhuvanesvara  temple         .         .        .        73-94 

CHAPTER  V. 

Vaishnavism. 

Chief  characteristics  of  Vaishnavism.  Tolerance.  Religious  credu- 
lity. Incarnations  of  Vishnu.  Vaishnava  sects.  Initiation.  Sect 
founded  by  Ramanuja.  Two  antagonistic  parties.  Privacy  in  eating. 
Sect  founded  by  Madhva.  Common  ground  with  Christianity.  Sect 
founded  by  Vallabha.  Profligacy  of  Vallabha  Maharajas.  Sect 
founded  by  Caitanya.  Four  leaders.  Ceremonies  at  a  Vaishnava 
temple,  Poona 95~I45 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Vaishnavism.   Minor  Sects  and  Reforming  Theistic  Movements. 

Sects  founded  by  Nimbarka;  by  Ramananda ;  by  Svami-Narayana. 
Interview  between  Bishop  Heber  and  Svami-Narayana.  Temples  at 
Wartal  and  Ahmedabad.  Svami-Narayana's  Directory.  Theistic 
sect  founded  by  Kabir.  Examples  of  his  precepts.  Sikh  sect 
founded  by  Nanak.  Features  of  his  teaching.  Antagonism  between 
Sikhs  and  Muhammadans.  Govind  founder  of  Sikh  nationality. 
Deification  of  the  Sikh  bible.  Examples  of  precepts.  Metempsy- 
chosis.    Govind's  shrine  at  Patna.     Golden  temple  at  Amritsar     146-179 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Saktism,  or  Goddess-worship. 

Worship  of  the  female  principle.  Two  systems.  Mysticism. 
Mother-goddesses.  Devi.  Kali.  Initiation.  Wine-drinking.  Mantras, 
Bijas,  spells.     Mystic  diagrams.     Amulets,  gestures.     Tantras  .  180-208 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Tutelary  and  Village  Deities. 

v  Ganesa  and  Su-brahmanya.  Ayenar.  Hr.numan.  Monkey-wor- 
ship. Duality  in  unity.  Worship  of  Mothers.  Pantheism.  Special- 
ities of  the  Mothers  of  Gujarat 209-229 


Contents.  xxv 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Demon-worship  and  Spirit-worship. 

pacp: 

Seven  upper  and  seven  lower  worlds.  Nature  and  differences  of 
demons.  Corporeal  organization.  Two  grand  divisions.  Triple 
classification.     Methods  of  neutralizing  influences  of  demons.    Men-  i/ 

demons.  Demons  in  the  South  and  West-  Devil-dances.  Struc- 
tures connected  with  devil-worship.  Bishop  Caldwell  on  the  Shanars. 
Devil-expulsion.  Incantations.  Evil  eye.  Charms,  amulets. 
Sorcery 230-256 

CHAPTER  X. 

Hero-worship  and  Saint-worship. 

No  limit  to  deification  of  great  men.  Rama  and  Krishna.  Local 
deifications.     Vithoba;  Tuka-rama;  Khamlo-ba;  Jfianesvara;  Datta-  \/ 

treya  ;  Svami-Narayana.  Other  examples.  Parasu-rama,  or  Rama 
with  the  axe.     Five  Pandava  princes  ;  Karna  .         .         .         257-273 

CHAPTER  XI.  _^__ 

EATH,  Funeral  Rites,  and  Ancestor- worship.  J  ^      f^ 

Universal  prevalence  of  homage  to  the  dead.  Object  of  Hindi! 
funeral  rites.  Ceremonies  in  Vedic  times,  and  as  prescribed  by 
Asvalayana.  Other  rules  for  funeral  rites.  Bone-gathering  ceremony. 
Sraddha  ceremonies.  Modern  practice  of  funeral  and  Sraddha  cere- 
monies. Character  and  functions  of  Yama,  god  of  death.  Descrip- 
tion of  the  treatment  undergone  by  a  deceased  man  subject  to  Yama. 
Pindas  offered  to  form  an  intermediate  body.  Ceremonies  to  secure 
immunity  from  future  punishment.  Twenty-one  different  Hells. 
River  VaitaranT.  Bone-gathering  ceremony  at  Bombay.  Sraddha 
ceremonies.  Sraddhas  distinguished  under  twelve  heads.  Sraddha 
for  a  recently  deceased  parent.  Sraddhas  at  Gaya.  Pindas  or  balls 
of  rice  and  milk 274-312 

CHAPTER  XII. 
Worship  of  Animals,  Trees,  and  Inanimate  Objects. 

Motives  for  worshipping  animals.  Metempsychosis.  Worship  of 
cows  and  bulls  ;  of  serpents  ;  of  Nagas  ;  of  Snakes  ;  of  Monkeys  and 
various  animals.  Marriage  of  animals.  Worship  of  trees  and 
plants  ;  of  the  TulasI ;  of  the  Pippala  ;  of  the  Bilva  tree.  Marriage 
of  trees.  Worship  of  natural  objects ;  of  sun,  moon,  planets, 
water,  mountains,  rocks,  stones 3I3~35^ 


tX 


<' 


xxvl  Contents. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
The  Hindu  Religion  in  Ancient  Family-life. 

PAGE 

No  congregational  religion.  Domestic  religion  and  usages  super- 
intended by  Brahmans.  Twelve  purificatory  rites.  Importance  of 
a  son.  Initiation.  The  sacred  thread.  Four  stages  of  a  Brahman's 
life.  Ancient  marriage-ceremonial.  Ancient  fire-worship.  Ancient 
sacrificial  rites.     Soma-sacrifices 35i~369 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Hindu  Religion  in  Modern  Family-life. 

Name-giving  ceremony.  Birth-record  and  Horoscopes.  Shaving 
and  tonsure-rite.  Betrothal.  Initiation.  Marriage  ceremonies. 
Wedding  of  Sir  Mangaldas  Nathoobhal's  sons.  Choice  of  profession. 
Status  of  women.   Three  objects  of  human  life.   The  model  wife   370-389 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Religious  Life  of  the  Orthodox  Hindu  Householder. 

Description  of  a  modern  Hindi!  house.  Some  Vedic  rites  still 
maintained.  A  Brahman's  daily  duties.  Dress.  Sacredness  of  the 
kitchen.  Omens  ;  auspicious  and  inauspicious  sights.  Religious  in- 
feriority of  women.  Teeth-cleaning.  Application  of  ashes.  Morning 
Sandhya  service.  Midday  and  Evening  service.  Brahma-yajna 
service.  Tarpana  service.  Paficayatana  ceremony.  Vaisvadeva 
ceremony.   Bali-harana  ceremony.   Dining.  Prayer  before  eating  390-425 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Hindu  Fasts,  Festivals,  and  Holy  Days. 

Hindii  powers  of  fasting.  Special  fasts.  Makara-sankranti.  Va- 
santa-pandami.  Siva-ratri.  Holi.  Rama-navamT.  Naga-paiidami. 
Krishna-janmashtami.  Ganesa-caturthl.  Durga-puja.  Kall-piija. 
Rama-llla.     Divall.     Illuminations.     Karttika-piirnima    .        .    426-433 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

Temples,  Shrines,  and  Sacred  Places. 

Benares  described.  Tanjore  temple.  Madura  temple.  Ramesvara. 
Trichinopoly.  Jambukesvara.  Kanjivaram.  Tinnevelly  temples. 
Jagan-nath  in  Orissa.     Srl-rafigam.     Temple  girls.     Courtesans  434-451 


Contents.  xxvll 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
Caste,  especially  in  relation  to  Occupations. 


PAGE 


The  four  restrictions  of  Caste.  Caste  and  occupations  are  part  of 
religion.  State  of  trades  and  industries  in  India.  Village  communi- 
ties. Tillers  of  soil.  Village  functionaries.  Arts,  jewelry,  sculpture, 
painting.  Delicacy  of  Indian  hand-work.  Tyranny  of  caste  ;  its 
advantages  and  disadvantages 452-474 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Modern  Hindu  Theism.    Rammohun  Roy. 

Theism  no  new  doctrine  in  India.  Life  of  Rammohun  Roy. 
His  death  at  Bristol 475-490 

CHAPTER  XX. 

Modern  Hindu  Theism.    Rammohun  Roy's  successors. 

Dwarkanath  Tagore.  Debendra-nath  Tagore.  Adi  Brahma- 
Samaj.  Keshab  Chandar  Sen.  Brahma-Samaj  of  India.  Sadha- 
rana  Brahma-Samaj.     Arya-Samaj.     Dayananda  SarasvatI     .      491-531 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
Examples  of  the  moral  precepts  of  Brahmanism  and  Hindijism  532-554 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

Supplementary. 

Worship  of  Brahma  at  Pushkara.  '  Arrowy-bed '  form  of  self- 
mortification.  Account  of  the  late  MaharanI  of  Nuddea's  cremation. 
Account  of  the  daily  Deva-piija  of  the  Maharaja  of  Dholpur.  Ac- 
count of  the  customs  and  religious  tenets  of  the  Santals.  Con- 
clusion    555-5S6 

Index 587-603 


CORRECTIONS. 

Page  44,  1.  19  from  top,  strike  out  the  word  'note '. 
J3      53>  h  9  from  bottom,  for  '  SannyasI '  read  '  Sannyasi ',     (In  a  few  other 

instances  the  long  mark  has  dropped  out.) 
„      451.     Strike  out  Sacred  Syf/ibols  from  the  Heading. 


TABLE   OF 

SYSTEM   OF   TEANSLITEHATION 

USED  IN  THIS  VOLUME 

WITH 

EQUIVALENT   SANSKRIT   LETTERS    AND    PRONUNCIATION. 

VOWELS. 

A,  a,  for  '^,  pronounced  as  in  rural;  A,  a,  for  "^j  J,  as  in  tar,  father; 
/,  i,  for^,  fTasin  fill;  /,  i,  for  ^,  T,  as  in  police;  U,  u,  for^,  ^,  as  in  fi^ll; 
tj,  u,  for  ^,  ,  as  in  rude ;  Bi,  ri,  for  ^,  ,  as  in  merrily;  J?I,  rJ,  for "^,  , 
as  in  marine  ;  E,  e,  for  "5,  ,  as  in  prey  ;  Ai,  ai,  for  y[,  ,  as  in  aisle;  0,  o, 
for  "^t,  T,  as  in  go  ;  Au,  au,  for  ^TTj  T>  as  in  Haits  (German) ;  n  or  m,  for  *, 
i.  e.  the  Anusvara,  sounded  like  n  in  French  raon,  or  like  any  nasal ;  /?,  for  I, 
i.  e.  the  Visarga  or  a  distinctly  audible  aspirate. 

CONSONANTS. 

K,  Jc,  for  c|^,  pronounced  as  in  JciW,  seek  ;  Kh,  kh,  for  T^,  almost  as  in 
inA;Aoru  ;  G,  g,  for  ^,  as  in  ^run,  dog ;  Gh,  gh,  for  ^,  almost  as  in  lo^^ut; 
N,  h,  for  ^,  as  in  siwg  (siw). 

C,  d,  for  ^,  as  in  dolce  (in  music),  =  English  ch  in  church,  lurch  (lure); 

Ch,  ch,  for  1^,  almost  as  in  churcji^ill  (curcAill) ;  J,  j,  for  ^  ,  as  in  j'et;  Jh, 

jh,  for  ^  ,  almost  as  in  hec?^e-^og  (hejhog) ;  iV,  n,  for  3^,  as  in  siwge  (siw/). 

T,  t,  for  "J,  as  in  true  {tru) ;  Th,  th,  for  IS,  almost  as  in  an^Mll  (an^^ill) ; 
JP,  d,  for  ^,  as  in  c?rum  (c?rum) ;  Dh,  dh,  for  ^,  almost  as  in  rec?^aired 
(rec?^aired) ;  N,  n,  for  U(^,  as  in  none  (nun). 

T,  t,  for  f(^,  as  in  wa^er  (as  pronounced  in  Ireland)  ;  Th,  th,  for  ^^, 
almost  as  in  nu^-^ook  (but  more  dental);  D,  d,  for  ^,  as  in  c?ice  (more  like 
th  in  this) ;  Dh,  dh,  for  \i[^,  almost  as  in  a^^Aere  (more  dental) ;  N,  n,  for  w^^, 
as  in  wot,  m. 

P,  p,  for  I(^,  as  in  put,  sip  ;  Ph,  ph,  for  t^,  almost  as  in  uphiW  ;  B,  h,  for 
^  ,  as  in  6ear,  rub  ;  Bh,  hh,  for  *^,  almost  as  in  obhor  ;  M,  m,  for  ^,  as  in 
waj),  jam. 

Y,  y,  for  ^,  as  in  yet ;  B,  r,  for  "^,  as  in  red,  year  ;  L,  I,  for  ^^,  as  in 
lie-,  V,  V,  for  ^  ,  as  in  me  (but  like  w  after  consonants,  as  in  twice). 

S,  s,  for  '^j  as  in  sure,  session  ;  Sh,  sh,  for  T^,  as  in  s^un,  hush;  S,  s, 
for  ^,  as  in  sir,  hiss.     H,  h,  for  ^,  as  in  hit. 

Note  that  the  above  system  differs  in  one  or  two  trifling  points  from 
that  used  in  my  '  Practical  Grammar  of  the  Sanskrit  Language,'  fourth 
edition,  published  by  the  Delegates  of  the  University  Press,  Oxford,  and 
from  that  used  in  my  Sanskrit-English  Dictionary,  published  by  the  same. 


i 


BRAHMANISM    AND    HINDUISM. 


Introductory  Obse7'vations. 

The  present  work  is  intended  to  meet  the  wants  of  those 
educated  EngHshmen  who  may  be  desirous  of  gaining  an 
insight  into  the  mental,  moral,  and  religious  condition  of  the 
inhabitants  of  our  Eastern  empire,  and  yet  are  quite  unable 
to  sift  for  themselves  the  confused  mass  of  information — 
accurate  and  inaccurate — spread  out  before  them  by  writers 
on  Indian  subjects.  It  will  be  seen  that  its  aim  is  to  present 
trustworthy  outlines  of  two  important  phases  of  religious 
thought  in  India,  namely,  Brahmanism  and  Hinduism,  as 
based  on  the  Veda  and  the  other  sacred  books  of  the  Hindus. 
It  is  a  companion  to  my  volume  on  Buddhism  ^,  and  these  two 
works  will,  I  hope,  be  followed  by  one  embodying  what  I  have 
already  written  on  Zoroastrianism  and  Muhammadanism.  It 
is  my  desire  to  give  a  clear  sketch  of  the  most  remarkable 
features  of  all  these  systems,  and  to  note  some  of  the  chief 
points  in  which  they  may  be  contrasted  with  Christianity. 

Having  been  a  student  of  Indian  sacred  literature  for  nearly 
fifty  years,  and  having  thrice  travelled  over  every  part  of 
India,  from  Bombay  to  Calcutta,  from  Cashmere  to  Ceylon, 
I  may  possibly  hope  to  make  a  dry  subject  fairly  attractive 
without  any  serious  sacrifice  of  scientific  accuracy,  while 
I  strive  at  the  same  time  to  hold  the  scales  impartially  be- 
tween antagonistic  religious  systems  and,  as  far  as  possible, 
to  do  justice  to  the  amount  of  truth  that  each  may  contain. 

^  Published  by  Mr.  Murray  (Albemarle  Street)  in  1890  (2nd  edit.). 

B 


2  Introductory  Observations, 

Brahmanism  and  Hinduism  may  justly  claim  our  earnest 
consideration,  not  only  for  the  reason  that  about  two  hundred 
millions  of  the  population  of  India  are  adherents  of  these 
systems,  but  because  of  the  intricacy  of  the  doctrines  con- 
tained in  them  and  the  difficulty  of  making  them  intelligible 
to  European  minds. 

With  a  view  to  greater  perspicuity  it  is  desirable  to  make  use 
of  the  word  Vedism,  as  a  convenient  expression  for  the  earliest 
stage  or  phase  in  the  development  of  Indian  religious  thought. 

I.  Vedism,  then,  was  the  first  form  of  the  religion  of  the 
Indian  branch  of  the  great  Aryan  family — the  form  which 
was  represented  in  the  songs,  invocations,  and  prayers,  col- 
lectively called  Veda,  and  attributed  to  the  Rishis,  or  sup- 
posed inspired  leaders  of  religious  thought  and  life  in  India. 
It  was  the  worship  of  the  deified  forces  or  phenomena  of 
Nature,  such  as  Fire,  Sun,  Wind,  and  Rain,  which  were 
sometimes  individualized  or  thought  of  as  separate  divine 
powers,  sometimes  gathered  under  one  general  conception 
and  personified,  though  in  a  very  vague  way,  as  one  God. 

II.  Brahmanism  grew  out  of  Vedism.  It  teaches  the 
identification  of  all  the  forces  and  phenomena  of  Nature  with 
one  spiritual  Being — the  only  real  Entity — which,  when  un- 
manifested  and  impersonal,  is  called  Brahma  (neut.)  ;  when 
manifested  as  a  creator,  is  called  Brahma  (masc.) ;  as  a  dis- 
integrator, Siva ;  as  a  preserver,  Vishnu  ;  and  when  manifested 
in  the  highest  order  of  men,  is  called  Brahmana  ('  the  Brah- 
mans ').  Brahmanism  is  rather  a  philosophy  than  a  religion. 
Its  fundamental  doctrine  is  spiritual  Pantheism.  Hence 
Brahma  is  only  a  creator  in  the  sense  of  being  the  first 
Evolution  out  of  the  one  Spirit,  the  evolution  out  of  which  all 
other  evolutions  have  proceeded.  He  is  not  a  creator  in  the 
sense  of  creating  the  world  out  of  nothing.  The  only  Creator 
or,  more  correctly,  Evolver,  is  the  neuter  entity  called  Brahma, 
the  source  of  all  created  things.  Hence  according  to  the  Sata- 
patha-brahmana  (XI.  2,  3,  i  etc.)  we  find  it  stated  : — 


Introductory  Observations.  " 


o 


'  In  the  beginning  Brahma  was  this  (universe).  He  created 
gods.  Having  created  gods,  he  placed  them  in  these  worlds. 
Having  gone  to  the  most  excellent  worlds  he  considered : 
How  can  I  pervade  all  these  worlds  ?  He  then  pervaded 
them  with  form  and  with  name.  He  who  knows  these  two 
great  manifestations  of  Brahma  becomes  himself  a  great 
manifestation.'     (Muir's  Texts,  v.  388.) 

HI.  Hinduism  grew  out  of  Brahmanism.  It  is  Brah- 
manism,  so  to  speak,  run  to  seed  and  spread  out  into  a 
confused  tangle  of  divine  personalities  and  incarnations.  The 
one  system  is  the  rank  and  luxuriant  outcome  of  the  other. 
Hindijism  is  chiefly  to  be  distinguished  from  Brahmanism 
in  this — that  it  takes  scant  account  of  the  primordial,  im- 
personal Essence  Brahma,  as  well  as  of  its  first  personal 
manifestation  Brahma ;  but  honours,  in  place  of  both,  the 
two  popular  personal  deities  Siva  and  Vishnu  (pp.  54, 1'^-  Be 
it  noted,  however,  that  Hinduism  includes  Brahmanism.  It 
is  indeed  a  somewhat  unsatisfactory  term.  Unhappily  there 
is  no  other  expression  sufficiently  comprehensive  to  embrace 
that  all-receptive,  all-absorbent  system,  which,  without  any  one 
Founder,  was  the  product  of  Brahmanism  amplified  by  contact 
with  its  own  offspring  Buddhism,  and  with  various  pre-existing 
cults.  Hinduism  is  Brahmanism  modified  by  the  creeds  and 
superstitions  of  Buddhists  and  Non-Aryan  races  of  all  kinds, 
including  Dravidians,  Kolarians,  and  perhaps  pre-Kolarian 
aborigines.  It  has  even  been  modified  by  ideas  imported  from 
the  religions  of  later  conquering  races,  such  as  Islam  and  / 
Christianity. 

I  propose  therefore  to  trace  the  gradual  development  of 
Indian  religious  thought  through  these  three  phases  which 
really  run  into  and  overlap  each  other.  In  so  doing  I  shall 
examine  it,  as  in  fairness  every  religion  ought  to  be 
examined,  from  the  point  of  view  of  its  best  as  well  as  of 
its  worst  side. 

But  I  ought  to  premise  that  the  mass  of  the  Hindus  think 

B  2 


4  Introductory  Observations. 

far  more  about  the  obsei'vance  of  caste-rules  and  social  cus- 
toms and  the  propitiation  of  local  deities  and  evil  demons  than 
about  any  of  the  theological  creeds  excogitated  by  their  reli- 
gious teachers.  Hinduism  with  the  masses  is  little  more  than 
a  system  of  social  rules  and  local  superstitions. 

It  is  probable  that  one  of  the  earliest  homes  (if  not  the 
first  seat^)  of  the  members  of  the  great  Aryan  family  was 
in  the  high  land  surrounding  the  sources  of  the  Oxus,  to  the 
north  of  the  point  connecting  the  Hindu  Kush  with  the 
Himalayas.  The  highest  part  of  this  region  is  called  the 
Pamir  plateau,  and,  like  the  table-land  of  Tibet,  with  which 
it  is  connected  by  a  lofty  ridge,  it  well  deserves  the  title  ot 
'  the  roof  of  the  world '  (bdm-i-dtmya).  The  hardy  inhabit- 
ants of  these  high-lands  were  a  pastoral  and  agricultural 
race,  and  soon  found  themselves  straitened  for  room  within 
the  limits  of  their  mountain  tracts.  With  the  increase  of 
population  they  easily  spread  themselves  westwards  towards 
Balkh,  and  southwards,  through  the  passes  of  Afghanistan  on 
the  one  side  and  Cashmere  on  the  other,  into  Northern  India. 

There  they  developed  high  mental  capacities  and  moral 
feelings.  They  possessed  great  powers  of  appreciating  the 
magnificent  phenomena  of  nature.  They  were  endowed  with 
a  deep  religious  sense — a  consciousness  of  their  dependence 
on  the  invisible  forces  which  regulated  the  order  of  the  world. 
They  were  fitly  called  'noble'  (diya),  and  they  spoke  a  lan- 
guage which  was  ultimately  called  '  polished '  or  '  carefully 
constructed '  (^Sanskritd). 

To  trace  the  origin  of  religion  among  such  a  people  requires 
no  curious  metaphysical  hypotheses.  We  have  only  to  ask 
ourselves  what  would  be  the  natural  working  of  their  devo- 
tional instincts,  unguided  by  direct  revelation.    Their  material 

^  According  to  Dr.  Schrader's  theory  the  cradle-land  of  the  primitive 
Aryans  was  in  the  Steppes  of  Southern  Russia.  Others  place  it  in 
Northern  Europe.  Others  dispute  both  theories,  and  hold  to  the  old 
idea  of  '  somewhere  in  Central  Asia.'     I  also  hold  to  the  old  idea. 


Introductory  Observations.  5 

welfare  depended  on  the  influences  of  sky,  air,  light,  and  sun 
(sometimes  fancifully  imaged  in  the  mind  as  emerging  out  of 
an  antecedent  chaotic  night) ;  and  to  these  they  naturally 
turned  with  awe  and  veneration.  Soon  all  such  phenomena 
were  believed  to  be  animated  by  intelligent  wills.  At  first 
the  relationship  between  spirit,  mind,  and  matter  was  im- 
perfectly apprehended.  Whatever  moved  was  believed  to 
possess  life,  and  with  life  was  associated  power.  Hence 
light,  fire,  air,  and  storm  were  thought  of  as  mysterious 
forces,  whose  favour  required  propitiation.  Next  they  re- 
ceived homage  under  the  general  name  of  Devas,  '  luminous 
ones.'  Then,  just  as  men  found  themselves  obliged  to  submit 
to  some  earthly  leader,  so  they  naturally  assigned  supre- 
macy to  one  celestial  being  called  the  'light-father'  (Dyu- 
pitar,  Dyaus,  Zei;?  Trarrip,  Jupiter).  Or,  again,  a  kind  of  pre- 
eminence was  accorded  to  the  all-investing  sky  or  atmo- 
sphere (Varuna,  Ovpavos),  the  representative  of  an  eternal 
celestial  Presence  watching  men's  actions,  and  listening  to 
their  words  by  night  as  well  as  by  day.  Then  of  course 
closely  connected  with  light  and  sky  was  the  actual  orb  of  the 
Sun  called  Mitra,  often  associated  with  another  aspect  of  the 
Sun,  Aryaman,  whose  influences  fertilized  lands,  enriched 
pastures,  and  fructified  crops. 

Then  other  phenomena,  connected  with  Sun  and  fire  (Agni, 
Latin  Ignis),  such  as  the  dawn  (Ushas,  'Hw?,  Aurora),  and  Ida 
or  Ira  (Iris),  were  by  degrees  regarded  with  varying  degrees 
of  veneration.  They  all  had  names  which  still  exist  under 
different  modifications  among  different  branches  of  the  Aryan 
stock,  leading  us  to  infer  that  they  were  among  the  most 
ancient  objects  held  sacred  in  the  original  abode  of  the  Aryan 
race,  before  the  several  members  of  the  family  separated. 

There  is  even  ground  for  conjecturing  that  triads  of  natural 
objects,  such  as  Sky,  Atmosphere,  and  Sun,  or  three  forms 
of  the  Sun,  called  Aryaman,  Varuna,  and  Mitra,  were  asso- 
ciated together  and  worshipped  by  the  primitive  Aryans  in 


6  Introductory  Observations, 

the  earliest  times.  It  is  certain  that  the  Aryan  race,  from 
the  first  development  of  its  religious  sense  on  the  soil  of 
India,  has  shown  a  tendency  to  attach  a  sacred  significance 
to  the  number  three,  and  to  group  the  objects  of  its  adoration 
in  triple  combinations. 

Not  that  the  nascent  religious  ideas  of  a  people  naturally 
devout  were  regulated  or  circumscribed  in  ancient  times  by 
any  definite  rules  or  precise  limitations.  The  objects  and 
forces  of  nature  received  homage  in  different  ways — some- 
times singly,  as  if  impelled  by  separate  and  independent 
wills;  sometimes  in  groups,  as  if  operating  co-ordinately; 
sometimes  collectively,  as  if  animated  and  pervaded  by  one 
dominating  Spirit — the  maintainer  of  law  and  order  in  the 
Universe. 

As  to  the  form  of  worship,  that,  too,  was  a  natural  process 
not  yet  burdened  by  tedious  ceremonial  observances.  When 
men  had  personified  and  deified  the  forces  with  which  they 
were  surrounded,  they  gave  them  characters  like  their  own. 
They  attributed  to  them  human  tastes,  likings,  and  predilec- 
tions. They  propitiated  them  by  praise  and  flattery,  accom- 
panying their  hymns  and  invocations  with  such  presents  and 
offerings  of  food  and  drink  as  would  be  deemed  acceptable 
among  themselves,  and  would  be  needed  for  the  maintenance 
of  their  own  vigour  and  vitality. 

Perhaps  the  earliest  and  commonest  offerings  were  rice  and 
clarified  butter.  Then  the  exhilarating  juice  of  the  Soma 
plant,  afterwards  an  essential  ingredient  in  both  Aryan  and 
Iranian  sacrifices,  was  used  as  a  libation.  But  the  form  of 
worship,  like  the  creed  of  the  worshipper,  was  unfettered  by 
precise  rule  or  ritual.  Each  man  satisfied  his  own  religious 
instincts,  according  to  his  own  conception  of  the  character  of 
the  supernatural  being  or  beings  on  whose  favour  his  welfare 
was  thought  to  depend. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Vedism. 

So  much  has  been  of  late  years  written  and  spoken  about 
the  Veda,  that  to  go  minutely  into  this  subject  would  be, 
according  to  a  Hindu  saying,  '  to  grind  ground  corn.' 

When  the  Indian  branch  of  the  Aryan  family  settled  down 
in  the  land  of  the  seven  rivers  {Sapta  Sindhu^oS..  Rig-veda  X. 
75,  Zend  Hapta  Hendu),  now  called  the  Panjab,  about  the 
fifteenth  century  B.  C,  their  religion  was  still  nature-worship. 
It  was  still  adoration  of  the  forces  everywhere  in  operation 
around  them  for  production,  destruction,  and  reproduction. 
But  it  was  physiolatry  developing  itself  more  distinctly  into 
forms  of  Anthropomorphism,  Polytheism,  Theism,  and  Pan- 
theism. The  phenomena  of  nature  were  thought  of  as  some- 
thing more  than  radiant  beings,  and  something  more  than 
powerful  forces.  To  the  generality  of  worshippers  they  were 
more  distinctly  concrete  personalities,  and  had  more  personal 
attributes.  They  were  addressed  as  kings,  fathers,  guardians, 
friends,  benefactors,  guests.  They  were  invoked  in  formal 
hymns  and  prayers  (mantras),  in  set  metres  (chandas). 

These  hymns  were  composed  in  an  early  form  of  the 
Sanskrit  language,  at  different  times — perhaps  during  several 
centuries,  from  the  fifteenth  to  the  tenth  B.C. — by  men  of  light 
and  leading  (Rishis)  among  the  Indo-Aryan  immigrants,  who 
were  afterwards  held  in  the  highest  veneration  as  patriarchal 
saints.  Eventually  the  hymns  were  believed  to  have  been 
directly  revealed  to,  rather  than  composed  by,  these  Rishis, 
and  were  then  called  divine  knowledge  (Veda),  or  the  eternal 
word  heard  (Sruti),  and  transmitted  by  them. 


8  Vedism. 

These  Mantras  or  hymns  were  arranged  in  three  principal 
collections  of  continuous  texts  (Sarnhitas).  The  first  and 
earliest  was  called  the  Hymn-Veda  (Rig-veda).  It  was  a 
collection  of  1017  hymns,  arranged  for  mere  reading  or  re- 
citing. This  was  the  first  bible  of  the  Hindu  religion,  and 
the  special  bible  of  Vedism.  We  might  imagine  it  possible 
to  have  collected  the  most  ancient  hymns  and  psalms  of  our 
own  Sacred  Scriptures  in  the  same  manner. 

The  second,  or  Sacrificial  Veda  (Yajur),  belongs  to  the  sacri- 
ficial phase  of  the  Vedic  system.  1 1  was  a  liturgical  arrangement 
of  part  of  the  same  collection  of  hymns,  with  additions  ^  for 
intoning  in  a  peculiar  low  tone  at  sacrificial  ceremonies.  Be 
it  noted,  however,  that  some  of  the  hymns  of  the  Rig-veda 
(for  example,  the  horse-sacrifice  or  Asva-medha  hymn,  I.  162) 
presuppose  a  ritual  already  definite  and  systematized. 

The  third;  or  Chant-Veda  (Sama),  was  another  liturgical 
arrangement  of  some  of  the  same  hymns  for  chanting  at  par- 
ticular sacrifices  in  which  the  juice  of  the  Soma  plant  was  the 
principal  offering  (pp.  12  ;  368). 

.  A  fourth  collection — which  might  suitably  be  called  the  Spell- 
Veda — was  added  at  a  later  period.  It  was  a  collection  of  hymns 
— some  of  them  similar  to  those  of  the  Rig-veda,  but  the  greater 
part  original — composed  by  a  particular  class  of  priests  called 
Atharvans^.  Many  of  the  texts  and  formularies  of  this 
Atharva-veda  were  ultimately  used  as  charms  and  spells,  and 
are  still  so  used  in  various  parts  of  India. 

By  some  of  the  earliest  hymn-composers  the  gods  continued 
to  be  regarded  as  one  family — children  of  the  old  pre-Vedic 
heavenly  father  (Dyo  or  Dyaus),  while  Earth  (Prithivl)  was 
fabled  as  a  divine  mother.     To  other  sacred  poets  the  pre- 

^  Certain  passages  in  prose  were  added,  which  were  especially  called 
Yajus. 

^  This  was  a  generic  name  for  a  class  of  priests,  descended  from  a  man 
named  Atharvan,  who  appears  to  have  been  the  first  to  institute  the 
worship  of  fire,  before  the  Indians  and  Iranians  separated.  It  is  certain 
that  particular  priests  both  in  India  and  Persia  were  called  Atharvans. 


Vedism.  9 

Vedic  deification  of  the  Sky  (Varuna,  Ovpavo^)  remained  a 
principal  object  of  adoration.  He  was  still  occasionally 
exalted  to  the  position  of  a  Supreme  Being.  A  well-known 
hymn  in  the  Atharva-veda  (IV.  16)  describes  him  as  ruling 
the  world,  as  penetrating  the  secrets  of  all  hearts,  as  detecting 
the  plots  of  wicked  men,  as  sending  down  countless  mes- 
sengers who  for  ever  traverse  the  earth  and  scan  its  inmates, 
as  numbering  every  wink  of  men's  eyes,  as  wielding  the  whole 
universe  in  the  manner  of  a  gamester  handling  dice. 

But  the  true  gods  of  the  Veda  constituted  a  triad  of 
deities.  They  were  the  Fire-god  (the  earth-born  Agni),  the 
Rain-god  (the  air-born  Indra),  and  the  Sun-god  (the  sky-born 
Surya  or  Savitri,  pp.  19;  341) — one  for  each  of  the  three 
worlds,  earth,  air,  and  sky  (bhur,  bhuvah,  svar).  These  three 
were  the  special  objects  of  worship  of  the  early  Indo-Aryans. 
All  their  other  principal  deities  were  either  modifications  of, 
or  associated  with,  one  or  other  of  the  members  of  this  Vedic 
triad.  For  example,  the  wind  (Vayu)  and  the  storm-gods 
(Maruts),  led  by  the  destroying  god  (Rudra),  were  regarded 
as  intimate  associates  of  the  Rain-god  Indra,  and  were  really 
only  forms  and  modifications  of  that  god.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  ancient  Aryan  deities,  Varuna  and  Mitra,  with  Vishnu, 
were  all  mere  forms  of  the  Sun  (Surya  or  Savitri,  also  called 
Pushan).  Of  course  the  Dawn  (Ushas)  was  also  connected 
with  the  Sun,  and  two  other  deities,  the  Asvins — probably 
personifications  of  two  luminous  points  in  the  sky — were  fabled 
as  his  twin  sons,  ever  young  and  handsome,  travelling  in  a 
golden  car  as  precursors  of  the  Dawn. 

As  to  the  Fire-god  (Agni),  he  had  various  attributes  sig- 
nificant of  his  interest  in  the  world  of  human  beings.  He  was 
God  on  the  earth  and  therefore  more  accessible  than  other 
deities.  He  was  manifested  by  the  friction  of  the  two  pieces 
of  the  sacred  fig-tree  called  Arani,  and  consequently  always 
to  be  found  at  hand.  He  was  visibly  present  in  every  house- 
hold.   He  was  man's  domestic  friend,  the  father  of  the  sacrifice, 


JO  Vedism. 

the  mediator  between  men  and  gods,  the  bearer  of  hymns  and 
prayers  from  every  family  altar  upwards  towards  heaven. 

Fire,  in  fact,  may  be  regarded  as  the  next  god  to  the  Rain- 
god  in  the  estimation  of  Vedic  worshippers ;  and  certainly  he 
takes  precedence  over  every  other  god  in  connection  with 
sacrificial  rites.  Even  the  Sun-god,  who  is  generally  first  in 
all  Pagan  systems,  is  held  to  be  a  form  of  heavenly  fire.  Fire 
has  always  been  an  object  of  veneration  among  all  nations. 

A  conjecture  may  even  be  hazarded  that  the  three  letters 
A,  U,  M,  which  combine  to  form  the  sacred  syllable  Om — 
afterwards  typical  of  the  Brahmanical  triad  (pp.  44 ;  403) — 
were  originally  the  initial  letters  of  the  names  of  Fire,  Wind, 
and  Sun,  i.  e.  Agni,  Vayu  or  Varuna  (for  Indra),  and  Mitra. 
It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  both  Indra  and  Agni 
were,  like  Varuna,  often  addressed  as  if  each  deity  were 
supreme.  Moreover,  the  god  of  fire  was  sometimes  held  to 
possess  a  kind  of  triple  essence  in  himself,  consisting  of  terres- 
trial fire,  celestial  lightning,  and  solar  heat.  Sometimes  he 
represented  a  simple  creative  energy,  which  evolved  all  things 
out  of  its  own  eternal  essence. 

There  are  allusions,  too,  in  the  Rig-veda  to  thirty-three 
gods  (I.  34.  11;  I.  45.  2),  or  to  the  three  groups  consisting  of 
eleven  Rudras,  eight  Vasus,  and  twelve  Adityas  with  Heaven 
and  Earth.  Their  names  are  given  variously,  but  they  are  little 
more  than  modifications  of  the  three  leading  personifications. 

Only  two  or  three  instances  occur  of  Vedic  deities  who 
stand  alone.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  is  Yama,  god  of  | 
departed  spirits.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  spirits  of  departed 
ancestors  (Pitris)  who  have  attained  to  heavenly  bliss,  are 
believed  to  occupy  three  different  stages  of  blessedness, — the 
highest  inhabiting  the  upper  sky,  the  middle  the  intermediate 
air,  and  the  lowest  the  atmospheric  region  near  the  earth. 
Adoration  is  to  be  offered  them,  and  they  are  presided  over 
by  Yama,  leader  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead,  both  good  and  bad. 

The  earliest  legends  represent  Yama  as  the  first  of  created 


Vedism.  1 1 

men  (his  twin-sister  being  Yarn!)  and  the  first  of  men  who 
died.  Hence  he  is  supposed  to  guide  the  spirits  of  other 
men  who  die  to  the  world  of  spirits.  Sometimes  Death  is 
said  to  be  his  messenger ;  he  himself  dwelling  in  celestial  light 
to  which  the  departed  are  brought,  and  where  they  enjoy  his 
society  and  that  of  the  patriarchs.  In  the  later  mythology  he 
is  Judge  of  the  dead  and  punisher  of  the  wicked  (p.  289).  In 
the  Veda  he  has  no  such  office, — but  he  has  two  terrific  dogs, 
with  four  eyes,  which  guard  the  way  to  his  abode  (p.  17). 

In  brief,  enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  the  early 
religion  of  the  Indo-Aryans  was  a  development  of  a  still 
earlier  belief  in  man's  subjection  to  the  powers  of  nature 
and  his  need  of  conciliating  them.  It  was  an  unsettled 
system  which  according  to  one  view  assigned  all  the  pheno- 
mena of  the  universe  to  one  Cause ;  or  again,  attributed  them 
to  several  Causes  operating  independently;  or  again,  supposed 
the  whole  visible  creation  to  be  a  manifestation  of  one 
universal  all-pervading  spirit.  It  was  a  belief  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  character  of  the  worshipper,  was  now  mere  animism, 
now  monotheism,  now  tritheism,  now  polytheism,  now  pan- 
theism. But  it  was  not  yet  idolatry.  Though  the  forces 
of  nature  were  thought  of  as  controlled  by  divine  persons, 
such  persons  were  not  yet  idolized.  There  is  no  evidence 
from  the  Vedic  hymns  that  images  were  actually  worshipped, 
though  they  appear  to  have  been  occasionally  employed  ^ 

The  mode  of  divine  worship  continued  to  be  determined 
from  a  consideration  of  human  likings  and  dislikings.  Every 
worshipper  praised  the  gods  because  he  liked  to  be  praised 
himself.  He  honoured  them  with  offerings  because  he  liked 
to  receive  presents  himself  He  pretended  to  feed  them  be- 
!  cause  he  required  food  himself  This  appears  to  have  been 
|the  simple  origin  of  the  sacrificial  system — a  system  which  was 
lafterwards  closely  interwoven  with  the  whole  Hindia  religion. 


*  For  example,  in  Rig-veda  II.  33.  9  an  image  of  Rudra  is  alluded  to ; 
and  in  I.  25.  13,  V.  52.  15,  visible  forms  of  some  kind  seem  implied. 


1 2  Vedism. 

What,  then,  were  the  various  ideas  expressed  by  the  term 
sacrifice  ?  In  its  purest  and  simplest  form  it  denoted  a  dedi- 
cation of  some  simple  gift  as  an  expression  of  gratitude  for 
blessings  received.  Soon  the  act  of  '  making  sacred '  became 
an  act  of  propitiation  for  purely  selfish  ends.  The  favour  of 
celestial  beings  who  were  capable  of  conferring  good  or 
inflicting  harm  on  crops,  flocks,  and  herds,  was  conciliated 
by  offerings  and  oblations  of  all  kinds,  and  especially  of  the 
products  of  the  soil. 

With  this  idea  the  gods  were  invited  to  join  the  every-day 
family  meal.  Then  they  were  invoked  at  festive  gatherings, 
and  offered  a  share  of  the  food  consumed.  Their  bodies 
were  believed  to  be  composed  of  ethereal  particles,  dependent 
for  nourishment  on  the  invisible  elementary  essence  of  the 
substances  presented  to  them,  and  to  be  furnished  with  senses 
capable  of  being  gratified  by  the  aroma  of  butter  and  grainj 
offered  in  fire  (homa)-^;  and  especially  by  the  fumes  arising 
from  libations  of  the  exhilarating  juice  extracted  from  th( 
Soma  plant. 

This  plant^botanically  known  as  Sarcostema  Viminalis,  or' 
Asclepias  Acida^  a  kind  of  creeper  with  a  succulent  leafless  stem 
— which  was  indigenous  in  the  ancient  home  of  the  Aryans,  as 
well  as  in  the  soil  of  India  and  Persia,  supplied  an  invigorating 
beverage  supposed  to  confer  health  and  immortality,  and  held 
to  be  the  vital  sap  which  vivified  the  world.  Hence  its  juice 
became  an  important  ingredient  at  every  sacrifice,  and  was  the 
subject  of  constant  laudation  in  numerous  Vedic  hymns.  It 
was  believed  to  be  peculiarly  grateful  to  the  Rain-god  (Indra), 
while  oblations  of  butter  were  specially  presented  to  the  god 
of  fire.  Eventually  the  great  esteem  in  which  the  Soma  plant 
was  held  led  to  its  being  itself  personified  and  deified.  The 
god  Soma  was  once  the  Bacchus  of  India.  The  whole  ninth 
Book  of  the  Rig-veda  is  devoted  to  his  praise. 

^  Compare  Gen.  viii.  21. 


I 


Vedism,  1 3 

And  yet  this  sacred  plant  has  fallen  into  complete  neglect 
in  modern  times.  When  I  asked  the  Brahmans  to  procure 
specimens  of  the  true  Soma  for  me,  I  was  told  that  the  sinful 
condition  of  the  world  had  caused  the  holy  plant  to  cease 
growing  on  earth,  though  it  was  to  be  found  in  heaven  ^. 

Nor  were  these  the  only  offerings.  In  process  of  time, 
animal  sacrifice  was  introduced.  At  great  solemnities  goats 
and  other  animals  were  killed  by  hundreds.  Portions  of  the 
flesh  were  consumed  in  the  fire,  and  portions  were  eaten. 
Gods,  priests,  and  people  feasted  together.  Of  course  all 
offerings  were  accompanied  with  hymns  of  praise.  A  tedious 
ceremonial  was  gradually  added.  The  whole  sacrificial  service 
was  called  Yajna.  By  diligent  performance  of  Yajiia  a  man 
gained  admittance  to  Indra's  heaven  (Svarga,  see  p.  49). 

I   close   this    sketch  of  Vedism   by  citing  portions   of  my 

translations  of  a  few  remarkable  hymns  in  the  Rig-veda,  as 

given  by  me  in  '  Indian  Wisdom.'     One  hymn  (Mandala  X. 

129)  describes  the  origin  of  creation  thus  : — 

In  the  beginning  there  was  neither  nought  nor  aught ; 

Then  there  was  neither  sky  nor  atmosphere  above. 

What  then  enshrouded  all  this  teeming  universe? 

In  the  receptacle  of  what  was  it  contained? 

Was  it  enveloped  in  the  gulf  profound  of  water? 

Then  was  there  neither  death  nor  immortality ; 

Then  was  there  neither  day,  nor  night,  nor  light,  nor  darkness, 

Only  the  Existent  One  breathed  calmly,  self-contained. 

Nought  else  but  he  there  was — nought  else  above,  beyond. 

Then  first  came  darkness  hid  in  darkness,  gloom  in  gloom; 

Next  all  was  water,  all  a  chaos  indiscrete, 

In  which  the  One  lay  void,  shrouded  in  nothingness. 

Then  turning  inwards,  he  by  self-developed  force 

Of  inner  fervour  and  intense  abstraction,  grew. 

First  in  his  mind  was  formed  Desire,  the  primal  germ 

Productive,  which  the  Wise,  profoundly  searching,  say 

Is  the  first  subtle  bond,  connecting  Entity 

And  Nullity. 

^  A  creeper,  said  to  be  the  true  Soma,  was  pointed  out  to  me  by  the 
late  Dr.  Burnell  in  Southern  India,  and  is  still,  I  believe,  used  by  those 
orthodox  Brahmans  in  the  Maratha  country  who  attempt  to  maintain  the 
old  Vedic  worship.     A  specimen  was  given  by  me  to  the  Indian  Institute. 


14  Vedism. 

In  the  foregoing  hymn  we  detect  the  first  dim  outline  of  the 
later  philosophical  theories,  both  Sankhyan  and  Vedantic. 

The  idea  of  the  female  principle  as  necessary  to  the  act  of 
creation  is  also,  as  may  be  seen,  vaguely  implied — an  idea 
which  gathered  such  strength  subsequently  that  every  prin- 
cipal deity  in  the  later  mythology  has  his  feminine  counter- 
part, who  shares  the  worship  paid  to  the  male  god,  and  who 
sometimes  receives  the  greater  homage  of  the  two.  That 
this  idea  is  not  fully  developed  in  the  Rig-veda  is  proved  by 
the  fact  that  the  wives  of  the  chief  gods,  such  as  IndranI, 
Agnayi,  etc.,  are  not  associated  with  their  husbands  as  objects 
of  worship,  and  even  Lakshml  and  SarasvatI,  though  named, 
are  not  adored. 

The  next  example  from  the  I2ist  hymn  of  the  tenth, 
Mandala  is  often  quoted  to  furnish  an  argument  for  main- 
taining that  the  original  faith  of  the  Hindus  was  monotheistic. 
The  hymn  is  addressed  to  Hiranya-garbha,  a  form  of  the 
Supreme  Being,  no  doubt  originally  a  personification  of  thcj 
Sun.  In  the  Vedanta  philosophy,  Hiranya-garbha  represents 
the  third  condition  of  the  Supreme  Spirit  (see  p.  '>f^).  In 
the  later  system  he  must  be  regarded  as  related  to  the  Godj 
Vishnu.     He  is  thus  described  : — 

What  god  shall  we  adore  with  sacrifice  ? 

Him  let  us  praise,  the  golden  child  that  rose 

In  the  beginning,  who  was  born  the  lord — 

The  one  sole  lord  of  all  that  is — who  made 

The  earth,  and  formed  the  sky,  who  giveth  life, 

Who  giveth  strength,  whose  bidding  gods  revere, 

Whose  hiding-place  is  immortality. 

Whose  shadow,  death ;    who  by  his  might  is  king 

Of  all  the  breathing,  sleeping,  waking  world. 

Where'er  let  loose  in  space,  the  mighty  waters 

Have  gone,  depositing  a  fruitful  seed, 

And  generating  fire,  there  he  arose 

Who  is  the  breath  and  life  of  all  the  gods, 

Whose  mighty  glance  looks  round  the  vast  expanse 

Of  watery  vapour — source  of  energy. 

Cause  of  the  sacrifice — the  only  God 

Above  the  gods. 


Vedism,  1 5 

The   following  is  a  portion  of  a  well-known  hymn  to  the 
Sky-god  (Varuna)  from  the  Atharva-veda  (IV.  16) : — 

The  mighty  Varuna,  who  rules  above,  looks  down 

Upon  these  worlds,  his  kingdom,  as  if  close  at  hand. 

When  men  imagine  they  do  aught  by  stealth,  he  knows  it. 

No  one  can  stand,  or  walk,  or  softly  glide  along. 

Or  hide  in  dark  recess,  or  lurk  in  secret  cell, 

But  Varuna  detects  him,  and  his  movements  spies. 

Two  persons  may  devise  some  plot,  together  sitting, 

And  think  themselves  alone  ;    but  he,  the  king,  is  there — 

A  third — and  sees  it  all.     His  messengers  descend 

Countless  from  his  abode,  for  ever  traversing 

This  world,  and  scanning  with  a  thousand  eyes  its  inmates. 

Whate'er  exists  within  this  earth,  and  all  within  the  sky, 

Yea,  all  that  is  beyond,  king  Varuna  perceives. 

The  winkings  of  men's  eyes  are  numbered  all  by  him  : 

He  wields  the  universe  as  gamesters  handle  dice. 

Here   follow  portions    of  hymns  addressed    to    the  Vedic 

triad.     Firstly,  the  Fire-god  (Agni)  :— 

Agni,  thou  art  a  sage,  a  priest,  a  king. 

Protector,  father  of  the  sacrifice. 

Commissioned  by  us  men,  thou  dost  ascend 

A  messenger,  conveying  to  the  sky 

Our  hymns  and  offerings.     Though  thy  origin 

Be  threefold,  now  from  air,  and  now  from  water. 

Now  from  the  mystic  double  Arani, 

Thou  art  thyself  a  mighty  god,  a  lord, 

Giver  of  life  and  immortality ; 

One  in  thy  essence,  but  to  mortals  three ; 

Displaying  thine  eternal  triple  form. 

As  fire  on  earth,  as  lightning  in  the  air, 

As  sun  in  heaven.     Thou  art  the  cherished  guest 

In  every  household— father,  brother,  son, 

Friend,  benefactor,  guardian,  all  in  one. 

Deliver,  mighty  lord,  thy  worshippers, 

Purge  us  from  taint  of  sin,  and  when  we  die, 

Deal  mercifully  with  us  on  the  pyre. 

Burning  our  bodies  with  their  load  of  guilt. 

But  bearing  our  eternal  part  on  high 

To  luminous  abodes  and  realms  of  bliss, 

For  ever  there  to  dwell  with  righteous  men. 

Secondly,  the  Rain-god  (Indra,  afterwards  lord  of  Svarga)  :  — 

Indra,  twin-brother  of  the  god  of  fire, 
When  thou  wast  born,  thy  mother,  Aditi, 


1 6  Vedism. 

Gave  thee,  her  lusty  child,  the  thrilhng  draught 
Of  mountain-growing  Soma — source  of  Ufe 
And  never-dying  vigour  to  thy  frame. 
Thou  art  our  guardian,  advocate,  and  friend, 
A  brother,  father,  mother — all  combined. 
Most  fatherly  of  fathers,  we  are  thine, 
And  thou  art  ours.     Oh  !    let  thy  pitying  soul 
Turn  to  us  in  compassion  when  we  praise  thee, 
And  slay  us  not  for  one  sin  or  for  many. 
Deliver  us  to-day,  to-morrow,  every  day. 
Vainly  the  demon  ^  dares  thy  might,  in  vain 
Strives  to  deprive  us  of  thy  watery  treasures. 
Earth  quakes  beneath  the  crashing  of  thy  bolts. 
Pierced,  shattered  lies  the  foe — his  cities  crushed, 
His  armies  overthrown,  his  fortresses 
Shivered  to  fragments  ;   then  the  pent-up  waters. 
Released  from  long  imprisonment,  descend 
In  torrents  to  the  earth,  and  swollen  rivers, 
Foaming  and  rolling  to  their  ocean-home, 
Proclaim  the  triumph  of  the  Thunderer. 

Thirdly,  the  Sun-god  (Surya,  Rig-veda,  I.  50) : — 

Behold  the  rays  of  dawn,  like  heralds,  lead  on  high 

The  Sun,  that  men  may  see  the  great  all-knowing  God. 

The  stars  slink  off  like  thieves,  in  company  with  Night, 

Before  the  all-seeing  eye,  whose  beams  reveal  his  presence. 

Gleaming  like  brilliant  flames,  to  nation  after  nation. 

Surya,  with  flaming  locks,  clear-sighted  god  of  day, 

Thy  seven  ruddy  mares  bear  on  thy  rushing  car. 

With  these  thy  self-yoked  steeds,  seven  daughters  of  thy  chariot. 

Onward  thou  dost  advance.     To  thy  refulgent  orb 

Beyond  this  lower  gloom,  and  upward  to  the  light 

Would  we  ascend,  O  Sun,  thou  god  among  the  gods. 

The  thoughts  contained  in  various  hymns  addressed  to  the 

'  god  of  departed  spirits '  (Yama,  p.  11)  are  so  remarkable  that 

a  few  are  here  given : — 

To  Yama,  mighty  king,  be  gifts  and  homage  paid. 
He  was  the  first  of  men  that  died,  the  first  to  brave 
Death's  rapid  rushing  stream,  the  first  to  point  the  road 
To  heaven,  and  welcome  others  to  that  bright  abode. 
No  power  can  rob  us  of  the  home  thus  won  by  thee. 


I 


^  The  demon  Vritra,  who  is  supposed  to  keep  the  waters  imprisoned 
in  thick  clouds. 


Vedism.  1 7 

O  king,  we  come ;   the  born  must  die,  must  tread  the  path 
That  thou  hast  trod — the  path  by  which  each  race  of  men, 
In  long  succession,  and  our  fathers,  too,  have  passed. 
Soul  of  the  dead  !    depart ;    fear  not  to  take  the  road — 
The  ancient  road — by  which  thy  ancestors  have  gone  ; 
Ascend  to  meet  the  god — to  meet  thy  happy  fathers, 
Who  dwell  in  bliss  with  him.     Fear  not  to  pass  the  guards — 
The  four-eyed  brindled  dogs — that  watch  for  the  departed. 
Return  unto  thy  home,  O  soul !     Thy  sin  and  shame 
Leave  thou  behind  on  earth  ;   assume  a  shining  form^ 
Thy  ancient  shape — refined  and  from  all  taint  set  free. 

I  add  a  few  verses  from  the  celebrated  Purusha  hymn  (Rig- 
veda,  Mandala  X.  90,  as  freely  translated  by  me  in  another 
work).  It  illustrates  the  intertwining  of  polytheism,  mono- 
theism, and  pantheism.  It  also  foreshadows  the  idea  of  sacri- 
fice, as  well  as  the  institution  of  caste  ^,  which  for  so  many 
centuries  has  held  India  in  bondage.  The  one  Spirit  is  sup- 
posed to  take  a  body  and  then  allow  himself  to  be  sacrificed. 

The  embodied  spirit  has  a  thousand  heads, 

A  thousand  eyes,  a  thousand  feet,  around 

On  every  side  enveloping  the  earth, 

Yet  filling  space  no  larger  than  a  span. 

He  is  himself  this  very  universe ; 

He  is  whatever  is,  has  been,  and  shall  be  ; 

He  is  the  lord  of  immortality. 

All  creatures  are  one-fourth  of  him,  three-fourths 

Are  that  which  is  immortal  in  the  sky. 

From  him,  called  Purusha,  was  born  Viraj, 

And  from  Viraj  was  Purusha  produced. 

Whom  gods  and  holy  men  made  their  oblation. 

With  Purusha  as  victim,  they  performed 

A  sacrifice.     When  they  divided  him. 

How  did  they  cut  him  up  ?    What  was  his  mouth  ? 

What  were  his  arms  1   and  what  his  thighs  and  feet  ? 

The  Brahman  was  his  mouth,  the  kingly  soldier 

Was  made  his  arms,  the  husbandman  his  thighs. 

The  servile  Siidra  issued  from  his  feet. 

Further  examples  and  a  fuller  account  of  the  Veda  will 
be  found  in  my  book  called  '  Indian  Wisdom.'     The  above 

^  This  hymn  (generally  admitted  to  be  a  comparatively  modern  pro- 
Iduction)  is  the  only  hymn  in  the  Rig-veda  which  alludes  to  the  distinctions 
of  caste. 


1 8  Vedism, 

selected  examples  would,  if  taken  alone,  encourage  a  false 
estimate  of  the  merits  of  the  Vedic  hymns.  Although  the 
majority  of  the  Hindus  believe  that  the  four  Vedas  contain 
all  that  is  good,  great,  and  divine,  and  although  many  of 
the  hymns  are  to  this  day  in  constant  daily  use  and  form  part 
of  the  religious  services  of  every  orthodox  Brahman  (see  pp. 
403,  406),  yet  Vedic  compositions  will  be  found,  when  taken 
as  a  whole,  to  abound  more  in  puerile  ideas  than  in  lofty 
conceptions.  At  the  same  time  it  is  clear  that  they  give 
no  support  to  any  of  the  present  objectionable  usages  and 
customs  for  which  they  were  once,  through  ignorance  of 
their  contents,  supposed  to  be  an  authority.  The  doctrine 
of  metempsychosis  or  transmigration  of  souls,  which  became 
an  essential  characteristic  of  Brahmanism  and  Hinduism  in 
later  times,  is  scarcely  hinted  at  in  the  religion  of  the  Veda  \ 
Nor  do  the  hymns  give  any  sanction  to  the  prohibition  of 
widow-marriages,  the  general  prevalence  of  child-marriages, 
the  tyrannical  sway  of  caste,  the  interdiction  of  foreign  travel, 
and  the  practice  of  idolatry. 

The  social  condition  of  the  people,  when  the  hymns  were 
composed,  was  marked  by  considerable  civilization.  They 
were  rich  in  flocks  and  herds  ;  they  understood  the  principles 
of  agriculture ;  they  built  towns  and  fortified  places ;  they 
had  some  knowledge  of  arts  and  of  working  in  metals ;  they 
engaged  in  philosophical  speculations ;  they  had  political 
rulers,  and  a  high  type  of  morality;  they  were  separated 
into  classes,  though  they  were  not  yet  divided  off  by  iron 
barriers  of  caste ;  polygamy  existed,  though  monogamy  was 
the  rule ;  they  killed  animals  for  sacrifice ;  they  ate  animal  I 
food,  and  did  not  even  object  to  the  flesh  of  cows;  among* 
their  weaknesses  was  a  fondness  for  gambling  and  intoxi- 
cating beverages. 

^  Mandala  I.  164.  32  bahu-prajah  is  explained  by  bahu-ja7ima-bhak^ 
'  subject  to  many  births  ; '  but  it  may  mean  '  having  abundant  offspring.' 
There  is  another  text  (VIII.  loi.  14)  beginning  Praja  ha  tisro  atyayam  lyuh. 


Vedism,  1 9 

And  It  is  to  be  observed  that,  just  as  the  children  of 
Israel  found  the  land  of  Canaan  pre-occupied  by  Hittites, 
Perizzites,  and  Philistines,  so  the  Aryan  immigrants,  when 
they  advanced  into  India,  found  the  soil  held  by  previous 
races,  variously  called  Dravidas,  Dasyus,  Anaryas,  Nishadas, 
etc.,  and  even  by  more  primitive  aboriginal  tribes,  contact 
and  intercourse  with  whom  very  soon  affected  them  socially, 
morally,  and  religiously. 

Monsieur  A.  Earth  ^  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
Vedic  hymns  give  evidence  of  an  exalted  morality,  and 
draws  attention  to  the  fact  that  they  acknowledge  no  wicked 
divinities. 

Worship  of  the  gods  was  performed  by  sacrifice  (yajiia), 
invocation  (avahana),  prayer  (prarthana),  praise  (stuti),  and 
meditation  (upasana) ;  and  the  name  Brahman  (nom.  Brahma), 
ultimately  applied  to  the  one  Universal  Spirit,  was  often 
identified  with  Prayer. 

Finally  be  it  observed  that  the  most  sacred  and  the  most 
universally  used  of  all  Vedic  prayers  is  that  called  GayatrT, 
or,  as  addressed  to  the  Vivifying  Sun-god,  Savitri : — 

'  Let  us  meditate  on  that  excellent  glory  of  the  Divine 
Vivifying  Sun  ;  may  he  enhghten  our  understandings  ^.'  This 
j  is  still  a  Brahman's  daily  prayer  (see  below,  pp.  403,  406). 

Yet  the   author,  or,  as   a   Brahman  would  say,  the   Seer 

(Rishi),  of  this    celebrated    prayer  was  Visvamitra — a    man 

!  originally  of  the  Kshatriya  or  military  caste,  once  opposed  to 

,  the  Brahmanical.     It  should   be  noted  that  this  Gayatri  is 

often  personified  and  worshipped  as  identified  with  Sarasvati 

and  as  the  mother  of  the  Vedas. 

•^  His  work  on  the  religions  of  India  is  excellent,  but  some  of  his 
(opinions  are  new.  He  sees  no  'primitive  natural  simpHcity'  in  the 
'  hymns,  and  denies  that  the  Vedas  represent  the  general  belief  of  a  race. 

^  Tat  Savitur  varenyam  bhargo  devasya  dhlmahi,  Dhiyo  yo  nah 
pracodayat  (Rig-veda  III.  62.  10).  In  my  opinion  the  Sandhya  (p.  401) 
derives  its  name  from  the  root  dhi  for  dhyai,  '  to  meditate,'  in  this  prayer. 

C  2 


CHAPTER    II. 

Brahmanism. 

The  second  phase  of  Indian  religious  thought  may  be  suit- 
ably called  Brahmanism.  The  Brahmans  themselves  would 
reject  such  a  title.  They  call  their  religion  Arya-dharma, 
'the  religion  of  the  Aryas'  (or  Vaidika-dharma,  or  Rishi-sam- 
pradayo  dharmah,  Pataiijali  I.  i.  i).  They  of  course  regard 
it  as  the  only  true  religion,  and  have  no  difficulty  in  includ- 
ing all  other  religions — such  as  Muhammadanism  and  even 
Christianity — under  it. 

As  Brahmanism  was  the  outgrowth  of  Vedism,  so  it  cannot 
be  separated  from  Vedism.  Its  development  was  gradual, 
just  as  the  development  of  Hinduism  out  of  it  was.  Vedism, 
Brahmanism,  and  Hinduism  are  all  closely  inter-connected. 

It  is  interesting  to  trace  the  crystallization  of  the  rudi- 
mentary doctrines  of  Brahmanism  into  definite  shape.  In 
Vedic  times  there  was,  as  we  have  seen,  a  feeling  after  one 
Supreme  Being,  if  haply  He  might  be  found.  The  hymn- 
composers  gave  expression  to  man's  craving  for  some  percep- 
tion of  the  Infinite.  To  satisfy  this  craving  they  turned  to 
personifications  of  the  Sky,  Sun,  Fire,  Air,  Water,  Earth. 

What  the  deepest  thinkers,  even  at  that  early  period,  felt 
with  ever-increasing  intensity  was  that  a  Spirit  (Atman), 
beyond  the  cognizance  of  sense,  permeated  and  breathed 
through  all  material  things.  They  bethought  them  with 
awe  of  this  same  Spirit  vivifying  their  own  bodies  with 
the  breath  of  life — of  this  mysterious  Presence  enshrined  in 
their  own  consciences.  Then  they  identified  this  same  Spirit 
with  the  divine  afflatus  thrilling  through  the  imaginations 
of  their  own  hymn-composers — with  the  spiritual  efficacy  of 
the  hymns  themselves,  with  the  mystic  power  inherent  in 
divine  knowledge  and  prayer.    This  mysterious,  all-pervading, 


Ritualistic  Brahmanism.  2  i 

vague  spiritual  Power  and  Presence,  which  was  wholly  un- 
bound by  limitations  of  personality  and  individuality,  became 
at  last  a  reality.  This  Breath  of  Life  (Atman)  received  a 
name.  They  called  it  Brahman  (nominative  neuter  Brahma, 
from  the  root  dri/i,  '  to  expand '),  because  it  expanded  itself 
through  all  space.  It  was  a  pure  essence  which  not  only 
diffused  itself  everywhere,  but  constituted  everything.  Men, 
gods,  and  the  visible  world  were  merely  its  manifestations. 

Such  was  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  Brahmanism.  Such 
w^as  Brahmanism  in  its  earliest  origin.  Soon,  however,  it 
became  a  more  complex  system — a  system  which  may  be 
regarded  as  possessing  four  sides,  or  rather  four  phases  run- 
ning into  each  other  and  now^here  separable  by  sharply 
defined  lines,  namely  (i)  Ritualistic,  (2)  Philosophical,  (3) 
Mythological  or  Polytheistic,  (4)  Nomistic. 

Ritualistic  Bi^ahmanism, 

This  phase  of  the  Brahmanical  system  has  for  its  special 
bible  the  sacred  treatises  called  Brahmanas,  added  to  the 
Mantra  or  Hymn  portion  of  each  Veda  (for  example,  the 
Aitareya,  Satapatha,  Tandya,  and  Gopatha  Brahmanas  added 
to  the  Rig,  Yajur,  Sama,  and  Atharva  Vedas  respectively). 
They  consist  of  a  series  of  rambling  prose  compositions, 
the  oldest  of  which  may  have  been  written  seven  or  eight 
centuries  B.C.  Their  relationship  to  the  Vedic  hymns  re- 
sembles in  some  respects  that  of  the  book  of  Leviticus 
to  the  Psalms  in  our  own  sacred  Scriptures.  They  are  an 
integral  portion  of  the  Veda,  and  are  supposed  to  contain 
that  portion  of  divine  knowledge  or  revelation  particularly 
adapted  to  serve  as  a  directory  for  the  Brahmans  in  the 
conduct  of  the  complicated  sacrificial  ceremonies.  For  if 
it  was  deemed  necessary  in  the  early  Vedic  period  to  pro- 
pitiate and  maintain  the  energies  of  nature  by  means  of 
invigorating  offerings  of  food,  it  was  clearly  still  more  in- 
cumbent on  men  to  make  offerings  to  these  same  forces  when 


22 


Ritualistic  Brahinanism, 


personalized  and  endowed  with  forms  acknowledged  to  be 
perishable.  In  fact  the  necessity  for  sacrificial  acts  (karman) 
to  secure  the  favour  of  the  gods  became  ingrained  in  the  whole 
Brahmanical  system.  Not  even  Jewish  literature  contains  so 
many  words  relating  to  sacrifice  as  the  literature  of  the  Brah- 
mans.  The  due  presentation  of  sacrificial  offerings  formed 
the  very  kernel  of  all  religious  service.  Hymn,  praise,  and 
prayer,  preaching,  teaching,  and  repetition  of  the  sacred 
words  of  scripture  were  only  subsidiary  to  this  act.  Every 
man  throughout  his  whole  life  rested  his  whole  hopes  on 
continually  offering  oblations  of  some  kind  to  the  gods,  and 
the  burning  of  his  body  at  death  was  held  to  be  the  last 
offering  of  himself  in  fire  (antya  ishti  or  antyeshti). 

But  the  idea  of  the  great  ef^cacy  of  sacrifice  was  developed 
gradually.  In  the  Brahmanical,  as  in  the  earlier  system,  the 
first  aim  of  sacrifice  was  to  present  a  simple  thank-offering. 
The  second  aim  was  to  nourish  the  gods  with  the  essence  of 
the  offered  food  (as  with  that  of  the  Soma-juice,  p.  369),  and 
so  strengthen  them  for  their  duty  of  maintaining  the  uni- 
verse. The  next  idea  was  that  of  making  these  oblations 
the  means  of  wresting  boons  from  the  invigorated  and  grati- 
fied deities,  and  so  accomplishing  some  specific  earthly  object, 
such,  for  example,  as  the  birth  of  a  son.  A  still  more  am- 
bitious idea  was  that  of  employing  sacrifice  as  an  instrument 
for  the  attainment  of  superhuman  powers  and  even  exaltation 
to  heaven  (svarga,  see  p.  49). 

All  this  involved  the  elaboration  of  a  complicated  ritual, 
and  the  organization  of  a  regular  hierarchy.  To  institute  any 
sacrificial  rite  (e.g.  the  Asvamedha,  or  the  Jyotishtoma  Soma- 
sacrifices,  Agnishtoma,  Aptoryama,  or  that  called  Vajapeya, 
'  strengthening  drink,'  p.  368),  and  to  secure  its  being  con- 
ducted with  the  proper  intonation  of  innumerable  hymns  and 
texts  from  the  Veda,  and  the  accurate  observance  of  every 
detail  of  an  intricate  ritual  by  a  full  complement  of  perhaps 
sixteen  different  classes  of  priests,  every  one  of  whom  received 


Ritualistic  Brahmanism.  23 

adequate  gifts,  was  the  great  object  of  every  pious  Hindu's 
highest  ambition.  Every  ceremonial  rite,  too,  had  to  be 
performed  with  safikalpa,  i.e.  voluntarily,  with  earnest  reso- 
lution and  conscious  will.  The  whole  course  of  prayer, 
praise,  ritual,  and  oblation — sometimes  lasting  for  weeks  and 
even  years — though  called,  as  in  Vedic  times,  Yajna,  '  sacri- 
fice,' was  very  inadequately  expressed  by  that  term.  It  was 
like  an  intricate  piece  of  mechanism,  or  a  chain  of  which 
every  link  required  to  be  complete  and  perfect  in  all  its  parts. 
It  could  then  effect  anything.  It  was  the  great  preservative 
from  all  evil,  the  great  maintainer  of  the  energies  of  the 
Universe,  the  great  source  of  all  benefits.  It  could  procure 
a  whole  line  of  sons  and  grandsons  ^,  or  secure  admission 
into  Indra's  heaven  (svar,  svarga,  see  p.  49),  or  even  raise  the 
sacrificer  to  the  level  of  the  highest  deities.  It  was  believed 
that  the  gods  themselves  had  attained  their  celestial  position 
by  performing  sacrifices.  '  By  sacrifices,'  says  the  Taittirlya-  ^ 
brahmana,  '  the  gods  obtained  heaven.' 

The  most  preposterous  of  all  the  ideas  connected  with  the 
sacrificial  act  was  that  of  making  it  the  instrument  of  creation. 
In  the  Purusha  hymn  of  the  Rig-veda  (X.  90)  the  gods  are 
represented  as  cutting  up  and  sacrificing  Purusha,  the  primeval 
Male,  and  then  forming  the  whole  Universe  from  his  head 
and  limbs  (see  p.  17).  The  Tandya-brahmana  makes  the  lord 
of  creatures  offer  himself  up  as  a  sacrifice.  Even  Sacrifice  . 
(Yajna)  itself  was  sometimes  personified  as  a  god. 

Lastly,  the  shedding  of  blood  was  believed  by  some  to 
expiate  sin.  The  victim  consigned  to  the  fire  was  thought  to 
be  an  expiation  for  sins  committed  by  the  gods,  the  fathers, 
and  men.  Probably  the  idea  was  not  so  much  that  of  killing 
an  innocent  victim  for  the  removal  of  guilt  as  of  warding  off 
the  punishment  which  an  angry  Being  was  likely  to  inflict. 

^  An  uninterrupted  line  of  sons,  grandsons,  and  great-grandsons  was 
needed  for  the  due  performance  of  funeral  rites,  through  which  alone 
the  bliss  of  a  man  after  death  could  be  secured  (see  pp.  274-312). 


24  Rihtalistic  Brakj7ianism. 

It  is  even  probable  that  human  sacrifice  was  once  part 
of  the  Brahmanical  system.  The  Aitareya-brahmana  (VII. 
13)  has  the  well-known  story  of  Hariscandra  and  Sunahsepa 
which  points  to  its  prevalence.  The  same  Brahmana  records 
the  substitution  of  the  sacrifice  of  four  kinds  of  animals — 
horses,  oxen,  sheep,  and  goats — for  that  of  men.  Sometimes 
numbers  of  animals  were  tied  to  sacrificial  posts  (yupa),  some 
being  killed  and  some  liberated  at  the  end  of  the  ceremony. 
As  to  the  Horse-sacrifice  (Asva-medha)  see  p.  329. 

One  of  the  most  noteworthy  ideas  to  be  found  in  the 
Brahmanas  is  that  the  gods  were  merely  mortal  till  they 
conquered  Death  by  sacrifices.  Death  is  thereupon  alarmed 
lest  men  also  should  be  victorious  over  him  and  deprive 
him  of  all  his  rights  ;  but  the  gods  promise  that  those  who 
perform  sacrifices  should  not  become  immortal  without  first 
ofi'ering  him  their  bodies,  and  that  non-sacrificers  should 
present  him  their  bodies  in  many  successive  births. 

The  following  is  a  free  translation  of  a  passage  of  the  Sata- 
patha-brahmana : — 

The  gods  lived  constantly  in  dread  of  Death — 

The  mighty  Ender — so  with  toilsome  rites 

They  worshipped  and  repeated  sacrifices 

Till  they  became  immortal.     Then  the  Ender 

Said  to  the  gods,  *As  ye  have  made  yourselves 

Imperishable,  so  will  men  endeavour 

To  free  themselves  from  me  ;    what  portion  then 

Shall  I  possess  in  man  ?'     The  gods  replied, 

'  Henceforth  no  being  shall  become  immortal 

In  his  own  body;    this  his  mortal  frame 

Shalt  thou  still  seize  ;    this  shall  remain  thy  own, 

This  shall  become  perpetually  thy  food. 

And  even  he  who  through  religious  acts 

Henceforth  attains  to  immortality 

Shall  first  present  his  body.  Death,  to  thee.' 

Other  passages  in  the  Brahmanas  prove  that  the  doctrine  of 
transmigration  was  beginning  to  be  developed  at  this  period. 
It  is  certainly  remarkable  that  the  idea  of  sacrifice  as  an 
•  atonement  for  sin  seems  never  to  have  taken  firm  hold  of  the 


Philosophical  Brahmanism.  25 

Hindu  mind.  Goats  were  generally  sacrificed  by  Vaidika 
Brahmans  at  their  Soma-yagas,  but  only  in  connexion  with 
the  central  offering  of  the  Soma  or  liquor  of  immortality,  and 
mainly  with  the  idea  of  nourishing  the  gods  who  were  their 
friends.  Fire  was  the  chief  god,  not  only  because  he  was 
visibly  present,  but  because  he  carried  up  the  essence  of  the 
oblation  to  the  other  gods.  In  later  times  the  deities  were 
thought  to  have  a  malevolent  side  to  their  characters,  and 
when  sacrifice  was  needed  for  the  propitiation  of  an  angry 
deity,  it  was  called  Bali.  Goats  and  buffaloes  are  now  immo- 
lated in  India  with  the  view  of  appeasing  the  goddess  Kali, 
who  delights  in  blood.  But  in  this  there  is  no  idea  of 
effacing  guilt  or  making  a  vicarious  offering  for  sin. 

The  ordinary  Hindu  wholly  rejects  the  notion  of  trusting 
to  anything  for  salvation  but  his  own  self-righteousness  ;  that 
is,  to  his  own  merit  (punya)  acquired  through  his  own  pious 
acts,  or  through  the  karma-marga,  '  way  of  ceremonial  acts,' 
presided  over  by  the  Brahmans. 

Philosophical  Brdhmanism. 

The  second  or  philosophical  phase  of  Brahmanism  cannot 
be  marked  off  by  any  decided  line  from  the  other  phases. 
Its  rudimentary  ideas  are  found  in  the  earlier  system,  and 
had  their  germ  in  Vedism.  It  laid  stress  on  the  knowledge 
(jiiana)  of  the  one  universally  diffused  spiritual  essence  (Brah- 
man) which  constitutes  everything,  and  in  which  all  things 
are  merged.  This  purely  spiritual  way  or  way  of  knowledge 
(jnana-marga)  made  sacrificial  ceremonies  useless. 

In  fact,  a  reaction  from  an  overdone  ritual  was  inevitable. 
People  became  wearied  with  sacrifices  and  sacrificers.  The 
minds  of  thinking  men  found  no  rest  in  the  blood  of 
slaughtered  victims.  It  only  remained  to  take  refuge  in 
metaphysical  investigations.  If  every  man  was  a  part  of 
God,  what  necessity  was  there  that  God  should  propitiate 
himself?      If  a  portion  of  the  one  self-existent  Spirit  chose 


26  Philosophical  Brahmanism. 

for  a  time  to  ignore  itself,  to  invest  itself  with  a  body,  to 
fetter  itself  with  actions  and  their  inevitable  results,  the 
consequences  could  only  be  borne  by  itself  in  its  passage 
through  numberless  births.  Nor  could  there  be  any  final 
emancipation  from  a  continued  succession  of  corporeal  ex- 
istences, till  action  ceased  and  the  consciousness  of  identity 
with  the  one  universal  Spirit  returned. 
^  The  Upanishads,  or  hidden  spiritual  doctrine  of  the  Veda, 

are  the  special  bible  of  this  phase  of  Brahmanism.  Many 
treatises  so  called  were  added  to  the  Mantra  and  Brahmana 
portion  of  the  Veda  (such  as  the  Isa,  Katha,  Chandogya, 
Mundaka,  and  Brihad-aranyaka  Upanishads).  The  aphorisms 
(siitras)  of  the  three  systems  of  philosophy  with  their  three 
so-called  branches  (that  is,  the  Nyaya  with  Vaiseshika ; 
Sarikhya  with  Yoga  ;  Vedanta  with  Mimansa)  were  connected 
with  these  writings ;  but  only  the  Saiikhya  and  Vedanta  can 
be  said  to  be  really  founded  on  them. 

According  to  a  learned  Brahman  who  is  now  a  convert  to 
Christianity,  the  Upanishads  are  to  the  Mantras  and  Brah- 
manas  what  our  New  Testament  is  to  the  Old. 

They  were  compositions  which  expressed  the  desire  of  the 
living  personal  spirit  (jTva  or  jivatman)  for  deliverance  from 
a  long  series  of  separate  earthly  existences  and  from  liability 
to  pass  through  a  variety  of  bodies — gods,  men,  animals, 
plants,  stones — and  its  longing  for  final  reunion  with  the  one 
self-existent  Spirit  of  the  Universe  [Atman,  afterwards  called 
Brahman).  And  here  it  may  be  noted  that  Philosophical 
Brahmanism  was  not  philosophy  in  the  European  sense  of 
the  word.  It  was  no  mere  search  for  truth,  for  truth's  sake. 
'  It  was  rather  a  form  of  mystical  religious  speculation.  Nor 
was  it  an  expression  of  the  soul's  desire  to  be  released  from 
the  burden  of  sin.  It  was  rather  an  inquiry  into  the  best 
method  of  its  escape  from  transmigration ;  the  dread  of  con- 
tinued metempsychosis  being  the  one  haunting  thought 
which  colours  the  whole   texture  of  Indian   philosophy.     If 


Philosophical  Brahmanisin,  27 

an  Indian  metaphysician  sets  himself  to  inquire  into  the 
nature  of  spirit  and  matter,  and  their  relation  to  each  other, 
his  investigations  are  sure  to  be  conducted  with  the  sole 
object  of  liberating  the  spirit  of  man  from  the  bondage  of 
repeated  earthly  existence,  and  reuniting  it  with  the  one 
Universal  Spirit  as  a  river  is  reunited  with  the  ocean.  This  is 
called  the  way  of  knowledge  (jfiana).  This  constitutes  the 
right  measure  (prama)  of  all  difficulties.  This  is  the  summum 
bonum  (nihsreyasa)  of  Brahmanical  philosophy. 

What,  then,  are  the  articles  of  a  Hindu  philosopher's  creed  ? 

Most  Hindii  thinkers  agree  that  the  one  Spirit^  is  eternal,  i 
both  retrospectively  and  prospectively.  The  Spirit  of  God 
and  the  spirit  of  man  must  have  existed  from  all  eternity 
and  must  continue  to  exist.  The  two  spirits  are  not  really 
distinct ;  so  says  the  Vedantist  The  living  spirit  of  man  (jiva) 
— the  human  Self  (Atman) — is  identical  with  God's  Spirit. 
It  is  that  Spirit  limited  and  personalized  by  the  power  of 
Illusion  ;  and  the  life  of  every  living  spirit  is  nothing  but  an 
infinitesimal  arc  of  the  one  endless  circle  of  infinite  existence. 

Again,  Hindu  philosophers  agree  that  the  mind  (manas)  is 
distinct  from  the  spirit.  Mind  is  not  eternal  in  the  same  way. 
It  is  an  internal  organ  of  the  body,  standing  between  the  five 
organs  of  perception  and  the  five  organs  of  action,  connected 
with  both,  receiving  the  impressions  conveyed  by  both,  and 
directing  both  through  the  exercise  of  volition.  To  the  mind 
appertains  the  faculties  of  perception  (buddhi),  volition  (san- 
kalpa,  vikalpa),  self-consciousness  and  thought,  and  the  spirit 
cannot  possess  these,  unless  joined  to  mind  and  invested  with 
a  bodily  covering  or  vehicle. 

And  of  actual  bodily  coverings  there  are  two  (though  the 

^  It  is  generally  better  to  translate  the  philosophical  terms  Atman, 
Brahman,  and  Purusha  by  '  spirit '  rather  than  by  '  soul,'  because  the 
expression  '  soul '  is  Hable  to  convey  the  idea  of  thinking  and  feeling, 
whereas  pure  Atman,  Brahman,  and  Purusha  neither  think,  nor  feel, 
nor  are  conscious.     The  translation  '  Self  is  not  universally  suitable. 


28  Philosophical  Brahmanism. 

Vedanta  system  reckons  three  ^) :  —  first,  the  subtle  body 
(h'riga  or  sukshma-sarira  or  ativahika  ^),  which  incloses  a 
portion  of  the  universal  spirit  in  three  sheaths  (kosha),  cog- 
nitional,  sensorial,  and  aerial,  constituting  it  a  living  individual 
personal  spirit  (jivatman),  and  carrying  it  through  all  its 
corporeal  migrations,  till,  on  its  reunion  with  its  source,  even 
its  subtle  body  becomes  extinct ;  secondly,  the  gross  body 
(sthula-sarira),  which  surrounds  the  subtle  vehicle,  and  is  of 
various  forms  in  the  various  conditions  of  existence  through 
animate  or  inanim.ate,  organic  or  inorganic  life. 

And  mark  that  this  gross  body  is  of  three  kinds — divine, 
earthly,  and  intermediate — the  intermediate  being  that  peculiar 
frame  which  the  departed  spirit  receives,  after  the  burning  of 
the  earthly  gross  body  and  during  the  interval  preceding  the 
assumption  of  another  gross  body.  This  intermediate  body 
(called  preta-sarira, '  the  departed  man's  body,'  or,  philosophi- 
cally, Adhishthana-deha)  serves,  as  it  were,  to  clothe  the 
departed  spirit  during  its  several  residences  in  the  world  of 
departed  spirits  (pitri-loka).  It  is  of  the  same  nature,  though 
inferior  to  the  divine  body  which  belongs  to  the  gods ;  and  it 
should  be  noted  that  this  divine  intermediate  body  is  really 
composed  of  gross  (sthula)  particles,  though  of  a  more  ethereal 
substance  than  the  earthly  body.  Without  it  the  departed 
spirit  would  have  no  vehicle  but  the  subtle  body,  and  would 
be  incapable  of  enjoying  bliss  or  suffering  misery  in  the  tem- 
porary paradise,  or  purgatory^,  through  which  all  the  departed 
have  to  pass  before  returning  to  earth  (see  pp.  292-294). 

And  be  it  noted  that  the  union  of  spirit  with  a  succession 
of  bodily  forms   is  dreaded  as  the  worst  form  of  bondage. 

^  In  the  Vedanta  system  there  are  three  bodily  coverings,  the  Causal 
body  (Karana-sarira)  coming  first ;  but  this  is  merely  another  name  for 
Ajhana  (see  p.  35),  and  can  scarcely  be  regarded  as  a  material  substance. 

^  Its  minuteness  is  denoted  by  its  being  described  as  'of  the  size  of 
a  thumb  '  (ahgushtha-matra),  though  some  apply  this  expression  to  the 
intermediate  body. 

^  The  heaven  and  hell  of  orthodox  Brahmanism  are  only  temporary. 


Philosophical  Brahmanism.  29 

The  spirit,  so  united,  commences  acting,  and  all  actions,  good 
or  bad,  lead  to  consequences,  and  these  consequences  must 
have  their  adequate  rewards  or  punishments.  It  is  on  this 
account  that  the  departed  spirit  must  of  necessity  be  removed 
to  temporary  heavens  or  hells.  Thence  it  must  migrate  into 
higher,  intermediate,  and  lower  earthly  forms,  according  to  its 
various  degrees  of  merit  or  demerit,  till  it  attains  the  great 
end — entire  emancipation  from  the  bondage  of  repeated  bodily 
existence,  and  reabsorption  into  the  one  Spirit  of  the  Universe. 

With  regard  to  the  external  world,  it  is  a  fixed  dogma  of 
every  Hindu  philosopher  that  N dvastimo  vastii-siddJiiJi  there  ' 
cannot  be  the  production  of  something  out  of  nothing  [ex  nihilo 
nihil  fit).  Therefore,  the  external  world  is  eternal,  though 
according  to  one  view,  it  is  evolved  out  of  an  eternally  existing 
productive  germ  united  to  eternally  existing  individual  spirits ; 
and  according  to  another,  it  is  evolved  out  of  the  Illusion  which 
from  all  eternity  overspreads  the  one  eternal  Spirit,  though 
having  no  real  existence.  These  two  theories  in  regard  to  the 
creation  or  evolution  of  the  world— the  first  in  the  Sarikhya,  the 
second  in  the  Vedanta  system — are  both  of  great  antiquity. 

The  first  shadowing  forth  of  the  mystery  of  the  creation  of 
male  and  female,  and  of  the  living  world  through  their  union, 
is  traceable  in  some  of  the  Vedic  hymns.  The  well-known 
hymn  of  the  Rig-veda  (X.  129.  4),  already  quoted,  asserts  that 
first  '  in  that  One  Being  arose  Desire,  which  was  the  primal 
germ  of  Mind,  and  which  the  wise,  searching  out  in  their 
thoughts,  discovered  to  be  the  subtle  bond  connecting  Non- 
entity with  Entity.' 

Again,  the  Satapatha-brahmana  (XIV.  4.  2.  4,  etc.)  and 
Brihad-aranyaka  Upanishad  (I.  3)  declare  that  'the  One 
Being  was  not  happy,  being  alone.  He  wished  for  a  second. 
He  caused  his  own  nature  to  fall  in  twain,  and  thus  became 
husband  and  wife.  He  approached  her,  and  thus  were  human 
beings  produced'  (see  p.  182). 

In  this  latter  passage  is  the  first  clear  statement  of  a  duality 


30  Philosophical  Brahmanism, 

in  the  divine  unity — an  idea  which  took  root  in  the  Hindu 
mind  quite  as  strongly  as  the  doctrine  of  a  Triad  (Tri-murti) 
did  in  the  minds  of  later  thinkers — an  idea,  too,  which  had 
been  adumbrated  in  the  supposed  marriage  of  Heaven  and 
Earth  for  the  production  of  gods,  men,  and  all  creatures. 

The  idea  was  expanded  in  the  mythical  cosmogony  of 
Manu,  Book  I.  5,  etc.  There  it  is  said  that  the  universe  first 
existed  only  in  darkness  as  if  immersed  in  sleep.  Then  the 
Self-existent  (Svayam-bhu)  still  undeveloped  (A-vyakta), 
having  willed  to  produce  various  beings  from  his  own  sub- 
stance, first  with  a  mere  thought  created  the  waters,  and 
placed  on  them  a  productive  seed  or  Q:gg  (bija.).  Then  he 
himself  was  born  in  that  Qgg  in  the  form  of  Brahma.  Next 
he  caused  the  o^gg  to  divide  itself,  and  out  of  its  two  divisions 
framed  the  heaven  above  and  the  earth  beneath.  Afterwards, 
having  divided  his  own  substance,  he  became  half  male,  half 
female  (I.  32),  and  from  that  female  produced  Viraj,  from 
whom  was  created  Manu,  the  secondary  progenitor  of  all 
beings.  The  order  of  creation  of  the  five  elements  is,  i.  Ether 
(Akasa) ;  2.  Air  (Vayu) ;  3.  Fire  (Tejas  or  Jyotis) ;  4.  Water 
(Apah, pi.);  5.  Earth  (Prithivl  or  Bhumi);  but  these  were  pro- 
duced from  a  previous  creation  of  five  subtle  elements  (tan- 
matra).  The  Nyaya-sutra  reverses  the  order,  placing  Earth  first. 

So  again  in  the  Sahkhya  philosophy,  there  are  two  eternally 
existing  principles — the  Producer  and  the  Spirit.  The  former 
is  an  eternal  procreant  germ  or  Creative  Force  which  is  called 
Pra-kriti  (fem.),  because  it  produces  (root  kri)  twenty-three  pro- 
ducts ;  these  twenty-three,  with  the  Producer,  being  called  the 
twenty-four  Tattvas.  It  is  also  called  Pradhana,  because  it  is 
the  fixed  material  cause  of  everything  except  the  Spirit — which 
is  the  twenty-fifth  Tattva.  The  infinitely  subtle  elementary 
germ,  Prakriti  or  Pradhana,  though  one,  is  supposed  to  be  made 
up  of  a  triad  of  co-eternal  primordial  substances  or  essences  in 
equipoise  (samya).  These  are  called  Gunas,  but  they  are  not 
properly '  qualities,'  though  certain  qualities  result  from  them. 


Philosophical  Brahmanism.  31 

The  term  Guna  simply  denotes  that  these  constituent  essences 
of  Prakriti  act  Hke  cords  to  bind  the  spirit  with  triple  bonds. 
They  are,  i.  Sattva, '  purity '  or  '  goodness  ; '  2.  Rajas, '  passion  ' 
or  'activity;'  and  3.  Tamas, 'darkness'  or  'apathy;'  some- 
times regarded  as  equivalent  to  happiness,  pain,  and  igno- 
rance, or  denoted  by  white,  red,  and  black  respectively. 

The  Spirit  or  second  eternally  existing  principle  called 
Purusha  (the  Male  or  Self)  is  not,  like  Prakriti,  one;  nor  does  it 
produce  anything.  It  is  multitudinous.  Spirits  are  innumer- 
able, each  separate  Spirit  being  co-eternal  with  Prakriti,  but 
doing  nothing  and  creating  nothing.  When  human  beings  or 
any  other  beings  are  created,  the  creation  is  always  effected 
through  evolution  out  of  Prakriti,  which  is  nevertheless  a 
merely  blind  and  dark  force ;  no  creation  at  all  being  apparent 
unless  this  force  brings  itself  into  union  with  some  one  eter- 
nally existing  separate  Spirit.  Prakriti,  in  short,  unites  itself 
with  a  Spirit  or  Self  and  binds  it  with  the  triple  bond  of 
the  three  above-named  Gunas  ^  in  order  that  this  Spirit  may 
reflect  the  evolved  world  as  a  clear  river  reflects  dark  trees, 
while  they  darken  the  river,  or  as  a  bright  crystal  vase 
illumines  a  flower,  while  the  flower  colours  the  crystal. 

The  first  step  in  the  evolution  out  of  Prakriti  is  the  pro- 
duction of  Intellect  or  intelligent  perception  (Buddhi).  Next 
comes  the  faculty  of  Self-consciousness  or  personality,  called 
the  I-maker  (Aham-kara),  and  then  the  five  subtle  and  five 
gross  elements,  the  latter  being  the  product  of  the  former. 
Last  in  the  series  come  the  five  organs  of  perception,  the  five 
organs  of  action  and  the  internal  organ,  mind  (Manas),  which 
holds  a  position  between  the  ten  other  organs,  mediating 
between  them  as  an  instrument  of  volition  between  perception 
and  action^.  These,  with  the  Spirit  (Purusha),  constitute  the 
twenty-five  principles  (Tattvas)  of  the  Saiikhya  system. 

^  The  Spirit  before  its  association  with  these  Gunas  is  called  Nirguna  ; 
and  when  bound  by  them,  Saguna. 

^  In  this  and  in  the  Nyaya  system  Buddhi,  '  intellect,'  is  anterior  and 


2,2  Philosophical  Brahmanism. 

The  noteworthy  point  is  that  self-consciousness,  cognition, 
will,  and  thought  do  not  belong  to  the  creative  force  Prakriti 
and  its  creations,  Intellect,  the  I-maker,  and  Mind  (Buddhi, 
Aharn-kara,  Manas,  which  together  make  up  Antahkarana) 
when  existing  separately,  nor  to  a  Spirit  (Purusha)  when  ex- 
isting separately,  but  only  to  the  two  when  united,  or  to  the 
Antahkarana  illuminated  by  a  Spirit.  In  short,  two  factors 
— the  active,  creative  but  blind  force,  and  the  inactive,  passive 
but  illuminating  spirit — must  come  together  before  there  can 
be  even  any  self-consciousness  or  sense  of  personality.  And 
yet  the  creation  is  not  supposed  to  take  place  for  the  sake 
of  the  two  together,  but  only  that  it  may  be  illuminated  and 
observed  by  each  separate  individual  spirit  or  soul,  which  never- 
theless is  a  wholly  apathetic,  isolated,  and  indifferent  spectator 
of  the  act.  It  is  clear  from  this  how  easy  it  became  to  confuse 
Purusha  with  Prakriti  and  to  regard  either  the  one  or  the  other 
or  the  union  of  both  as  the  source  of  the  external  world  ^. 

Of  course  when  any  being  is  created  the  three  primordial 
essences,  Purity,  Passion,  and  Darkness,  are  no  longer  equally 
balanced  as  they  are  in  the  creative  germ,  Prakriti.  Creation 
is  a  result  of  the  disturbance  of  this  equilibrium.  One  or 
other  quality  is  then  in  excess,  making  a  being  unselfish  and 
good,  selfish  and  energetic,  bestial  and  ignorant,  according  as 
purity,  passion,  or  darkness  may  happen  to  preponderate. 

I  need  not  point  out  that  this  remarkable  theory  of  innu- 

superior  to  Manas,  'mind,'  which  is  merely  the  instrument  of  thought. 
It  governs  the  mind,  and  causes  it  to  decide.  Manu's  theory  is  a 
combination  of  Sankhya  and  Vedanta.  In  Book  I.  14,  etc.  it  is  said  that 
Brahma,  when  born  from  the  ^^%  deposited  by  the  Self-existent,  drew 
out  the  external  world  from  pure  spirit  (Atman).  The  first  product  was 
the  principle  of  thought  (Manas  =  Buddhi  or  Mahat).  Next  came 
Personality  (Ahaip-kara),  and  then  the  seven  subtle  elements  (Tan- 
matras).  From  these  seven  active  principles  (called  '  the  seven  Purushas,' 
I.  19) — viz,  Mahat  or  Buddhi  (called  Manas  in  I.  14,  74,  75),  Aham-kara, 
and  the  five  subtle  elements — were  evolved  in  the  five  gross  or  material 
elements  {viahd-bhfita),  the  organs  of  sense,  and  the  whole  world  of  sense. 
^  Professor  A.  E.  Gough  in  his  'Philosophy  of  the  Upanishads '  has 
thrown  great  light  on  the  Sankhya  and  Vedanta  systems. 


\ 


Philosophical  Brahmanism.  33 

merable  personal  creations  for  the  sake  of  Individual  spirits  is 
not  without  its  counterpart  in  European  systems ^  In  India 
the  Idea  of  a  separate  spiritual  force  combining  with  a  pri- 
mordial material  force  for  the  creation  of  all  things  was,  as 
we  have  seen,  of  great  antiquity.  And  notwithstanding  the 
metaphysical  subtleties  with  which  It  was  connected,  the 
notion  of  a  universe  proceeding  from  a  male  principle  or 
generator,  and  a  female  principle  regarded  as  an  energy  or 
capacity  (sakti),  commended  itself  to  the  popular  mind  as 
harmonizing  with  the  operations  and  phenomena  everywhere 
apparent  in  nature.  To  this  day  it  is  symbolized  all  over 
India  by  temples  dedicated  to  the  male  and  female  sex  (In 
the  union  of  the  sexual  symbols  called  Lihga  and  Yoni). 
It  is  clear  that  in  such  a  system  there  can  be  no  need  for  the 
existence  of  any  supreme  Spirit  as  distinct  from  the  personal 
spirit,  even  though  such  a  supreme  Being  be  theoretically 
admitted  (as  in  the  Yoga  branch  of  the  Saiikhya). 

The  so-called  pantheistic  theory  of  the  Vedanta  philosophy 
is  even  more  attractive  to  the  majority  of  Hindu  thinkers.  It 
is  true  that  both  the  Sarikhya  and  Vedanta  together  underlie 
Brahmanism  ;  but  the  Vedanta  Is,  so  to  speak,  the  latest 
revelation  of  the  Veda,  teaching  the  non-duality  and  non- 
plurality  of  Spirit — that  is,  the  real  existence  of  only  one 
Spirit  called  Atman^  (nom.  Atma)or  Brahman  (nom.  Brahma, 
see  p.  43)  instead  of  many;  the  separation  of  human  spirits 
and  of  all  the  phenomena  of  nature  from  that  one  Spirit  being 
only  effected  when  it  is  enveloped  in  Illusion.  In  other 
words,  the  separate  existence  of  man's  spirit  and  of  all  natural 
phenomena  is  only  illusory. 

This  doctrine  Is  said  to  rest  on  another  well-known  hymn 
of  the  Veda  (X.  90)  called  the  Purusha-sukta.  There  the 
one  embodied  Spirit  is  called  Purusha  (see  p.  17),  and  Is 
said   to   be    '  everything,  whatever   is,   has    been,   and   shall 

^  The  Safikhya  has  much  in  common  with  the  IdeaHsm  of  Berkeley. 
^  One  etymology  given  for  Atman  is  an^  '  to  breathe.'     Compare  p,  20. 

D 


34  Philosophical  BraJi7nanism. 

be.'  The  same  doctrine  is  briefly  formulated  in  three 
words  (from  the  Chandogya  Upanishad)  used  as  a  creed  in 
the  present  day  by  Indian  Theistic  as  well  as  Pantheistic 
sects — Ekain  eva  advitiyain^  '  there  is  but  one  Being,  without 
a  second.'  Nothing  really  exists  but  the  one  impersonal 
Spirit,  called  Atma  or  Brahma  (=:Purusha).  Brahma  is  real, 
the  world  is  an  illusion  (Brahma  satyarn  Jagan  mithya).  From 
it  everything  is  born,  in  it  everything  breathes  and  is  dissolved 
(tajjalan).  That  Spirit,  in  the  illusion  which  overspreads  it, 
is  to  the  external  world  what  yarn  is  to  cloth,  what  milk  is  to 
curds,  what  clay  is  to  a  jar  ;  but  only  in  that  illusion  ^.  As 
ether  contained  in  various  vessels,  and  as  the  sun  reflected  on 
various  mirrors,  is  one  but  apparently  many,  so  the  spirit  is  one 
and  many.  The  potter  by  the  help  of  clay  makes  various 
pots,  but  the  Spirit  itself  evolves  its  own  various  forms.  As  an 
actor  paints  his  body  with  colours  and  assumes  various  forms, 
so  the  Spirit  assumes  the  bodies  caused  by  its  deeds.  This 
self-existent,  eternal,  impersonal  Atma  or  Brahma  is  abso- 
lutely One  (unlike  the  Sahkhyan  Spirit  or  Purusha,  which  is 
multitudinous) ;  yet  it  is  made  up  of  a  triad  of  essences— 
to  wit,  pure  Existence  (Sat),  pure  Thought  (Cit)  ^5  and  pure 
Bliss  (Ananda),  and  It  may  assume  three  bodily  envelopes 
and  three  conditions  or  Gunas  (p.  "^6). 

And  here  let  me  observe  that  more  than  one  Christian 
writer  has  compared  this  tri-unity  of  Entities  with  the  Trini- 
tarian doctrine  of  God  the  Father,  who  Is  the  Author  of  all 
Existence  ;  God  the  Son,  who  is  the  Source  of  all  Wisdom 
and  Knowledge  ;  and  God  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  is  the  Source' 
of  all  Joy.  But  It  Is  a  mistake  so  to  compare  It ;  because, 
with  the  Vedantist,  Brahma  Is  only  Existence  In  the  negation] 


^  He  is  not  the  actual  material  cause  of  the  world  as  clay  of  a  jar,  but 
the  illusory  vc\.2X^r\7A  cause  as  a  rope  might  be  of  a  snake  ;  see  p.  37,1.  14. 

'^  Cit,  'pure  thought,'  or  its  equivalent  Caitanya,  is  often  used  alone  for 
Brahma,  the  one  Self-existent  Being.  Sat  may  also  be  so  used.  Brahma 
is  also  described  in  the  Upanishads  as  Truth,  Knowledge,  Infinity. 


PJiilosophical  Brahrnanism.  35 

of  non-existence,  only  Thought  in  the  negation  of  non- 
thought,  only  Bliss  in  the  negation  of  non-bliss  and  in  freedom 
from  the  miseries  incident  to  life  and  transmigration. 

When  this  impersonal  Spirit — which  is  without  self-con- 
sciousness— assumes  consciousness  of  a  personal  self;  that  is, 
when  it  begins  to  exist  in  anything  external  to  itself,  and 
when  it  begins  to  think  about  anything  or  be  joyful  about 
anything  besides  itself — it  does  so  by  the  power  of  Illusion 
(Maya)  and  by  investing  itself  with  three  corporeal  envelopes. 

First,  the  causal  body  (karana-sarira)  identified  with  Ajfiana 
or  Ignorance  (Illusion)^;  secondly,  the  subtle  body  (lihga- 
sarira) ;  and  thirdly,  the  gross  body  (sthula-sarira).  In  this  way 
the  impersonal  Spirit  is  converted  into  a  personal  God  who 
can  be  worshipped,  and  so  becomes  the  Supreme  Lord  (Isvara, 
Paramesvara)  and  creator  of  a  world  of  illusion.  To  be  accurate, 
however,  it  should  be  stated  that  the  Vedanta  theory  makes 
the  assumption  of  these  three  bodies  involve  the  assumption 
of  three  distinct  mystical  personalities,  each  of  which  is  sup- 
posed to  invest  a  particular  condition  of  spirit.  Thus,  with  the 
first  or  causal  body,  the  impersonal  Spirit  becomes  the 
Supreme  Lord,  Paramesvara,  supposed  to  represent  and 
embody  the  mystical  totality  of  dreamless  spirits ;  with  the 
second  or  subtle  body  the  impersonal  Spirit  becomes  Hiranya- 
garbha  (or  Sutratman,  or  Prana),  supposed  to  represent  the 
aggregate  of  dreaming  spirits  (connecting  them  like  the  Sutra 
or  thread  of  a  necklace)  ;  with  the  third  or  gross  body  it 
becomes  Viraj  (or  Vaisvanara,  Praja-pati,  Purusha),  supposed 
to  represent  and  embody  the  aggregate  of  waking  spirits 
(compare  p.  28). 

This  third  condition  of  spirit  or  that  of  being  wide  awake, 

^  The  Karana-sarira  is  not  only  identified  with  Ignorance  (Ajnana  or 
Avidya),  but  also  with  Illusion  (Maya).  It  is,  therefore,  no  real  body. 
Both  Ignorance  and  Illusion  together  cause  the  separation  of  the  personal 
supreme  Spirit  and  the  personal  human  Spirit  from  the  one  impersonal 
Spirit.     In  the  same  way  they  are  the  cause  of  every  existing  thing. 

D  % 


^•)6  Philosophical  Brahmanism. 

though  with  us  considered  to  be  the  highest  state,  is  by  Hindu 
philosophers  held  to  be  the  lowest,  because  farthest  removed 
from  pure  impersonalized  Spirit.  In  fact,  beyond  and  under- 
lying all  three  conditions  of  spirit  is  the  fourth  (turlya)  or  pure 
unconditioned,  unembodied,  impersonal  Spirit  (Brahma)  itself. 

Of  course  these  hyper-subtleties  are  beyond  the  scope  of 
ordinary  philosophic  thought  ;  but  they  show  how  great  is 
the  difference  between  the  Pantheism  of  India  and  that  of 
Europe.  A  Vedantist  believes  in  one  impersonal  Spirit,  who, 
by  association  with  Illusion,  becomes  the  one  Supreme  per- 
sonal God  (Paramesvara)  of  the  world  (of  illusion).  And  it  is 
this  personal  God  who,  when  he  engages  in  the  creation, 
preservation,  and  dissolution  of  an  illusory  Universe,  is  called 
Sa-guna  because  believed  to  be  associated  with  the  three 
Gunas  which  are  held  to  be  substances  (dravya)  and  are  the 
supposed  constituents  of  his  causal  body,  identified,  as  it  is, 
with  Ignorance  ^.  These  three  Gunas  are  the  same  as  those 
which  in  the  Sankhyan  system  are  the  constituent  essences  or 
ingredients  of  Prakriti,  resulting  in  the  three  conditions  of 
Activity,  Goodness,  and  Apathy  called  Rajas,  Sattva,  Tamas^. 
They  are  the  same  as  those  which  in  the  later  doctrine  of  the 
Puranas  separate  the  one  Supreme  Being  into  the  three  divine 
personalities  of  Brahma  (nom.  case  masc),  Vishnu,  and  Rudra- 
Siva,  each  accompanied  by  his  own  consort^. 

Dominated  by  Activity  (Rajas),  the  one  Universal  Spirit  is 
Brahma,  the  Creator  ;  by  Goodness  (Sattva),  it  is  Vishnu,  the 
Preserver  ;  by  Indifference  (Tamas),  it  is  Rudra,  the  Dissolver. 

^  In  other  words,  the  Karana-sarira — consisting  of  Ignorance,  and 
therefore  made  up  of  the  three  Gunas — is  the  illusory  corporeal  disguise 
(upadhi),  or  investing  envelope,  or  triple  bond  of  the  impersonal  Spirit 
Brahma,  by  which  it  becomes  the  personal  God  Paramesvara. 

^  See  top  of  p.  31.  These  Gunas  of  activity,  goodness,  and  apathy  are 
not  properly  identical  with  the  so-called  qualities,  but  are  rather  con- 
stituent substances  or  essences  or  ingredients,  though  they  may  result  in 
such  qualities. 

'■*  In  the  later  mythology  the  term  Sakti,  'active  energy'  (rather  than 
Maya,  Prakriti,  and  Ajhanaj,  is  used  for  the  female  half  of  the  personal  God. 


Philosophical  Brahmanism.  2)7 

Pure  Vedantism,  then,  is  not  only  a  belief  in  one  impersonal 
Spirit  made  up  of  three  abstract  essences.  It  is  a  belief  that 
a  kind  of  threefold  triad  of  essences — to  wit,  three  spiritual 
essences,  three  corporeal  envelopes,  and  three  dominating 
conditions  or  qualities — together  constitute  one  personal  God, 
while  constituting  at  the  same  time  every  human  personality. 

It  is  by  reason,  then,  of  association  with  Illusion  or  Ignor- 
ance (made  up  of  the  three  Gunas  or  Conditions),  that  the 
Supreme  Spirit  (Paramatman)  enshrined  in  the  personal  God, 
and  the  living  spirit  (jivatman)  enshrined  in  the  personal 
man,  believe  in  their  own  individuality,  mistaking  it  and  the 
world  for  realities,  just  as  a  rope  in  a  dark  night  might  be 
mistaken  for  a  snake.  When  the  personalized  spirit  sets  itself 
free  from  the  power  of  Illusion  the  consciousness  of  its  own 
identity  and  of  the  identity  of  the  whole  universe  with  the 
one  impersonal  Spirit,  (Atman=:  Paramatman,  Brahma),  is 
re-established.  Strange  to  say,  this  Illusion  or  Ignorance  is 
held,  like  the  one  eternal  Brahma  ^,  to  have  an  existence  from 
all  eternity,  though,  owing  to  the  fact  that  such  existence  is 
unreal,  and  the  whole  evolved  world  unreal  too^  it  follows 
that  nothing  really  existent  is  left  but  Brahma.  In  other 
words,  all  that  really  exists  is  identical  with  Brahma. 

In  fact,  the  more  evidently  physical  and  metaphysical 
speculations  are  opposed  to  common  sense,  the  more  favour 
do  they  find  with  some  Hindu  thinkers.  Common  sense 
tells  an  Englishman  that  he  really  exists  himself,  and  that 
everything  he  sees  around  him  really  exists  also.  He  cannot 
abandon  these  two  primary  convictions.  Not  so  the  Hindu 
Vedantist.  Dualism  is  his  bugbear,  and  common  sense, 
when  it  maintains  any  kind  of  real  duality,  either  the  separate 
independent  existence  of  a  man's  own  Spirit  and  of  God's 
Spirit  or  of  spirit  and  matter,  is  guilty  of  gross  deception. 

^  Maya-did-yogo  'nadih,  'the  union  of  Cit  (p.  34)  and  Maya  is  from  all 
eternity.'  See  Professor  Cough's  able  and  instructive  articles  on  the 
Philosophy  of  the  Upanishads. 


n 


8  PJdlosophical  Brahmanism, 


And  yet,  after  all,  when  the  Vedantist  theory,  as  held  at 
present,  is  closely  examined,  it  turns  out  to  be  virtually  as 
dualistic,  in  regard  to  spirit  and  matter,  as  the  Sankhya  ; 
the  only  difference  being  that  the  source  of  the  material 
world  (Prakriti)  in  the  Sankhya  is  held  to  have  a  real  existence 
(though  one  of  its  names  is  still  Maya)  instead  of  a  merely 
illusory  existence  \  Brahma  and  Maya  (Illusion)  in  the 
Vedanta,  Purusha  and  Prakriti  (Maya)  in  the  Sankhya,  must 
be  united  in  the  act  of  creation.  The  external  world  is  the 
product  of  two  principles  (which  some  compare  to  Know- 
ledge and  Ignorance,  Light  and  Darkness).  The  chief  dif- 
ference between  the  two  systems  lies  in  the  unity  of  Spirit 
taught  by  the  Vedanta,  as  distinguished  from  the  plurality 
of  spirits  taught  by  the  Sankhya. 

Yet  the  Vedantist  virtually  believes  in  three  conditions  of 
being,  viz.  the  real,  the  practical,  and  the  illusory ;  for  while  he 
affirms  that  the  one  Spirit  Brahma  alone  has  a  real  (paramar- 
thika)  existence,  he  allows  a  practical  (vyavaharika)  separate 
existence  to  human  spirits,  to  the  world,  and  to  the  personal 
God  or  gods,  as  well  as  an  illusory  (pratibhasika)  existence. 

Hence  every  object  is  to  be  dealt  with  practically  as  if 
it  were  really  what  it  appears  to  be.  A  god  is  practically  a 
god ;  a  man,  a  man ;  a  beast,  a  beast ;  so  that  when  a  man 
feeds  a  horse  he  does  not  feed  him  as  a  portion  of  God,  but 
as  an  animal  kept  for  riding.  The  Vedanta  theory,  like  the 
Sankhya,  has  taken  deep  root  in  the  Indian  mind.  A  mixture 
of  both  is  the  source  of  the  popular  religion  and  mythology  of 
the  Hindils.  Both  permeate  their  literature  and  give  a  colour 
to  every  thought  and  feeling  of  their  daily  lives. 

^  Perhaps  the  only  true  monistic  theory  is  that  of  the  Buddhist,  who 
affirms  that  nothing  exists  but  the  self-creative  Universe,  which,  however, 
he  also  calls  Maya,  '  Illusion.'  A  Vedantist  is  Brahma-vadI,  'one  who 
affirms  that  Brahma  "  Spirit "  is  the  only  reality  ; '  a  Buddhist  is  Siinya- 
vadl,  'one  who  affirms  a  blank  for  God;'  and  a  Sankhya  is  Pradhana- 
vadl,  'one  who  affirms  that  all  material  things  proceed  from  Pradhana 
(Prakriti).' 


Philosophical  Brahmanism.  39 

And  hence  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  how  a  people 
imbued  with  the  idea  that  the  world  is  an  illusion  should  have 
neglected  all  historical  investigations.  No  such  thing  as 
genuine  history  or  biography  exists  in  Sanskrit  literature. 
Historical  researches  are  to  a  Hindu  simple  foolishness. 

The  third  philosophical  system,  called  Nyaya — or  the  act 
of  going  into  any  subject  analytically  (opposed  to  Saiikhya 
or  synthetic  enumeration) — is  not  so  closely  connected  with 
religion  and  metaphysical  speculation  as  the  Saiikhya  and 
Vedanta.  Yet  it  offers  more  interesting  parallels  to  European 
philosophical  and  scientific  ideas.  It  is  much  studied  in 
modern  Sanskrit  schools  of  learning,  as  an  analytical  inquiry 
into  all  the  objects  and  subjects  of  human  knowledge,  in- 
cluding, among  others,  the  process  of  reasoning  and  logic. 

In  regard  to  the  subject  of  reasoning,  the  Nyaya  proper,  as 
I  have  shown  in  'Indian  Wisdom'  (p.  72),  propounds  in  its 
first  Sutra  sixteen  topics,  the  first  of  which  is  Pramana,  that 
is,  the  means  or  instrument  by  which  knowledge  or  the  right 
measure  (prama  or  pramiti)  of  a  subject  is  to  be  obtained. 
The  means  are  four,  viz.  perception  by  the  senses  (pratyaksha) ; 
inference  (anumana) ;  comparison  (upamana)  ;  verbal  or  trust- 
worthy authority  (sabda  or  aptopadesa),  including  revelation  ^ 

Of  these  four  processes,  'inference'  is  divided  into  five 
members  (avayava).  i.  The  pratijiia,  or  proposition  (stated 
hypothetically).  2.  The  hetu,  or  reason.  3.  The  uda- 
harana,  or  example  (  =  major  premiss).  4.  The  upanaya,  or 
application  of  the  reason  (  =  minor  premiss).  5.  The  niga- 
mana,  or  conclusion,  i.  e.  the  proposition  re-stated  as  proved. 
Thus  :  I.  The  hill  has  fire  ;  2.  for  it  smokes  ;  3.  whatever 
smokes  has  fire,  as  a  kitchen-hearth  ;  4.  this  hill  smokes  ; 
5.  therefore  this  hill  has  fire. 

^  The  Sahkhya  rightly  includes  the  third  of  the  four  Pramanas  in  the 
second,  and  the  Vedanta  adds  two  others  to  the  four,  viz.  negative  proof 
(an-upalabdhi,  abhava)  and  inference  from  circumstances  (arthapatti). 
The  Vaiseshika  includes  both  the  third  and  fourth  in  the  second. 


40  Philosophical  Brahmanisin. 

Here  we  have  a  clumsy  combination  of  enthymeme  and 
syllogism,  which  must  be  regarded  not  as  a  syllogism,  but 
rather  as  a  full  rhetorical  statement  of  an  argument. 

The  most  noticeable  peculiarity  in  the  Indian  method, 
stamping  it  as  an  original  analysis  of  the  laws  of  thought, 
is  the  employment  of  the  terms  '  invariable  concomitance 
or  pervasion  '  (vyapti),  '  invariable  pervader  '  (vyapaka),  and 
'  invariably  pervaded  '  (vyapya).  Fire  is  the  pervader,  smoke 
the  pervaded.  The  argument  is  thus  stated  :  '  The  mountain 
has  invariably  fire-pervaded  smoke  ;  therefore  it  has  fire.' 

The  Nyaya,  like  the  Sahkhya,  believes  the  individual  spirits 
of  men  (jivatman)  to  be  eternal,  manifold,  eternally  separate 
from  each  other,  distinct  from  the  body,  senses,  and  mind, 
and  infinite.  A  peculiar  tenet  of  the  Nyaya  is  that  spirits  are 
ubiquitous,  and  dijftised  everywhere  ihrotighotU  space^  so  that 
a  man's  spirit  is  as  much  in  England  as  in  Calcutta,  though 
it  can  only  apprehend,  and  feel,  and  act,  where  the  body 
happens  to  be. 

Its  idea  of  the  mind  (manas),  which  it  calls  an  internal  in- 
strument or  organ,  is  that  it  is  a  substance  (dravya)  as  eternal 
as  the  spirit.  Instead,  however,  of  being  diftiised  everywhere 
like  spirit,  it  is  atomic,  like  earth,  water,  fire,  and  air,  and  can 
only  admit  one  perception  or  act  of  volition  at  a  time.  It  is 
simply  an  eternal  insentient  substance,  like  an  atom  of  earth. 

In  its  cosmogony  the  Nyaya  is  dualistic  in  assuming  the 
existence  of  ete^'nal  atoms^  side  by  side  with  eternal  spirits. 
Atoms  are  not  like  Prakriti  one,  but  innumerable. 

We  know  that  the  true  Sahkhya  (as  distinct  from  the 
Yoga)  recognized  no  Supreme  Spirit.  Probably  the  true 
Nyaya  was  in  this  respect  like  the  Sahkhya.  In  any  case 
neither  of  these  systems  admits  the  absolute  unity  of  one  all- 
pervading  Spirit.  If  they  acknowledge  a  Supreme  presiding 
Spirit  at  all,  it  can  only  be  as  forming  one  of  innumerable 
other  spirits — though  superior  to  them — and  as  co-eternal  and 
(in  the  case  of  the  Nyaya)  as  co-omnipresent  with  them. 


Mythological  or  Polytheistic  Brahmanism.       41 

The  foregoing  three  systems,  with  their  sub-systems,  con- 
stitute the  philosophical  phase  of  Brahmanism.  Clearly  one 
of  its  aims  is  to  teach  men  to  abstain  from  action  of  every  kind, 
good  or  bad — as  much  from  liking  as  disliking,  as  much  from 
loving  as  hating.  The  whole  external  world  is  an  illusion. 
Actions  and  feelings  are  a  mistake.  They  are  the  fetters  of 
the  soul  which  bind  it  with  bonds  of  iron  to  continual  bodies. 

Transmigration  or  Metempsychosis  is  the  great  bugbear — 
the  terrible  nightmare  and  daymare  of  Indian  philosophers 
and  metaphysicians.  All  their  efforts  are  directed  to  the 
removal  of  this  oppressive  scare.  'As  the  embodied  soul,' 
says  the  Bhagavad-gita,  '  moves  swiftly  on  through  boyhood, 
youth,  and  age,  so  will  it  pass  through  other  forms  hereafter.' 

For  although  the  human  spirit  is  really  one  with  the 
Supreme,  yet  while  it  continues  in  ignorance  it  may  commit 
sins  which  it  must  get  rid  of  by  expiatory  rites  (prayascitta) 
or  by  passing  through  purgatorial  hells  and  successive  births. 
Even  virtuous  acts  involve  heaven  and  re-births. 

The  question,  therefore,  is  not :  What  is  truth  ?  The  one 
problem  is  :  How  is  a  man  to  break  this  iron  chain  of  repeated 
existences,  and  to  shake  off  all  separate  personality  ?  How  is 
he  to  return  to  complete  union  with  (sayujya)  pure  Spirit? 
Or,  if  this  object  be  beyond  his  reach,  how  is  he  to  work  his 
way  through  8,400,000  successive  births  to  any  one  of  the 
three  inferior  conditions  of  bliss — i.  living  in  the  same  heaven 
(salokya)  with  the  personal  God  ;  2.  close  proximity  to  him 
(samipya);  3.  assimilation  to  his  likeness  (sariapya)? 

Mythological  or  Polytheistic  Brah77ianism. 

The  Mythological  or  Polytheistic  phase  of  Brahmanism  has 
for  its  bible  the  two  great  legendary  heroic  poems  (Itihasa) 
Maha-bharata  and  Ramayana,  and  in  later  times  the  Puraiias. 
Its  development  was  probably  synchronous  with  that  of 
Buddhism. 


42       Mythological  07^  Polytheistic  Brahmanism. 

Buddhism,  like  philosophical  Brahmanism,  was  a  disbelief 
in  the  efficacy  of  ritual  to  secure  beatitude,  and,  like  it,  taught 
the  uselessness  of  sacrificial  ceremonies  and  even  of  austerities 
for  the  attainment  of  true  knowledge,  which  was  only  to  be 
obtained  through  self-introspection,  abstract  meditation,  and 
suppression  of  all  desires.  It  substituted  a  blank  for  God  ;  it 
denied  the  existence  of  a  separate  spirit,  and  of  everything 
but  body,  mind,  and  sensations — earth,  heavens,  and  hells, 
which,  according  to  the  Buddha,  are  always,  through  the  force 
of  works,  tending  to  disintegration  and  re-integration  in  per- 
petual cycles.  But  while  Buddhism  repudiated  priestcraft,  it 
founded  a  monastic  brotherhood  and  supplied  the  people  with 
an  object  of  veneration  in  its  founder  Gautama — who  was  styled 
'  the  Enlightened  '  (Buddha).  Its  propagation  was  in  a  great 
measure  due  to  the  reverence  which  the  Buddha  inspired  by  his 
own  personal  character.  He  was  the  ideal  man — the  perfection 
of  humanity.  He  practised  faithfully  what  he  preached  effec- 
tively. Adherents  gathered  in  crowds  around  his  person,  and 
Gautama  himself  became  the  real  god  of  his  own  popular  faith. 
Everywhere  throughout  India  thousands  were  drawn  towards 
his  teaching.  His  doctrines  of  universal  charity,  liberty, 
equality,  and  fraternity  were  irresistibly  attractive.  The  only 
hope  of  competing  with  the  Buddhistic  movement  lay  in  in- 
venting human  gods  and  a  religious  system  equally  attractive, 
equally  popular,  equally  suited  to  the  needs  and  capacities 
of  the  mass  of  the  people. 

In  all  probability  the  Brahmans  commenced  popularizing 
their  pantheistic  doctrines  about  the  time  of  the  rise  of 
Buddhism  in  the  fifth  century  B.C.  The  Buddha  died,  and, 
according  to  his  own  teaching,  became  personally  annihilated, 
but  the  remains  of  his  body  were  enshrined  as  relics  in 
various  parts  of  India,  and  his  memory  was  worshipped 
as  devotedly  as  his  person  had  once  been  revered.  Of  course 
the  religious  instincts  of  the  mass  of  the  Hindus  found  no  real 
satisfaction  in  the  propitiation  of  the  forces  of  nature  and 


MytJiological  or  Polytheistic  Drahmanism,      43 

spirits  of  the  air,  or  in  the  cold  philosophy  of  pantheism,  or  in 
homage  paid  to  the  memory  of  a  teacher  held  to  be  nowhere 
existent.      They   needed   devotion  (bhakti)   to   personal    and 
human  gods,  and  these  they  were  led  to  find  in  their  own 
heroes.     The  Ramayana  and  Maha-bharata  represent  the  use 
made  by  the  Brahmans  of  the  martial  songs  of  the  people,  as 
well  as  of  their  local  legends,  traditions  and  superstitions.   The 
principal  heroes,  whose  achievements  were  the  subject  of  epic 
song  and  recitation,  underwent  a  process  of  deification.     The 
great  warrior  dynasties  were  made  to  trace  back  their  origin, 
through  Brahmanical  sages,  to  the  sun-god  and  the  moon-god. 
Myths  and  stories  confirmatory  of  the  divine  origin  of  every 
great  hero  were  invented  and  inserted  into  the  body  of  the 
poems.      In  this  manner  a  kind  of  anthropomorphic  religion, 
well  adapted  to  the  popular  mind,  was  devised.     Nor  was  any 
amount  of  anthropomorphism,  polytheism,  polydemonism,  and 
even  fetishism  incompatible  with  pantheistic  doctrines.     The 
Brahmans  in  their  popular  teaching  were  simply  carrying  out 
their  own  doctrine  of  evolution.      The  only  problem  which 
they  set  themselves  to  solve  was  :    how  could  their  theory  be 
made  to  adapt  itself  to  existing  superstitions  and  be  accepted 
as  consistent  with  all  the  ideas  of  a  popular  mythology  ? 

Nothing,  then,  was  easier  for  them  than  to  maintain  that 
the  one  sole,  self-existing  Supreme  Spirit,  the  only  real  exist- 
ing Essence,  exercises  itself,  as  if  sportively  (lilaya),  in  Infinite 
expansion,  in  infinite  manifestations  of  itself,  In  Infinite  crea- 
tion, dissolution,  and  re-creation,  through  Infinite  varieties 
and  diversities  of  operation.  The  very  name  '  Brahma  '  (de- 
rived from  the  root  brih,  '  to  increase  '),  given  to  this  one 
eternal  Essence,  was  expressive  of  this  growth,  this  expansive 
power,  this  universal  development  and  diffusion. 

Hence  all  visible  forms  on  earth,  said  the  Brahmans,  are 
emanations  from  the  one  eternal  Entity,  like  drops  from  an 
ocean,  like  sparks  from  fire.  Stones,  mountains,  rivers,  plants, 
trees,  and  animals — all  these  are  traceable  upwards  as  pro- 


44       MytJwlogical  or  Polytheistic  Brahmanism. 

gressive  steps  in  the  infinite  evolution  of  his  being.  The 
highest  earthly  emanation  is  man,  and  the  emanation  of 
men  is  in  classes  and  also  traceable  upwards  according  to 
a  graduated  scale,  the  highest  class  being  that  of  the 
Brahmans. 

Fitly,  too,  are  the  highest  human  manifestations  of  the 
eternal  Brahma  called  Brahmans  :  for  they  are  the  appointed 
mediators  between  earth  and  God.  None  of  these  emana- 
tions can  alter  their  condition  in  each  separate  state.  But  ac- 
cording to  their  acts,  they  may  pass  into  temporary  heavens 
or  hells,  and  thence  into  higher  or  lower  grades  of  being. 

For  be  it  observed  that  a  series  of  higher  forms  of  existence 
above  that  of  human  beings,  such  as  demigods,  supernatural 
beings,  inferior  gods,  superior  gods,  is  traceable  upwards  from 
man  to  the  primeval  male  god  Brahma — the  first  personal 
product  of  the  purely  spiritual  Brahma  when  overspread  by 
Maya  or  illusory  creative  force  ;  this  male  god  Brahma  stand- 
ing at  the  head  of  the  so-called  creation  as  the  first  evolution 
out  of  which  all  other  beings  and  objects  are  evolved  (•sGf^T^ote, 
p>..2^  To  draw  any  line  of  separation  between  stocks,  stones, 
plants,  animals,  men,  demigods,  and  gods  is,  according  to  the 
theory  of  Brahmanism,  impossible.  They  are  all  liable  to 
pass  into  each  other  ^.  The  number  of  gods  is  popularly  said 
to  be  330  millions,  though  I  have  not  found  this  stated  in 
any  ancient  text  (cf.  p.  10). 

But  the  act  of  creation  or  evolution  involves  the  two  other 
acts  of  maintenance  of  being  and  disintegration.  Hence  the  god 
Brahma  is  associated  with  two  other  personal  deities,  Vishnu, 
the  Preserver,  and  Rudra-Siva,  the  Dissolver  and  Reproducer. 
These  three  gods,  concerned  in  the  threefold  operation  of 
integration  (or  evolution),  maintenance,  and  disintegration 
{srishti-sthiti-laya),  are  typified  by  the  three  letters  composing 
the  mystic   syllable    Om   (AUM), — three    letters   originally 

^  The  whole  series  of  evolutions  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  Brahmadi- 
stamba-paryantam,  extending  from  Brahma  to  a  stump  (or  tuft  of  grass). 


Mythological  ^r  Polytheistic  Brahmanism.       45 

typical  of  the  earlier  Vedic  triad  (wrongly  called  a  trinity), 
and,  in  the  mysticism  of  the  Upanishads,  of  three  personaliza- 
tions of  the  Universal  Spirit  (Paramesvara,  Hiranya-garbha, 
and  Viraj  ^).  Like  the  earlier  Vedic  gods,  the  three  later 
deities  were  not  only  personifications  of  the  three  forces  of 
integration,  disintegration,  and  reintegration.  They  probably 
symbolized  three  principal  objects  in  nature,  Earth,  Water  or 
Sun,  and  Fire;  or  the  three  worlds,  Earth,  Air,  and  Sky;  or 
the  three  forms  of  matter,  Solid,  Liquid,  and  Gaseous  (p.  10). 
They  constitute  the  well-known  Tri-murti,  or  triad  of  forms 
which  characterizes  Hinduism,  and  their  bodies,  like  those  of 
human  beings,  are  composed  of  gross  material  particles  though 
of  a  divine  and  ethereal  character  (see  p.  28). 

These  three  deities,  too,  are  often,  as  we  have  seen,  connected 
with  the  Gunas  of  philosophy.  In  its  highest  state  the  one 
Spirit  is  Nirguna,  'devoid  of  all  conditions  or  qualities.'  It  is 
only  when  dominated  by  either  activity  or  goodness  or  apathy 
that  the  impersonal  Spirit  becomes  either  Brahma,  the  Evolver, 
or  Vishnu,  the  Preserver,  or  Siva,  the  Dissolver  (see  p.  '^6). 

Properly,  according  to  the  true  theory  of  Brahmanism,  no 
one  of  these  three  ought  to  take  precedence  over  the  other 
two.  They  are  equal,  and  their  functions  are  sometimes  inter- 
changeable, so  that  each  in  turn  may  become  the  Supreme 
Lord  (Paramesvara),  and  each  may  take  the  place  of  the 
other,  according  to  the  sentiment  expressed  by  the  greatest  of 
Indian  poets,  Kalidasa  (Kumara-sambhava,  Griffith,  VII. 44): — 

In  those  three  Persons  the  one  God  was  shown — 
Each  first  in  place,  each  last — not  one  alone  ; 
Of  Siva,  Vishnu,  Brahma,  each  may  be 
First,  second,  third,  among  the  blessed  Three. 

There  is  a  well-known  Trwnurti  sculptured  out  of  the  rock 
in  the  caves  of  Elephanta,  at  Bombay.     Three  majestic  heads 

^  See  pp.  14,  35,  and  Mandukya  Upanishad,  which  makes  the  whole 
monosyllable  Om  stand  for  the  impersonal  Brahma.  According  to  some 
A  stands  for  Vishnu,  V  for  Siva,  and  M  for  Brahma. 


46       Mythological  or  Polytheistic  Brahmanism, 

are  represented    springing  out    of   one  body.     The  triangle 
(TiHkond)  is  also  used  to  symbolize  this  triune  co-equality. 

In  the  later  mythology  this  co-equality  was  denied,  the 
difference  in  the  characters  of  the  three  gods  being  well 
illustrated  by  a  story  from  the  Bhagavata-purana,  X.  89  : — 

A  dispute  once  arose  among  the  sages  which  of  the  three  gods 
was  greatest.  They  applied  to  the  greatest  of  all  sages— Bhrigu— to 
determine  the  point.  He  undertook  to  put  all  three  gods  to  a  severe 
test.  He  went  first  to  Brahma,  and  omitted  all  obeisance.  The  god's 
anger  blazed  forth,  but  he  was  at  length  pacified.  Next  he  went  to 
the  abode  of  Siva,  and  omitted  to  return  the  god's  salutation.  The 
irascible  god  was  enraged,  his  eyes  flashed  fire,  and  he  raised  his 
Trident  weapon  to  destroy  the  sage.  But  the  god's  wife,  Parvati,  in- 
terceded  for  him.  Lastly,  Bhrigu  went  to  the  heaven  of  Vishnu,  whom 
y/  he  found  asleep.  To  try  his  forbearance,  he  gave  the  god  a  good  kick 
on  his  breast,  which  awoke  him.  Instead  of  showing  anger,  Vishnu 
asked  Bhrigu's  pardon  for  not  having  greeted  him  on  his  first  arrival. 
Then  he  declared  he  was  highly  honoured  by  the  sage's  blow.  It  had 
imprinted  an  indelible  mark  of  good  fortune  on  his  breast.  He  trusted 
the  sage's  foot  was  not  hurt,  and  began  to  rub  it  gently.  '  This,'  said 
Bhrigu,  '  is  the  mightiest  god ;  he  overpowers  his  enemies  by  the  most 
potent  of  all  weapons — gentleness  and  generosity.' 

The  three  gods  differ  from,  and  are  superior  to,  all  other 
divine  and  human  organisms,  in  that  they  are  not  subject  to 
transmigrations.  They  are  beings  who  have  attained  the 
highest  condition  possible,  short  of  absorption  into  Brahma. 

And  of  these  three,  Vishnu,  the  Maintainer  and  Preserver  of 
all  nature,  is  the  most  human,  as  he  is  also  the  most  humane, 
in  his  character,  attributes,  and  sympathies,  and  therefore 
devotion  (bhakti)  to  him  is,  of  all  forms  of  Hindu  religion, 
the  most  popular.  He  has  four  arms,  symbolical  of  the  power 
he  exerts  in  the  deliverance  of  his  worshippers.  Portions  of 
his  divine  nature  have  descended  into  earthly  incarnations  to 
deliver  the  earth  in  times  of  danger  and  emergency.  They 
are  still  continually  descending  in  good  men  and  living 
teachers  (see  p.  103). 

W^hether,  in  fact,  Vishnu  be  connected  with  light,  with  heat, 
with  air,  or  with  water,  it  is  evident  that  his  function  is  that  of 


Mythological  or  Polytheistic  Bi'ahmajiisin.       47 

a  divine  Pervader,  infusing  his  essence  for  special  purposes 
into  created  things,  animate  and  inanimate ;  for  example,  into 
stones,  such  as  the  black  Salagrama  ;  into  rivers,  such  as  the 
Ganges ;  into  trees  and  plants,  such  as  the  TulasT ;  into 
animals,  such  as  a  fish,  a  tortoise,  a  boar  ;  and  lastly,  into 
men  (see  pp.    103-116). 

And  here  be  it  noted  that  the  idea  of  incarnation,  like 
every  other  idea  in  religion,  morality,  and  science,  when 
manipulated  by  the  Brahmans,  was  by  them  subtilized  and 
exaggerated.  Hence  the  incarnations  of  Vishnu  are  really 
descents  (avatara)  on  earth  of  portions  of  the  essence  of  a 
divine  person  already  possessing  a  material  form  (see  pp.  6q^, 
103).  These  descents  were  undertaken,  reasonably  enough, 
for  preserving  the  world  when  in  pressing  danger  from  the 
malice  of  evil  demons ;  and  they  are  of  four  kinds  and 
degrees. 

First,  the  full  descent,  as  in  Krishna,  one  of  the  heroes 
of  the  Epic  poem  called  Maha-bharata. 

Secondly  (though  chronologically  anterior),  the  half-essence 
descent,  consisting  of  half  the  god's  nature,  as  in  Rama,  hero 
of  the  other  Epic  called  Ramayana. 

Thirdly,  the  quarter-essence  descent,  as  in  Rama's  brother 
Bharata  ;  fourthly^  the  eighth-part  descent,  as  in  Rama's  two 
other  brothers,  Lakshmana  and  Satrughna.  Other  special 
descents  are  described  at  pp.  107-115. 

Distinct  from  these  is  the  constant  infusion  of  portions  of 
the  divine  essence  into  ordinary  men,  animals,  and  inanimate 
objects.  All  men  whose  lives  are  remarkable  for  any  pecu- 
liar circumstances  are  held  by  the  Hindus  to  be  partial  incar- 
nations of  the  divine  nature,  and  worshipped  accordingly. 

The  other  two  members  of  the  Indian  triad,  Brahma  and 
Siva,  have  no  human  incarnations  exactly  comparable  with 
those  of  Vishnu,  though  Brahma  is,  as  it  were,  humanized  in 
his  representatives  the  priests,  called  Brahmans. 

It  is  true  that  certain  Incarnations    of  both   Brahma  and 


4-S       Mythological  or  Polytheistic  Brahmanism. 

Siva  are  sometimes  mentioned  (as,  for  example,  that  of 
Siva  called  Virabhadra,  p.  79),  and  there  are  local  manifesta- 
tions of  these  deities  and  local  descents  of  Siva  in  human 
form.  Moreover,  Brahma  and  Siva  resemble  Vishnu  in  havine 
wives.  Brahma's  wife  is  Sarasvatl^,  Vishnu's  is  Lakshml, 
Siva's  is  Parvatl,  and  it  may  be  noted  that  Siva  has  two 
sons,  Ganesa,  lord  of  the  demon  hosts,  and  Subrahmanya 
(also  called  Skanda  and  Karttikeya),  general  of  the  celestial 
armies,  whereas  Vishnu  has  no  sons  except  in  his  human 
incarnations  ^. 

But  it  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  many 
deities  and  divine  manifestations  are  generally  worshipped. 
The  gods  of  the  Hindu  Pantheon  to  whom  temples  are  reared 
and  prayers  offered  are  not  numerous.  Forms  of  Vishnu,  Siva, 
and  their  consorts,  with  the  two  sons  of  Siva  (Ganesa  and  Su- 
brahmanya, p.  211),  and  Hanuman  (p.  220)  are  the  chief  temple- 
deities  of  India.  But  there  are  an  infinite  number  of  divine 
and  semi-divine  beings,  good  and  evil  demons,  every  one  of 
which  is  held  in  veneration  or  dread,  and  every  one  of  which, 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  is,  like  all  the  others,  subject  to 
the  universal  law  of  re-absorption  into  the  one  divine  universal 
Essence  (Brahma).  Indeed,  at  the  end  of  vast  periods,  called 
days  of  Brahma,  each  lasting  for  4,320,000,000  human  years, 
the  whole  universe  is  so  re-absorbed,  and  after  remaining 
dormant  for  equally  long  periods,  is  again  evolved. 

Where,  then,  lies  the  motive  for  self-knowledge  and  self- 
discipline,  if  every  man  is  really  God  ?  It  is  that  the  One 
Spirit,  as  if  for  diversion,  ignores  itself,  submits  to  the  influ- 
ence of  an  illusory  creative  force,  and  permits  the  unity  of  its 
nature  to  be  partitioned  into  an  infinite  number  of  individual 

^  Dubois  (p.  371)  relates  a  legend  which  makes  Brahma  guilty  of  incest 
in  that  he  was  both  the  father  and  husband  of  Sarasvatl. 

^  Nor  were  Vishnu's  incarnations  prolific,  unless  we  reckon  the  108,000 
mythical  sons  of  Krishna  (see  pp.  113,  114).  The  great  Rama  had 
twin  sons,  Kusa  and  Lava,  born  when  Sita  had  been  banished  to  the 
hermitage. 


Mythological  or  Polytheistic  Brahrnanis^n,       49 

personal  spirits,  which,  while  they  continue  in  ignorance,  are 
liable  to  commit  error.  And  no  such  spirit  can  recover  identity 
with  the  Supreme  Spirit  except  by  purificatory  rites  and  by 
raising  itself,  through  the  exercise  of  self-knowledge  and 
self-discipline  in  many  births,  to  a  state  of  cessation  from 
action  (vairagya).  In  fact,  a  condition  of  entire  mental  vacuity 
(citta-vritti-nirodha)  or  trance  (samadhi)  is  of  all  states  the 
most  desirable  as  leading  to  complete  identification  with  the 
one  universal  Spirit.  Not  that  a  man  need  aim  at  immediate 
union  with  that  Spirit. 

He  may  simply  aspire  to  re-absorption  into  the  one  absolute 
Spirit ;  or  may  simply  devote  himself  to  one  of  the  personal 
gods,  Brahma,  Vishnu,  or  Siva,  so  as  to  become,  by  union 
with  them,  only  one  degree  removed  from  re-absorption,  and 
incapable  of  further  transmigrations  (p.  41,  11.  11-20).  Or  he 
may  simply  aim  at  admission  to  their  heavens  (p.70),  or  to  the 
temporary  heaven  Svarga  (presided  over  by  Indra),  the  only 
paradise  of  orthodox  Brahmanism;  or  at  escaping  one  of  the 
purgatorial  hells  (pp.  232,  293). 

We  may  note  that  Svarga,  as  an  abode  of  light,  is  mentioned 
once  in  the  Rig-veda  (X,  95,  18) ;  oftener  in  the  Atharva-veda 
and  Brahmanas. 

And  here  lies  the  motive  for  religious  worship  addressed  to 
personal  gods  and  visible  forms.  For  the  one  universal  Spirit 
is  manifested  in  such  forms.  Yet  it  is  a  cardinal  feature 
of  the  Brahmanical  system,  that  the  one  universal  Spirit  can 
never  itself  be  directly  worshipped,  except  by  turning  the 
thoughts  inwards.  No  shrine  or  temple  to  Brahma  is  to  be 
found  throughout  all  India.  The  one  self-existent  Brahma 
can  only  become  an  object  of  meditation  and  knowledge. 
The  Spirit  is  to  be  known  by  the  spirit ;  for  he  is  enshrined  in 
every  man's  heart ;  and  this  internal  meditation  is  regarded 
as  the  highest  religious  act.  In  short,  Brahma  is  properly 
only  an  object  of  internal  knowledge  (jneyam),  not  an  object 
of  external  worship  (upasyam). 

E 


50      Mythological  or  Polytheistic  Brah7nanism. 

And  here  mark  the  vast  difference  between  the  Hindu  idea 
of  a  triad  and  the  Christian  Trinity.  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and 
Siva  are  not  self-existent.  They  have  only  secondary  exist- 
ences, though  the  One  Spirit  may  be  worshipped  through 
these  three  manifestations,  or  any  one  of  the  three.  It  is 
even  possible  for  the  members  of  this  triad  to  worship  the  One 
Spirit  through  the  worship  of  each  other,  each  being  in  turn 
regarded  as  inferior  (see  p.  45). 

Again,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  homage  may  be  paid  to 
the  one  Spirit  by  and  through  the  worship  of  the  inferior 
gods,  goddesses,  departed  ancestors,  living  Brahmans,  heroes, 
animals,  and  plants.  Even  stocks,  stones,  and  images  may 
represent  the  divine  presence,  and  so  become  media  through 
which  the  One  Spirit  may  become  an  object  of  adoration. 
Nay,  the  very  demons  may  receive  worship  both  from  gods 
and  men,  if  by  mortification  and  meditation  they  attain  near- 
ness to  re-absorption  into  the  great  Spirit  of  the  Universe. 

I  once  asked  a  Brahman,  residing  at  Thana  (Tanna)  near 
Bombay,  to  give  me  some  explanation  of  the  fact  that  even 
Indians  of  cultivated  intellect  who  assert  the  unity  of  God, 
appear  to  us  Europeans  to  be  worshippers  of  many  gods. 
His  answer  was  to  the  following  effect : — 

'  All  orthodox  Hindus  believe  in  one  universal  Spirit,  who 
becomes  Supreme  Lord  over  all  (Paramesvara).     At  the  same 
time  they  believe  that  this  one  God  has  taken  various  forms, 
all  of  which  may  be  worshipped;  just  as  gold  is  one  every- j 
where,  though  it  may  take  different  forms  and  names  in  dif- 
ferent places  and  countries.     Every  man  chooses  his  favourite 
god  or  divine  object  to  which  he  pays  especial  homage.    Thusi 
Agnihotri-Brahmans   regard   fire  as  their   favourite    form  ofl 
the  deity.     They  call  him  Agni-narayana.     Vedic  Brahmans 
make  a  god  of  the  Veda,  calling  it  Veda-narayana.     Different! 
places  have  also  their  favourite  presiding  deities.     Benares  is 
specially  watched  over  by  a  form  of  Siva  (called  Visvesvara) ; 
Pandharpur,  by  a  form  of  Krishna  (called  Vithoba).     Here  in 


Nomistic  or  Preceptive  Brahmanism.  51 

Thana  we  have  temples  of  Vishnu,  Rama,  Krishna,  Viththal, 
Hanuman,  Siva,  Ganesa,  and  Devi.  The  oldest  and  most 
sacred  of  all  is  one  of  Siva,  in  the  character  of  Kaupinesvara. 
We  may  propitiate  every  one  of  them  with  ceremonies  and 
sacrifices,  but  the  Supreme  Being  present  in  these  gods  is  the 
real  object  of  all  our  offerings  and  religious  services.  At  the 
end  of  each  we  say:  "  By  this  act  may  the  Supreme  Lord  be 
gratified ! "  Hence,  though  to  you  we  appear  Polytheists, 
we  are  really  Monotheists.  Nor  are  we  Pantheists  in  your 
sense  of  the  term.  Only  our  deepest  thinkers  look  beyond 
the  personal  God  to  the  impersonal  Spirit  which  underlies 
everything.  We  educated  Brahmans  are  practically  Theists.' 
We  might  add  that  the  Rig-veda  asserts  that  the  gods  are 
one  Being  under  different  names  (I.  164.  46 ;  VIII.  58.  2). 

Nomistic  Brahmanism. 

The  fourth  phase  of  Brahmanism  may  be  called  the  No- 
mistic or  Preceptive  phase,  because  it  represents  that  period 
in  Indian  religious  history  when  the  Brahmans  composed 
codes  of  law  (smriti-sastra,  dharma-sastra)  and  laid  down 
precise  precepts  for  the  constitution  of  the  Hindu  social 
fabric,  for  the  due  co-ordination  of  its  different  orders  and 
castes,  for  the  regulation  of  every-day  domestic  life  and  for 
the  enforcement  of  moral  conduct. 

Indeed  the  laxity  and  liberty  allowed  by  Brahmanism  in 
regard  to  all  forms  of  religious  belief  and  philosophical 
thought,  is  curiously  contrasted  with  the  strictness  and  rigidity 
of  its  rules  and  ordinances  in  regard  to  every  act  of  a  man's 
domestic  life,  according  to  his  social  status  or  caste. 

These  rules  are  contained  in  three  principal  codes — (i)  the 
code  of  Manu  ;  (2)  that  of  Yajiiavalkya  ;  (3)  that  of  Parasara. 
The  first  is  held  to  be  the  most  sacred  of  the  three.  It 
was  originally  a  local  code,  embodying  rules  and  precepts — 
perhaps  by  different  authors,  some  of  whom  may  have  lived 
in  the  fifth  century  B.C.,  others  in  the  second  century  B.C.,  and 

E  2 


52  Nomistic  Brahmanisni, 

others  even  later.  It  was  at  first  current  among  a  particular 
tribe  of  Brahmans  called  Manavas,  who  probably  occupied 
part  of  the  North-western  region  between  the  rivers  SarasvatI 
and  Drishadvati,  but  afterwards  became  generally  adopted. 
The  name  of  the  real  author  of  this  great  work  (which  as 
a  mere  literary  production  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
to  be  found  anywhere)  is  concealed  under  the  title  Manu  ^ 
The  code  of  Yajnavalkya  is  founded  on  that  of  Manu,  but 
introduces  many  additional  rules,  some  of  which  are  probably 
as  late  as  the  first  or  second  century  of  our  era.  It  is  always 
associated  with  its  commentary,  the  Mitakshara.  The  code  of 
Parasara  is  a  still  more  modern  work.  It  enacts  special  laws 
adapted  to  the  fourth  or  most  depraved  age  of  the  world 
(called  Kali).  The  three  codes  together  constitute  a  kind 
of  bible  of  Nomistic  Brahmanism,  much  in  the  same  way_ 
as  the  Brahmanas  of  the  three  Vedas  are  the  exponent  of 
Ritualistic  Brahmanism.  The  Brahmanas  are  concerned  with 
public  Vedic  ritual  and  sacrifice  (sruti-karman),  the  law-books 
with  domestic  ceremonies  (smriti-karman). 

In  short,  the  three  chief  codes  are  mirrors  of  Indian  domesticj 
customs,  little  affected  as  these  have  been  by  the  lapse  ofi 
more  than  two  thousand  years.  They  illustrate  very  strikinglyj 
the  close  intertwining  of  politics^  morality,  and  social  life  with] 
religion  and  religious  ordinances.  '  The  root  of  all  law,'  says] 
Manu,  '  is  the  Veda  and  the  traditions  of  those  who  know  the] 
Veda.'  Accordingly  we  find  that  in  Manu's  code  the  rules] 
of  judicature  and  of  caste  are  mixed  up  with  the  dogmas  of 
religion  and  philosophy. 

Then  again,  blended  with   these   are   high    religious    and! 
moral  precepts — many  of  them  worthy  of  Christianity  (seel 


'  Manu  is  supposed  to  speak  as  far  as  I.  60,  and  after  that  another 
sage  called  Bhyigu.  The  entire  code  is  fully  analysed  and  described  in 
my  'Indian  Wisdom,'  pp.  211-294.  The  late  Dr.  A.  Burnell's  opinion 
was  that  the  date  of  the  work  as  we  now  possess  it  must  be  placed  in 
the  fourth  century  of  our  era.     I  cannot  agree  with  his  views. 


Nomistic  Brahmanisin.  53 

Chap.  XXI) — while  the  punishment  assigned  to  every  offence 
is  carried  beyond  the  grave  into  future  states  of  existence,  the 
doctrine  of  transmigration  of  souls  through  celestial  and  ter- 
restrial bodies  from  gods  to  stones  being  implied  throughout. 
Manu  declares  that  a  triple  order  of  metempsychosis  through 
higher,  middle,  and  lower  stages  of  existence  results  from  the 
force  of  good,  middling,  or  bad  acts,  words,  and  thoughts  in 
every  man's  present  life  (Manu  XII.  3-40). 

The  theory  of  caste  and  the  superiority  of  the  Brahmans 
is  the  hinge  on  which  the  whole  social  fabric  turns.  The 
Brahmans  form  the  central  body  around  which  all  other 
classes  revolve  like  satellites.  Not  only  are  they  invested 
with  divine  dignity,  but  they  are  bound  together  by  the 
most  stringent  rules.  Two  other  castes — viz.  Kshatriyas  and 
Vaisyas — are  with  them  called  '  Twice-born,'  through  the 
Initiation  rite  (p.  360)  which  admitted  all  three  to  certain 
privileges. 

The  doctrine  of  Manu  was  that  the  deity  created  distinct 
classes  of  men,  as  he  did  animals  and  plants ;  and  that  the 
four  chief  classes — Brahmans,  soldiers  (Kshatriyas),  agricultu- 
ralists (Vaisyas),  and  servants  (Sudras) — were  born  and  must 
remain  as  distinct  from  each  other  as  elephants,  lions,  oxen, 
and  dogs,  wheat,  barley,  rice,  and  beans  (pp.  452-474). 

A  Brahman  was  to  pass  through  four  stages  of  life ; 
1.  Unmarried  religious  student  (Brahma-carin) ;  2.  Married 
householder  (Grihastha) ;  3.  Anchorite  (Vanaprastha) ;  4. 
Abandoner  of  worldly  concerns  (Sannyasin  or  SannyasI,  pp. 
^^j  362).  As  a  householder  he  could  have  four  wives  be- 
longing to  any  of  the  three  lower  castes.  Intermarriage  could 
also  take  place  between  members  of  all  the  four  classes,  or, 
again,  between  the  castes  resulting  from  such  intercourse. 
Hence  arose  an  endless  number  of  mixed  castes,  and  castes 
within  castes,  each  restricted  to  its  own  occupation  and  bound 
by  its  own  rules. 

Examples  of  moral  precepts  will  be  found  at  Chap.  XXI. 


CHAPTER    III. 

Hindfiism  a  Development  of  Brdhnanisin. 

General  Observations. 

We  now  pass  on  to  the  third  stage  of  Hindu  religious 
thought,  which  has  its  bible  in  the  Puranas.  And  we  may 
here  take  note  of  a  fact  illustrated  by  the  whole  history  of 
the  world's  religious  thought,  that  a  merely  spiritual  and 
impersonal  religion  is  quite  incapable  of  taking  hold  of  the 
masses  of  mankind.  Something  more  is  needed  for  illiterate 
unthinking  populations  earnestly  craving  for  concrete  objects 
of  faith  and  visible  objects  of  devotion. 

The  chief  point,  then,  which  distinguishes  HindQism  as  a 
system  of  creeds  from  Brahmanism  is  that  it  subordinates 
the  worship  of  the  purely  spiritual  Brahman  (nom.  Brahma) 
with  its  first  manifestation  Brahma  (p.  47),  to  that  of  Siva 
and  Vishnu,  or  of  their  wives,  or  of  some  form  of  these  deities ; 
while  each  sect  exalts  its  own  god  to  the  place  of  the  Supreme. 
Yet  we  must  guard  against  the  idea  that  theistic  Hinduism 
has  superseded  pantheistic  Brahmanism;  for  in  India  forms  of| 
pantheism,  theism,  and  polytheism  are  ever  interwoven  with 
each  other.  Brahma  has  still  the  spiritual  worship  of  the. 
thoughtful,  though  he  has  neither  temple  nor  image  ;  while 
Brahma  has  still  two  temples  in  India,  and  is  represented 
by  four-faced  images,  and  is  also  worshipped  under  the 
symbol  of  Siva  (pp.  44,  79,  83,  and  Chapter  XXII).  He  has] 
also  his  own  heaven  called  Brahma-loka  (cf.  pp.  70,  291). 
Moreover  it  is  certain  that  the  worship  of  personal  gods  was] 


Hhidiiisrn  developed  out  of  Brahmariisni.        55 

a  part  of  pantheistic  Brahmanism  long  before  Siva  and  Vishnu 
became  the  exckisive  favourites  of  particular  sects.  Perhaps 
the  best  exponent  of  the  Brahmanical  system  was  the  great 
teacher  Saiikara  (Saiikaracarya),  a  native  of  Kerala  (Malabar), 
who  lived  about  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century  of  our  era. 
He  was  a  SannyasI  (p.  362)  and  an  unmarried  Smarta  Brah- 
man ^  under  a  vow  of  celibacy,  and  is  often  styled  Parama- 
hansa-parivrajakacarya.  For  it  is  one  of  the  inconsistencies 
of  the  Hindu  religion,  that  it  enjoins  the  duty  of  marriage 
upon  all,  yet  honours  celibacy  as  a  condition  of  great  sanctity 
and  a  means  of  acquiring  extraordinary  religious  merit  and 
influence.  Undoubtedly  Sankara  was  the  very  incarnation  of 
strict  Brahmanism ;  and  if  it  be  possible  to  name  any  one  real 
historical  concrete  personality  as  a  typical  representative  of 
Brahmanical  doctrines,  it  is  undeniable  that  we  must  point  to 
Sankara  rather  than  to  the  legendary  Vyasa,  even  though  the 
latter  be  the  alleged  author  of  the  Vedanta-Sutra. 

Yet  so  utterly  barren  is  India  in  both  history  and  bio- 
graphy, that  very  little  is  known  of  the  life  of  perhaps  one 
of  the  greatest  religious  leaders  she  has  ever  produced. 

It  is  nevertheless  a  fact  that  Sankara  founded  the  monastery 
(matha)  of  Sriiigeri  (Sririga-giri)  in  Mysore,  as  well  as  three 
others  in  Northern,  Western,  and  Eastern  India  ^ ;  to  the 
Headship  over  which  his  chief  disciples  were  appointed  by 
himself;  the  spiritual  powers  of  the  first  Head  being  trans- 
mitted through  a  line  of  successors,  regularly  elected. 

The    most    noted    successor   of    Sankara    at   the   Srin£[;eri 


^  A  SannyasI  may  have  been  once  a  married  man.  But  there  are 
Sannyasis  (such  as  the  late  Dayananda)  who  have  become  so  without 
going  through  the  previous  stages  of  Grihastha  and  Vanaprastha.  Equi- 
valent expressions  for  Sannyasin  are  Parivrajaka,  Bhikshu,  Dandin,  and 
Maskarin  (Panini  VI.  I.  154)  ;  but  the  term  Bhikshu  is  now  applied  in 
Western  India  to  those  clerical  Brahmans  (as  opposed  to  lay)  who  per- 
form religious  ceremonies  and  are  not  engaged  in  worldly  pursuits. 

^  That  in  the  North  is  at  Badrinath  in  the  Himalayas,  that  in  the 
West  at  Dvarika  in  Kathiawar,  that  in  the  East  at  Jagannath-purl. 


56       Hindriism  developed  out  of  Brakmanism. 

monastery  was  Sayana  (Madhava^),  the  well-known  author 
of  the  Rig-veda  commentary,  who  lived  in  the  fourteenth 
century.  Sankara  himself,  though  he  managed  to  write  a 
vast  number  of  treatises  on  the  Vedanta  philosophy,  led  an 
erratic,  restless,  controversial  life,  and  died  early,  probably 
at  Kedarnath  in  the  Himalayas,  at  the  age  of  thirty-two. 

He  is  thought  by  some  to  have  inculcated  the  preferential 
worship  of  the  god  Siva^,  of  whom  some  declare  him  to  have 
been  an  incarnation.  Others  maintain  that  he  himself  had 
a  preference  for  Vishnu,  the  real  fact  being  that  he  looked 
on  both  these  gods  as  equally  manifestations  of  the  one 
Universal  Spirit.  For,  in  truth,  all  orthodox  Brahmans  are  in 
a  general  way  both  Saivas  and  Vaishnavas,  and  any  Brahman 
may  have  a  preference  for  the  worship  of  either  Siva  or  Vishnu 
without  any  necessary  exclusive  devotion  to  either,  and  with- 
out identifying  either — to  the  exclusion  of  the  other — with 
the  one  Spirit  of  the  Universe,  as  many  Pauranika  sectarians 
do.  It  is  well  known,  in  fact,  that  most  Smarta  Brahmans  in 
the  present  day,  who  are  followers  of  Sankaracarya,  have  a 
leaning  towards  the  worship  of  the  one  personal  deity  Siva  ^. 

On  the  other  hand,  very  few  even  of  the  most  ignorant  and 
bigoted  Hindiis  who  are  exclusive  worshippers  of  the  per- 
sonal deities  Siva,  Vishnu,  or  their  consorts,  and  whose  highest 
spiritual  aim  is  to  be  a  dweller  in  the  heaven  of  one  of  those 


^  The  identity  of  Sayana  and  Madhava  is  disputed  ;  the  preponderance 
of  evidence  seems  now  to  be  against  the  late  Dr.  A.  Burneil's  view  of 
their  identity  as  expressed  in  his  Vansa-brahmana. 

'^  His  sanctity  was  in  such  repute  that  he  was  held  to  have  worked 
several  miracles,  amongst  others,  transferring  his  own  soul  for  a  time 
into  the  dead  body  of  a  king  Amaru,  that  he  might  become  the  husband 
of  the  king's  widow  for  a  brief  period,  and  so  learn  by  experience  how 
to  argue  on  amatory  subjects  with  the  wife  of  a  Brahman  named  Man- 
dana,  who  was  the  only  person  he  had  never  conquered  in  argument. 
This  is  described  in  a  poem  called  Amaru-sataka,  to  which  a  mystical 
interpretation  is  given. 

^  Two  Smarta  Brahmans  accompanied  me  round  the  temple  of  Siva 
at  Tinnevelly.  They  both  had  three  horizontal  lines  (tri-pundra)  made 
with  Vibhuti  on  their  foreheads,  which  proved  their  preference  for  Siva. 


Hiridiiisni  developed  out  of  B7%iJiinanisni.        57 

gods,  are  uninfluenced  by  an  undercurrent  of  pantheistic  ideas. 
Nor  would  it  be  easy  to  find  any  thoughtful  Hindis  who,  if 
closely  questioned,  would  repudiate  as  untenable  the  doc- 
trine of  an  omnipresent,  impersonal,  bodiless  and  passionless 
(nirguna)  spiritual  Essence,  of  which  every  being  in  the  Uni- 
verse is  a  portion.  In  short,  the  more  closely  the  theistic 
phase  of  Hinduism  is  examined,  the  more  plainly  will  it  be 
found  to  rest  on  a  substratum  of  pantheistic  Brahmanism. 
The  one  system  is  to  a  great  extent  a  development  of  the 
other,  and  to  draw  a  line  of  separation  between  the  two  is  im- 
possible.    Metempsychosis  is  equally  the  dread  of  both. 

Nevertheless  Hinduism  is  by  no  means  a  simple  form  of 
theism,  or  even  polytheism.  It  presents  for  our  investigation 
a  complex  congeries  of  creeds  and  doctrines  which  in  its 
gradual  accumulation  may  be  compared  to  the  gathering 
together  of  the  mighty  volume  of  the  Ganges,  swollen  by  a 
continual  influx  of  tributary  rivers  and  rivulets,  spreading 
itself  over  an  ever-increasing  area  of  country,  and  finally 
resolving  itself  into  an  intricate  Delta  of  tortuous  streams  and 
jungly  marshes. 

Nor  is  it  difficult  to  account  for  this  complexity.  The 
Hindu  religion  is  a  reflection  of  the  composite  character  of 
the  HindOs,  who  are  not  one  people  but  many.  It  is  based 
on  the  idea  of  universal  receptivity.  It  has  ever  aimed  at 
accommodating  itself  to  circumstances,  and  has  carried  on  the 
process  of  adaptation  through  more  than  three  thousand  years. 
It  has  first  borne  with  and  then,  so  to  speak,  swallowed, 
digested,  and  assimilated  something  from  all  creeds.  Or,  like 
a  vast  hospitable  mansion,  it  has  opened  its  doors  to  all 
comers ;  it  has  not  refused  a  welcome  to  applicants  of  every 
grade  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  if  only  wMlling  to 
adopt  caste-rules  ;  insomuch  that  many  regard  Hinduism  as 
a  system  of  social  rules  rather  than  of  religious  creeds. 

In  this  manner  it  has  held  out  the  right  hand  of  brotherhood 
to  the  Fetish-worshipping  aborigines  of  India ;  it  has  stooped 


5« 


Receptivity  of  Hindiris7?i. 


to  the  demonolatry  of  various  savage  tribes ;  it  has  not  scru- 
pled to  encourage  the  adoration  of  the  fish,  the  boar^,  the 
serpent,  trees,  plants,  stones,  and  devils ;  it  has  permitted  a 
descent  to  the  most  des^radins:  cults  of  the  Dravidian  races  : 
while  at  the  same  time  it  has  ventured  to  rise  from  the  most 
grovelling  practices  to  the  loftiest  heights  of  philosophical 
speculation :  it  has  not  hesitated  to  drink  in  thoughts  from  the 
very  fountain  of  Truth,  and  owes  not  a  little  to  Christianity 
itself.  Strangest  of  all.  it  has  dissipated  the  formidable  organ- 
ization which  for  a  long  period  confronted  Brahmanism,  and 
introduced  doctrines  subversive  of  Sacerdotalism.  It  has  art- 
fully appropriated  Buddhism,  and  gradually  superseded  that 
competing  system  by  drawing  its  adherents  within  the  pale  of 
its  own  communion.  Without  doubt  the  most  remarkable 
fact  in  the  history  of  the  interaction  between  Brahmanism 
and  the  mighty  movement  initiated  by  one  of  the  greatest  of 
this  earth's  teachers,  was  the  resolution  of  Buddhism  into 
Saivism  and  Vaishnavism.  To  say  that  these  two  systems  in 
their  present  form  preceded  Buddhism  is  inaccurate.  Probably 
they  co-existed  with  it  in  some  form  or  other.  Undeniably  they 
became  amplified  and  modified  by  its  absorption. 

This  interchangeableness  between  Buddhism,  Saivism,  and 
Vaishnavism  will  be  more  fully  explained  hereafter.  It  will 
be  sufficient  at  present  to  note  that  Gautama  Buddha  had 
two  distinct  characters.  In  his  first  and  earliest  character  he 
was  the  typical  monk  (Sramana-),  the  great  teacher  of  the 
power  to  be  gained  by  meditation  and  by  conquest  of  the 
passions.  In  his  second,  he  was  the  great  friend  of  the  com- 
mon people  who  advocated  universal  brotherhood,  universal 
equality,  and  universal    compassion  for  all  forms   of  animal 


^  A  fish  and  a  boar  form  two  of  Vishnu's  incarnations.  The  former  is 
also  the  emblem  of  the  Pandya  kingdom  in  the  South,  and  ^SllnacI,  the 
goddess  worshipped  in  the  great  temple  of  Madura,  is  said  to  mean  fish- 
ruler,  though  the  Brahmans  have  converted  it  into  '  fish-eyed  '  (Minakshij. 

^  See  my  work  on  '  Buddhism,"  p.  75  (John  Murray,  Albemarle  Street). 


Sects  of  Hinduism.  59 

life.  In  both  these  characters  the  personal  god  Siva  and 
the  incarnated  Vishnu  were  his  counterparts,  and  uhimately 
superseded  him  \  Siva  was  the  Buddha  in  his  monastic 
character.  Vishnu  was  the  Buddha  in  his  character  of  a 
beneficent  and  unselfish  lover  and  friend  of  the  human  race. 

And  as  Saivism  and  Vaishnavism  superseded  Buddhism, 
so  they  became  the  chief  constituents  of  modern  Hinduism. 
All  the  shades  and  subdivisions  of  Hindu  sectarianism  may 
be  included  under  one  or  other  of  these  two  heads. 

Nevertheless  it  is  customary  to  speak  of  Hinduism  as 
divided  into  five  principal  sects:  i.  Worshippers  of  Siva 
(Saivas).  %.  Worshippers  of  Vishnu  (Vaishnavas).  3.  Wor- 
shippers of  the  female  personifications  of  energy,  regarded 
as  the  wives  of  the  deities  (Saktas,  p.  180).  4.  Worshippers 
of  Ganesa  or  Gana-pati — the  god  of  luck  and  good  fortune 
(Ganapatyas,  p.  215).  5.  Sun-worshippers  (Sauras,  p.  341)- 
Besides  these  five,  a  sixth  called  Pasupata  (or,  by  Ananda-giri, 
Kapalika),  chiefly  found  in  the  South  of  India,  is  occasionally 
added,  though  this  is  nothing  but  a  subdivision  of  the 
Saivas.  All  these  six  sects  are  said  by  South-Indian 
Pandits  to  have  been  founded  by  Sankaracarya,  who  is 
therefore  often  called  Shan-mata-sthapaka,  '  the  establisher 
of  six  forms  of  doctrines.'  In  reality  that  great  teacher 
was,  as  we  have  seen,  utterly  opposed  to  all  sectarian 
ideas.  In  the  Saiikara-vijaya  of  Ananda-giri  (a  work  written 
by  one  of  his  disciples  in  the  ninth  or  tenth  century)  he 
is  described  as  having  traversed  India  in  every  direction 
for  the  purpose  of  combating  and  refuting  an  immense 
number  of  sectarian  systems  which  had  taken  root  in  the 
country.  There  were  at  that  time,  besides  the  worshippers 
of  Siva  and  Vishnu,  votaries  of  Brahma,  of  the  Sun,  Moon, 
Kubera,  Yama,  Varuna,  Sesha,  and  others  innumerable. 
Many  of  these  were    extirpated   through    Sankara's   instru- 

^  There  are  clear  traces  that  the  great  Vaishnava  temple  of  Jagan-nath 
in  Orissa  was  originally  dedicated  to  some  Buddhist  tooth-relic. 


6o     Develop7nent  of  Saiva  and  Vaishnava  Sects. 

mentality,  and  many  have  since  disappeared  ;  but,  curiously 
enough,  it  is  alleged  that  out  of  pity  to  the  present  degenerate 
age  (Kali-yuga),  when  men  are  incapable  of  apprehending 
the  pure  unity  of  the  Godhead,  Sankara  allowed  six  sects  to 
remain.  It  was  only  by  degrees  that  the  sectarian  character 
of  all  but  the  first  two  disappeared. 

What  then  is  the  present  idea  implied  by  Hindu  secta- 
rianism ?  It  is  clear  from  what  has  been  already  stated  that 
every  Hindu  creed  ought  to  be  regarded  as  unorthodox  which 
exalts  favourite  personal  deities  to  the  position  of  the  one 
eternal,  self-existing  Spirit  (Atman  or  Brahma),  in  contra- 
vention of  the  dogma  that  even  the  highest  divine  person- 
alities are  finite  beings  destined  ultimately  to  be  absorbed 
into  that  one  infinite  Spirit. 

Of  course  it  must  be  understood  that  when  Saivism  and 
Vaishnavism  deny  this  dogma  they  offend  against  orthodoxy. 
But  Saivism  and  Vaishnavism  constitute,  so  to  speak,  the  very 
warp  and  woof  of  the  later  Hindu  religion,  and  it  is  possible 
to  be  a  worshipper  of  Siva  or  Vishnu  (as  manifestations  of 
Brahma)  without  being  a  sectarian.  Hence  it  seems  better 
to  apply  the  term  '  sect '  to  separate  religious  communities 
within  the  pale  of  these  two  chief  systems,  organized  and 
consolidated  by  particular  teachers  with  the  object  of  incul- 
cating entire  devotion  towards,  and  exclusive  dependence  on 
either  Siva  or  Vishnu,  and  securing  through  the  instrumen- 
tality of  one  or  other  of  these  gods  the  welfare  and  salvation 
of  every  individual  among  his  worshippers. 

At  the  same  time,  it  must  be  carefully  noted  that  Hindu 
sectarianism  is  something  more  than  the  mere  exclusive 
worship  of  a  personal  god.  It  implies  more  or  less  direct 
opposition  to  the  orthodox  philosophy  of  Brahmanism,  in 
regard  to  the  identity  of  man's  spirit  with  God's  spirit.  Man's 
spirit  is  held  to  have  a  separate  personality,  but  the  doctrine 
of  metempsychosis  or  transmigration  is  perhaps  insisted  on 
with  even  greater  intensity  in  Saivism  and  Vaishnavism  than 


Develop77ient  of  Saiva  and  Vaishnava  Sects.     6 1 

in  pure  Erahmanism.  Nevertheless  it  must,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  be  borne  in  mind  that  vague  pantheistic  ideas 
may  always  be  found  lurking  at  the  root  of  every  variety  of 
Hindu  sectarian  doctrine.  Such  ideas  are  naturally  inwoven 
into  the  very  texture  of  every  Hindu  mind. 

But  Hinduism  bristles  with  contradictions,  inconsistencies, 
and  surprises  ;  and  it  is  remarkable  that  the  generally 
prevalent  Brahmanical  doctrine  of  the  identification  of  the 
living  personal  Spirit  of  man  with  the  one  universal  Spirit  of 
the  universe  is  the  peculiar  dogma  which  various  sects  of  both 
Saivas  and  Vaishnavas — especially  the  latter — theoretically 
repudiate,  dilute,  or  qualify.  For  indeed  the  spirit  of  man 
if  it  strives  to  give  expression  to  its  feelings  of  complete  and 
exclusive  devotion  to  a  personal  deity  as  to  a  Creator  and 
Saviour,  cannot  at  the  same  moment  assent  to  doctrines  which 
destroy  its  own  separate  personality. 

To  mark  this  complete  and  exclusive  devotion  more  clearly, 
and  to  bind  each  sect  together  by  some  common  bond  of 
union,  a  short  form  of  words  called  a  Mantra  (e.  g.  Om  Rdmdya 
iiamah,  reverence  to  Rama,  see  p.  117),  expressive  of  ex- 
clusive and  absolute  trust  in  the  particular  god  worshipped 
as  representing  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  the  world,  is  taught 
by  each  community  and  its  repetition  every  day  is  made  a 
necessary  condition  of  salvation  through  him. 

Moreover,  the  privilege  of  imparting  this  secret  (rahasya) 
Mantra  belongs  to  a  regularly  constituted  order  of  men  (Guru). 
The  communication  of  it  (usually  in  a  whisper)  is  called  ini- 
tiation (diksha),  and  acquaintance  with  it  is  held  to  be  essential 
to  admission  within  the  pale  of  the  society.  When  any  such 
system  has  been  fully  organized  it  is  called  a  Sampradaya — 
a  word  meaning  a  particular  body  of  traditionary  doctrines 
handed  down  through  a  succession  of  teachers  ^. 


^  It  may  also  be  designated  by  such  terms  as  Darsana  or  Mata — that 
is,  particular  views  or  opinions  on  religion  or  philosophy.     The  term 


62  Doctrine  of  Incarnation  in  Hinduism. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  Sampradayas  or  separate  religious 
denominations  of  the  present  day  are  nearly  all  mere  sub- 
^/divisions  of  Vaishnavism.  Not  that  Siva  has  been  dethroned 
by  Vishnu,  or  has  lost  any  of  his  importance  as  one  of  the  two 
chief  deities  of  modern  Hinduism.  What  is  meant  is  that, 
although  all  Hindus  pay  homage  to  Siva,  to  his  Consort  or 
Sakti,  and  to  his  two  sons  Ganesa  and  Skanda,  few  attach 
themselves  to  these  deities  as  to  personal  benefactors — and 
although  many  repeat  their  Mantras,  few  pray  to  them  ex- 
clusively as  to  their  personal  creators  and  saviours. 

Certainly  no  one,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain, 
turns  to  these  gods,  or  invokes  their  intervention  and  assist- 
ance in  the  hour  of  death  ^  (see  p.  297).  Similarly  all  Hindils 
adore  the  Sun  in  their  daily  prayers  (pp.  342,  406),  but  very 
few  in  the  present  day  ever  worship  him  exclusively  or  in 
what  may  be  called  a  spirit  of  sectarianism.  Several  sects  of 
Sun-worshippers  are  known  to  have  once  existed  and  to  have 
had  many  adherents,  but  they  have  generally  died  out. 

In  reality  the  principle  of  faith  and  devotion  as  displayed 
towards  personal  gods  could  scarcely  have  taken  deep  root 
in  India,  except  in  connexion  with  the  worship  of  a  god 
who  descended  upon  earth  as  the  child  of  earthly  parents 
for  the  promotion  of  man's  welfare,  and  whose  nature  in  his 
incarnations  became  quite  as  human  as  it  was  divine. 

And  here  mark  that  the  doctrine  of  incarnation  among 
the  Hindus  is  in  many  important  respects  different  from  the 
Christian  idea;  The  Sanskrit  language,  which  is  the  only 
language  of  the  Hindu  religion  and  the  only  source  of 
theological  terms,  has  no   exact  equivalent  for  incarnation  ^. 

Darsana,  however,  is  more  usually  restricted  to  the  six  regular  philoso- 
phical systems. 

^  The  names  invoked  at  death  are  generally  those  of  Rama  and  Nara- 
yana  (p.  297).  The  late  Dr.  Burnell  told  me  that  he  once  witnessed  the 
execution  of  thirteen  criminals  in  India  who  were  all  Saivas,  and  yet  all 
called  on  the  name  of  Rama  before  being  hanged. 

^  Unless  it  be  compounds  formed  with  deha^  miirti^  and  sdkshdt. 


Docti'ine  of  Incarnation  in  Hindiiisfn.  63 

The  common  word  is  Avatara,  which  means  *  descent.' 
Furthermore,  it  must  be  noted  that  intervening  between  the 
one  Self-existent  Being  and  these  Avataras  must  be  placed  the 
forms  of  personal  deities  such  as  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva — 
each  of  whom  possesses  a  body  composed,  like  human  bodies, 
of  gross,  though  divine  and  ethereal,  particles^.  Strictly, 
therefore,  the  so-called  incarnations,  represented  by  heroes 
like  Rama,  ought  to  be  regarded  as  incarnations  of  incarna- 
tions'',  for  they  are  the  descent  of  portions  of  the  essence  of 
personal  divinities,  who,  already  possessing  bodies  composed 
of  gross,  though  divine  particles,  condescend  by  being  born 
of  earthly  parents  to  assume  bodies  composed  of  human  gross 
particles.  Such  descents  are  attributed,  not  only  to  the  per- 
sonal gods  Vishnu,  Siva,  and  Brahma,  but  even  to  other  gods 
such  as  Indra,  Vayu,  Sesha  ;  Arjuna  and  the  heroes  of  the 
Maha-bharata  being  also  regarded  as  incarnated  descents  of 
various  deities.  Yet  the  only  universally  acceptable  and  gene- 
rally worshipped  incarnated  descents  are  those  of  Vishnu,  as 
Rama  son  of  Dasaratha,  and  as  Krishna  son  of  Vasudeva.  When 
once  the  feeling  of  affection  for  Rama  and  Krishna  had  rooted 
itself  in  the  religious  sense  of  the  people,  it  rapidly  gathered 
strength  and  dominated  over  every  other  feeling. 

It  was  thus  that  the  way  of  devotion  (bhakti-marga) 
as  propounded  in  the  Puranas  and  Tantras  ^  superseded  the 
other  two  ways  of  salvation — knowledge  and  works  (jhana- 
marga  and  karma-marga) ;  though  it  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  bhakti,  '  devotion,'  is  really  a  kind  of  *  meritorious  work,' 
and  not  equivalent  to  '  faith  '  in  the  Christian  sense. 

It  even  triumphed  over  caste  ;  for  an  enthusiastic  love  of 


^  See  the  account  of  the  structure  of  the  bodies  of  the  gods  at  p.  28. 

2  Doubtless  a  form  of  the  doctrine  of  bhakti  may  be  traced  back  to  early 
times,  but  for  its  full  development  we  must  look  to  the  Bhagavad-glta, 
a  comparatively  modern  episode  of  the  Maha-bharata,  to  the  Puranas 
and  Tantras,  and  to  a  scientific  formulation  of  the  doctrine  in  the 
Bhakti-sutra  of  Sandilya  probably  about  the  twelfth  century. 


v\ 


64        Interchangeableness  of  Siva  and  Vishnu. 

Rama  or  Krishna  was  theoretically  a  bond  of  union  among 
human  beings  stronger  than  all  social  ties,  and  was  incom- 
patible with  differences  of  rank  or  antagonisms  of  interest. 

In  fact  the  leaders  of  religious  thought  in  India  were  all 
disciples  in  the  school  of  the  great  Buddha,  to  the  extent, 
at  least,  of  imitating  his  wisdom  by  advocating  social 
union  and  fraternity. '  They  saw  that  their  popularity 
as  reformers  depended  on  their  attracting  adherents  from 
r>  all  ranks,  high  and  low.  Hence,  every  great  religious  leader 
^  proclaimed  the  brotherhood  and  equality  of  all  who  enrolled 
■;  ,V  themselves  under  his  leadership.  Buddha  was  the  son  of  a 
V  '  petty  Raja  or  landowner,  but  addressed  himself  to  all  ranks. 
^^-  In  the  same  way  Vishnu,  in  his  descent  as  Krishna,  though 
'"3-    '  of    the    kingly   caste,   was    the    favourite    of    the   common 

people.  But  just  as  Buddhism  ultimately  fell  back  into  Brah- 
manism,  so  has  every  movement  in  the  direction  of  liberty, 
equality,  and  fraternity  ended  by  a  return,  more  or  less  com- 
plete, to  the  original  condition  of  subjection  to  Brahmanical 
authority,  ceremonial  observances,  and  caste,   y 

Practically,  therefore,  we  must  regard  Vaishnavism  as  the 
principal  home  of  Hindu  religious  sectarianism.  All  the 
chief  modern  sects  have  resulted  more  from  differences  of 
opinion  between  various  schools  of  Vaishnavas,  than  from  an- 
tag;onism  between  Saivism  and  Vaishnavism.  Nor  are  Saivism 
and  Vaishnavism  in  their  essence  antagonistic  systems.  They 
represent  different  lines  of  religious  thought ;  such  lines  ex- 
pressing a  contrast  rather  than  an  opposition.  So  far  indeed 
from  any  necessary  opposition  between  the  systems,  they  are 
a  necessary  complement  of  each  other.  For  the  worship  of 
the  composite  deity  Rudra-Siva  is  nothing  but  the  expression 
of  the  awe  felt  by  human  beings  in  the  presence  of  the  two 
mutually  complementary  forces  of  disintegration  and  reinte- 
gration ;  while  the  worship  of  the  personal  god  Vishnu  in  his 
descents  upon  earth  in  human  form  is  nothing  but  the  ex- 
pression of  the  very  natural  interest  felt  by  man  in  his  own 


Interchangeable7iess  of  Siva  and  Vishnu.        65 

preservation  and  in  the  working  of  the  physical  forces  which 
resist  dissohition. 

Certainly  in  the  present  day  Saivas  and  Vaishnavas  are 
tolerant  of  each  other's  creeds,  both  appealing  to  the  Puranas 
as  their  special  bible,  and  each  acknowledging  the  gods  of 
the  other  as  proper  objects  of  worship.  This  is  remarkably 
illustrated  by  the  fact  that  in  some  parts  of  the  country  a  god 
called  Hari-Hara  (Vishnu-Siva/ is  worshipped,  who  represents 
the  union  of  the  two  divine  personalities  in  one.  There  is  a  long 
hymn  in  praise  of  this  twofold  deity  in  the  Hari-vansa  (i8ist 
chapter),  and  images  of  him  may  be  seen  here  and  there  in 
Southern  India.  For  example,  in  the  great  temple  at  Madura 
a  fine  carving  was  pointed  out  to  me  which  proved  to  be  a 
representation  of  Sankara-Narayana  (=  Hari-Hara)  ^.  One  side 
of  the  figure  represents  half  the  body  of  Vishnu  with  a  hand 
holding  a  Sankha,  while  the  other  represents  that  of  Siva 
surmounted  by  half  a  head-dress  twisted  into  a  matted  coil 
with  the  lunar  crescent  conspicuous  on  it.  Then  again, 
wherever  in  any  city  a  large  temple  has  been  erected  to  Siva, 
a  similar  temple  dedicated  to  Vishnu  is  sure  to  be  conspicuous 
near  at  hand.  Indeed  the  shrines  of  the  two  gods  are  not 
unfrequently  found  in  close  juxtaposition  within  the  same 
sacred  enclosure.  For  instance,  on  the  hill  of  ParvatT  (wife 
of  Siva)  near  Poona,  and  in  the  enclosure  of  her  temple,  I 
saw  a  shrine  of  Vishnu,  another  of  his  vehicle  Garuda,  and 
images  of  nearly  every  deity  of  the  Hindu  Pantheon  ^. 

Nor  can  any  student  of  the  Maha-bharata  and  Puranas 
doubt  the  interchangeableness  of  the  functions  of  Siva  and 
Vishnu,  or  fail  to  pierceive  that  each  divine  personality  has 
a  tendency  to  blend  or  merge  in  the  other.     In  the  Linga- 

^  In  the  South  of  India  a  legend  is  current  which  makes  Vishnu  assume 
the  form  of  a  fascinating  woman  (mohini)  and  so  connect  himself  with 
Siva.     By  Saktas  Vishnu  is  often  held  to  be  female. 

^  So  also  in  the  precincts  of  the  temple  of  Hanuman  at  Kaira  I  saw 
a  shrine  of  Siva  and  nearly  every  other  god  ordinarily  worshipped. 

F 


66   Ifiterchangeableness  of  Saivism  and  Vaishnavism. 

purana  (I.  i8  fif.)  both  Brahma  and  Vishnu  are  said  to  spring 
from  Siva.  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  Maha-bharata  (Vana- 
parvan  499  ff.  and  Anusasana-p.  6806  ff.)  Brahma  is  described 
as  springing  from  the  navel  of  Vishnu  when  he  was  lying 
in  placid  repose  on  the  serpent  of  infinity,  and  enjoying  the 
most  perfect  serenity  of  mind  ^ ;  whilst  Siva  or  Rudra  is  said 
to  have  been  produced  from  Brahma's  (or  according  to  some 
Vishnu's)  forehead  when  he  happened  one  day  to  be  roused  to 
anger. 

Again,  Vishnu,  speaking  of  himself  (Santi-parvan  13140. 
etc.),  says  :  '  I  am  the  soul  of  all  the  worlds.  It  was  myself 
whom  I  formerly  worshipped  as  Rudra.  If  I  were  not  to 
worship  the  boon-bestowing  Siva,  no  one  would  worship 
myself.  He  who  knows  him  knows  me  ;  he  who  loves  him 
loves  me  (Yas  tarn  vetti  sa  marn  vetti  yo  'nu  tani  sa  hi  mam 
anu).'  But  the  true  explanation  of  the  homage  paid  by  each 
member  of  the  Triad  to  the  other  (cf.  p.  106)  is  to  be  sought 
for  in  the  pantheistic  ideas  which  underlie  Hinduism. 

Still  it  must  be  admitted  that  Saivism  and  Vaishnavism  are 
quite  distinct  systems,  and  that  each  sect  is  incHned  to  lay 
an  exaggerated  stress  on  its  own  particular  doctrines. 

In  ancient  times  these  differences  not  unfrequently  led 
to  rancorous  antagonism,  and  sometimes  even  to  violent  con- 
flicts. This  was  especially  the  case  in  the  South,  where 
Saivism  generally  triumphed  over  and  displaced  Vaishnavism  ^. 
Even  in  the  present  day,  when  universal  toleration  is  the  rule, 
Saivas  and  Vaishnavas  like  to  maintain  their  distinct  cha- 
racteristics, which  they  exhibit  conspicuously  to  the  eye  by 
a  distinctive  mark  on  their  foreheads  (called  tilaka,  pundra, 
and,  in  the  South  of  India,  nama  or  gandha). 


^  One  reason  I  often  had  given  to  me  in  India  for  the  present  merging 
of  Brahma  in  Vishnu  was  that  Brahma  sprang  from  the  body  of  Vishnu. 

^  I  noticed  many  traces  of  the  conflict  in  the  South  ;  for  example, 
Vaishnava  sculptures  have  been  left  on  the  Gopuras  in  the  Saiva  temple 
of  Tanjore. 


Differences  betwee^i  Saivism  and  Vaishnavism.     67 

That  of  the  Salvas  consists  of  three  horizontal  strokes 
(tri-pundra)  made  with  the  white  ashes  of  burnt  substances 
(vibhuti),  to  represent,  perhaps,  the  disintegrating  forces  be- 
longing to  their  god  Siva^,  and  that  of  the  Vaishnavas  is 
an  upright  mark  (urdhva-pundra)  made  with  bright  red, 
yellow,  and  white  colouring  substances  (the  white  called 
Gopl-candana  ^),  to  represent  the  foot-print  of  their  human 
and  humane  god  Vishnu. 

Again,  it  is  important  to  note  that  both  Saivas  and  Vaish- 
navas differ  in  the  mode  of  branding  their  breasts,  arms,  and 
other  parts  of  their  bodies  with  other  distinctive  marks  of  their 
sect.  Such  marks  are  burnt  in  with  red-hot  stamps,  some- 
times made  of  gold.  In  the  case  of  Saivas  they  represent  the 
weapons  and  symbols  of  Siva,  such  as  the  trident  and  the 
lihga ;  while  the  favourite  brands  of  Vishnu  are  the  discus, 
the  club,  and  the  conch-shell.  This  practice  was  severely 
denounced  by  Sankara  ^  but  apparently  with  little  effect. 

In  regard  to  rosaries,  the  rosary  (japa-mala)  used  by  Saivas 
is  a  string  of  32  rough  berries  (or  that  number  doubled)  of 
the  Rudraksha  tree  (Elseocarpus  Ganitrus),  while  that  of  the 
Vaishnavas  is  made  of  the  wood  of  the  sacred  Tulasi  (Tulsi) 
shrub,  and  generally  consists  of  108  beads  (see  pp.  117,  135 
with  notes).  Such  rosaries  may  be  worn  as  necklaces,  though 
their  chief  use  is  to  be  employed  as  an  aid  in  the  recitation  of 
the  names  of  the  deity  or  of  prayers.  Occasional  varieties  in 
the  material  and  form  of  the  rosaries  may  be  noticed  * ;  for 
example,  Saiva  ascetics  sometimes  carry  rosaries  formed  of 
the  teeth  of  dead  bodies  (danta-mala),  or  sling  serpents  round 

^  The  ashes  probably  denote  that  the  body  must  ultimately  be  reduced 
to  ashes. 

^  This  is  said  to  be  the  soil  of  a  pool  near  Dvarika  in  which  the  GopTs 
drowned  themselves  on  learning  of  the  death  of  Krishna. 

^  The  Saiikara-vijaya  shows  how  Sankara  offered  the  most  strenuous 
opposition  to  this  practice  of  branding,  stigmatizing  it  as  a  heretical  and 
ridiculous  practice. 

*  See  especially  my  book  '  Modern  India  and  the  Indians,'  p.  io8. 

F  2 


6S     Differences  between  Saivism  and  Vaishnavism, 

their  necks  for  necklaces.  On  the  other  hand,  Vaishnava 
rosaries  are  occasionally  but  rarely  made  of  lotus-seeds  (ka- 
malaksha). 

But  the  most  important  difference  to  be  noted  between 
Saivas  and  Vaishnavas  is  in  the  use  they  make  of  idols,  images, 
and  symbols.  Siva,  we  must  remember,  is  a  less  human 
and  far  more  mystical  deity  than  the  incarnated  Vishnu.  The 
character  in  which  he  is  most  frequently  worshipped  is  that 
of  an  omnipotent  God,  taking  the  place  of  Brahma  the 
Creator,  and  granting  new  life  to  all  created  things,  but  only 
through  death  and  disintegration.  Hence  he  is  not  repre- 
sented by  the  image  of  a  man,  but  by  a  mystic  symbol  ^ — 
perhaps  the  best  symbol  of  delegated  creative  power — which 
is  not  dressed  or  fed  or  put  to  sleep  like  Vishnu's  idols,  but  is 
supposed  to  be  in  a  condition  of  perpetual  heat  and  excite- 
ment, and  requires  to  be  cooled  and  appeased  by  constant 
sprinklings  (abhisheka)  of  cold  Ganges  water  and  cooling 
Bilva  leaves  applied  throughout  the  day  by  those  who  worship 
him  ^  (see  pp.  90,  439).  Moreover  food  is  not  generally  offered 
to  Siva,  or,  if  occasionally  so  offered,  is  not  afterwards  eaten 
by  his  votaries  (except  in  certain  special  localities),  for  the 
obvious  reason  that  inauspicious  (amangala)  ideas  are  sup- 
posed to  be  connected  with  his  office  of  causing  death  ^. 

On    the    other   hand,   since   Vishnu    is   god    in   his    more 


^  That  is,  by  the  lifiga  or  image  of  the  distinctive  organ  of  the  male 
sex  (the  phallus),  never  in  the  mind  of  a  Saiva  connected  with  indecent 
ideas  nor  with  sexual  love,  though  impure  practices  have  certainly  been 
introduced  in  connexion  with  the  worship  of  Siva's  wife.  In  fact,  sexual 
passion  is  chiefly  associated  with  the  worship  of  Vishnu,  as  Krishna.  It 
is  curious  that  Vaishnavas  dislike  the  Saiva  lihga  and  yet  allow  the  most 
impure  and  indecent  representations  on  the  walls  of  their  temples. 

^  Another  mode  of  worship  is  by  pradakshina  or  circumambulation, 
keeping  the  right  side  towards  the  object  worshipped.  In  many  Lihga 
shrines  a  space  is  left  for  this  kind  of  homage. 

^  The  precept  is,  '  Leaves,  flowers,  fruit,  and  water  must  not  be  taken 
after  being  offered  to  Siva.'  But  at  the  great  temple  of  Bhuvanesvara 
and  a  few  other  places  an  exception  is  made. 


Differences  between  Saivism  and  Vaishnavism.    69 

human  and  humane  aspect,  sympathizing  with  men's  trials 
and  condescending  to  be  born  of  human  parents,  he  is  usually 
represented  by  the  complete  image  of  a  well-formed  human 
being — generally  that  of  Krishna  or  Rama — which  is  every 
day  roused  from  a  supposed  nocturnal  slumber,  dressed, 
decorated  with  gold  and  jewels,  bathed,  fed  with  offerings 
of  cooked  and  uncooked  grain,  sweetmeats  and  fruits,  un- 
dressed and  put  to  sleep  again  like  an  ordinary  man,  while 
the  remains  of  the  food  offered  (prasada)  are  eagerly  con- 
sumed by  the  priests  and  attendants^  (see  p.  145). 

And  here  I  may  point  out  that  a  great  distinction  is  to 
be  made  in  regard  to  the  comparative  sanctity  of  different 
kinds  of  symbols  and  images.  Some  are  called  Svayam-bhu, 
that  is,  existing  spontaneously,  and  are  of  their  own  nature 
pervaded  by  the  essence  of  the  deity.  These  are  either  not 
carved  at  all,  or  very  slightly  moulded  into  shape.  They  are 
merely  rough  stones  or  rocks  supposed  to  have  descended 
direct  from  heaven  or  to  have  appeared  miraculously  on  the 
soil.  They  are  the  most  sacred  of  all  objects  of  adoration, 
and  when  discovered,  temples  are  built  over  them.  The  most 
usual  idols  of  this  kind  are  stones  supposed  to  represent  the 
Liiiga  of  Siva,  and  when  shrines  are  built  round  them,  a 
Yoni  (to  represent  the  female  organ)  is  usually  added. 

Not  less  sacred  than  these  rough  stones  are  certain  small 
pebbles  found  in  rivers  and  polished  by  the  action  of  the 
water  ^,  Of  these  the  pebbles  representing  the  Linga  of  Siva, 
called  Bana-liriga  or  Vana-linga,  and  apparently  of  white 
quartz,  are  found  in  the  bed  of  the  Narbada  river.  The 
black  pebbles  representing  Vishnu  or  Krishna,  called  Sala- 
grama   (popularly  sal-gram),    and   generally  containing  am- 

^  This  will  account  for  the  fact  that  few  villages  can  afford  to  keep 
a  temple  dedicated  to  Krishna.  The  vestments,  ornaments,  decorations, 
and  paraphernaha  needed  are  too  expensive  ;  whereas  all  the  requisites 
for  the  worship  of  Siva  are  a  stone  lihga,  bilva  leaves,  and  water. 

-  Some  of  them  appear  to  be  artificially  rounded  and  polished. 


70     Differences  between  Saivism  and  Vaishnavism. 

monites  imbedded  in  the  stone,  are  chiefly  found  in  the  river 
Gandakl.  Both  kinds  of  pebble  are  employed  in  the  domestic 
worship  of  Siva  and  Vishnu  known  as  Paiicayatana-puja  (to 
be  described  pp.  410-416),  and  performed  by  householders  in 
their  own  houses.  Both  are  held  to  be  of  their  own  nature 
pervaded  by  the  special  presence  of  the  deity  and  need  no 
consecration.  Offerings  made  to  these  pebbles — such  for  in- 
stance as  Bilva  leaves  laid  on  the  white  stone  of  Siva — are 
believed  to  confer  extraordinary  merit. 

A  second  form  of  idol  is  wholly  artificial.  This  is  carved 
by  masons  or  sculptors  and  not  held  sacred  until  the  Brah- 
mans  have  consecrated  it  by  a  long  ceremony  called  Prana- 
pratishtha,  *  endowing  with  breath.'  When  such  idols  have 
been  placed  in  shrines  they  can  be  looked  at  by  an  unbeliever, 
even  though  the  consecration  they  have  received  is  supposed 
to  have  filled  them  with  the  spirit  (prana)  of  the  god  they  re- 
present. Artificial  idols  and  symbols  of  this  kind  are  manu- 
factured in  large  numbers  in  holy  cities,  not  so  much  for 
general  worship  as  for  votive  offerings  to  be  set  up  with  the 
customary  form  of  dedication  (pratishtha)  in  the  galleries  or 
vestibules  of  temples,  or  under  sacred  trees,  or  to  be  kept  as 
objects  of  adoration  in  the  private  rooms  of  houses. 

Pious  persons  reckon  it  a  work  of  religious  merit  to  cause 
such  idols  and  symbols  to  be  made  and  dedicated.  I  have 
seen  thousands  so  dedicated,  and  others  exposed  for  sale  in 
the  streets.  Some  Lihgas  are  carved  out  of  stone  ;  some  are 
made  of  glass.  Serpents  are  occasionally  carved  round  these 
symbols,  as  well  as  round  the  images  of  Siva  in  human  form. 

An  account  of  the  ceremonies  performed  in  worshipping 
idols  will  be  given  subsequently  (see  pp.  90-94  ;  144,  145). 

Another  difference  between  Saivism  and  Vaishnavism  must 
be  noted.  Each  system  has  its  own  heaven.  That  of  Siva 
is  Kailasa  ;  that  of  Vishnu  is  Vaikuntha  ;  that  of  Krishna  is 
Go-loka  (see  pp.  118,  291).  The  first  is  supposed  to  be  in  the 
Himalaya  mountains  ;  while  the  two  latter  are  believed  (like 


Two  Characteristics  of  both  Systems.  7 1 

Svarga,  p.  49)  to  be  somewhere  on  the  mythical  Mount  Meru  ^ 
To  these  heavens  the  faithful  worshippers  of  Siva,  Vishnu,  and 
Krishna  are  respectively  transported.  There  amid  eternal 
snows  and  inaccessible  crags  they  are  thought  to  be  safe  from 
future  transmigrations.  There,  too,  they  may  attain  to  the 
highest  pinnacle  of  beatification,  not  so  much  by  absolute 
absorption  (sayujya)  into  the  one  supreme  Spirit  according  to 
the  Vedanta  doctrine  (see  p.  41) — for  such  complete  union 
would  involve  loss  of  personality — but  rather  by  dwelling  in 
the  same  abode  with  their  god  (salokya),  by  nearness  to  him 
(samipya),  by  assimilation  to  his  likeness  (sariTipya). 

I  may  mention  here  that  the  cultus  of  the  god  Siva  in  some 
of  his  forms,  as  well  as  that  of  some  forms  of  Vishnu,  has 
been  held  by  more  than  one  authority  to  be  traceable  to  the 
practices  of  pre-Aryan  and  non-Aryan  tribes.  But  the  ex- 
planations I  have  given  tend  to  show  that  Siva  and  Vishnu 
are  both  Brahmanical  gods  and  have  their  origin  in  the 
Veda,  though  they  have  been  often  made  to  do  duty  for 
local  deities  outside  the  true  circle  of  Brahmanism. 

Finally  whatever  differences  exist  between  the  sects  of 
Hinduism,  there  are  two  characteristics  common  to  all — viz. 
a  pessimistic  view  of  life  and  salvation  by  works. 

Self-righteousness  lies  at  the  root  of  Hinduism.  Let  it 
be  granted  that  this  complex  system  reckons  three  ways 
of  deliverance  from  the  misery  of  life :  (1)  The  way  of  sacri- 
fices and  ceremonial  rites,  or  karma-mdrga  ;  (2)  the  way  of 
devotion  to  personal  deities,  or  bJiakti-uidrga ;  (3)  the  way  of 
spiritual  knowledge,  ox  jhdna-mdrga  ;  yet  each  of  these  three 
systems,  or  all  three  together,  are  only  followed  for  the  merit 
(punya)  to  be  gained  through  them,  and  Hindiiism  accounts 
no  man  righteous  except  through  his  own  \vorks,  acts,  and 
deservings. 

^  The  temple  of  SrI-rangam  at  Trichinopoly  is  supposed  to  be  a  counter- 
part of  Vaikuntha  (see  p.  448),  and  the  excavated  temple  at  Ellora  is  a 
counterpart  of  Kailasa  (see  p.  447). 


72  One  Characteristic  of  both  Systems. 

It  is  true  that  expiatory  rites,  external  purifications,  lustral 
washings,  and  ceremonial  observances  performed  incessantly 
by,  or  through,  or  with  the  aid  of  Brahmans,  or  even  without 
their  aid,  purifies  from  natal  sin  (see  p.  354),  and  deHvers  from 
constantly  contracted  impurity  and  guilt  and  its  consequences, 
yet,  for  all  that,  the  dictum  of  Manu  (XII.  3)  holds  good  in 
Hinduism,  and  is  believed  in  everywhere  throughout  India  : 

Action  of  every  kind,  whether  of  mind 
Or  speech  or  body,  must  bear  fruit,  entailing 
Fresh  births  through  multifarious  conditions. 
In  highest,  mean,  and  lowest  transmigrations. 

Doubtless  Manu  laid  stress  on  the  need  of  internal  purity  of 
heart,  but  this  internal  purity  must  be  self-accomplished.  Then 
as  to  the  way  of  devotion  to  personal  duties,  sometimes  called 
'  the  way  of  faith,'  this  again  depends  on  the  exercise  of  a  man's 
own  will.  Lastly,  as  to  the  way  of  knowledge,  this,  no  doubt, 
is  held  to  be  the  highest  way,  according  to  the  following  state- 
ment in  the  Maha-bharata  (XII.  8810,  etc.): — 'By  works  a 
creature  is  bound  ;  by  knowledge  he  is  liberated ;  wherefore 
devotees  gifted  with  perfect  insight  perform  no  works.  Through 
works  a  creature  is  born  after  death  with  a  body  of  (one  or 
other  of)  sixteen  descriptions  ;  by  knowledge  he  becomes  the 
Eternal,  Imperceptible,  Undecaying'  (Muir's  Texts,  V.  327). 
But  this  knowledge  is  only  obtainable  through  man's  own 
intuition  or  through  abstract  meditation  ;  for,  just  as  Hinduism 
knows  nothing  of  purity  of  heart  communicated  by  an  infinitely 
Pure  and  Holy  Being  external  to  itself,  so  it  knows  nothing  of 
any  knowledge  except  that  which  is  Self-evolved. 

There  is  a  fourth  way  which  might  be  included  under  the 
first — namely,  the  way  of  Tapas,  or  self-imposed  bodily  morti- 
fication common  to  all  forms  of  Hinduism,  but  especially 
connected  with  Saivism  (see  pp.  83,  87),  and  with  the  Yoga 
philosophy  (see  my  work  on  '  Buddhism,'  p.  326). 

We  now  pass  on  to  a  more  detailed  account  of  the  divisions 
of  Hinduism. 


CHAPTER    IV. 
Saivisin  or  Worship  of  Siva. 

SaiviSM  ^  may  be  defined  to  be  the  setting  aside  of  the 
triune  equahty  of  Brahma,  Siva,  and  Vishnu,  and  the  merging  of 
Brahma  and  Vishnu  in  the  god  Siva.  But  it  is  also  more 
than  this.  It  is  the  exaltation  of  Siva  (whether  as  one  person 
or  as  associated  with  a  consort)  to  the  position  of  a  Supreme 
Being,  exempt  from  subjection  to  the  law  of  ultimate  absorp- 
tion into  the  Universal  Spirit.  It  is  his  identification  with 
Brahma  as  well  as  with  Brahma  ;  with  the  one  impersonal 
Spirit  as  well  as  with  the  one  personal  God  ;  with  the  Atman 
and  Maya  of  the  Vedanta  philosophy;  with  the  Purusha  and 
Prakriti  of  the  Sahkhya  system ;  with  the  male  and  female 
generative  energies  operating  in  the  Universe. 

Yet  it  ought  to  be  clearly  understood  that  the  identifica- 
tion of  Siva  with  the  one  impersonal  Spirit  of  the  Universe 
is  rarely  asserted  categorically  by  Saiva  sectarians  ;  for  it 
must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  very  meaning  of 
Saivism  is  exclusive  devotion  to  a  personal  god  Siva,  who 
unlike  the  impersonal  Spirit,  possesses  a  body,  and  can  think, 
feel,  and  act.  In  entering,  therefore,  on  the  subject  of  Saivism 
we  are  passing  from  pantheistic  to  theistic  ideas. 

The  Saiva  bible  or  supposed  inspired  authority  for  this 
elevation  of  the  god  Siva  to  the  highest  position  in  the  Hindu 
system  must  be  sought  for  among  the  eighteen  Puranas. 
These  writings  are  more  generally  in  favour  of  the  supremacy 

Saiva  and  Vaishnava  are  the  Sanskrit  adjective  forms  of  Siva  and 
Vishnu  ;  hence  may  be  formed  the  words  '  Saivism '  and  '  Vaishnavism.' 


74  Saivism  or  Worship  of  Siva, 

of  Vishnu,  but  a  certain  number,  such  as  the  Liriga,  Siva, 
Kurma  and  Skanda  Puranas,  make  Siva  supreme  ^. 

We  have  ah'eady  pointed  out  that  the  idea  of  a  Tri-murti 
or  triple  embodiment  and  triple  personification  of  the  pheno- 
mena and  powers  of  Nature  was  adumbrated  in  the  Veda  and 
fully  developed  in  the  Maha-bharata. 

In  the  Veda  special  homage  is  given  to  three  gods  who  are 
the  representative  deities  of  the  three  worlds  and  of  the  ele- 
ments they  contain,  (i)  To  the  god  of  Fire  (Agni),  who  is 
the  god  on  the  earth.  (2)  To  the  god  of  Rain  associated  with 
the  gods  of  Storm  (Indra-Rudra),  who  are  the  gods  in  the 
atmosphere.  (3)  To  the  Sun-god  (Surya),  who  is  the  god  in 
the  heavens  (see  p.  9).  In  mythological  Brahmanism — of  which 
the  Maha-bharata  is  the  chief  exponent — these  three  Vedic  gods 
pass  into  Brahma  the  creator,  Rudra-Siva^  the  destroyer  and 
recreator,  and  Vishnu  (p.  75)  the  preserver.  But  the  act  of  the 
Creator  was  a  single  act.  Once  completed,  it  received  scant 
recognition  at  the  hands  of  the  beings  created.  And,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  worship  of  Brahma  fell  into  desuetude  ^. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  acts  of  disintegration,  reintegration, 
and  maintenance  of  being  were  continuous  acts  of  the  deepest 
and  most  momentous  interest  to  the  whole  human  race. 
Hence  it  happened  that  the  homage  paid  to  the  deities 
who  presided  over  these  operations  increased  in  intensity  and 
developed  into  a  system  of  the  grossest  superstition.  For, 
indeed,  three  remarkable  phenomena  could  not  fail  to  impress 
themselves  on  the  most  superficial  observers  of  the  processes 
of  nature.  First,  that  mysterious  and  awe-inspiring  forces 
are  ever  at  work  for  the  disintegration  of  every  material 
object   in    the    universe;    secondly,   that   vivifying  forces  are 


^  The  colossal  sculpture  of  the  Tri-murti  in  the  caves  of  Elephanta, 
excavated  twelve  or  thirteen  centuries  ago,  represents  Brahma  in  the 
centre,  Vishnu  on  the  right,  and  Siva  on  the  left  (see  p.  45). 

'^  I  use  this  compound  for  convenience.     There  is  really  no  such  word. 

^  My  visit  to  Brahma's  temple  near  Ajmere  is  described  in  Chap.  XXII. 


Saivism  or   Worship  of  Siva.  75 

ever  being  exerted  for  the  reintegration  of  material  entities 
through  the  disintegration  of  other  entities ;  thirdly,  that 
every  existing  material  entity  is  maintained  in  existence  by 
the  agency  of  sustaining  forces  which  help  it  to  resist  the 
action  of  the  forces  of  dissolution.  In  short,  it  was  clear  that 
the  three  processes  of  disintegration,  reintegration,  and  main- 
tenance of  being  are  perpetually  recurring  in  an  eternal  cycle 
— that  each  follows  on  the  other  and  that  each  is  necessary 
to  the  other. 

Now,  it  might  have  been  expected  that  the  authors  of 
Hindu  mythology  would  have  placed  these  three  distinct 
processes  under  the  control  of  three  distinct  deities.  But  so 
close  was  believed  to  be  the  connexion  between  the  work  of 
disintegration  and  that  of  reintegration  that  both  were  as- 
signed to  the  presidency  of  one  divine  personification,  who, 
in  this  two-fold  character  of  Destroyer  and  Re-constructor, 
may  most  fitly  be  designated  by  the  composite  name  Rudra- 
Siva.  For  it  is  only  as  Rudra  that  he  is  the  Lord  of  Death 
and  the  active  agent  in  dissolution  ;  and  it  is  only  as  Siva, 
'  the  auspicious/  that  he  reconstructs  after  destruction. 

And  here  at  the  outset  it  is  important  to  note  that,  in  his 
character  of  both  Rudra  and  Siva,  this  god  enjoys  a  cultus 
which  reaches  much  further  back  than  that  of  Vishnu  the 
maintainer  and  preserver.  Of  the  two  deities  Siva  is 
manifestly  the  more  ancient.  He  was  the  first  to  receive 
special  adoration  ;  and  although  in  the  present  day  he  has 
fewer  exclusive  adorers  than  the  god  Vishnu,  his  worship  is 
even  now  more  generally  extended  (compare  note  i,  p.  78). 

The  name  of  Vishnu  occurs,  it  is  true,  in  the  Rig-veda,  but 
only  as  a  secondary  designation  of  the  Sun,  that  luminary 
being  better  known  by  other  more  important  names — such  as 
Siarya,  Savitri,  Aditya,  Mitra. 

On  the  other  hand,  Rudra  appears  quite  early  in  the  Veda 
with  a  well-recognised  and  well-marked  personality  of  his 
own.    He  is  an  important  deity,  whose  anger  is  to  be  dreaded 


"](>  Saivism  or  Worship  of  Siva. 

and  whose  favour  is  to  be  propitiated.  Probably  the  first 
office  or  function  connected  with  him  was  that  of  directing 
and  controUing  the  rage  of  the  howling  storms  ^.  As  god  of 
gale  and  tempest  he  is  father  of  the  destructive  storm-winds, 
who  are  also  called  Rudras,  and  generally  identified  with  the 
Maruts.  And  in  this  character  Rudra  is  closely  connected 
with  the  Vedic  Rain-god  (Indra),  and  with  the  still  more 
highly  esteemed  Vedic  deity  Fire  (Agni),  which,  as  a  destroy- 
ing agent,  rages  and  crackles  like  the  roaring  tempest.  He 
is  also  nearly  related  to  Time  (Kala),  the  all-consumer,  and 
indeed  afterwards  identified  with  him^.  But  he  has  also  a 
more  agreeable  aspect  even  in  the  Veda.  He  is  not  merely 
the  awful  and  inauspicious  god  whose  thousand  shafts  bring 
death  or  disease  on  men  and  cattle  ^.  He  is  present  in  those 
health-giving  winds  which  chase  away  noxious  vapours.  He 
is  addressed  as  a  healer,  as  a  benefactor,  as  a  benevolent  and 
auspicious  being ;  the  epithet  Siva  being  applied  to  him  in 
the  Veda  euphemistically  as  a  title  rather  than  as  a  name. 

Again,  in  the  later  Vedic  period  his  personality  becomes 
still  more  intensified,  and  his  name,  attributes,  and  functions 
"infinitely  amplified,  varied,  and  extended.  For  example,  in 
the  Vajasaneyi-samhita  of  the  Yajur-veda  (XVI.  i,  etc.)  there 
is  a  well-known  hymn  or  litany  called  the  Satarudriya,  ad- 
dressed to  Rudra  in  his  hundred  aspects  and  surrounded  by 
his  countless  hosts  of  attendants.  In  this  hymn — a  hymn  which 
is  of  the  greatest  interest,  because  constantly  used  in  the  pre- 
sent day — he  is  described  as  possessing  many  contradictory, 
incongruous,  grotesque,  and  wholly  ungodlike  attributes  ;  for 
example,  he  is  a  killer  and  destroyer ;  he  is  terrible,  fierce 
(ugra),  inauspicious ;  he  is  a  deliverer  and  saviour ;  he  causes 


^  The  root  rud  meaning  '  to  roar '  or  '  howl '  as  well  as  '  to  weep.' 
^  In  the  Kailasa  cave  at  Ellora  I  noticed  that  Siva  in  his  character  of 
Kala  was  represented  as  a  skeleton. 

^  Death  is  always  connected  in  the  Hindu  mind  with  something  in- 
auspicious (amangala)  and  impure. 


Saivism  or   Wo7^ship  of  Siva.  77 

happiness,  and  prevents  disease ;  he  has  a  healing  and  aus- 
picious body  (siva  tanuh)  ;  he  is  yellow-haired,  brown- 
coloured,  copper-coloured,  ruddy,  tall,  dwarfish ;  he  has  braided 
locks  (kapardin),  wears  the  sacred  thread,  and  is  clothed  in 
a  skin ;  he  is  blue-necked  and  thousand-eyed ;  he  dwells 
in  the  mountains,  and  is  the  owner  of  troops  (gana-pati)  of 
servants  who  traverse  the  earth  obeying  his  orders ;  he  is 
ruler  and  controller  of  a  thousand  Rudras  who  are  described 
as  fierce  and  ill-formed  (virupa) ;  he  has  a  hundred  bows 
and  a  thousand  quivers  ;  he  is  the  general  of  vast  armies ; 
he  is  lord  of  ghosts,  goblins,  and  spirits ;  of  beasts,  horses, 
and  dogs ;  of  trees,  shrubs,  and  plants  ;  he  causes  the  fall  of 
leaves;  he  is  lord  of  the  Soma-juice ;  he  is  patron  of  thieves 
and  robbers  ^,  and  is  himself  a  thief,  robber,  and  deceiver ; 
he  presides  over  carpenters,  chariot-makers,  blacksmiths, 
architects,  huntsmen ;  he  is  present  in  towns  and  houses,  in 
rivers  and  lakes,  in  woods  and  roads,  in  clouds  and  rain,  in 
sunshine  and  lightning,  in  wind  and  storm,  in  stones,  dust, 
and  earth. 

If  then  this  great  deity  was  distinguished  even  in  the  Vedic 
period  by  so  great  a  variety  of  attributes,  and  was  held 
capable  of  so  many  functions,  it  was  only  to  be  expected 
that  the  plasticity  and  all-comprehensiveness  of  his  godhead 
should  have  increased  with  the  advance  of  time.  It  was  only 
natural,  too,  that  the  desire  to  propitiate  him  should  have 
become  more  generally  diffused.  His  terrific  and  ungodlike 
character  was,  therefore,  kept  well  in  the  background,  and  his 
epithet  '  the  blessed  or  auspicious  one  (Siva),'  who  brought 
life  out  of  death,  who  re-created  after  dissolution,  passed  into 
his  principal  name. 


^  In  the  drama  called  Mricchakatika  some  burglars  invoke  Skanda 
son  of  Siva  as  their  patron  deity.  At  present  nearly  all  the  degrading 
characteristics  of  the  god  have  been  transferred  to  the  form  of  his  consort 
called  Kali.  That  goddess  is  to  this  day  the  patron  of  thieves,  robbers, 
Thugs,  murderers,  and  every  kind  of  infamous  rascal  (see  Chap.  XXII). 


78  Saivism  or  Worship  of  Siva. 

Hence  also  Siva  became  to  his  worshippers  the  great  god 
(Maha-deva)  and  lord  of  the  universe  (jagat-pitri,  visva-natha), 
who,  although  he  has  numerous  forms,  is  generally  worshipped 
under  one  mystical  shape — a  plain  upright  stone,  the  sign  or 
symbol  (linga)  of  generative  and  creative  power — scattered  in 
millions  of  shrines  over  every  part  of  India  ^.  And  hence, 
too,  it  came  to  pass  that,  in  the  end,  this  so-called  great  god 
was  often  identified  with  the  one  universal,  all-pervading,  self- 
existent  Spirit  of  Brahmanical  philosophy^. 

Yet  it  is  remarkable  that  with  the  increasing  tendency  to 
exalt  the  deity  Siva  to  the  highest  pinnacle  in  the  Hindu 
system,  the  desire  to  intensify  his  more  human  character  and 
to  multiply  those  inferior  attributes  which  deprive  him  of  all 
title  to  be  called  a  god  at  all,  increased  also.  In  the  later 
Indian  scriptures  he  has  ico8  names  (enumerated  in  Siva- 
purana  LXIX,  Anusasana-parvan  XVII,  see  pp.  105-107  of 
this  volume),  besides  local  appellations  and  a  corporeal  exist- 
ence almost  as  anthropomorphic  as  that  of  Vishnu. 

It  is  true  that  the  god  Siva  never  passed  through  the 
processes  of  birth,  childhood,  manhood,  or  any  of  the  stages 
of  a  recognized  human  existence  in  the  way  that  Rama  and 
Krishna  did  ^,  yet  he  has  his  local  incarnations  (see  p.  266), 
and,  irrespectively  of  these,  a  distinct  personality  of  his  own, 
and  a  biography  capable  of  being  written  with  more  precision 
than  that  of  Vishnu,  by  putting  together  the  allusions  and 
descriptions  in  the  Epic  poems  and  Puranas. 

In  the  first  place,  with  regard  to  his  supposed  residence, 
we  are  informed  in  these  writings  that  his  abode  is  Kailasa  in 
the  Himalaya,  which    is    also    that   of  his    countless   troops 


^  The  number  of  Lingas  in  India  is  estimated  at  three  krores 
(  =  30  millions). 

^  Sayana,  the  great  commentator  on  the  Rig-veda,  in  the  opening 
prayer  to  Siva  (as  identified  with  the  Supreme)  asserts  that  the  Veda  was 
his  breath  (ucchvasitam). 

^  Only  a  few  local  South-Indian  legends  make  him  go  through  human 
births. 


Saivism  or  Worship  of  Siva,  79 

(Ganas)  of  servants  \  as  well  as  of  Kubera,  god  of  wealth, 
who  is  in  a  similar  manner  surrounded  by  his  attendants  the 
Yakshas.  This  mountain-residence  is,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  the  special  heaven  of  Siva,  just  as  Vaikuntha  is  of  Vishnu. 
Thither  his  worshippers  hope  to  be  ultimately  transported, 
and  there  he  lives  with  his  wife  Parvati  (also  called  Durga, 
Kali,  Uma,  Bhavani,  Sati,  etc.),  with  the  divine  hero  Vlra- 
bhadra,  who  is  a  manifestation  of  his  own  energy,  and  with 
his  two  sons  Skanda  and  Ganesa.  The  latter  two  control 
Siva's  troops,  leading  some  to  battle  against  evil  demons,  and 
restraining  others  who  are  themselves  mischievous  imps  and 
would  turn  the  whole  world  into  a  scene  of  confusion  unless 
kept  in  check  ^.  It  is  probable  that  in  surrounding  the  god 
Rudra-Siva  with  armies  of  demons  and  Impish  attendants, 
and  making  his  sons  lead  and  control  them,  Hindu  mytholo- 
gists  merely  gave  expression  to  an  idea  inveterate  in  the 
Indian  mind,  that  all  disease,  destruction,  and  dissolution  are 
the  result  of  demoniacal  agency. 

With  regard  to  the  bodily  form,  mode  of  life,  and  behaviour 
attributed  to  Siva  in  his  later  character  of  lord  of  Kailasa,  it 
is  not  surprising  that  these  should  to  some  extent  be  borrowed 
from  the  ancient  description  of  him  in  the  Satarudriya  hymn 
before  quoted  (p.  76).  But  many  new  and  supernatural  features 
symbolical  of  his  later  functions  and  actions  are  added. 

In  the  first  place,  in  regard  to  his  corporeal  aspect,  he  has 
sometimes  five  faces  (Pailcanana) "',  sometimes  one  face,  with 

^  In  the  temple  at  Madura  I  saw  a  representation  of  Siva  borne  on  one 
of  the  Ganas.  Some  of  his  more  personal  attendants  have  special  names, 
such  as  Nandin  (often  confounded  with  his  vehicle  the  bull,  see  p.  8i), 
Bhringin,  and  Tanclu,  the  last  being  the  original  teacher  of  dancing. 

•^  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  troops  of  Siva  are  represented  as 
addicted  to  strong  drink  as  well  as  to  other  excesses,  and  in  this  respect 
their  master  Siva  sets  them  an  example  ;  see  pp.  84,  85. 

^  It  is  probable  that  the  five  faces  or  mouths  symbolize  the  five  Vedas 
(Rig,  Yajus,  Sama,  Taittirlya,  and  Vajasaneyin),  or  perhaps  the  five 
Pathas  (Sanihita,  Pada,  Krama,  Jata,  and  Ghana),  or  the  five  GayatrTs. 
The  Kularnava  Tantra  says  that  the  five  Amnayas  (the  eastern,  western, 


So  Saivism  or  Worship  of  Siva. 

three  eyes,  which  are  thought  to  denote  his  insight  into  past, 
present,  and  future  time. 

The  third  eye  is  in  his  forehead,  and  a  moon's  crescent 
above  it  marks  the  measuring  of  time  by  months,  while  a 
serpent  round  his  neck  denotes  the  endless  cycle  of  recurring 
years,  and  a  second  necklace  of  skulls  with  numerous  other 
serpents  about  his  person^  symbolizes  the  eternal  revolution 
of  ages,  and  the  successive  dissolution  and  regeneration  of 
the  races  of  mankind.  His  body  is  generally  covered  with 
ashes,  and  his  hair  thickly  matted  together,  and  gathered 
above  his  forehead  into  a  coil,  so  as  to  project  like  a  horn. 
On  the  top  of  it  he  bears  the  Ganges,  the  rush  of  which 
he  intercepted  in  its  descent  from  Vishnu's  foot,  that  the 
earth  might  not  be  crushed  by  the  weight  of  the  falling 
stream.  His  complexion  is  sometimes  white  ^5  from  the  re- 
flection of  the  snows  of  Kailasa,  sometimes  dark,  from  his 
identification  with  the  dark  destroyer  Time  (Kala).  His 
throat  is  blue,  from  the   stain  of  the  deadly  poison  which 


southern,  northern,  and  upper)  issued  from  Siva's  five  mouths.  Or  the 
five  elements  may  be  symbolized.  So  Brahma's  four  faces  are  said  to 
symbolize  the  source  of  the  four  Vedas.  So  also  many  images  of  Buddha 
in  India  and  Ceylon  have  five  rays  of  light  issuing  from  the  head. 

^  Serpents,  as  we  have  seen,  are  associated  with  both  Siva  and 
Vishnu.  The  latter,  as  is  well  known,  sleeps  on  a  serpent,  and  I  have 
often  seen  Lifigas  in  the  South  with  a  canopy  formed  of  a  five-headed 
serpent.  Images  of  Krishna  and  of  Buddha  are  also  so  represented. 
The  interchangeableness  of  Buddhism,  Saivism,  and  Vaishnavism  is 
everywhere  apparent. 

■''  There  is  a  legend  that  Siva  appeared  in  the  Kali  age,  for  the  good 
of  the  Brahmans,  as  Sveta  'the  white  one,'  and  that  he  had  four  dis- 
ciples, to  all  of  whom  the  epithet  Sveta  is  applied.  Possibly  the  attri- 
bution of  a  white  complexion  to  Siva  may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
Brahmans  of  Cashmere,  who  are  almost  as  fair  as  Europeans,  were  the 
first  adherents  of  Siva.  Then  as  his  cultus  passed  southwards  the  god 
naturally  received  a  complexion  more  in  keeping  with  that  of  his  wor-| 
shippers  there.  Or  it  may  be  that  white  and  black,  like  day  and  night, 
symbolized  the  close  connexion  and  succession  of  the  destroying  and 
regenerative  principles.  Siva's  wife  ParvatI  is  also  often  called  GaurT, 
the  pale-coloured. 


Saivism  or  Worship  of  Siva.  8i 

would  have  destroyed  the  world,  had  not  Siva  in  compassion 
for  the  human  race  undertaken  to  drink  it  up,  on  its  pro- 
duction at  the  churning  of  the  ocean.  He  rides  a  white 
bull  (called  Nandi),  images  of  which  are  often  placed  outside 
his  shrines  and  probably  typify  generative  energy.  He  is 
sometimes  represented  clothed  in  a  deer-skin,  sometimes  in 
the  skin  of  a  tiger  alleged  to  have  been  formerly  killed  by 
him  when  created  by  the  magical  arts  of  some  Rishis  who 
tried  to  destroy  the  god,  because  his  beauty  had  attracted 
the  amorous  glances  of  their  wives.  Sometimes,  again,  he 
appears  wearing  an  elephant's  skin  which  had  belonged  to 
a  demon  of  immense  power  named  Gaya,  whom  he  con- 
quered and  slew.  As  Siva  is  constantly  engaged  in  battle 
with  mighty  demons  (such  as  Pura,  Tripura,  Andhaka),  all 
of  whom  he  fought  and  slew,  he  is  armed  with  special 
weapons,  suited  to  his  warlike  needs ;  for  example,  he  carries 
a  three-pronged  trident  (trisula,)  which  may  either  denote 
the  three  attributes  of  Creator,  Destroyer,  and  Regenerator, 
or  else  all-destroying  Past,  Present,  and  Future  Time  ;  a  bow 
called  Ajagava  (and  Pinaka),  a  thunderbolt  (vajra),  an  axe, 
and  a  nondescript  weapon  called  Khatvaiiga,  consisting  of 
a  kind  of  staft*  with  transverse  pieces  surmounted  by  a  skull. 
He  also  holds  in  his  hand  a  noose  (pasa)  for  binding  his 
enemies,  and  a  kind  of  rattle  or  drum,  shaped  like  an  hour- 
glass, called  Damaru,  which  he  uses  as  a  musical  instrument 
to  keep  time  while  dancing. 

It  is  clear  from  all  this  symbolism  that  the  god  Siva,  as 
depicted  by  his  special  worshippers,  assumes  a  very  bewilder- 
ing and  confusing  variety  of  personalities  at  different  times. 
His  functions,  as  indicated  by  his  1008  names  (see  p.  106), 
are  innumerable  and  his  nature  all-comprehensive.  Yet 
an  attempt  may  be  made  to  disentangle  the  confusion  by 
pointing  out  that  there  are  really  five  chief  characters  of  the 
god  which  stand  out  prominently  from  his  general  portraiture 
and  are  capable  of  being  brought  out  into  definite  relief. 

G 


82  Saivism  or  Worship  of  Siva. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  he  is,  as  we  have  seen,  the  impersonation 
of  the  dissolving  and  disintegrating  powers  and  processes  of 
nature.  These  ought  really  to  be  regarded  as  set  in  action 
by  a  beneficent  being  who  performs  a  necessary  operation, 
but  in  the  later  phases  of  Hinduism  the  idea  of  dissolution  is 
invested  with  terror.  Siva  himself  is  converted  into  a  fierce 
universal  destroyer  (Sarva-bhuta-hara),  who  annihilates  at  the 
end  of  every  great  age  (kalpa)  not  only  men  and  all  created 
things,  but  good  and  evil  demons,  and  even  Brahma,  Vishnu, 
and  all  the  inferior  gods.  He  is  then  called  Rudra,  Maha-kala, 
Hara,  Anala  (Fire),  etc.  One  legend  makes  him  wear  the 
bones  and  skulls  of  the  gods  as  ornaments  and  garlands. 

Another  legend  describes  how  at  the  end  of  one  of  the 
early  ages  of  the  universe  he  burnt  up  the  gods  by  a  flash 
from  his  central  eye,  and  afterwards  rubbed  their  ashes  upon 
his  body;  whence  the  use  of  ashes  is  considered  of  great 
importance  in  his  worship.  Another  legend  accounts  for  the 
use  of  Rudraksha  berries  in  the  rosaries  of  Siva  by  describing 
how  he  once  let  fall  some  tears  of  rage  which  became  con- 
verted into  these  seeds.  Their  connexion  with  Siva-worship 
is  probably  due  to  their  roughness  and  to  their  possessing  five 
divisions  corresponding  to  the  god's  five  faces. 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  it  came  to  pass  that  the  god  in  this 
later  character  is  believed   to   delight  in   destruction  for  its^ 
own  sake.      He  is  called  Smasana-vasin,  *  dweller  in  burial- 
places.'     Cemeteries  and    burning-grounds  are  his  favourite! 
haunts;  imps  and  demons  (bhutas  and  pisacas)  are  his  ready j 
servants  ;  ferocity  and  irascibility,  on  the  slightest  provocation,: 
constitute  his  normal  condition  of  mind.      For  example,  on 
one  occasion,  when  the  sage  Daksha  omitted  to  invite  him 
and  his  wife  Sat!  to  a  great  sacrifice  at  which  all  the  gods 
were  guests,  he  without  the  slightest  hesitation  decapitated 
the  unfortunate  sage  and  replaced  his  head  by  that  of  a  ram. 
So  again  a  sculpture  in  the  caves  of  Elephanta  represents  him 
with  eight  arms  in  the  act   of  immolating  a  child.     In  this 


i 


Saivism  or  Worship  of  Siva.  8 


J 


character  he  is  called  Bhairava,  '  the  terrible ; '  Vlra-bhadra 
being  sometimes  identified  with  him.  But  in  the  present  day 
these  terrible  attributes  are  generally  transferred  from  the 
male  deity  to  his  wife  in  the  form  Durga  or  Kali. 

II.  In  the  second  place,  Siva  is  the  impersonation  of  the 
eternal  reproductive  power  of  Nature,  perpetually  reintegrating 
after  disintegration  (whence  his  names  Pitri,  Matri,  Bhiita- 
bhavana,  Sarva-bhavakara  ;  see  pp.  io6, 107).  It  is  especially 
in  this  personality  that  he  is  worshipped  as  if  he  were  Brahma 
'  the  Creator '  and  called  '  the  eternally  blessed  one,'  '  the 
causer  of  blessings'  (Siva,  Sada-Siva,  Sahkara,  and  Sambhu) 
— not,  however,  under  the  form  of  a  man,  but  under  the  often 
misunderstood  symbol  of  the  Lihga^  (see  p.  68  and  note),  which 
is  sometimes  represented  with  four  faces  (see  Chap.  XXII). 

III.  In  the  third  place,  Siva  is  the  typical  ascetic  and  self- 
mortifier  (Yogi,  Tapasvl),  who  has  attained  the  highest  per- 
fection in  abstract  meditation  and  austerity  (whence  his 
names  Maha-tapah,  Maha-yogi).  In  this  character  he  appears 
quite  naked  (Dig-ambara),  with  only  one  face,  like  an  ordinary 
human  being,  with  ash-besmeared  body  and  matted  hair 
(whence  his  name  Dhurjati)  sitting  in  profound  meditation 
under  a  Banian  tree  (=:Vata  or  Bar  tree),  and  often,  like  the 
contemplative  Buddha,  under  a  canopy  formed  by  a  serpent's 
head  ^.  There  he  is  supposed  to  remain  passionless,  motion- 
less, immovable,  as  the  trunk  of  a  tree  (sthanu),  and  perhaps 
rooted  to  the  same  spot  for  millions  of  years. 

Another  legend  describes  how  Siva,  when  engaged  in  a 
course  of  asceticism,  scorched  the  god  of  love  (Kama-deva)  to 
ashes  by  a  flash  of  rage  from  his  central  eye,  because  that 


I  ^  The  Lifiga  (or  representation  of  the  male  organ)  is  sometimes  de- 
j  nounced  as  '  an  abominable  symbol.'  Nevertheless  it  is  never  by  Saivas 
I  connected  with  the  passion  of  love.  This  passion  belongs  to  Vaishnavism 
rather  than  to  Saivism.  Some  think  that  the  worship  of  the  Lifiga  was 
borrowed  from  pre-Aryan  or  aboriginal  tribes,  but  see  p.  71. 

^  The  serpent  is  often  five-headed,  which  appears  to  have  some  con- 
nection with  Siva's  five  faces.     Compare  note  3,  p.  79. 

G  2 


84  Saivism  or  Worship  of  Siva. 

deity  attempted  to  inflame  him  with  passion  for  his  consort 
Parvati. 

It  is  in  his  character  of  Yogi  that  he  teaches  men  by  his 
own  example  the  power  to  be  acquired  by  mortification  of 
the  body,  suppression  of  the  passions,  and  abstract  contem- 
plation, as  leading  to  the  loftiest  spiritual  knowledge  and 
ultimately  effecting  union  with  himself  in  Kailasa. 

IV.  In  the  fourth  place,  the  god  Siva  is  a  contemplative 
philosopher  and  learned  sage,  the  revealer  of  Grammar  to  the 
greatest  of  Indian  grammarians,  Panini  ^  And  in  this  cha- 
racter he  is  represented  as  a  Brahman  wearing  the  Brahmani- 
cal  thread^,  well-skilled  in  the  Veda,  and  especially  conversant 
with  the  Krama  arrangement  of  the  text.  So  much  so  that 
a  saying  is  current  among  the  Pandits :  '  No  one,  who  is  not 
Rudra,  can  repeat  the  Krama '  (narudrah  Krama-pathakah). 
Among  his  names,  too,  are  Mantra-vid,  Brahma-vid,  Brahma- 
carl,  and  Panditah.  This,  in  fact,  is  one  of  many  proofs  that 
at  least  one  form  of  Saivism  is  as  much  the  peculiar  system 
of  Brahmans,  learned  men,  and  the  higher  classes  of  the 
Hindu  community,  as  Vaishnavism  is  of  men  of  the  world, 
kings,  heroes,  and  the  lower  classes  ^.  In  fact,  a  verse  from 
the  ancient  version  of  Manu  is  often  quoted  : — '  Siva  is  the 
god  of  the  Brahmans,  Krishna  (Vishnu)  of  the  Kshatriyas, 
Brahma  of  the  Vaisyas,  and  Ganesa  of  Sudras.' 

V.  In  the  fifth  place,  Siva  is  exactly  the  opposite  of  an 
ascetic  and  philosopher.  He  is  a  wild  and  jovial  moun- 
taineer (Kirata),  addicted  to  hunting  and  wine-drinking,  fond 
of   dancing  (Nritya-priya,    also    called     Natesvara,  '  lord    of 

^  The  first  fourteen  sutras  of  Panini  are  called  the  Siva-sutras,  and 
the  whole  grammar  is  believed  to  be  a  revelation  fi-om  Siva,  whence  one 
of  Siva's  names  is  Vyakaranottarah.  The  miracle  is  made  more  remark- 
able by  representing  the  reputed  author  Panini  as  naturally  stupid. 

^  I  noticed  that  a  carving  of  Siva  in  the  caves  of  Ellora  represents  him 
with  the  Brahmanical  thread.     His  son  Ganesa  also  wears  this  thread. 

^  There  is  another  common  saying,  Navishnuh  prithivl-patih,  '  No  one 
except  he  resemble  Vishnu  ought  to  be  a  king.' 


Saivism  or  Worship  of  Siva.  85 

dancers'),  often  dancing  with  his  wife  the  Tandava  dance, 
and  surrounded  by  dwarfish,  buffoon-like  troops  (gana)  of 
attendants,  who,  like  their  master,  are  fond  of  good  living 
and  occasionally  inebriated  by  intoxicating  liquors.  The 
worshippers  of  Siva  in  this  character  usually  (but  not  invari- 
ably) belong  to  the  sect  called  Saktas,  who  are  devoted  to 
the  wife  of  the  god,  and  are  given  to  self-indulgence  and 
sensual  gratification.  Their  religious  books  are  called  Tan- 
tras,  and  their  tenets  will  be  explained  under  the  head  of 
Saktism  (see  p.  180). 

A  still  more  remarkable  aspect  of  the  god  is  as  a  being 
half-male,  half-female  (Ardha-nari)  ^.  This  seems  to  be  con- 
nected with  the  second  of  the  characters  just  described.  It 
symbolizes  both  the  duality  and  unity  of  the  generative  act  and 
the  production  of  the  universe  from  the  union  of  two  eternal 
principles  (Prakriti  and  Purusha,  Maya  and  Brahman),  accord- 
ing to  the  Sankhya  and  Vedanta  systems  (see  p.  183). 

Further,  it  should  be  noted  that,  according  to  some  Puranas, 
there  are  eight  principal  personal  manifestations  of  Siva,  called 
Rudra,  Bhairava (or  Bhlma),  Ugra, Isvara (or  Isana or  Isa),  Maha- 
deva  (or  Mahesvara),  Pasu-pati,  Sarva  (Sarva),  and  Bhava. 

Again,  he  is  specially  manifested  in  eight  material  forms 
(Tanus) — Fire,  Water,  Earth,  Air,  Ether  (which  are  the  five 
elements,  typified  by  his  five  faces),  the  Sun,  Moon,  and  the 
sacrificing  Brahman.     By  these  he  upholds  the  world. 

In  Southern  India  Siva  is  celebrated  as  the  worker  of  64 
special  miracles.  He  raised  the  dead,  healed  the  blind,  deaf, 
lame,  etc.,  and  gave  similar  powers  to  (»'>,  of  his  saints.  The 
story  of  these  miracles  is  given  in  the  Madhura-sthala-purana, 
and  I  saw  many  representations  of  them  both  at  Madura  and 
Tanjore.     (For  other  names  of  Siva,  see  pp.  106,  107.) 

^  In  the  caves  of  Elephanta  I  saw  a  fine  carving  of  Siva  and  ParvatI 
thus  united  in  one  body.  The  female  side  forms  the  left  side  of  the  god, 
and  is  represented  holding  a  looking-glass.  It  is  noticeable  that  the  wife 
is  always  on  the  left  side,  except  as  a  bride  at  the  nuptial  ceremony. 


86  Saivism,     Saiva  Sects.  \ 

The  great  variety  of  Siva's  characters  does  not  seem  to 
have  led  to  a  corresponding  variety  of  Saiva  sects.  We  find 
that  Saivism  has  not,  Hke  Vaishnavism,  resolved  itself  into 
many  separate  organized  societies  under  great  religious 
leaders.  It  would  in  truth  be  difficult  to  name  any  con- 
spicuous apostle  and  teacher  of  pure  Saivism  (certainly  not 
Basaba,  p.  88),  like  the  celebrated  Vaishnava  teachers  Rama- 
nuja,  Madhva,  Vallabha,  and  Caitanya  (pp.  1 19-145).  For 
we  have  already  seen  that  the  great  Sankara,  though  held  by 
some  to  have  Saiva  proclivities,  abstained  from  inculcating 
devotion  to  any  one  god  more  than  to  another. 

Unquestionably  all  Hindus,  even  the  strictest  Vaishnavas, 
are  ready  to  pay  homage  to  Siva  in  his  first  and  second 
characters  of  Dissolver  and  Regenerator.  It  is  clear,  too, 
that  in  the  days  of  Sankara  several  sects  of  Saivas  existed 
and  became  the  object  of  his  controversial  onslaughts.  In 
the  Sahkara-vijaya  six  are  named:  to  wit,  i.  the  Saivas, /^r 
excellence^  who  had  the  Lihga  branded  on  both  arms ;  2.  the 
Raudras,  who  had  the  trident  branded  on  the  forehead ; 
3.  the  Ugras,  who  had  the  Damaru  (see  p.  81)  branded  on 
the  two  arms  ;  4.  the  Bhattas,  who  had  the  Liiiga  on  the 
forehead  ;  5.  the  Jaiigamas,  who  bore  the  trident  on  the  head 
and  carried  a  Lihga  made  of  stone  on  their  persons  ;  6.  the 
Pasupatas,  who  had  the  latter  symbol  branded  on  the  fore- 
head, arms,  breast,  and  navel. 

These  sects  are  described  in  the  Sahkara-vijaya  as  hostile 
to  the  doctrine  of  Non-duality  (Advaita-drohinah).  Their 
practice  of  branding  is  denounced  by  Sankara  on  the  ground 
that  various  gods  are  present  in  ^"he  limbs  of  the  human  body  •^, 
who  are  driven  away  by  the  burning  (tapana)  of  the  skin. 

Of  the  six  sects  named  only  the  two  last  are  numerous  in 
the  present  day,  and  both  these  have  altered  not  a  few  of  their 
tenets  and  practices.     In  modern  times  Saiva  sectarians  are 

^  May  we  not  compare  the  Christian  idea  of  the  sanctity  of  the  body 
as  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost  t 


Saivism,     Bodily  Mortification  or  Tap  as.       '^'] 

generally  followers  of  Siva  in  his  third  character  of  an  ascetic. 
They  profess  to  practise,  like  their  god,  severe  austerities  and 
bodily  mortifications.  Numbers  of  them  may  be  seen  at 
sacred  places  of  pilgrimage,  where  their  appearance  as  self- 
mortifying  mendicants  is  often  revolting  to  Europeans. 

Those  who  call  themselves  Sannyasis  are  the  most  respect- 
able. Indeed  all  twice-born  men  towards  the  close  of  their  lives 
ought  to  abandon  their  wives  and  all  worldly  ties  and  become 
Sannyasis  (p.  ^'^.  But  the  ordinary  Sannyasis  are  not  of  the 
orthodox  type.  They  are  often  confounded  with  other  orders 
of  mendicant  devotees  such  as  VairagTs  (held  to  be  Vaishnavas), 
Gosains,  and  Yogis  (Jogis) ;  the  latter  being  a  general  name 
for  all  Tapasvis  who  seek  by  their  austerities  (tapas)  to  achieve 
union  (yoga)  with  the  deity  ^ 

Self-mortification  (tapas,  tapasya),  in  fact,  and  the  practice 
of  Yoga  is  not  confined  to  Saivism  (see  p.  72)  or  even  to 
Hinduism  (see  my  book  on  Buddhism,  p.  226). 

The  theory  is  that  a  Hindii  who  aims  at  perfection  ought 
to  go  through  six  successive  courses  of  austerity  (tapas)  for 
twelve  years  each,  rising  by  degrees  up  to  the  highest  order  of 
all — the  Parama-haosa,  who  is  supposed  to  be  wholly  absorbed 
in  meditating  on  Brahman,  and  to  do  nothing  else  whatever. 

Then  there  is  an  order  of  Saiva  ascetics  called  Dandin, 
or  staff-bearers,  ten  divisions  of  whom — called  Dasa-namI 
Dandins,  said  to  carry  ten  different  forms  of  staff — are  alleged 
to  have  been  founded  by  Sahkaracarya. 

There  are  also  the  Aghora-panthls  (panthi  from  Sanskrit 
pathin),  who  propitiate  Siva  by  their  revolting  diet,  feeding 
on  filth  and  animal  excreta  of  all  kinds.  It  is  asserted  that 
some  eat  corpses  stolen  from  Muhammadan  burial-grounds, 
and  that  the  head  of  the  Aghorls  near  Siddhapur  subsists  on 

^  They  are  sometimes  called  Sadhus,  and  often  Fakirs.  The  latter  name 
ought  to  be  restricted  to  Muhammadan  mendicants.  Bhagat  (probably 
for  Bhakta)  is  sometimes  used  for  Vaishnava  devotees.  Mahant  is  applied 
to  a  leader  of  one  of  these  sects,  or  to  the  head  of  a  monastery. 


88 


Saivism,     Saiva  Sects,  / 


scorpions,  lizards,  and  loathsome  insects  left  to  putrefy  in  a 
dead  man's  skull  (Agama-prakasa,  p.  7).  Happily  the  number 
of  these  disgusting  ascetics  is  decreasing.  I  only  met  one  in  the 
whole  course  of  my  travels — a  revolting  creature  at  Benares. 

Then  there  are  the  tJrdhva-bahus,  who  extend  one  or  both 
arms  over  the  head  and  hold  them  in  that  position  for  years. 
This  kind  of  devotee,  too,  is  not  so  common  as  in  former 
days.  During  the  whole  course  of  my  travels  I  only  saw  two 
examples,  one  at  Gaya  and  the  other  at  Benares.  The  arm 
of  the  former  was  quite  withered,  and  his  fist  was  so  tightly 
clenched  that  the  nails  were  growing  through  the  back  of  his 
hand.  The  latter  looked  like  a  piece  of  sculpture,  sitting  in 
a  niche  of  the  Anna-purna  temple,  perfectly  motionless  and 
impassive,  with  naked  body  smeared  all  over  with  white  ashes, 
matted  hair,  and  the  forefinger  of  the  upraised  hand  pointing 
to  the  heaven  to  which  in  imagination  he  seemed  to  be  already 
transporting  himself. 

There  are  also  the  Akasa-mukhins,  who  keep  their  necks 
bent  back  looking  up  at  the  sky ;  the  Kapalikas,  who  use  a 
dead  man's  skull  for  a  drinking-cup  ^.  (See  also  Chap.  XXII.) 

Most  of  these  Saiva  ascetics  are  disreputable  in  character 
and  decidedly  dirty  in  their  habits.  Cleanliness  is  said  to  be 
next  to  godliness,  and  Hindus  in  their  general  habits  are  quite 
as  cleanly  as  Europeans  ;  yet  dirt  appears  to  be  regarded  as  a 
necessary  accompaniment  of  particular  forms  of  sanctity^. 

We  may  also  note  that  a  sect  of  Saivas  exists  in  the  South 
of  India — mostly  in  the  Mysore  and  Kanarese  country — who 
were  formed  into  a  religious  community  about  the  eleventh 
or  twelfth  century  by  a  leader  named  Basaba  (for  Sanskrit 
Vrishabha),  and  are  called  Lihgavats  (popularly  Lingaits), 
because  they  wear  the  Linga  in  a  silver  or  metallic  casket 


^  This  order  is  said  to  have  been  founded  by  Sahkara  ;  compare  p.  59. 

^  But  only  in  the  case  of  ascetics.  The  late  Lord  Beaconsfield  was 
right  when  he  said  that  Moses,  Muhammad,  and  Manu  all  make  cleanli- 
ness a  religious  duty. 


Saivism.     Saiva  Sects.  89 

suspended  round  their  necks  with  a  cord  like  a  necklace. 
They  are  usually  identified  with  the  Jarigamas  of  Saiikara's 
day,  described  as  utterly  unorthodox. 

In  fact,  this  sect  is  opposed  to  all  the  orthodox  practices 
and  usages  of  the  Hindus,  such  as  caste-distinctions^,  the 
authority  of  the  Brahmans,  the  inspiration  of  the  Veda,  and 
Brahmanical  sacrifices  ;  and  they  bury  instead  of  burning  their 
dead.     Their  tenets  are  embodied  in  the  Basaba-purana. 

With  regard  to  Saiva  philosophical  doctrines  it  should  be 
observed  that,  like  those  of  the  Vaishnava  sects,  they  deviate 
more  or  less  from  the  orthodox  Vedanta  doctrine  of  the 
identity  of  the  Supreme  and  human  Spirit,  the  amount  of 
deviation  depending  of  course  on  the  intensity  of  the  person- 
ality attributed  to  Siva. 

A  particular  Saiva  philosophy,  which  may  be  called  the 
Saiva-darsana  par  excellence^  was  taught  in  India  about  the 
eleventh  century.  It  was  handed  down  in  twenty-eight  books, 
called  Agamas,  almost  all  of  which  are  lost.  This  philosophy 
is  followed  by  a  sect  in  the  South,  and  is  opposed  to  the  non- 
duality  of  the  Vedanta.  It  taught  a  kind  of  Visishtadvaita — 
like  that  of  the  Vaishnava  teacher  Ramanuja  (see  p.  119) — the 
distinctive  feature  of  which  was  that  three  entities  have  a 
separate  existence,  i.  The  Lord  (Siva)  called  Pasu-pati, '  lord 
of  the  soul '  (Pasu).  2.  The  human  soul  called  Pasu,  '  an 
animal.'  3.  Matter  called  Pasa,  'a  fetter.'  The  soul  which 
belongs  to  the  Lord  as  to  a  master,  is  bound  by  matter  as  a 
beast  (pasu)  is  by  a  fetter  ;  and  of  course  the  great  aim  of  this 
Saiva  philosophy  is  to  set  it  free  and  restore  it  to  its  rightful 
owner.  These  doctrines  have  evidently  much  in  common  with 
the  theistic  Sahkhya. 

Another  Saiva  sect,  called  Pasupata,  already  noticed  (pp.  59, 

^  The  Lingaits  of  the  present  day  are  said  to  be  returning  to  caste- 
rules,  and  only  to  disregard  caste  on  certain  days  of  the  week.  I  have 
heard  some  declare  that  they  belong  to  a  fifth  caste  (paiicama)  which  is 
superior  to  the  four  castes  of  the  Brahmanical  system. 


90  Saivism,     Saiva  Ceremonies. 

86)  is  connected  with  the  preceding,  much  as  the  Madhva  is 
with  the  Ramanuja ;  for  instead  of  affirming  the  separate  ex- 
istence of  three  entities  they  only  distinguish  between  two — 
Pati  and  Pasu.  The  former  (Pati)  is  the  Lord  (Isvara),  the 
cause  and  evolver  (karta)  of  all  things  ;  the  latter  is  the  effect 
(karya)  or  that  which  is  evolved  out  of  the  cause  and  wholly 
dependent  on  it.  The  Pasupatas  induce  ecstatic  union  with 
their  lord  by  singing,  dancing,  and  gesticulations. 

I    defer    to    a    subsequent    chapter    a    description    of  the 
principal  Saiva  temples  visited  by  me  (see  p.  434). 

Nevertheless,  an  account  of  the  ceremonies  I  saw  performed 
at  a  Lihga  shrine  near  Bombay  may  be  introduced  here. 

It  has  been  already  stated  that  on  ordinary  occasions  the 
form  of  worship  consists  in  simply  pouring  water  over  the 
Linga  and  offering  Bilva  leaves  (see  p.  68).  On  great  festi- 
vals a  more  complicated  ceremonial  is  observed.  In  the  year 
1877  I  visited  the  temple  dedicated  to  Siva  at  Walkesvar, 
near  Bombay,  on  the  morning  after  the  Siva-rat  (rat=:ratri) 
or  fast  kept  in  honour  of  the  god.  The  Lihga  shrine  there  is 
not  large,  and  the  symbol  is  not  too  sacred  to  be  exposed 
to  observation.  I  was  permitted,  in  fact,  to  stand  close  to 
the  entrance  of  the  small  sanctuary  and  to  note  down  all  I 
witnessed.  In  the  centre  of  the  shrine  was  the  Liriga,  a  plain 
upright  stone,  which  on  the  occasion  of  the  Siva-rat  cere- 
mony was  covered  with  a  pile  of  Bilva  (Bil  ^)  leaves.  Near 
it  there  were  several  high  candlesticks  with  lights  kept  con- 
tinually burning.  Behind,  in  a  niche,  was  the  image  of  Siva's 
wife  ParvatI,  which  on  the  occasion  of  my  visit  was  loaded 
with  sacred  flowers  resembling  marigolds.  In  front,  looking 
into  the  sanctuary,  was  the  image  of  a  bull  made  of  brass;] 
the  bull  being  Siva's  vehicle,  and,  like  the  Lihga,  symbolical; 
of  reproductive  energy.  Above  the  upright  stone  was  hang- 
ing a  large  vase  full  of  water.      It  had  a  perforation  in  its 

^  The  Bilva,  corrupted  into  Bll,  is  the  ^gle  Marmelos,  a  very  astringent 
plant. 


Saivisin.     Saiva  Ceremonies.  91 

lowest  part  through  which  the  liquid  trickled  out,  drop  by 
drop,  falling  at  regular  intervals  on  the  symbol  underneath. 
When  I  asked  a  bystander  the  meaning  of  this  constant 
dripping  (see  p.  6(S),  he  replied  with  much  naivete  :  '  Holy 
water  from  the  Ganges  is  falling  on  the  head  of  God.'  No 
further  explanation  appeared  to  him  to  be  needed.  In  front 
of  the  porch  before  the  door  of  the  sanctuary  were  three  long 
rows  of  bells,  and  above  them  a  line  of  svastikas  or  sacred 
crosses^  interspersed  with  trees  and  figures  of  elephants,  and 
over  all  the  hood  of  a  cobra  snake.  Above  the  door  itself 
was  the  imac^e  of  Siva's  son  Gancsa. 

Outside  the  shrine,  on  the  morning  of  my  visit,  stood  a  row 
of  male  worshippers  (three  or  four  women  standing  near),  and 
in  front  of  them  a  priest,  holding  a  tray  of  Bilva  leaves,  sup- 
posed to  possess  cooling  properties  grateful  to  the  god  Siva. 
Some  of  these  the  priest  placed  in  the  hands  of  each  wor- 
shipper, at  the  same  time  muttering  prayers  and  texts.  Next 
he  dipped  his  finger  in  a  vase  of  holy  water  and  touched  the 
two  eyes  and  breasts  of  each.  To  me,  a  spectator,  it  seemed 
exactly  as  if  he  were  making  the  sign  of  a  cross  on  their 
bodies.  Then  each  of  the  worshippers  heaped  the  leaves 
received  from  the  priest  on  the  head  of  the  bull.  I  noticed 
that  some  also  besprinkled  it  with  saffron  (kunkuma)  powder, 
which  they  purchased  from  a  man  standing  near. 

This  preliminary  ceremony  ended,  all  entered  the  shrine, 
and  after  ringing  the  bells  at  the  entrance,  prostrated  them- 
selves before  the  central  symbol,  touching  the  ground  with 
their  foreheads.  Their  next  act  was  to  pile  more  Bilva 
leaves  on  the  stone  symbol.  Then  tc.king  small  lotas  of  holy 
water,  they  poured  abundance  of  the  sacred  liquid  over  both 
leaves  and  symbol.  All  the  worshippers  then  seated  them- 
selves  in   a  circle  round  the  central   stone  while  the  priest 

^  The  Svastika  mark  is  an  auspicious  symbol  with  four  arms  in  the 
form  of  a  Greek  cross,  the  termination  of  each  arm  being  bent  round  in 
the  direction  of  the  sun's  course.     See  note  i,  p.  104. 


92  Saivism.     Saiva  Ceremonies. 

lighted  lamps  and  waved  them  before  it.  Every  now  and 
then  a  fresh  worshipper  entered  the  shrine,  ringing  one  of  the 
bells  at  the  door  before  entering.  Moreover,  in  the  shrine 
there  was  a  constant  ringing  of  small  portable  bells  and  clap- 
ping of  hands,  as  if  to  draw  the  attention  of  the  deity  wor- 
shipped to  the  prayers  muttered  by  his  worshippers,  while  a 
number  of  priests  in  another  part  of  the  sanctuary  intoned 
texts  and  chanted  hymns  in  chants  very  like  Gregorian. 

Outside  the  shrine,  on  one  side,  sat  a  nearly  naked  ascetic, 
with  long  matted  hair  coiled  round  and  round  into  a  high 
peak,  his  face  and  body  covered  with  white  ashes.  On  the 
other  side  sat  a  Brahman  with  a  little  wooden  table  before 
him,  on  which  was  a  lota  of  holy  water,  several  implements 
of  worship,  and  a  copy  of  one  of  the  Puranas  or  ancient 
sacred  scriptures.  He  had  three  white  streaks  on  his  fore- 
head and  the  same  on  his  shoulders  to  denote  his  devotion 
to  Siva.  Hanging  over  his  left  shoulder  and  under  his  right 
arm  was  the  sacred  cord  of  three  coils  of  cotton — the  mark 
of  his  second  birth — and  his  right  hand  was  inserted  in  a 
Gomukhi  or  rosary  bag.  I  asked  what  he  was  doing.  '  He  is 
counting  the  beads  of  his  rosary,'  said  a  bystander,  '  and  each 
time  he  tells  his  beads  he  repeats  one  of  the  1008  names  of  the 
god  Siva  over  and  over  again,  but  this  operation  must  on  no 
account  be  seen,  and  so  the  hand  and  rosary  are  concealed  in 
the  bag.' 

No  doubt  he  was  muttering  to  himself,  but  in  so  low  a  tone 
that  no  sound  was  audible ;  and  his  eyes  were  intently  fixed, 
as  if  in  profound  meditation,  which  neither  my  presence  nor 
anything  passing  around  appeared  to  distract  for  a  single 
instant. 

Another  devotee  was  also  seated  cross-legged  outside  the 
entrance  to  the  shrine,  whose  intoning  of  one  of  the  Siva- 
puranas  and  muttering  of  prayers  (japa)  was  audible  to  every 
one.  He  had  before  him  a  low  wooden  table,  on  which  was 
a    Rudraksha    rosary  (see   p.    82),  a    Linga-purana,   a   little 


•       Saivism.     Saiva  Ceremonies.  93 

metal  saucer  of  rice,  a  small  lota  of  holy  water  on  a  three- 
legged  stand,  a  little  spoon,  a  heap  of  Bilva  leaves,  a  sacred 
conch-shell  (sankha) — sometimes  blown  like  a  horn  or  used 
as  a  Saiva  symbol,  though  usually  appropriated  to  Vishnu — 
three  green  mangoes,  a  small  bell,  a  leaf  full  of  dates,  and  a 
little  bag  containing  the  Vibhuti  or  white  ashes  for  marking 
his  forehead  with  the  three  Saiva  streaks.  While  I  was 
taking  this  catalogue  he  took  no  notice  of  my  proceedings, 
but  continued  muttering  his  prayers  with  intense  earnestness, 
as  if  quite  abstracted  from  the  world  around  him. 

Though  greatly  interested  in  all  I  was  allowed  to  witness, 
I  came  away  sick  at  heart.  No  one  could  be  present  at  such 
a  scene  without  feeling  depressed  by  the  thought  that,  not- 
withstanding all  our  efforts  for  the  extension  of  education 
and  the  diffusion  of  knowledge,  we  have  as  yet  done  little  to 
loosen  the  iron  grip  of  idolatry  and  superstition  on  the  masses 
of  the  people.  Indeed  it  would  be  easy  to  show  that  other 
forms  of  Siva-worship  are  characterized  by  superstitious 
observances  of  a  still  lower  type.  Turn  we,  for  example,  to 
the  ceremonies  performed  at  the  great  Saiva  temple  of 
Bhuvanesvara  in  Orissa.  These  are  so  unique  that  I  may 
be  pardoned  for  giving  some  idea  of  them  before  concluding 
this  chapter.  My  authority  is  Dr.  Rajendralala  Mitra,  who 
has  described  the  ceremonial  in  the  second  volume  of  his 
work  on  Orissa.  Siva  is  worshipped  at  that  particular  locality 
under  the  form  of  a  large  uncarved  block  or  slab  of  granite, 
about  eight  feet  long,  partly  buried  in  the  ground,  partly 
apparent  above  the  soil  to  the  height  of  about  eight  inches. 
The  block  is  believed  to  be  a  Liiiga  of  the  Svayam-bhu  class 
(see  p.  69),  and  is  surrounded  by  a  rim,  supposed,  of  course, 
to  represent  the  female  organ  (Yoni).  The  daily  worship 
consists  of  no  less  than  twenty-two  ceremonial  acts. 

(i)  At  the  first  appearance  of  dawn  bells  are  rung  to  rouse 
the  deity  from  his  slumbers  ;  (2)  a  lamp  with  many  wicks  is 
waved  in  front  of  the  stone  ;  (3)  the  god's  teeth  are  cleaned 


94  Saivism.     Saiva  Ceremonies, 

by  pouring  water  and  rubbing  a  stick  about  a  foot  long 
on  the  stone  ;  (4)  the  deity  is  washed  and  bathed  by  empty- 
ing several  pitchers  of  water  on  the  stone ;  (5)  the  god  is 
dressed  by  putting  clothes  on  the  stone ;  (6)  the  first  break- 
fast is  offered,  consisting  of  grain,  sweetmeats,  curd,  and 
cocoanuts ;  (7)  the  god  has  his  principal  breakfast,  when 
cakes  and  more  substantial  viands  are  served ;  (8)  a  kind  of 
little  lunch  is  offered ;  (9)  the  god  has  his  regular  lunch ; 
(10)  the  mid-day  dinner  is  served,  consisting  of  curry,  rice, 
pastry,  cakes,  cream,  etc.,  while  a  priest  waves  a  many- 
flamed  lamp  and  burns  incense  before  the  stone;  (11)  strains 
of  noisy  discordant  music  rouse  the  deity  from  his  afternoon 
sleep  at  4  P.M.,  the  sanctuary  having  been  closed  for  the  pre- 
ceding four  hours;  (12)  sweetmeats  are  offered;  (13)  the 
afternoon  bath  is  administered  ;  (14)  the  god  is  dressed  as 
in  the  morning;  (15)  another  meal  is  served;  (16)  another 
bath  is  administered;  (17)  the  full-dress  ceremony  takes 
place,  when  fine  costly  vestments,  yellow  flowers,  and  per- 
fumery are  placed  on  the  stone;  (18)  another  offering  of 
food  follows;  (19)  after  an  hour's  interval  the  regular  supper 
is  served  ;  (20)  five  masks  (p.  79)  and  a  Damaru  (p.  81)  are 
brought  in  and  oblations  made;  (21)  waving  of  lights  (arti; 
Sanskrit,  arati)  is  performed  before  bedtime  ;  (22)  a  bedstead  is 
brought  into  the  sanctuary  and  the  god  composed  to  sleep. 

Of  course  the  offerings  are  ultimately  eaten  by  the  priests 
and  attendants,  the  superfluity  being  sold  as  sacred  food. 

This  Bhuvanesvara  ceremonial  seems  to  be  an  imitation  of 
the  forms  of  worship  offered  to  the  images  of  Krishna. 

It  is  satisfactory  to  find  that  many  enlightened  Brahmans 
in  the  present  day  are  not  afraid  to  express  their  disapproval 
of  idol-offerings.  In  a  Gujarat!  work  written  by  a  learned 
Brahman  (Agama-prakasa,  p.  162)  we  read  :  '  When  one 
remembers  the  greatness  of  the  perfect  God  who  is  Existence, 
Thought,  and  Bliss  (p.  34),  how  can  any  idea  be  formed  of 
offering  food  and  oblations  to  such  a  Being  ? ' 


CHAPTER    V. 

Vaishnavism  or   Worship  of  Vishnu. 

The  preceding  chapters  of  this  work  will,  I  trust,  have 
made  it  clear  that,  in  respect  of  religious  belief,  the  Hindus 
of  the  present  day  may  be  broadly  divided  into  three  principal 
classes-^,  namely,  (i)  Smartas,  (2)  Saivas^  (3)  Vaishnavas. 

The  first  (p.  ^^  believe  that  man's  spirit  is  identical  with 
the  one  Spirit  (Atma,  Brahma'-)  which  is  the  essence  and  sub- 
stratum of  the  Universe  and  only  cognizable  through  internal 
meditation  and  self-communion.  They  regard  that  Spirit  as 
the  highest  object  of  all  religious  knowledge  and  aspiration. 
They  are  also  believers  in  the  Tri-miarti ;  that  is,  in  the  three 
personal  gods,  Brahma,  Siva,  and  Vishnu — with  their  train  of 
subordinate  deities — but  only  as  coequal  manifestations  of 
the  one  eternal  impersonal  Spirit,  and  as  destined  ultimately 

^  These,  of  course,  are  capable  of  subdivision. 

-  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  Atman  (which  is  the  earlier  word  for  the 
one  Spirit  of  the  Universe)  is  masculine,  while  Brahman,  the  later  word, 
is  neuter.  The  etymology  of  Atman  is  doubtful.  Some  derive  it  from 
at,  to  move ;  others  from  ah,  connected  with  ahain,  I ;  others  from  vd^ 
to  blow  as  the  wind  ;  and  others  (as  we  have  seen)  from  a7i,  to  breathe 
(compare  p.  20).  No  doubt  atman  was  originally  the  breath  of  life — the 
breath  that  animates  the  Universe  and  man's  living  soul — the  power  in 
which  and  by  which  man  lives,  and  moves,  and  has  his  being.  In  the 
well-known  hymn  Rig-veda  I.  115.  i,  the  Sun  (Surya) — interpreted  by  ad- 
vanced Pandits  to  mean  the  Supreme  Being — is  called  the  Soul  (Atman) 
of  the  Universe  (that  is,  of  all  that  moves  and  is  immovable)  ;  and  in  the 
Taittirlya  Aranyaka,  VIII.  i,the  ethereal  element  called  Akasa  (supposed 
to  fill  and  pervade  the  Universe  and  to  be  the  vehicle  of  life)  is  said  to 
be  produced  from  Atman.  The  name  Brahman,  which  is  the  most  usual 
name  for  the  one  Spirit  of  the  Universe  in  later  writings,  was  at  first 
connected  with  the  spiritual  power  inherent  in  the  Vedic  hymns  and 
prayers.  The  Veda  itself  is  often  called  Brahma,  and  described  as  the 
breath  (ucchvasita)  of  the  Supreme. 


7 


g6  Vaishnavism  or  Worship  of  Vishnu. 

to  be  reabsorbed  into  that  Spirit  and  so  disappear  ^.  This  is 
the  only  orthodox  form  of  Brahmanical  religious  thought, 
and  those  Brahmans  who  follow  it  claim  Sankara  (see  p.  ^^) 
as  their  authoritative  guide.  It  is  a  form  of  Pantheism,  but 
differs  widely  from  that  of  European  philosophical  systems. 

The  second  great  religious  class  of  the  Hindus  consists  of 
Saiva  sectarians,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  are  believers  in  the 
one  god  Siva,  not  only  as  Dissolver  and  Regenerator,  but  as 
Creator  and  Preserver,  and  as  the  one  self-existent  Being, 
identified  with  the  one  Universal  Spirit,  and  therefore  not 
liable  to  lose  his  personality  by  reabsorption  into  that  Spirit. 

The  third  class  consists  of  Vaishnava  sectarians,  who  are 
believers  in  the  one  personal  god  Vishnu,  not  only  as  Preserver, 
but  as  Creator  and  Dissolver.  It  should  be  noted,  too,  that 
both  Saivas  and  Vaishnavas  agree  in  attributing  an  essential 
form  and  qualities  to  the  Supreme  Being.  Vishnu  as  the 
Supreme  reposes  upon  his  serpent-couch  ;  till  affected  with 
the  quality  of  activity  he  awakes,  and,  as  Brahma  (p.  105), 
creates  the  world.     See  Vishnu-purana,  Chap.  II. 

Vaishnavism  then  is,  like  Saivism,  a  form  of  Monotheism. 
It  is  the  setting  aside  of  the  triune  equality  of  Brahma,  Siva, 
7  and  Vishnu,  in  favour  of  one  god  Vishnu  (often  called  Hari), 
especially  as  manifested  in  his  two  human  incarnations  Rama 
and  Krishna.  '  Brahma  and  Siva,'  said  the  great  Vaishnava 
teacher  Madhva,  '  decay  with  their  decaying  bodies ;  greater 
than  these  is  the  undecaying  Hari.'  And  here,  at  the  outset, 
it  may  be  well  to  point  out  that  Vaishnavism,  notwithstanding 
the  gross  polytheistic  superstitions  and  hideous  idolatry  to 
which  it  gives  rise,  is^the  onlyJtiJlidiUsystem  worthy  of  being 
called  a  religion.  At  all  events  it  must  be  admitted  that  it  has 
more  common  ground  with  Christianity  than  any  other  form 
of  non-Christian  faith.     Vedism  was  little  more  than  reveren- 


^  Brahma,  Siva,  and  Vishnu  are  manifested  by  the  simple  will  of  the 
Supreme,  whereas  in  the  creation  of  living  human  beings  (jiva)  the 
influence  of  karma,  '  act,'  is  an  important  element. 


Vaislmavism  or  Worship  of  Vishnu.  97 

tial  awe  of  the  forces  of  Nature  and  a  desire  to  propitiate 
them.  Brahmanism  was  simply  an  Indian  variety  of  pantheism. 
Buddhism  was  a  product  and  a  reform  of  Brahmanism,  and 
gained  many  followers  by  opening  its  arms  to  all  castes  and 
by  offering  deliverance  from  the  slavery  of  passion  and  from 
the  miseries  of  life  and  the  burden  of  ritualism  and  priest- 
craft ;  but,  in  its  denials  of  the  existence  of  both  a  Supreme 
and  human  spirit,  was  no  religion  at  all ;  and  in  its  nega- 
tions never  commended  itself  generally  to  the  Indian  mind. 
Saivism,  though,  like  Vaishnavism,  it  recognized  the  eternal 
personality  of  one  Supreme  Being,  was  too  severe  and  cold 
a  system  to  exert  exclusive  influence  over  the  great  majority. 
Vaishnavism  alone  possessed  the  elements  of  a  genuine  religion. 

Who  can  doubt  that  a  God  of  such  a  character  was  needed 

a  God  who  could  satisfy  the  yearnings  of  the  heart  for 
a  religion  of  faith,  love  and  prayer  rather  than  of  knowledge 
land  works  ?  Such  a  God  was  believed  to  be  represented 
by  Vishnu,  who  evinced  his  sympathy  with  mundane  suffering, 
by  frequent  descents  on  earth,  for  the  delivery  of  men  from  the 
threefold  miseries  of  life,  viz.  (i)  from  the  diseases  incident  to 
body  and  mind,  such  as  those  resulting  from  lust,  anger,  avarice, 
tc. ;  (2)  from  the  miseries  inflicted  by  material  environment, 

by  beasts,  snakes,  wicked  men,  etc. ;  (3)  from  those  inflicted 
by  unseen  demoniacal  agency.  Indian  philosophy,  however, 
claimed  the  power  of  getting  rid  of  all  these  three  miseries 
■  see  Sahkhya-karika,  i). 

Hence  teachers  arose  (among  whom  was  Sandilya  the  author 
j^f  the  Bhakti-sutra)  who  insisted  on  the  doctrine  of  salvation 
3y  love  and  devotion  (Bhakti) — a  doctrine  dimly  adumbrated 
!n  portions  of  the  Veda,  and  fully  propounded  in  the  Bhaga- 
^ad-gita  and  Bhagavata-purana  (see  p.  6'^. 

Intense  devotion,  then,  to  a  personal  god  Vishnu,  and  be- 

ief  in  his  power  to  elevate  his  worshippers  to  eternal  bliss  in 

is  own  heaven  (Vaikuntha,  see  p.  118),  is  the  chief  character- 

stic  of  Vaishnavism ;  for  Vaishnavism,  like  Saivism,  dissents 

H 


/ 


98  Vaishnavism  or  Worship  of  Vishnu. 

from  the  vague  impersonal  Pantheism  of  Brahmanical  philo- 
sophy, whose  one  God  is  the  substratum  of  everything  and 
himself  nothing.  Nor  can  we  wonder  that  devotion  to 
Vishnu  in  his  two  human  incarnations,  Rama  and  Krishna, 
became  the  most  popular  religion  of  India.  These  two  heroes 
were  of  the  kingly  or  Kshatriya  caste,  and  greatly  beloved  as 
popular  leaders.  It  is  usual  to  assert  that  the  Brahmans  are 
the  highest  objects  of  worship  and  honour  among  the  Hindus. 
This  is  not  the  case  among  the  countless  adherents  of  the 
Vaishnava  religion.  The  mass  of  the  people  of  India  exalt 
the  divine  right  of  kings  and  the  divine  right  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  day  above  all  other  forms  of  power,  and  worship 
every  great  and  heroic  leader  as  an  incarnation  of  the  deity. 

Yet,  with  all  its  popularity,  Vaishnavism  is  not  an  example 
of  a  house  at  peace  within  itself.  It  has  split  up  into  various 
subdivisions,  which  display  no  little  of  the  odium  theolo- 
gicum  in  their  opposition  to  each  other.  Possibly  antagonism 
of  some  kind  is  a  necessary  condition  of  religious  vitality. 
At  any  rate  in  India  all  religious  systems  inevitably  break 
up  into  sects,  and  seem  to  gather  strength  and  vigour  from 
the  process. 

It  is  not  uncommon,  indeed,  to  hear  it  asserted  that 
Hinduism  is  rapidly  falling  to  pieces,  and  destined  soon  to 
collapse  altogether.  One  reason  given  for  the  doom  sup- 
posed to  be  impending  over  its  future  is,  that  it  is  not  a 
proselyting  religion.  And  the  truth  certainly  is  that  no 
stranger  can  be  admitted  as  a  convert  to  Hinduism  either  by 
making  any  particular  confession  of  faith,  or  by  going  through 
any  prescribed  forms.  The  only  acknowledged  mode  of 
admission  is  by  birth.  To  become  a  Hindu  one  must  be 
born  a  Hindu.  Yet  Hinduism  is  continually  growing  within 
itself.  In  its  tenacity  of  life  and  power  of  expansion  it  may 
be  compared  to  the  sacred  banian-tree,  whose  thousand 
ramifications,  often  issuing  from  apparently  lifeless  stems, 
find  their  way  into  walls,  undermine  old  buildings,  or  them- 


Vaisknavism  or  Worship  of  Vishim.  99 

selves  send  down  roots  which  become  fixed  in  the  soil,  and 
form  fresh  centres  of  growth  and  vitality. 

And  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  one  great  conservative 
element  of  Hinduism  is  the  many-sidedness  of  Vaishnavism. 
For  Vaishnavism  is,  like  Buddhism,  the  most  tolerant  of  reli- 
gious systems.  It  is  always  ready  to  accommodate  itself  to 
other  creeds,  and  delights  in  appropriating  to  itself  the  religious 
ideas  of  all  the  nations  of  the  world.  It  admits  of  every 
form  of  internal  development.  It  has  no  organized  hier- 
archy under  one  supreme  head,  but  it  may  have  any  number 
of  separate  associations  formed  by  separate  teachers,  who  are 
ever  springing  up  and  extending  their  religious  authority  over 
ever-increasing  masses  of  the  population.  It  has  no  formal 
confession  of  faith,  but  it  has  an  elastic  creed  capable  of 
adaptation  to  all  varieties  of  opinion  and  practice.  It  has  no 
one  bible — no  one  collection  of  writings  in  one  compact 
volume,  with  lines  of  teaching  converging  towards  one  great 
central  truth ;  yet,  while  making  use  of  the  Veda  it  has  a 
series  of  sacred  books  of  its  own  (such  as  the  Puranas,  the 
Bhagavad-gita,  etc.),  each  of  which  professes  to  be  a  revela- 
tion from  the  Supreme  Being,  and  claims  to  constitute  an 
authority  for  the  establishment  of  almost  any  kind  of  doctrine. 
It  can,  like  Brahmanism,  be  pantheistic,  monotheistic,  dual- 
istic,  polytheistic.  It  can,  like  Saivism,  enjoin  asceticism, 
self-mortification,  and  austerity.  It  can,  like  Saktism,  give 
the  reins  to  self-indulgence,  licentiousness,  and  carnality.  It 
can,  like  Buddhism,  preach  liberty,  equality,  fraternity;  or 
inculcate  universal  benevolence,  and  avoidance  of  injury  to 
others.  It  can  proclaim  Buddha  or  any  other  teacher  or  re- 
markable man  to  be  an  incarnation  of  Vishnu.  It  can  even 
set  its  face  against  idolatry  ^,  and  can  look  with  sympathizing 
condescension  on  Christianity  itself,  or  hold  it  to  be  a  develop- 

^  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  anti-idolatrous  sect  founded  by  Kabir 
(see  p.  158)  grew  out  of  Vaishnavism. 

H2 


V 


lOO         Vaishnavism  or  Worship  of  Vishnu. 

ment  of  its  own  theory  of  religion  suited  to  Europeans.  It 
is  owing  to  this  all-comprehensiveness  of  the  Vaishnava 
system  that  any  new  doctrine,  or  any  new  view  of  old 
doctrines,  may  be  promulgated  with  an  almost  certain  pros- 
pect of  success.  And  indeed  the  theological  laxity  of  the 
inhabitants  of  India  increases  in  proportion  to  the  tenacity  of 
their  adherence  to  caste  customs  and  traditions.  Broken  up 
as  they  are  into  a  multitude  of  separate  peoples,  compara- 
tively few  individuals  have  any  desire  for  national  union  or 
intellectual  progress,  and  these  few  owe  their  ideas  to  the  edu- 
cation we  have  imparted.  F'ew  wish  to  leave  the  path  trodden 
by  their  forefathers,  or  deviate  from  the  old  indurated  ruts. 
The  masses  can  neither  read  nor  write.  They  care  nothing 
for  science.  History,  biography,  and  political  economy  are 
to  them  a  terra  incognita.  Their  whole  desire  is  to  be  left 
undisturbed  in  their  social  customs,  family  traditions,  and 
caste  usages — constituting  as  these  do  their  chief  religion. 

It  seems,  indeed,  as  if  religion  of  this  kind  Is  the  only 
force  which  has  power  to  rouse  the  masses  from  their  normal 
condition  of  torpor.  The  stern  necessity  of  conforming  to 
domestic  usages  is  ever  present  to  a  Hindu's  mind,  colouring 
all  his  ideas,  running  through  every  fibre  of  his  being,  and 
constituting  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  his  earthly  career.  If 
this  be  religion,  he  is  born  religious,  and  dies  religious.  He 
is  religious  in  his  eating  and  drinking,  in  his  sleeping  and 
waking,  in  his  dressing  and  undressing,  in  his  rising  up  and 
sitting  down,  in  his  daily  work  and  daily  amusement.  Nay, 
religious  ceremonies  anticipate  his  birth,  prolong  his  marriage- 
rite  into  a  triple  act  lasting  for  years  (p.  379),  and  follow  him 
after  death.  Yet  any  social  innovation  he  utterly  repudiates. 
It  is  only  in  religious  doctrine  that  he  evinces  credulity  and 
receptivity.  Let  any  earnest  preacher  of  any  new  creed  appear 
in  any  assemblage  of  ordinary  Hindus — let  him  announce 
that  he  has  come  as  a  messenger  from  heaven,  and  he  may 
generally  reckon  on  being  believed.     And   if  to   his   other 


Vaishnavisin  or  Worship  of  Vishnu,         loi 

qualifications  he  adds  a  character  for  self-denial  and  asceti- 
cism, he  cannot  fail  to  attract  disciples ;  for  nowhere  in  the 
world  are  family  ties  so  binding  as  in  India,  and  yet  nowhere 
is  such  homage  paid  to  their  abandonment.  The  influence  of 
any  new  religious  teacher  (acarya)  who  is  known  to  live  a  life  of 
abstinence,  bodily  mortification,  and  suppression  of  the  passions, 
is  sure  to  become  unbounded,  either  for  good  or  evil. 

Probably,  during  the  leader's  lifetime,  he  is  able  to  restrain 
the  enthusiasm  of  his  converts  within  reasonable  limits.  It 
is  only  when  he  dies  that  they  are  apt  to  push  his  opinions 
to  extremes  never  intended  by  himself.  Eventually  they 
develop  his  teaching  into  an  overgrown  unhealthy  system, 
the  internal  rottenness  of  which  disgusts  all  sensible  men, 
even  among  its  own  adherents.  Then  some  new  teacher 
arises  to  re-establish  purity  of  doctrine.  He  is,  of  course, 
in  his  turn  a  man  of  earnestness  and  energy,  with  a  strong 
will,  and  great  powers  of  persuasion.  He  collects  around 
him  with  equal  facility  a  number  of  followers,  and  those  in 
their  turn  carry  his  teaching  to  preposterous  lengths. 

Hence  the  condition  of  Vaishnavism,  which  depends  far 
more  than  Saivism  on  personal  leadership  and  influence,  is 
one  of  perpetual  decay  and  revival,  collapse  and  recovery. 
Its  fluctuations  resemble  those  of  a  vast  ocean  heaving  this 
way  and  that  in  continual  flux  and  reflux. 

It  is  doubtless  true  that  all  human  systems  are  liable  to 
similar  alternations.  But  in  India  every  tendency  of  humanity 
seems  intensified  and  exaggerated.  No  country  in  the  world 
is  so  conservative  in  its  traditions,  yet  no  country  has  under- 
gone so  many  religious  changes  and  vicissitudes.  To  follow 
out  in  detail  the  whole  drama  of  Vaishnavism  would  require 
volumes.  Even  the  first  act  presents  us  with  a  succession 
of  shifting  scenes. 

In  all  likelihood  the  primary  idea  of  a  god  Vishnu  (a  name 
derived  from  root  vish, '  to  pervade '),  permeating  and  infusing       ^ 
his  essence  into  material  objects,  was  originally  connected  with 


(/ 


I02  Vaishnavism  or  Worship  of  Vishnu, 

the  personification  of  the  infinite  heavenly  space.  We  know 
that  in  the  Rig-veda  Vishnu  is  a  form  of  the  ever-moving 
solar  orb,  and  in  a  well-known  hymn  (I.  22,  16,  17),  still 
commonly  used  by  the  Brahmans,  he  is  described  as  striding 
through  the  seven  worlds  ^  in  three  steps^  and  enveloping  the 
universe  with  the  dust  of  his  beams.  A  later  work,  the  Aitareya- 
brahmana  of  the  Rig-veda,  opens  with  the  following  remark- 
able statement :  '  Fire  (Agni)  has  the  lowest  place  among  the 
gods,  Vishnu  the  highest ;  between  them  stand  all  the  other 
deities.'     (Haug^s  edition,  1.) 

Elsewhere  the  god  Vishnu  is  connected  with  water.  In 
Manu's  Law-book  (I.  10)  the  Universal  Spirit  is  called  Nara- 
yana,  as  moving  on  the  waters ;  in  harmony  with  which  idea 
Vishnu  is  often  represented  in  sculptures,  images,  and  pictures 
as  Narayana  in  human  form,  reposing  on  the  thousand- 
headed  serpent  and  floating  on  the  ocean. 

In  the  later  mythology  of  Brahmanism,  when  the  doctrine 
of  the  triad  of  personal  gods  (Tri-murti)  had  been  fully  deve- 
loped and  Vishnu  had  taken  his  place  as  the  second  person  of 
that  triad,  he  has  a  less  distinctly  marked  human  personality 
— antecedent  to  his  hicarnated  descents — than  the  god  Siva. 

To  write  a  biographical  account  of  the  god  Vishnu's  life 
in  his  own  heavenly  abode,  like  the  life  of  his  rival  Siva 
(p.  78),  would  be  diflficult.  The  truth  is  that  the  development 
of  his  personality,  which  is  really  greater  than  that  of  any 
other  god  in  the  Hindu  pantheon,  must  be  looked  for  on 
earth  in  his  descents  (avatara)  as  Rama  and  Krishna. 

Nevertheless,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  god  Vishnu 
really  possesses  a  corporeal  character  of  his  own  quite  irrespec- 
tive of  and  anterior  to  his  incarnated  descents.    He  is  described 

^  There  are  seven  lower  regions,  viz.  Atala,  Vitala,  Sutala,  Rasatala, 
Talatala,  Mahatala,  and  Patala  ;  above  which  are  the  seven  Lokas  or 
worlds,  called  Bhur  (the  earth),  Bhuvar,  Svar,  Mahah,  Janah,  Tapah,  and 
Brahma  or  Satya.  Sometimes  the  first  three  of  these,  the  earth  (Bhu), 
atmosphere  (Bhuvar),  and  heavens  (Svar),  are  supposed  to  comprehend 
all  the  worlds  (see  p.  403).    For  the  hells  see  pp.  232-233. 


Vaishnavisin  or  Worship  of  Vishnu,         lo 


as  living  in  his  heaven  Vaikuntha — a  locality  more  inaccessible 
and  less  easy  to  identify  with  any  definite  spot  on  earth  than 
Siva's  abode  Kailasa  (p.  79).  He  has  a  wife  Lakshmi  or  Sri, 
the  goddess  of  fortune  and  beauty,  who  is  fabled  to  have 
sprung,  with  other  precious  things,  from  the  froth  of  the 
ocean  when  churned  by  the  gods  and  demons  (see  p.  108). 
And  as  Vishnu  in  his  non-Avatara  condition  lives  a  life 
which  has  fewer  features  in  common  with  humanity  than 
that  of  Siva,  so  is  his  wife  Lakshmi  less  human  than  Siva's 
wife  Parvatl.  In  fact  the  more  human  side  of  both  Vishnu 
and  Lakshmi  is  reserved  for  their  descents  in  human  form 
— Vishnu  as  Rama  and  Krishna,  Lakshmi  as  Sita  and 
Rukminl.  Nevertheless  some  details  of  Vishnu's  separate 
personality,  as  distinct  from  his  Avataras,  may  be  gathered 
from  the  Puranas.  For  example,  we  are  told  that  he  has 
a  peculiar  auspicious  mark  (SrI-vatsa)  on  his  breast^.  He 
has  four  arms,  and  holds  a  symbol  in  each  of  his  four  hands  ; 
namely,  a  wheel  or  circular  weapon  (cakra)  called  Sudarsana, 
a  conch-shell  ^  (saiikha)  called  Pahcajanya,  a  club  (gada) 
called  KaumodakI,  and  a  lotus-flower  (padma).  Of  these  the 
circular  symbol  may  possibly  have  been  borrowed  from 
Buddhism.     If  so,  it  was  originally  significant  of  the  wheel 

^  Described  as  a  peculiar  twist  or  curl  of  the  hair.  In  one  form  of 
Krishna  (as  Vitho-ba  in  the  Maratha  country)  his  breast  has  a  foot-mark, 
believed  to  be  the  indelible  impress  of  the  blow  from  the  sage  Bhrigu's 
foot  (see  the  story  at  p.  45). 

^  One  account  describes  the  sacred  conch-shell  as  thrown  up  by  the 
sea  when  churned  by  the  gods  and  demons  (see  p.  108).  Another  account 
makes  Vishnu's  shell  consist  of  the  bones  of  the  demon  Pahcajana. 
According  to  the  Vishnu-purana  (V.  21),  'this  demon  lived  in  the  form 
of  a  conch-shell  under  the  ocean.  Krishna  (Vishnu)  plunged  into  the 
waters,  killed  him,  took  the  shell  which  constituted  his  bones,  and  ever 
afterwards  used  it  for  a  horn.  When  sounded  it  fills  the  demon-hosts 
with  dismay,  animates  the  gods,  and  annihilates  unrighteousness.'  Vishnu 
is  believed  to  take  such  delight  in  this  shell,  that  a  small  shell  of  the 
same  species  is  used  in  pouring  holy  water  over  his  idols  and  symbols 
in  the  performance  of  his  worship.  It  is  also  frequently  branded  on  the 
arms  of  his  worshippers. 


I04         Vaishnavism  or  Worship  of  Vishrm. 

of  the  Buddhistic  law,  or  of  the  cycles  of  existence  peculiar  to 
that  system.  Or,  bearing  in  mind  Vishnu's  connection  with 
the  Sun,  we  may  regard  it  as  emblematical  (like  the  Svastika^) 
of  the  Sun's  circular  course  in  the  heavens.  In  the  later 
mythology,  however,  it  represents  a  missile  weapon  hurled  by 
Vishnu,  like  a  quoit,  at  the  demons  who  are  ever  plotting 
evil  against  gods  and  men,  and  with  whom  he  is  always  at 
war^.  Similarly  the  conch-shell  is  blown  by  him  like  a 
trumpet  in  his  battles ;  its  miraculous  sound  filling  his  ene- 
mies with  terror  and  helping  him  to  secure  victory.  The 
club  is  also  used  in  Vishnu's  conflicts  with  his  demon-foes. 
Moreover  he  is  armed  with  a  wonderful  bow  called  Sarnga 
and  a  sword  Nandaka.  He  has  a  jewel  on  his  wrist  named 
Syamantaka,  and  another  on  his  breast  called  Kaustubha. 
When  he  moves  through  space  to  the  aid  of  his  worshippers 
he  is  borne  on  the  mythical  bird  Garuda^,  closely  related 
to  the  Sun  and  compared  to  an  eagle,  but  represented  as 
semi-human  in  form  and  character,  with  a  bird-like  face. 
Possibly   this    Garuda   may  be  a  personification  of  the  sky 

^  The  Svastika  mark  may  be  a  kind  of  curtailed  form  of  this  wheel, 
consisting  of  four  spokes  crossing  each  other  at  right  angles  and  a  portion 
of  the  circumference  which  is  left  to  denote  the  direction  in  which  it  must 
turn  to  symbolize  the  Sun's  course  in  the  heavens.  This  conjecture, 
which  I  formed  long  ago,  is  confirmed  by  the  late  Mr.  Edw.  Thomas's 
article  in  the  Numismatic  Chronicle. 

^  The  names  of  some  of  the  chief  demons  thus  destroyed  by  Vishnu 
(or  Krishna  identified  with  Vishnu)  are  Madhu,  Kansa,  Bana,  Bali, 
Mura,  etc. 

^  In  some  parts  of  India  (especially  in  the  South)  Garuda  is  an 
object  of  worship.  I  frequently  came  across  images  of  him  in  Vaishnava 
temples.  He  is  the  son  of  Kasyapa  and  Vinata,  and  hence  Aruna  the 
Dawn,  regarded  as  charioteer  of  the  Sun,  is  his  younger  brother.  Most 
of  the  Hindii  deities  are  described  as  associated  with  or  attended  by 
their  own  favourite  animals,  which  they  sometimes  use  as  vehicles 
(vahana).  Brahma  is  attended  by  a  goose  or  swan  (hansa) ;  Siva  by 
a  bull  (see  p.  8i) ;  Karttikeya  or  Skanda  by  a  peacock;  Indra  by  an 
elephant ;  Yama  by  a  buffalo  (mahisha) ;  Kama,  '  god  of  love,'  by  a 
parrot;  Ganesa  by  a  rat;  Agni  by  a  ram;  Varuna  by  a  fish  ;  Durga  by 
a  tiger.     Serpents  are  associated  with  both  Siva  and  Vishnu. 


Vaisknavism.     Names  of  Vislmu  and  Siva.     105 

or  ethereal  element  which  supports  Vishnu — identified  with 
the  Sun — one  of  whose  names  is  '  Air-borne '  (Vayu-vahana). 
It  is  noteworthy  that  Garuda,  like  the  Krishna  form  of  Vishnu, 
is  the  destroyer  of  serpents  which  typify  destruction  and  evil 
(compare  p.  113).  Yet  serpents  have  also  their  contrary 
character,  and  even  divine  attributes ;  for  at  the  dissolution 
of  the  Universe  and  between  the  intervals  of  creation,  Vishnu, 
as  the  Supreme  Being,  floating  on  the  waters  (p.  102),  reclines 
in  profound  repose  on  the  thousand-headed  serpent  Sesha — 
typical  of  infinity — while  his  wife  Lakshmi  chafes  his  feet, 
and  out  of  his  navel  grows  the  lotus  which  supports  Brahma, 
the  active  agent  in  reproducing  the  world.  Finally,  Vishnu 
has  the  river  Ganges  issuing  from  one  of  his  feet,  whence 
it  flows  through  the  sky  before  it  falls  on  Siva's  head  (p.  80). 

/And  here  it  may  be  noted  that  the  devotional  enthusiasm 
of  Vishnu's  worshippers  has  endowed  him  with  a  thousand 
names  and  epithets  ^.  This  is  exactly  eight  less  than  the 
Saivas  have  lavished  on  Siva,  and,  considering  the  rivalry 
between  the  followers  of  the  two  deities,  must  be  regarded  as 
a  modest  allowance.  The  repetition  of  any  or  all  of  these 
names  (nama-saiikirtana),  either  with  or  without  the  help  of 
a  rosary,  constitutes  an  important  part  of  daily  worship,  and 
is  productive  of  vast  stores  of  religious  merit.  They  are  all 
enumerated  with  those  of  Siva  in  the  Anusasana-parva  of 
the  Maha-bharata  (i  144-1266,  6950-7056)^. 

^  Of  course  the  greater  number  of  the  names  are  simply  epithets. 
The  Muhammadans  reckon  ninety-nine  names  and  epithets  of  God,  and 
make  the  repetition  (zikr)  of  them  a  work  of  enormous  religious  merit. 
In  the  same  way  the  Jews  attach  great  efficacy  to  the  repetition  of  the 
Divine  epithets.  Christianity  reckons,  I  believe,  about  ninety  epithets 
of  Christ,  but  no  Christian  thinks  of  repeating  them  as  a  meritorious 
exercise.  Aristotle,  it  is  said,  enumerates  more  than  a  hundred  names 
and  epithets  applicable  to  Zeus  ;  but  the  Greeks  and  Romans  do  not 
appear  to  have  believed  in  any  religious  advantage  attending  the  mere 
mechanical  recital  of  such  names. 

^  I  notice  several  repetitions  of  the  same  name  in  the  catalogue ;  for 
instance,  Aditya,  Sthanu,  Srashtri. 


io6     Vaishnavism.     Names  of  Viskmi  and  Siva. 

In  comparing  the  two  catalogues  it  is  interesting  to  observe 
how  many  names  are  common  to  both  deities.  Vishnu, 
especially,  has  a  large  number  of  names  which  he  shares 
with  the  rival  god,  and  is  even  called  Siva  '  the  Auspicious  ; ' 
while  Siva  is  called  Vishnu,  '  the  Pervader,'  each  in  fact  usurp- 
ing the  functions  of  the  other.  Moreover,  to  both  deities  is 
allotted  an  ample  assortment  of  the  usual  titles  expressive  of 
almighty  power — such  as  'all-creating,'  'all-seeing,'  'all-know- 
ing,' 'infinite,'  'self-existent,'  'all-pervading' — mixed  up  with 
many  which  are  unworthy  of  beings  claiming  divine  homage. 
Vishnu  has  certainly  fewer  objectionable  epithets  than  Siva. 

Many  names  of  both  gods  are  simply  taken  from  those  of 
the  Sun,  Fire,  and  Wind ;  and  many  are  expressive  of  lofty 
divine  attributes — once  believed  to  be  the  peculiar  property 
of  Christian  theology.  For  example,  Vishnu  is  called  '  the 
holy  Being'  (Pavitram,  also  applied  to  Siva),  'the  True' 
(Satyah),  '  the  Pure  Spirit '  (or  '  having  a  pure  spirit,'  Putatma), 
'  the  Way '  (Margah),  '  the  Truth '  (Tattvam),  '  the  Life '  (Pra- 
nah),  '  the  Physician  '  (Vaidyah),  '  the  World's  Medicine ' 
(Aushadharn  or  Bheshajam  Jagatah),  'the  Father'  (Pita),  and 
even  '  the  Holy  of  the  Holy '  (Pavitram  Pavitranam)  ^ — an 
epithet  which  it  is  difficult  to  reconcile  with  some  of  the 
actions  of  his  Krishna  manifestation. 

On  the  other  hand,  Siva  is  called  by  the  following  names 
in  addition  to  those  already  mentioned  at  pp.  81-85: — 'the 
Mother'  (Mata,  as  well  as  Pita,  'the  Father'),  'Extinction' 
(Nirvanam),  '  the  Year-causer'  (Samvatsara-karah),  '  the  great 
Illusionist'   (Mahamayah),  'the  Night-walker'  (Nisa-carah), 

'  Other  remarkable  names  and  epithets  of  Vishnu  are  the  following  :- 
'the  Bridge'  (Setuh),  'the  Guide'  (Neta),  'the  All'  (Sarvah),  'the  Refuge' 
(Saranam),  'the  Friend'  (Suhrid),  'the  Affectionate'  (Vatsalah),  'the 
Benefactor'  (Priya-krit),  'the  Witness'  (Sakshi),  'the  Patient'  (Sahish- 
nuh),  'the  Peace-giver'  (Santi-dah),  'the  Authority'  (Pramanam),  'the 
Mysterious  one'  (Guhyah),  'the  Undying-bodied  one'  (Amrita-vapuh), 
'the  Holy'  (Brahmanyah),  'the  Winkless'  (Animishah),  'the  Desired 
one  '  (Ishtah),  '  the  Who  ? '  (Kah),  '  the  What '  (Kim). 


Vaishnavism.      Ten  Incarnations.  107 

'the  Submarine  Fire'  (called  Badava-mukhah,  'Mare-faced'), 
'the  White  One'  (Suklah),  'the  Enraged'  (Mahakrodhah), 
'the  Root'  (Mulam),  'the  Ill-formed'  (Virupah),  'the  Mule' 
(Haya-gardabhih,  mixture  of  the  qualities  of  horse  and  ass?). 

Again,  some  of  Vishnu's  designations  as  Krishna,  such  as 
Partha-sarathi,  '  Charioteer  of  Arjuna'  (under  which  title  he 
is  worshipped  at  Madras),  and  Vefikatesa,  '  Lord  of  the  hill 
Vehkata,'  are,  like  those  of  Siva,  merely  local  epithets  ;  and 
some  (as  for  example  Vitho-ba,  worshipped  at  Pandharpur) 
are  the  result  of  his  identification  with  particular  local  heroes. 

I  need  scarcely  repeat  that  the  chief  distinguishing  cha- 
racteristic of  the  god  Vishnu  is  his  condescending  to  infuse 
his  essence  into  animals  and  men  with  the  object  of  delivering 
his  worshippers  from  certain  special  dangers  or  of  otherwise 
benefiting  mankind.  The  peculiar  nature  of  these  descents 
(Avatara),  and  the  vast  difference  between  the  Hindu  and 
Christian  idea  of  incarnation,  have  been  already  described 
(p.  6'^.  Vishnu,  in  fact,  is  believed  to  exist  in  an  eternal 
body  antecedent  to  his  earthly  incarnations.  In  some  of  the 
Puranas  Vishnu's  ten  incarnations  are  multiplied  to  twenty-two, 
twenty-four,  and  twenty-eight.     The  ten  best  known  are  : — 

I.  'The  Fish'  (Matsya).  Vishnu  is  believed  to  have  infused  y 
a  portion  of  his  essence  into  a  fish — or  rather  perhaps  to  have 
taken  the  form  of  a  fish — to  save  Manu^,  the  primeval  man 
and  progenitor  of  the  human  race,  from  the  universal  deluge. 
This  Manu,  like  Noah,  conciliated  the  Deity's  favour  by  his 
piety  in  an  age  of  depravity.  Hence  he  was  warned  of  the 
approaching  deluge,  and  was  commanded  to  build  a  ship  and 
go  on  board  with  the  seven  Rishis,  or  patriarchs,  and  the  seeds 
of  all  existing  things.  Manu  did  so.  The  flood  came,  and 
Vishnu  took  the  form  of  a  vast  fish  with  a  horn  on  its  head,  to 
which   the   ship's   cable  was  fastened.     The   ship   was   thus 

^  That  is,  the  Manu  of  the  present  period — not  to  be  confounded  with 
Brahma's  grandson,  the  supposed  author  of  the  well-known  Law-book. 
The  name  Manu  is  from  the  root  man,  '  to  think.' 


io8  Vaishnavis7n.     Ten  Incarnations, 

supernaturally  drawn  along  and  secured  to  a  high  crag  till  the 
flood  had  passed. 
/  1,  '  The  Tortoise '  (Kurma).  Vishnu  infused  a  portion  of 
his  essence  into  the  body  of  an  immense  tortoise  to  aid  in 
producing  or  recovering  certain  valuable  articles,  some  of 
which  had  been  lost  in  the  deluge.  For  this  purpose  he 
stationed  himself  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea  of  milk — one  of 
the  seven  concentric  circular  seas  surrounding  the  seven 
concentric  circular  continents  of  the  earth — that  his  back 
might  serve  as  a  pivot  for  the  mountain  Mandara,  around 
which  the  gods  and  demons  twisted  the  great  serpent 
Vasuki.  They  then  stood  opposite  to  each  other,  and  using 
the  snake  as  a  rope  and  the  mountain  as  a  churning-rod, 
churned  the  milky  ocean  violently,  till,  one  by  one,  fourteen 
inestimably  valuable  and  typical  objects  emerged-^,  i.  The 
nectar  conferring  immortality  (Amrita).  %.  The  physician 
of  the  gods  and  holder  of  the  nectar  (Dhanvantari).  3.  The 
goddess  of  good  fortune  and  beauty,  wife  of  Vishnu  (Lakshmi 
or  Sri).  4.  The  goddess  of  wine  (Sura)^.  5.  The  moon 
(Candra).  6.  The  nymph  Rambha^  celebrated  as  a  kind 
of  prototype  of  lovely  women.  7.  A  fabulous  high-eared 
horse  (Uccaih-sravas),  the  supposed  prototype  of  the  equine 
race.  8.  The  miraculous  jewel  Kaustubha,  afterwards  appro- 
priated by  Krishna.  9.  A  celestial  tree  (Parijata)  yielding 
all  desired  objects.  10.  The  cow  of  plenty  (Kama-dhenu 
or  Surabhi),  granting  all  boons.  11.  A  mythical  elephant 
(Airavata) — afterwards  appropriated,  as  a  vehicle,  by  the  god 


^  When  I  asked  an  Indian  Pandit  how  it  was  possible  to  believe  in 
what  to  us  appears  an  extravagant  fable,  I  was  told  that  it  was  simply 
allegorical,  and  only  intended  to  typify  the  truth  that  nothing  valuable 
can  be  produced  without  extraordinary  exertion. 

^  This  is  one  proof  out  of  many  that  the  drinking  of  wine  and  spirits 
was  once  not  only  common  in  India,  but  also  sanctioned  by  religion. 
In  Vedic  times  wine  appears  to  have  been  preserved  in  leathern  bottles, 
see  Rig-veda  I.  191.  10  (Rajendralala  Mitra's  Essays,  VII).  Unhappily  the 
sect  of  Saktas  (see  pp.  192,  193)  may  claim  scriptural  authority  for  their 
orgies,  and  appeal  to  the  example  of  their  gods  Siva  and  Bala-rama. 


Vaishnavism,     Ten  Incarnations.  109 

Indra — prototype  of  the  elephantine  race.  12.  A  sacred 
conch-shell  (Saiikha),  afterwards  the  property  of  Vishnu  (or 
Krishna),  and  supposed,  when  blown  as  a  horn,  to  insure 
victory  over  his  enemies  (see  note,  p.  103).  13.  A  miraculous 
unerring  bow  (Dhanus)^     14.  A  deadly  poison  (Visha). 

3.  'The  Boar'  (Varaha).     Vishnu  infused  a  portion  of  his        ^ 
essence  into  the  body  of  a  huge  boar — symbolical  of  strength 

— to  deliver  the  world  from  the  power  of  the  demon  Hira- 
nyaksha,  who  had  seized  the  earth  and  carried  it  down  into 
the  depths  of  the  ocean.  The  divine  boar  dived  down  into 
the  abyss,  and  after  a  contest  of  a  thousand  years,  slew  the 
monster  and  brought  back  the  earth  to  the  surface.  Another 
variety  of  this  legend  (given  in  the  Vana-parva  of  the  Maha- 
bharata)  represents  the  earth  as  submerged  by  a  deluge — 
pressed  down  by  an  ever-increasing  and  superabundant  popu- 
lation— till  the  boar  descended  into  the  waters,  upheaved  it 
on  one  of  his  tusks,  rescued  it  from  its  watery  grave,  and 
made  it  fit  to  be  reinhabited. 

4.  'The  Man-lion' (Nara-sinha).    Vishnu  assumed  the  shape      ^ 
of  a  creature,  half  man,  half  lion,  to  deliver  the  world  from 

the  tyrant  Hiranya-kasipu,  who  had  obtained  a  boon  from 
Brahma  that  he  should  not  be  slain  by  either  god  or  man  or 
animal.  Hence  he  became  powerful  enough  to  usurp  the 
dominion  of  the  three  worlds.  He  even  appropriated  the 
sacrifices  intended  for  the  gods  and  necessary  for  their  sup- 
port. When  his  pious  son  Prahlada  praised  Vishnu,  the 
tyrant  tried  to  destroy  the  boy ;  but  Vishnu  appeared  sud- 
denly out  of  the  centre  of  a  pillar  in  a  shape  neither  god,  nor 
man,  nor  animal,  and  tore  Hiranya-kasipu  to  pieces. 

These  first  four  incarnations  are  said  to  have  taken  place 
in  the  first  and  best  (satya)  of  the  four  ages  of  the  world. 

^  Two  such  bows  are  mentioned  in  Hindu  mythology,  one  the  property 
of  Siva  and  the  other  of  Vishnu.  It  was  by  bending  Siva's  bow— which 
no  other  merely  human  suitor  was  able  to  do — that  Rama  won  Janaka's 
daughter  Sita  (see  Ramayana  I.  57). 


/ 


1 1  o  Vaishnavism.     Ten  Incarnations. 

5.  'The  Dwarf  (Vamana).  In  the  second  (Treta)  age  of 
the  world  \  Vishnu  infused  a  portion  of  his  essence  into  the 
body  of  a  dwarf  to  wrest  from  the  tyrant-demon  BaH  (the 
analogue  of  Ravana  and  Kansa,  the  two  opponents  of  the 
Rama  and  Krishna  incarnations  respectively)  the  dominion  of 
the  three  worlds.  The  apparently  contemptible  little  dwarf 
presented  himself  one  day  before  the  Tyrant,  and  solicited  as 
much  land  as  he  could  step  in  three  paces.  No  sooner  was 
his  request  granted  than  his  form  expanded,  and  he  strode  in 
two  steps  over  heaven  and  earth,  but  out  of  compassion  left 
the  lower  world  in  the  demon's  possession. 

6.  '  Rama  with  the  axe '  (Parasu-rama).  Vishnu  Infused  a 
portion  of  his  essence  into  the  axe-armed  Rama,  son  of  the 
Brahman  Jamadagni  and  descendant  of  Bhrigu,  in  the  second 
age,  to  prevent  the  military  caste  (see  p.  270)  from  tyrannizing 
over  the  Brahmanical.  Parasu-rama  is  said  to  have  cleared 
the  earth  twenty-one  times  of  the  whole  KshatriyS.  race. 

Vishnu's  essence  seems  to  have  deserted  this  hero  before  his 
death,  as  implied  in  the  account  of  the  great  Rama's  victory 
over  Parasu-rama,  given  in  Ramayana  I.  75,  76, 

7.  In  the  seventh  descent  Vishnu  infused  half  of  his  essence 
into  the  great  Rama,  commonly  called  Rama-candra,  '  the 
moon-like  Rama^.'  This  celebrated  hero  was  believed  to 
have  been  manifested  at  the  close  of  the  second  or  Treta  age 
to  destroy  the  tyrant-demon  Ravana  who  reigned  in  Ceylon. 
India  was  never  under  one  monarch,  and  in  ancient  times  its 
kings  were  simply  petty  princes  and  chieftains,  who  ruled  over 
districts  of  more  or  less  extended  area,  and  Oudh  (Ayodhya) 
was  probably  one  of  the  more  powerful  principalities.  As  a 
historical  fact  Rama  was  no  doubt  one  of  the  four  sons  of  a  king 
of  Oudh,  named  Dasa-ratha,  of  the  so-called  Solar  race,  and 

^  This  would  be  the  third  age  reckoning  backwards,  and  is  therefore 
called  Treta. 

'^  In  paintings  he  is  represented  with  a  peculiar  greenish  complexion. 
The  word  candra  is  often  added  to  names  to  express  beauty. 


b 


Vaishnavism.     Ten  Incarnations,  1 1 1 

therefore  a  Kshatriya.  The  real  date  of  Rama's  birth,  in  the 
absence  of  all  trustworthy  historical  records,  can  only  be  a 
matter  of  the  most  uncertain  conjecture.  He  is  celebrated 
throughout  India  as  the  model  son,  brother,  and  husband,  who 
was  banished  by  his  father  to  the  southern  forests.  There  his 
pattern  wife  Sita  was  carried  off  by  Ravana,  the  tyrant-king 
of  Ceylon,  and  recovered  by  Rama  after  making  a  bridge  of 
rocks  to  the  island.  He  was  aided  by  Hanuman — a  powerful 
chief  of  one  of  the  aboriginal  tribes,  poetically  compared  to 
monkeys.  This  story  forms  the  subject  of  one  of  the  two 
great  Indian  Epics — the  Ramayana — and  no  story  in  the  world 
has  obtained  a  wider  circulation  and  celebrity.  Every  man, 
woman,  and  child  in  India  is  familiar  with  Rama's  exploits  for 
the  recovery  of  his  wife,  insomuch  that  a  common  phrase  for 
an  ignorant  person  is  '  one  who  does  not  know  that  Sita  was 
Rama's  wife.'  From  Kasmir  to  Cape  Comorin  the  name  of 
Rama  is  on  every  one's  lips.  All  sects  revere  it,  and  show  their 
reverence  by  employing  it  on  all  occasions.  For  example,  when 
friends  meet  it  is  common  for  them  to  salute  each  other  by  utter- 
ing Rama's  name  twice.  Then  no  name  is  more  commonly 
given  to  children,  and  no  name  is  more  commonly  invoked  at 
funerals  and  in  the  hour  of  death.  It  is  a  link  of  union  for  all 
classes,  castes,  and  creeds.  And  yet  it  is  highly  probable  that, 
during  his  lifetime,  Rama  received  little  more  than  the  usual 
homage  offered  to  every  great,  good,  and  brave  man.  His 
apotheosis  did  not  take  place  till  after  his  death,  when  he  was 
converted  into  one  of  the  most  popular  incarnations  of  Vishnu  ; 
his  servant  Hanuman  also  receiving  divine  honours. 

8.  The  eighth  descent  was  as  Krishna, '  the  dark  hero-god  ' ; , 
the  most  popular  of  all  the  later  deities  of  India.  This  descent 
of  Vishnu  at  the  end  of  the  Dvapara  or  third  age  of  the 
world,  as  the  eighth  son  of  Vasu-deva  and  Devakl,  of  the  Lunar 
race  of  Kshatriyas  (called  Yadavas),  was  for  the  destruction 
of  the  tyrant  Kansa,  the  representative  of  the  principle  of 
evil— the  analogue  of  Ravana  in  the  previous  incarnation. 


112  Vaishnavism.      Ten  Incarnations. 


According  to  some,  Krishna  ought  not  to  be  reckoned  as 
one  of  the  ten  Avataras  or  descents  of  portions  of  Vishnu's 
essence ;  for  he  was  nothing  short  of  Vishnu's  whole  essence. 

Those  who  hold  this  doctrine  substitute  Bala-rama,  '  the 
strong  Rama,'  an  elder  son  of  Vasudeva  and  Devaki,  and 
therefore  elder  brother  of  Krishna,  as  the  eighth  incarnation 
of  Vishnu.  This  Bala-rama  is  more  usually  regarded  as  an 
incarnation  of  the  great  serpent  Sesha.  He  is  sometimes 
called  the  Indian  HerculeS;  but  without  any  very  good  reason. 
No  special  prodigies  of  strength  are  recorded  of  him,  though 
he  wields  a  formidable  weapon  in  the  shape  of  a  plough- 
share, as  well  as  a  pestle-shaped  club  (musala).  He  is 
chiefly  remarkable  for  his  love  of  strong  drink,  in  which,  with 
his  wife  Revati,  he  frequently  indulges  to  the  verge  of  inebria- 
tion (p.  io8,  note  2 ;  p.  270).  When  he  died  a  serpent  came  out 
of  his  mouth  and  entered  the  ocean  (Maha-bharata  XVI.  117). 

The  details  of  the  later  life  of  Krishna  are  interwoven  with 
the  later  portions  of  the  Maha-bharata,  but  do  not  belong  to 
the  plot,  and  might  be  omitted  without  impairing  its  unity. 
He  is  certainly  not  the  hero  of  the  great  epic.  He  merely 
appears  as  a  powerful  chiefs  who  takes  the  side  of  the  real 
heroes — the  Pandavas — and  his  claims  to  divine  rank  are 
often  disputed  during  the  progress  of  the  story.  Even  since 
his  apotheosis  Krishna  has  always  been  peculiarly  the  god 
of  the  lower  classes ;  for,  although  of  the  kingly  caste,  he 
was  brought  up  among  cowherds,  cowherdesses,  and  the 
families  of  peasants.  His  juvenile  biography  is  given  with 
much  minuteness  of  detail  in  the  Bhagavata-purana,  from 
which  we  learn  that  Vasudeva  of  the  Lunar  race  of  princes 
— who    probably   occupied    the   part    of   India    now   called 

^  Krishna  was  no  doubt  a  powerful  chief  of  the  Yadava  tribe,  who  were 
probably  Rajputs  occupying  a  district  of  Central  India  south  of  Muttra 
(Mathura)  and  east  of  the  Jumna.  The  real  date  of  his  birth,  though 
kept  as  a  holy  day  and  holiday  throughout  a  great  part  of  India,  cannot 
be  fixed  with  any  more  certainty  than  that  of  Rama ;  but  in  all  probability 
he  lived  in  more  recent  times  than  Rama. 


I 


Vaishnavism.     Ten  Incarnations.  113 

Rajputana^ — had  two  wives,  RohinT  and  Devakl.  The  latter 
had  eight  sons,  of  whom  the  eighth  was  Krishna.  It  was  pre- 
dicted that  one  of  them  would  kill  Kansa,  chief  of  Mathura 
(Muttra),  and  cousin  (not  brother)  of  DevakT.  Kansa  there- 
fore imprisoned  Vasudeva  and  his  wife,  and  slew  their  first 
six  children.  Bala-rama,  the  seventh,  was  abstracted  from 
Devaki's  womb,  transferred  to  that  of  RohinT,  and  so  saved. 
The  eighth  was  Krishna,  born  with  a  black  skin,  and  the  mark 
Sri-vatsa  on  his  breast^.  His  father  Vasudeva  escaped 
from  Mathura  with  the  child,  and,  favoured  by  the  gods, 
found  a  certain  herdsman  named  Nanda,  whose  wife  had 
lately  had  a  child.  To  his  care  he  consigned  the  infant 
Krishna.  Nanda  settled  first  in  Gokula  or  Vraja,  and  after- 
wards in  Vrindavana,  where  Krishna  and  Bala-rama  grew  up 
together,  roaming  in  the  woods,  and  joining  in  the  sports  of 
the  herdsman's  sons  and  daughters.  While  still  a  boy, 
Krishna  gave  proof  of  his  divine  origin  by  working  a  few 
startling  miracles.  Thus  he  destroyed  the  serpent  Kaliya 
L — probably  a  type  of  evil  and  malignity — by  trampling  and 
dancing  on  his  head.  He  lifted  up  the  mountain-range  Go- 
vardhana  on  his  finger  to  shelter  the  herdsmen's  wives  from 
the  wrath  of  Indra.  Yet  in  spite  of  these  evidences  of  his 
supramundane  powers,  Krishna  was  addicted  to  very  mundane 
practices.  He  constantly  sported  with  the  Gopis  or  wives  and 
daughters  of  the  cowherds  ;  on  one  occasion  stealing  their 
clothes  when  they  were  bathing  and  making  them  come  to  him 
naked.  Eight  were  his  favourites,  especially  Radha.  In  time 
Krishna  migrated  to  Gujarat,  built  Dvarika  on  the  coast,  and 
thither  transported  the  inhabitants  of  Mathura  after  killing 

^  The  two  most  powerful  lines  of  Indian  princes,  those  of  Oudh  and 
Rajputana,  were  careful  to  trace  back  their  pedigree  to  superhuman 
origins,  the  former  claiming  the  Sun-god  and  some  of  the  latter  the  Moon- 
god  as  their  primeval  progenitors.     Udaipur  and  others  claim  the  Sun. 

'^  Compare  note  i,  p.  103.  The  day  of  his  birth  is  called  Janmashtami. 
It  is  kept  on  the  eighth  day  of  the  dark  half  of  the  month  Bhadra  in  some 
places,  and  of  Sravana  in  others. 

I 


114  Vaishnavism.     Ten  Licarnations. 

Kansa.  He  is  fabled  to  have  had  countless  wives  and  [o8,ooo 
sons,  and  one  called  Pradyumna  by  Rukmini.  It  is  said  that 
while  Krishna  was  lying  on  the  ground  in  meditation,  a 
hunter,  named  Jara,  mistook  him  for  game  and  killed  him 
by  piercing  the  sole  of  his  foot  (Maha-bharata  XVI.  126). 

9.  Buddha.  The  adoption  of  Buddha  as  one  of  the  ten 
incarnations  of  Vishnu  appears  to  have  been  the  result  of  a 
wise  compromise  with  Buddhism ;  the  Brahmans  asserting 
that  Vishnu,  in  his  compassion  for  animals,  descended  as  the 
sceptical  Buddha  that  he  might  bring  discredit  on  Vedic 
sacrifices  (see  Gita-govinda  I.  13) ;  or,  according  to  another 
theory,  that  wicked  men  might  bring  destruction  on  them- 
selves by  accepting  Buddhism  and  denying  the  supremacy  of 
the  gods.  The  fact  was  that  the  Brahmans  appropriated 
Buddha  much  as  some  of  them  are  willing  to  appropriate 
Christ,  and  make  Him  out  to  be  an  incarnation  of  Vishnu. 

10.  Kalki  or  Kalkin.  The  descent  of  Vishnu  in  this  cha- 
racter has  not  yet  taken  place.  Nor  is  he  to  appear  till  the 
close  of  the  fourth  or  Kali  age,  when  the  world  has  become 
wholly  depraved.  He  is  then  to  be  revealed  in  the  sky, 
seated  on  a  white  horse,  with  a  drawn  sword  blazing  like  a 
comet,  for  the  final  destruction  of  the  wicked,  for  the  re- 
demption of  the  good,  for  the  renovation  of  all  creation  and 
restoration  of  the  age  of  purity  (Satya-yuga).  From  the 
fact  of  the  horse  playing  an  important  role  in  this  incar- 
nation, it  is  sometimes  called  Asvavatara.  Some  of  the 
degraded  classes  of  India  comfort  themselves  in  their  pre- 
sent depressed  condition  by  expecting  Kalki  to  appear  as 
their  future  deliverer,  and  as  the  restorer  of  their  social 
position.  Indeed  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  a  belief  in  a 
coming  Redeemer  seems  to  exist  in  all  religions,  not  ex- 
cepting Buddhism  and  Muhammadanism  ^. 

Looking   more  closely   at   these   ten  special   incarnations, 

^  In  Buddhism  there  is  the  future  Buddha  ;  in  Islam  the  Mahdi.  The 
succession  of  Buddhas  may  be  compared  to  that  of  Vishnu's  descents. 


Vaishnavism.     Ten  Incarjiations.  115 

we  may  observe  that  the  god  Vishnu,  in  conformity  with 
his  character  of  a  Maintainer  of  Hfe,  discharges  his  func- 
tions in  his  first  three  descents  by  pervading  the  bodies 
of  animals.  It  is  remarkable,  too,  that  these  three  zoomor- 
phic  incarnations  all  have  reference  to  the  tradition  of  a 
general  deluge.  In  his  fourth  descent  Vishnu  takes  the 
form  of  a  being  half  animal,  half  man.  Possibly  this  com- 
bination may  be  intended  as  a  kind  of  intermediate  link,  to 
connect  the  deity  with  higher  forms.  From  half  a  man, 
the  transition  is  to  a  complete  man,  but  the  divine  essence 
on  passing  into  human  forms  commences  with  a  dwarf—-' 
the  smallest  type  of  humanity.  Thence  it  advances  to  mighty 
heroes,  sent  into  the  world  to  deliver  mankind  from  the 
oppression  of  tyrants — represented  as  evil  demons — whose 
power  increases  with  the  increase  of  corruption  and  depravity 
during  the  four  ages.  The  eighth  is  the  highest  and  so  to 
Jspeak  culminating  incarnation ;  for  in  this  Krishna  is  believed 
to  be,  not  a  part  of  Vishnu's  essence,  but  a  complete  mani- 
festation of  Vishnu  himself.  The  ninth  may  be  passed  over 
as  a  mere  device  on  the  part  of  the  Brahmans  to  account  for 
the  existence  of  Buddhism.  The  tenth  and  final  incarnation, 
which  remains  to  be  revealed,  will  surpass  all  the  others  in  im- 
portance. In  it  evil  and  wickedness  are  to  be  entirely  rooted 
out,  and  the  age  of  purity  restored.  Possibly  this  progressive 
series  of  what  to  us  appear  exceedingly  absurd  metamorphoses 
may  be  connected  with  the  idea  of  continuous  development ; 
and  just  as  the  souls  of  men,  regarded  as  emanations  from  the 
Deity,  pass  into  stones,  plants,  and  animals,  or  rise  to  the 
bodies  of  higher  beings,  so  portions  of  the  essence  of  Vishnu 
pass  through  progressive  stages  of  embodied  existence  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  order  of  the  universe. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  Vishnu's  essence  divided  itself 
into  male  and  female,  but  he  had  no  children  in  his  Non- 
avatara  condition,  as  Siva  had,  unless  Kama-deva,  god  of  love, 
said  to  have  been  his  mind-born  son  (afterwards  incarnate  in 

I  2 


1 1 6  Vaishnavism.     Division  into  Sects. 

Pradyumna,  p.  114),  be  so  regarded.  When  the  male  essence 
descended  as  Rama,  the  female  was  born  as  Rama's  faithful 
wife  Sita  ;  and  when  the  male  descended  as  Krishna,  the 
female  became  Krishna's  favourite,  Radha. 

We  now  proceed  to  give  a  description  of  the  more  im- 
portant Vaishnava  sects, — beginning  with  those  founded  by 
Ramanuja,  Madhva,  Vallabha,  and  Caitanya ;  and  first  we 
may  direct  attention  to  some  points  in  which  they  all  agree. 

In  the  first  place,  it  must  be  understood  that  all  the  sects 
agree  in  maintaining,  at  least  theoretically,  that  devotion  to 
Vishnu  supersedes  all  distinctions  of  caste  (compare  p.  64). 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that 
a  Vaishnava  Brahman  ever  really  gives  up  his  claim  to 
superiority  over  the  inferior  classes. 

Next,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  all  the  Vaishnava  sects 
are  more  or  less  opposed  to  the  non-duality  (advaita)  doctrine 
of  Sankara(^arya  (see  p.  ^S)  which  makes  the  spirit  of  man 
identical  with  the  one  Spirit  of  the  Universe  (Atma,  Brahma). 

Further,  we  may  note  that  the  bible  of  all  worshippers 
of  Vishnu  in  his  most  popular  manifestation — that  of  the 
hero  Krishna,  with  his  favourite  wife  Radha  —  consists  of 
two  chief  books,  the  Bhagavata-purana  and  the  Bhagavad- 
glta  portion  of  the  Maha-bharata ;  and  that  those  who  pay 
exclusive  adoration  to  the  other  popular  manifestation  — 
the  hero  Rama — also  acknowledge  two  special  bibles  in 
Valmiki's  Ramayana,  and  in  the  Ramayana  of  Tulsl-das 
(Tulasl-das).  Undoubtedly  these  four  books  ought  to  find  a 
place  among  the  '  Sacred  Books '  of  our  Indian  Empire. 

Then  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  all  agree  in  the  wor- 
ship of  existing  religious  teachers  who  are  supposed  to  be 
embodiments,  not  only  of  divine  wisdom,  but  of  the  very 
essence  of  divinity.  In  the  foremost  rank  must  always  come 
the  original  founder  of  each  particular  sect,  whose  title  is 
A(^arya.  He  is  regarded  as  little  inferior  to  Krishna  him- 
self, and  may  even  be  identified  with  him.     As  to  the  living 


Vaisknavism.     Division  into  Sects.  1 1 7 

teacher  of  the  day,  if  not  elevated  to  equal  rank,  he  is  a 
greater  reality.  He  receives  homage  as  a  visible  and  tangible 
mediator  between  earth  and  heaven.  He  is  to  the  mass  of 
Vaishnavas  even  more  than  a  mediator  between  themselves 
and  God.  He  is  the  living  embodiment  of  the  entire  essence 
of  the  deity  (sarva-deva-mayah).  Nay,  he  is  still  more.  He 
is  the  present  God  whose  anger  is  to  be  deprecated  and  favour 
.conciliated,  because  they  make  themselves  instantly  felt. 

Next,  all  the  Vaishnava  sects  agree,  as  we  have  seen  -y 
(p.  61),  in  requiring  a  special  ceremony  of  initiation  (diksha) 
into  their  communion,  accompanied  by  the  repetition  of  a 
formula  of  words,  significant  of  reverence  for  either  Krishna  or 
Rama,  such  as,  '  homage  to  the  divine  son  of  Vasudeva '  (Om 
namo  Bhagavate  Vasudevaya),  'homage  to  the  adorable  Rama ' 
(Sri  Ramaya  namah),  or  the  eight-syllabled  formula,  'adorable 
Krishna  is  my  refuge'  (Sri  Krishnah  Saranam  mama). 

Children  are  admitted  to  the  religion  of  Vishnu  at  the 
age  of  six  or  seven  years  or,  by  some  sects,  earlier.  A  rosary 
or  necklace  (kanthi)  of  one  hundred  and  eight  beads  ^,  usually 
made  of  tulsi  wood  (pp.  6j^  3,'^?,),  is  passed  round  their  necks 
by  the  priest  (Guru),  and  they  are  taught  the  use  of  one  of 
the  foregoing  formulas,  which  is  repeated  by  the  Guru,  very 
much  as  the  sacred  words  '  In  nomine  Patris,'  etc.  are  re- 
peated by  the  priest  at  the  Christian  rite  of  baptism. 
p  Then,  at  the  age  of  twelve  or  thirteen,  another  rite  is 
performed,  corresponding  to  our  confirmation.  With  the 
Vallabha  sect  it  is  called  the  '  Dedication  rite '  (Samarpana) ; 
that  is,  the  consecration  of  body,  soul,  and  substance  (tan, 
man,  dhan)  to  Krishna  ;  the  formula  taught  being  to  the 
following  effect : — '  I  here  dedicate  to  the  holy  Krishna  my 
bodily  organs,  my  life,  my  inmost  soul,  and  its  faculties, 
with   my  wife,  my  house,  my  children,  with  all  the  wealth 

^  According  to  Dr.  Rajendralala  Mitra  this  is  merely  to  aid  the  possessor 
in  repeating  any  one  of  Vishnu's  names  800  times,  the  eight  additional 
beads  marking  each  hundred  recitation. 


ii8  Vaishnavism,     Division  into  Sects. 

I  may  acquire  here  or  hereafter,  and  my  own  self.  O 
Krishna,  I  am  thy  servant.'  These  ceremonies  may,  in  the 
case  of  all  but  Brahmans,  take  the  place  of  the  initiatory  rite 
of  orthodox  Brahmanism,  performed  by  investiture  with  the 
sacred  thread  (to  be  described  at  p.  360). 

Another  general  characteristic  of  all  the  Vaishnava  sects 
is  tenderness  towards  animal  life.  In  this  respect  Vaish- 
navism contrasts  favourably  with  Saivism.  No  life  must  be 
taken  by  a  worshipper  of  Vishnu,  not  even  that  of  a  minute 
insect,  and  not  even  for  sacrifice  to  a  deity  (as,  for  example, 
to  Kali),  and  least  of  all  must  one's  own  life  be  taken. 
It  is  usual  for  missionaries  to  speak  with  horror  of  the  self- 
immolation  alleged  to  take  place  under  the  Car  of  Jagan- 
nath  (Krishna).  But  if  deaths  occur,  they  must  be  acci- 
dental, as  self-destruction  is  wholly  opposed  both  to  the 
letter  and  spirit  of  the  Vaishnava  religion. 

Then,  of  course,  the  several  sects  agree  in  enjoining  the 
use  of  the  perpendicular  coloured  marks  on  the  forehead, 
called  Urdhva-pundra  (described  at  p.  67).  They  are  sup- 
posed to  denote  the  impress  of  either  one  or  both  the  feet 
of  Vishnu,  and  to  possess  great  efficacy  in  shielding  from 
evil  influences  and  delivering  from  sin.  In  addition  to  these 
frontal  marks,  most  of  the  sects  brand  the  breast  and  arms 
with  the  circular  symbol  and  conch-shell  of  Vishnu. 

Finally,  all  the  sects  believe  that  every  faithful  and  vir- 
tuous worshipper  of  Vishnu  is  transported  to  his  heaven, 
called  Vaikuntha,  or  to  that  of  Krishna,  called  Go-loka  (in- 
stead of  to  the  temporary  Svarga  of  orthodox  Brahmanism, 
p.  49),  and  that  when  once  admitted  there,  he  is  saved  from 
the  misery  of  further  transmigration.  There,  according  to  the 
merit  of  his  works,  he  may  enjoy  any  of  the  three  conditions 
of  bliss,  Salokya,  Samipya,  or  Sarupya  (p.  41  ;  compare 
p.  234).  Whether  a  Vaishnava  may  be  supposed  capable  of 
achieving  the  highest  condition  of  beatification — conscious 
absorption    into   the   divine   essence   (Sayujya) — depends   of 


Vaishnavism,      The  Ramanuja  Sect,  119 

course  on  the  philosophical  views  of  the  sect  to  which  he 
belongs  (see  p.  95).  One  point  requires  to  be  well  under- 
stood in  comparing  the  Vaishnava  religion  with  Christianity — 
namely,  that  God,  with  Hindu  Theists,  can  only  be  propi- 
tiated by  works.  He  may  be  called  merciful,  but  He  only 
shows  mercy  to  those  who  deserve  it  by  their  actions,  and 
if  He  accepts  faith  it  is  only  because  this  also  is  a  meritorious 
act.  Every  man's  hope  of  heaven,  and  of  salvation  from  the 
misery  of  successive  births,  depends  on  the  amount  of  merit  he 
has  accumulated  during  life.  We  must  also  bear  in  mind  that 
although  Vishnu  is  supposed  to  be  a  Creator  as  well  as  a 
Saviour,  yet  he  is  not  so  in  the  Christian  sense  of  the  word  ; 
for  all  the  sects  believe  in  some  material  cause  (upadana) — 
some  eternal  substance  out  of  which  the  Universe  is  evolved. 
Let  us  now  advert  to  the  principal  Vaishnava  sects. 

Sect  founded  by  Rmnamtja. 

The  Vaishnava  form  of  the  Visishtadvaita  philosophy  ^  was 
taught  by  Ramanuja,  or  as  he  is  called  Ramanujacarya,  who 
was  born  about  A.  D.  10 17  at  Sri  Parambattur,  a  town  about 
twenty-six  miles  west  of  Madras.  He  is  believed  to  have 
been  an  incarnation  of  Sesha  or  Ananta  (pp.  105,  323)  and  is 
known  to  have  taught  at  KancT-puram  (Kanjivaram,  p.  446), 
to  have  travelled  twice  through  India,  and  to  have  finally 
settled  at  SrI-rangam,  near  Trichinopoly.  He  is  said  to  have 
lived  for  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  and  died  in  11 37.  He 
is  buried  in  the  great  temple  of  Sriranga-nath  (see  p.  447). 
The  distinctive  point  of  his  teaching,  according  to  the  Sarva- 
darsana-sahgraha  (Cowell  and  Gough),  was  his  assertion  of 
the  existence  of  a  triad  of  principles  (padartha-tritayam), — 
namely,    i.   the    Supreme   Spirit  (Para-brahman   or  Isvara) ; 

^  There  is  also  a  Saiva  form  ;  see  above,  p.  89,  and  see  '  a  catechism  of 
the  Visishtadvaita'  printed  and  published  in  1887  by  N.  Bhashyacarya, 
Pandit  of  the  Adyar  Library,  Madras,  who  is  my  authority  for  some  state- 
ments here. 


1 20  Vaishnavism,      The  Raniamija  Sect. 

2.  the  separate  spirits  (Cit)  of  men  ;  and  3.  non-spirit  (A-cit). 
Vishnu  is  the  Supreme  Being ;  individual  beings  are  separate 
spirits ;  the  visible  world  (drisyam)  is  non-spirit.  All  three 
have  an  eternal  existence  and  are  inseparable,  yet  Cit  and 
A-dit  are  different  from  Isvara  and  dependent  on  Isvara. 

This  doctrine  was  clearly  antagonistic  to  that  of  the  great 
Brahmanical  revivalist  Saiikara,  who  lived  three  or  four  cen- 
turies before  (see  p.  ^S)-  According  to  Sankara,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  separate  existence  of  the  spirit  of  man,  as  distinct 
from  the  one  Universal  Spirit,  was  only  illusory.  Illusion 
(Maya),  too — existing  from  all  eternity — was  the  only  mate- 
rial or  substantial  cause  (upadana-karana)  of  the  external 
world,  though  this  eternally  creative  Illusion  was  powerless 
to  create  the  world  except  in  union  with  the  one  Spirit. 
Ramanuja,  on  the  other  hand,  contended  that  the  spirits  of 
men  are  truly,  essentially,  and  eternally  different  from  the 
one  Spirit,  though  dependent  on  it.  With  regard  to  the 
external  world  his  views  appear  to  have  been  less  dualistic 
than  those  of  the  Sankhya,  and  even  than  those  of  the 
Vedanta,  for  in  these  systems  we  have  either  Prakriti  or 
Maya,  as  the  material  cause  (upadana)  out  of  which  the 
Universe  was  created ;  whereas  Ramanuja  held  that  God  is 
himself  both  the  creator  (Karta)  of  the  world  and  the  sub- 
stantial cause  or  material  out  of  which  it  is  formed.  He 
appears,  too,  to  have  asserted  that  the  world  and  God  stand 
towards  each  other  in  the  relation  of  body  and  spirit,  and 
that  body  and  spirit  are  virtually  one.  It  will  be  found,  in 
fact,  that  the  doctrine  '  ex  nihilo  nihil  fit '  in  some  form  or 
other  holds  good  in  every  religious  system  which  India  has 
produced  independently  of  Christian  influences. 

In  support  of  the  doctrine  that  the  spirits  of  men  are 
really  and  eternally  distinct  from  the  one  Universal  Spirit 
he  appealed  to  a  passage  in  the  Mundaka  Upanishad,  which 
rests  on  a  well-known  text  of  the  Rig-veda  (I.  164.20): 
'  Two  birds — the  Supreme  and  Individual  Spirits — like  closely 


Vaishnavism,     The  Ra77iamija  Sect.  121 

■  associated  friends,  occupy  (cling  to)  the  same  tree  (abide  in 
the  same  body).  One  of  them  (the  Individual  Spirit)  enjoys 
the  sweet  fruit  of  the  fig  (or  consequences  of  acts),  the  other, 
without  eating,  looks  on  as  a  witness.' 

As  Ramanuja  admitted  the  dependence  of  the  human 
spirit  on  the  divine,  so  he  urged  the  duty  of  striving  after 
complete,  though  conscious,  union  with  the  Supreme — 
identified  with  Vishnu : — '  Cut  is  the  knot  of  man's  heart, 
solved  are  all  his  doubts,  ended  are  all  his  works,  when  he 
has  beheld  the  Supreme  Being  ^.' 

A  good  account  of  Ramanuja's  opinions  is  given  by  the 
late  Dr.  K.  M.  Banerjea  ('  Dialogues  on  Hindu  Philosophy  '). 
His  account  is  founded  on  Ramanuja's  own  commentaries  on 
the  Vedanta-sutras  (called  Sariraka-bhashya,  Vedanta-dlpa, 
Vedanta-sara,  Vedartha-sangraha),  and  his  commentary  on  the 
Bhagavad-gita,  etc. 

We  may  suppose  Ramanuja  himself  to  be  speaking  as 
follows  : — 

'All  the  Sastras  tell  us  of  two  principles — knowledge  and 
ignorance,  virtue  and  vice,  truth  and  falsehood.  Thus  we 
see  pairs  everywhere,  and  God  and  the  human  spirit  are  also 
so.     How  can  they  be  one  ?     I  am  sometimes  happy,  some- 

t  times  miserable.  He,  the  Spirit,  is  always  happy.  Such  is 
the  discrimination.  How  then  can  two  distinct  substances 
be  identical  ?  He  is  an  eternal  Light,  pure,  without  anything 
to  obscure  it — the  one  superintendent  of  the  world.  But 
the  human  spirit  is  not  so.  Thus  a  thunder-bolt  falls  on 
the  tree  of  non-distinction.  How  canst  thou,  O  slow  of 
thought,  say : — I  am  He,  who  has  established  this  immense 
sphere  of  the  universe  in  its  fulness?  Consider  thine  own 
capacities  with  a  candid  mind.     By  the  mercy  of  the  Most 

^  This  is  given  in  the  Sarva-darsana-safigraha  as  one  of  Ramanuja's 
precepts.  Compare  a  similar  precept  at  the  end  of  the  Kathopanishad. 
I  once  heard  an  excellent  sermon  on  this  text  delivered  by  Professor  Bhan- 
darkar  in  the  house  of  prayer  of  the  Prarthana-Samaj  in  Bombay. 


122  Vais/mavis77i.      The  Ramamtja  Sect, 

High  a  little  understanding  has  been  committed  to  thee. 
It  is  not  for  thee,  therefore,  O  perverse  one,  to  say,  I  am 
God.  All  the  qualities  of  sovereignty  and  activity  are  eter- 
nally Code's.  He  is  therefore  a  Being  endowed  with  qualities, 
but  not  under  the  influence  of  illusion  (maya).  You  cannot, 
if  you  believe  Him  to  be  all  truth,  allow  the  possibility  of  His 
projecting  a  deceptive  spectacle.  Nor  can  you,  if  you  believe 
Him  to  be  all  knowledge  and  all  power,  assent  to  the  theory 
of  His  creating  anything  under  the  influence  of  Avidya,  or 
Ignorance.' 

Yet,  notwithstanding  the  manifestly  dualistic  teaching  of 
Ramanuja  in  regard  to  the  Supreme  and  human  spirit,  he 
is  usually  credited  with  a  modified  acquiescence  in  the  non- 
duality  doctrine  of  Sankara.  According  to  some,  in  fact,  he 
merely  propounded  a  new  view  of  the  Vedanta  non-duality 
(a-dvaita)  doctrine ;  that  is,  the  non-duality  of  the  one  Spirit 
qualified  by  its  connexion  with  Cit  and  A-cit,  and  therefore 
called 'qualified  non-duality '  (visishtadvaita).  In  the  Sarva- 
darsana-sahgraha  it  is  stated  that  Ramanuja's  teaching,  re- 
garded from  different  points  of  view,  was  open  to  the  charge 
of  admitting  the  three  ideas  of  unity,  duality,  and  plurality. 
Unity,  it  alleges,  was  admitted  by  him  in  saying  that  all 
living  beings  and  visible  forms  constitute  the  body  of  the 
one  Supreme  Spirit.  Duality  was  admitted  in  saying  that 
the  Spirit  of  God  and  of  man  are  distinct.  Plurality  was 
admitted  in  saying  that  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  spirits  of  men 
which  are  multitudinous,  and  the  visible  world  are  distinct. 
(Cowell  and  Gough's  translation,  pp.  ']'^^  75.)  The  first  of 
these  admissions  is  said  to  amount  to  qualified  unity,  and  is 
therefore  styled  Visishtadvaita. 

Ramanuja  also  held  that  at  great  periodical  dissolutions  of 
the  Universe  human  spirits  and  the  world  are  re-absorbed  into 
God,  but  without  losing  their  separate  identity  and  con- 
sciousness. In  the  Tattva-muktavali  (see  Dr.  Banerjea's  9th 
Dialogue)  we  find  Ramanuja  represented  as  saying,  '  Many. 


Vaishnavism,     The  Ramanuja  Sect.  123 

flavours  of  trees  there  are  in  honey,  and  they  are  separable 
from  it.  How  otherwise  could  it  remove  the  three-fold  disor- 
ders (p.  97)  ?  Spirits,  in  like  manner,  are  absorbed  in  the  Lord 
at  the  dissolution  of  all  things,  but  are  not  unified  with 
Him,  for  they  are  again  separated  at  the  creation.  As  there 
is  a  difference  between  rivers  and  the  sea,  between  sweet  and 
salt  waters,  so  is  there  a  difference  between  God  and  human 
spirits,  because  of  their  characteristic  distinctions.  Rivers, 
when  joined  with  the  sea,  are  not  altogether  unified  with  it, 
though  they  appear  inseparable.  There  is  a  real  difference 
between  salt  and  sweet  waters.  Even  milk,  when  mixed 
with  milk,  and  water  with  water,  do  not  obtain  unification, 
merely  because  they  are  supposed  to  be  unified  ^' 

With  regard  to  the  various  manifestations  of  the  Supreme 
Being  and  the  duty  of  worshipping  Him,  Ramanuja  held 
that  God  is  present  on  earth  in  five  ways  :  i.  in  forms 
and  images  (murti) ;  2.  in  partial  divine  embodiments  (as 
Rama) ;  3.  in  full  divine  embodiments  (as  Krishna) ;  4.  in 
the  subtle  (siakshma)  all-pervading  spirit ;  5.  in  the  internal 
spirit  controlling  the  human  soul  (antaryamin).  The 
worshipper  may  be  incapable  of  rising  at  once  to  any  high 
act  of  adoration ;  in  which  case  he  must  begin  by  adoring 
Vishnu  as  manifested  in  the  first  of  these  five  ways — that 
is  to  say,  in  images  and  idols.  He  may  afterwards  ascend 
by  regular  steps  through  the  other  four  modes  of  worship 
till  he  reaches  the  fifth.  If  he  ever  succeeds  in  attaining 
to  this  highest  stage  and  so  becomes  capable  of  worshipping 
the  internal  Spirit  enshrined  in  his  own  heart,  then  Vishnu 
identified  with  that  Spirit  raises  him  to  his  own  heaven 
Vaikuntha,  whence  there  is  no  return  to  human  existence, 
and  where  he  enjoys  the  exquisite  bliss  of  conscious  assimi- 
lation to  the  God  whom  he  has  adored  on  earth,  and  even 

^  The  twenty-ninth  Sutra  of  Sandilya  (translated  by  Prof.  E.  B.  Cowell) 
mentions  a  sage  Kasyapa  who  appears  to  have  held  doctrines  coinciding 
to  a  certain  extent  with  those  of  Ramanuja. 


124  Vaishnavism,     The  Ramanuja  Sect. 

of  conscious  absorption  into  that  God  ^.  Possibly  this  theory 
of  conscious  absorption  may  constitute  another  reason  for 
attributing  the  doctrine  called  '  qualified  non-duality '  (visishta- 
dvaita)  to  Ramanuja.  Nevertheless  the  impression  left  on 
the  mind  by  the  account  of  his  system  in  the  Sarva-darsana- 
sangraha  is  that  Ramanuja  was  even  more  opposed  to  the 
doctrine  of  unity  in  regard  to  the  divine  and  human  spirits 
than  his  brother  sectarian  Madhva.  This  impression  is  borne 
out  by  the  fact  that  his  system  is  treated  of  before  that  of 
Madhva,  and  so  placed  lower  down  in  that  ascending  scale 
which  is  supposed  to  culminate  in  the  orthodox  Advaita. 
Probably  the  real  reason  for  its  being  so  placed  is  that  he 
asserts  three  principles — the  Spirit  of  God,  the  spirit  of  man, 
and  the  visible  world — as  his  first  axiom  ;  whereas  Madhva 
only  asserts  two  (see  p.  131). 

Ramanuja  had  numerous  disciples,  and  among  them 
seventy-four  special  teachers  called  Acarya-purushas  ap- 
pointed by  himself.  These  were  all  married  men,  and  the 
children  of  some  of  them  succeeded  to  the  Acaryaship.  One 
of  the  most  celebrated  of  his  followers  was  Vyasacarya,  who 
wrote  a  commentary  on  Ramanuja's  works.  Of  course  many 
of  these  followers  modified  his  teaching  in  the  usual  manner, 
introducing  doctrines  and  practices  which  the  founder  of  the 
sect  had  not  enjoined  and  would  not  have  sanctioned.  Then, 
in  the  13th  century  or  about  six  hundred  years  ago,  another 
of  his  followers — a  learned  Brahman  of  Kaiijlvaram,  named 
Vedantacarya — put  himself  forward  as  a  reformer,  giving 
out  that  he  was  commissioned  by  the  god  Vishnu  himself 
to  purify  the  faith  ;  that  is,  to  sweep  away  Incrustations,  and 
restore  the  doctrines  of  the  original  founder.  These  doctrines, 
he  affirmed,  had  been  more  carefully  preserved  by  the 
Northern  Brahmans  than  by  the  Southern.  Hence  arose 
irreconcilable  differences   of  opinion,  which  resulted   In    two 

^  See  Sarva-darsana-safigraha  (Prof.  A.  E.  Cough's  translation  of  the 
Ramanuja  system),  p.  79. 


Vaishnavism.      The  Ramantija  Sect. 


125 


great  antagonistic  parties  of  Ramanujas — one  called  the 
northern  school,  Vada-galai  (for  Vada-kalai,  Sanskrit  kala), 
the  other  the  southern  school,  Ten-galai  (for  Ten-kalai  ^). 
They  are  far  more  opposed  to  each  other  than  both  parties 
are  to  Saivas.  The  northern  school  accept  the  Sanskrit  Veda. 
The  southern  (Ten-galai)  have  compiled  a  Veda  of  their  own, 
called  '  the  four  thousand  verses '  (Nalayira),  written  in  Tamil, 
and  held  to  be  older  than  the  Sanskrit  Veda,  but  really  based 
on  its  Upanishad  portion.  According  to  Pandit  N.  Bhashya- 
carya  this  work  is  called  Divya-prabandha.  In  all  their 
worship  they  repeat  selections  from  these  Tamil  verses. 

An  important  difference  of  doctrine,  caused  by  different 
views  of  the  nature  of  the  human  spirit's  dependence  on  Vishnu, 
separates  the  two  parties.  The  view  taken  by  the  Vada-galais 
corresponds,  in  a  manner,  to  the  Arminian  doctrine  of  '  free- 
will.' The  human  spirit,  say  they,  lays  hold  of  the  Supreme 
Being  by  its  own  will,  act,  and  effort,  just  as  the  young 
monkey  clings  to  its  mother.  This  is  called  the  monkey- 
theory  (markata-nyaya).  The  view  of  the  Ten-galais  is  a 
counterpart  of  that  of  the  Calvinists.  It  is  technically  styled 
'the  cat-hold  theory'  (marjara-nyaya).  The  human  spirit, 
they  argue,  remains  passive  and  helpless  until  acted  on  by 
the  Supreme  Spirit,  just  as  the  kitten  remains  passive  and 
helpless  until  seized  and  transported,  nolens  volens,  from 
place  to  place  by  the  mother-cat. 

Again,  the  Ten-galais  maintain  that  the  Sakti,  or  wife  of 
Vishnu,  is  a  created  and  finite  being,  though  divine,  and 
that  she  acts  as  a  mediator  or  minister  (purusha-kara),  not 
as  an  equal  channel  of  salvation  ;  whereas  the  Vada-galais 
regard  her  as,  like  her  consort,  infinite,  and  uncreated,  and 
equally  to  be  worshipped  as  a  channel  or  means  (upaya)  by 

'  The  Satani  branch  of  the  Ramanujas  is  not  a  separate  school.  It 
consists  of  a  body  of  Sudras  who  are  opposed  to  Brahmanical  usages. 
It  represents,  in  fact,  the  low-caste  or  out-caste  converts  to  Vaishnavism. 
It  is  among  the  Ramanuja  Vaishnavas  what  the  Liiigait  sect  is  among 
Saivas  (see  p.  88). 


126  Vaishnavism.      The  Ramaiitija  Sect, 

which  salvation  may  be  attained.  I  heard  it  remarked  by 
a  learned  Ten-galai  Brahman  that  no  educated  men  believe 
Vishnu  to  be  really  married.  '  What  most  Ten-galais  hold/ 
he  said,  '  is  that  Lakshml  is  an  ideal  personification  of  the 
deity's  more  feminine  attributes,  such  as  those  of  mercy, 
love,  and  cornpassion ;  while  some  philosophers  contend 
that  the  Hindu  gods  are  only  represented  with  wives  to 
typify  the  mystical  union  of  the  two  eternal  principles — 
spirit  and  matter — for  the  production  of  the  Universe.  The 
central  red  mark,  therefore,  is,  in  the  one  case,  the  mere  ex- 
pression of  trust  in  God's  mercy;  in  the  other,  of  belief  in 
the  great  mystery  of  creation  and  re-creation.' 

No  Arminians  and  Calvinists  have  ever  fought  more  ran- 
corously  over  their  attempts  to  solve  insoluble  difficulties 
than  have  Vada-galais  and  Ten-galais  over  their  struggles 
to  secure  the  ascendency  of  their  own  theological  opinions. 
The  fight  has  ended  in  a  drawn  battle.  The  two  opposite 
parties,  exhausted  with  their  profitless  logomachy  and  use- 
less strivings  after  an  impossible  unity  of  opinion,  have 
agreed  to  differ  in  abstruse  points  of  doctrine. 

Their  disputes  are  now  chiefly  confined  to  externals  of 
the  most  trivial  kind.  It  is  the  old  story  repeated.  The 
Sibboleths  are  intolerant  of  the  Shibboleths.  The  Vada-galais 
contend  that  their  frontal  mark  (pundra,  pp.  66^  ii8,  400) 
ought  to  represent  the  impress  of  the  right  foot  of  Vishnu  (the 
supposed  source  of  the  Ganges),  while  the  Ten-galais  maintain 
that  equal  reverence  is  due  to  both  the  god's  feet.  It  is 
certainly  convenient  from  a  social  point  of  view  that  a  man's 
religious  idiosyncrasies  should  be  stamped  upon  his  forehead. 
Accordingly,  the  two  religious  parties  are  most  particular 
about  their  frontal  emblems,  the  Vada-galais  making  a  simple 
white  line  between  the  eyes  (curved  like  the  letter  U)  to  re- 
present the  sole  of  one  foot,  and  adding  a  central  red  mark — 
emblematical  of  Lakshml ;  while  the  Ten-galais  employ  a  more 
complicated   device  symbolical  of  both  feet,  which  are  sup- 


Vaisknavism.      The  Ramanuja  Sect.  127 

posed  to  rest  on  a  lotus  throne,  denoted  by  a  white  line 
drawn  half  down  the  nose.  The  complete  Ten-galai  symbol 
has  the  appearance  of  a  trident,  the  two  outer  prongs  (painted 
with  white  earth)  standing  for  Vishnu's  two  feet,  the  middle 
(painted  red  or  yellow)  for  his  consort,  Lakshmi,  and  the 
handle  (or  white  line  down  the  nose)  representing  the  lotus 
throne.  The  worst  quarrels  between  the  two  divisions  of  the 
sect  arise  from  disputes  as  to  which  mark  is  to  be  impressed 
on  the  images  worshipped  in  the  Vaishnava  temples,  to  which 
all  Ramanujas  resort  indifferently.  Tedious  and  expensive 
law- suits  are  often  the  result. 

Both  sects,  however,  agree  in  stamping  or  branding  the 
same  emblems  of  Vishnu — the  discus,  the  conch-shell,  the 
club,  and  the  lotus — but  more  generally  the  former  two  only, 
on  their  breasts,  shoulders,  and  arms  (p.  118). 

Another  point  which  distinguishes  the  Ten-galais  is  that 
they  prohibit  their  widows  from  shaving  their  heads.  Every 
married  woman  in  India  rejoices  in  long,  fine  hair,  which 
she  is  careful  to  preserve  intact.  In  the  case  of  men,  regular 
shaving  is  not  only  a  universal  custom,  it  is  a  religious  duty. 
But  for  women  to  be  deprived  of  any  portion  of  their  hair  is 
a  shame.  A  shorn  female  head  is  throughout  India  the  chief 
mark  of  widowhood.  The  general  rule  is  that  every  widow 
should  submit  her  growing  locks  periodically  to  the  family 
barber,  though  child-widows  among  the  Marathas  are  exempt. 
I  believe  also  that  in  Northern  India  widows  are  not  obliged 
to  shave.  It  is  certain  that  the  Ten-galai  widows  are  exempted 
from  all  obligation  to  dishonour  their  heads  in  this  manner  ^ 
(compare  i  Cor.  xi.  5). 

Again,  a  peculiarity  common  to  both  Ramanuja  sects  is 
the  strict  privacy  with  which  they  eat  and  even  prepare  their 

^  The  Ten-galais  quote  a  verse  of  Vriddha-Manu,  which  declares  that 
if  any  woman,  whether  unmarried  or  widowed,  shave  her  head,  she  will 
be  condemned  to  dwell  in  the  hell  called  Raurava  for  one  thousand  times 
ten  million  ages. 


128  Vaishnavism.      The  Ramamtja  Sect. 

meals.  No  Indians  like  to  be  looked  at  while  eating.  They 
are  firm  believers  in  the  evil  influence  of  the  human  eye 
(drishti-dosha). 

Cooking  is  an  affair  of  equal  secrecy.  We  Europeans  can- 
not understand  the  extent  to  which  culinary  operations  may 
be  associated  with  religion.  The  kitchen  in  every  Indian 
household  is  a  kind  of  sanctuary  or  holy  ground — almost 
as  hallowed  as  the  room  dedicated  to  the  family  gods.  No 
unprivileged  person  must  dare  to  intrude  within  this  sacred 
enclosure.  The  mere  glance  of  a  man  of  inferior  caste  makes 
the  greatest  delicacies  uneatable,  and  if  such  a  glance  hap- 
pens to  fall  on  the  family  supplies  during  the  cooking  opera- 
tions, when  the  ceremonial  purity  of  the  water  used  ^  is  a 
matter  of  almost  life  and  death  to  every  member  of  the 
household,  the  whole  repast  has  to  be  thrown  away  as  if 
poisoned.  The  family  is  for  that  day  dinnerless.  Food 
thus  contaminated  would,  if  eaten,  communicate  a  taint  to 
the  souls  as  well  as  bodies  of  the  eaters — a  taint  which 
could  only  be  removed  by  long  and  painful  expiation.  In 
travelling  over  every  part  of  India,  and  diligently  striving 
to  note  the  habits  of  the  natives  in  every  circumstance  of 
their  daily  life,  I  never  once  saw  a  single  Hindii,  except  of 
the  lowest  caste,  either  preparing  or  eating  cooked  food  of 
any  kind.  The  Ramanujas  carry  these  ideas  to  an  extra- 
vagant extreme.  They  carefully  lock  the  doors  of  their 
kitchens  and  protect  their  culinary  and  prandial  operations 
from  the  gaze  of  even  high-caste  Brahmans  of  tribes  and 
sects  different  from  their  own. 

Each  of  the  present  chiefs  (acaryas)  of  the  two  Rama- 
nuja  sects  lays  claim  to  be  the  true  descendant  of  the 
founder  himself  in  regular,  unbroken  succession.     The  Vada- 

^  Caste-rules  are  an  essential  part  of  the  Hindu  religion.  It  is  the  fashion 
for  enlightened  men  who  still  keep  up  caste  to  excuse  themselves  on  the  plea 
that  many  of  the  rules  originated  in  social  convenience,  or  the  need  of 
sanitary  precautions.  Nothing  is  so  necessary  for  the  preservation  of 
health  in  India  as  attention  to  the  purity  of  water. 


Vaishnavisin.     The  Ramanuja  Sect.  129 

galai  successor  (named  Ahobala)  lives  at  a  monastery  (Matha) 
in  the  Kurnool  district.  The  Ten-galai  successor  (named 
Vanamamala)  lives  in  the  Tinnevelly  district.  Though  they 
preside  over  monasteries,  they  are  both  married  ;  whereas 
the  successors  of  the  orthodox  Brahman  Saiikara  (who  live 
at  Srihgeri  in  Mysore)  are  celibates.  The  two  Ramanuja 
Acaryas,  however,  are  strict  Ayengar  Brahmans,  and  will 
probably  in  their  old  age  become  Sannyasis,  according  to  the 
_  teaching  of  the  ancient  lawgiver  Manu,  who  ordained  that  the 
discharge  of  household  duties  is  incompatible  with  the  attain- 
ment of  greater  nearness  to  the  Supreme  Being,  and  that 
therefore  every  twice-born  man  as  he  advances  in  life  is  bound 
to  give  up  all  family  ties  (p.  362,  Manu  VI.  i). 

Each  Acarya  makes  a  periodical  visitation  of  his  diocese, 
and  holds  a  kind  of  confirmation  in  every  large  town.  That 
is  to  say,  every  child  or  young  person  who  has  been  initiated 
is  brought  before  him  to  be  branded  or  stamped  as  a  true 
follower  of  Vishnu.  Boys  may  be  branded  at  the  age  of 
seven  or  upwards  ;  girls  only  after  their  marriage.  A  sacred 
fire  is  kindled,  two  golden  instruments  are  heated,  and  the 
symbols  of  the  wheel-shaped  discus  and  conch-shell  of  Vishnu 
are  impressed  on  the  breast,  arms,  or  other  parts  of  the 
body.  I  was  informed  by  an  intelligent  Brahman  at  Ma- 
dura that  the  Acarya,  or  chief  of  the  sect  from  the  Aho- 
bala Matha,  visits  that  town  once  every  eight  or  ten  years, 
when  as  many  young  persons  as  possible  take  the  oppor- 
tunity of  being  branded.  Even  those  who  have  been  in- 
vested with  the  Brahmanical  thread  require  the  addition  of 
the  Vaishnava  brand.  The  Acarya  is  put  to  no  expense. 
He  is  the  guest  of  some  well-to-do  Brahman  in  the  town, 
and  reaps  a  rich  harvest  of  fees. 

We   pass   on    to   the   second   great  Vaishnava  sect — that 
founded  by  Madhva — whose  adherents  are  called  Madhvas. 
'      They  are  chiefly  found  in  Southern  India. 


K 


I  ^o  Vaishnavism.     Madhva  Sect. 


J 


Sect  fotmded  by  Madhva. 

The  next  most  important  of  the  Vaishnava  sects  is  that  of 
the  Madhvas.  They  were  founded  by  a  Kanarese  Brahman 
named  Madhva — otherwise  called  Ananda-tirtha — said  to 
have  been  born  about  the  year  1200  of  our  era,  at  a  sacred 
place  called  Udipi,  in  South  Kanara  (sixty  miles  north  of 
Mangalore),  and  to  have  been  educated  in  a  convent  at 
Anantesvar.  His  doctrine  is  commonly  called  Duality 
(Dvaita),  and  is  well  known  for  the  intensity  of  its  opposition 
to  the  Non-duality  (Advaita)  doctrine  of  the  great  Vedantist 
Sankaracarya.  The  school  he  founded  is  sometimes  called 
Purna-prajna — a  name  also  applied  to  its  founder. 

In  fact  the  teaching  of  Madhva  is  by  some  thought  to  owe 
no  little  of  its  distinctive  character  to  the  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity, which  had  made  itself  felt  in  the  South  of  India  before 
the  thirteenth  century.  No  evidence  whatever  is  forthcoming 
on  this  subject.  Nor  has  his  system  really  much  common 
ground  with  Christianity.  Nor  would  it  be  easy  to  give  a 
thoroughly  exhaustive  account  of  his  doctrines^.  Still  their 
general  drift  may  be  correctly  gathered  from  the  Sarva-dar- 
sana-sahgraha,  though  the  points  in  which  he  differs  from 
Ramanuja  are  rather  obscurely  stated  in  that  work. 

Of  course  Madhva,  like  Ramanuja,  taught  that  there  was 
only  one  God,  whose  principal  name  was  Vishnu  (or  Hari), 
and  who  was  the  one  eternal  Supreme  Being,  all  other  gods 
being  subject  to  the  law  of  universal  periodical  dissolution. 

'  Brahma,  Siva,  and  the  greatest  of  the  gods  decay  with  the 
decay  of  their  bodies  ;  greater  than  these  is  the  undecaying 
Hari.'     (Professor  Gough's  translation.) 

Perhaps  the  chief  distinctive  feature  of  Madhva's  teaching 
was   that  his   first  axiom  asserted    categorically  that   there 

^  I  repeatedly  questioned  some  of  Madhva's  more  intelligent  followers 
whom  I  met  in  the  South  of  India  as  to  the  exact  distinction  between 
his  views  and  those  of  Ramanuja,  but  no  one  was  able  to  give  me  any  very 
satisfactory  reply. 


Vaishnavisin.     Mddhva  Sect.  131 

are  two  separate  eternal  principles  (instead  of  three,  as 
asserted  by  Ramanuja,  p.  119),  and  that  these  two  are  related 
as  independent  and  dependent,  as  master  and  servant,  as  king 
and  subject.  The  one  is  the  independent  principle,  God 
(identified  with  Vishnu),  the  other  is  the  dependent  principle 
consisting  of  the  human  spirit,  or  rather  spirits ;  for  these  are 
innumerable  as  in  the  Nyaya  and  Saiikhya. 

It  was  Madhva's  unqualified  denial  of  the  unity  of  the 
Supreme  and  human  spirits  which  made  him  the  opponent 
of  the  followers  of  Saiikara. 

The  Vedantists  maintained,  as  we  have  seen,  that  the  dif- 
ference between  one  thing  and  another  and  between  one  spirit 
and  another  was  wholly  illusory  and  unreal.  Madhva  affirmed 
that  a  real  and  inextinguishable  duality  was  to  be  proved  both 
by  perception  and  by  inference  ^. 

'The  Supreme  Lord,'  said  Madhva,  'differs  from  the  in- 
dividual spirit  because  the  Lord  is  the  object  of  its  obedience. 
A  subject  who  obeys  a  king  differs  from  that  king.  In  their 
eager  desire  to  be  one  with  the  Supreme  Being,  the  followers 
of  Sarikara  lay  claim  to  the  glory  of  his  excellence.  This  is  a 
mere  mirage.  A  man  with  his  tongue  cut  off  might  as  well 
attempt  to  enjoy  a  large  plantain.' 

Again,  according  to  Madhva  the  Vedic  text, '  This  is  Self — 
That  art  thou,'  points  to  similarity,  not  identity. 

'  Like  a  bird  and  the  string  ;  like  the  juices  of  various  trees  ; 
like  rivers  and  the  sea  ;  like  fresh  and  salt  water ;  like  a 
robber  and  the  robbed  ;  like  a  man  and  his  energy ;  so  are 
the  human  spirit  and  the  Lord  diverse  and  for  ever  different.' 

Nor  have  these  two  principles  a  qualified  unity  comparable 
to  the  union  of  spirit  and  body,  as  affirmed  by  Ramanuja. 
They  are  absolutely  distinct.  With  regard  to  the  visible 
world,  he  taught  that  its  elements  existed  eternally  in  the 
Supreme  Being,  and  were  only  created  by  Him  in  the  sense 
of  being  shaped,  ordered,  and  arranged  by  His  power  and  will. 

•^  See  pp.  ^Z,  90  of  Cowell  and  Cough's  'Sarva-darsana-saiigraha.' 

K   % 


132  Vaishnavism,     Madhva  Sect. 

Practically  he  seems  to  have  asserted  three  principles  quite  as 
plainly  as  Ramanuja  did  ;  for  his  doctrine  was  that,  when  once  [ 
the  world  had  emanated  from  the  Supreme  essence,  it  remained 
a  distinct  entity  to  all  eternity.  '  There  is  a  difference,'  he 
affirmed, '  between  human  souls  and  God,  and  a  difference  be- 
tween insentient  matter  (jada)  and  God.'  Probably,  like 
Bishop  Berkeley,  he  saw  the  difficulty  of  proving  the  existence 
of  matter  externally  to  the  mind,  and  therefore  contented 
himself  with  asserting  two  distinct  principles,  the  Supreme 
and  the  human  spirit.  In  short,  his  dogma  was  that  as  the 
visible  world  emanated  from  God  it  was  not  distinguishable, 
as  an  original  principle,  from  God,  and  was  not  even  as  distinct 
as  the  human  spirit  and  body,  though,  when  once  produced,  it 
was  as  distinct  from  its  Producer  as  an  effect  from  its  cause  ^. 

According  to  Madhva  the  Supreme  Being  is  to  be  honoured 
in  three  ways — by  naming,  by  worship,  and  by  branding. 

The  act  of  naming  (nama-karana)  is  performed  by  giving  a 
child  one  of  the  thousand  names  of  Vishnu — such  as  Kesava — 
as  a  memorial  of  his  dedication  to  the  service  of  the  god. 

The  act  of  worship  is  threefold  : — (i)  with  the  voice — by 
veracity,  right  conversation,  kind  words,  and  repetition  of  the 
Veda  ;  (2)  with  the  body — by  giving  alms  to  the  poor,  by 
defending  and  protecting  them  ;  (3)  with  the  heart — by  mercy, 
love,  and  faith.  This  is  a  mere  repetition  of  the  old  triple 
division  of  duties,  according  to  thought,  word,  and  deed. 

With  regard  to  the  rite  of  branding  (called  ankana),  the  Ma- 
dhva sect,  like  the  Ramanujas  and  other  Valshnavas,  lay  great 
stress  on  marking  the  body  Indelibly  with  the  circular  discus 
and  shell  of  Vishnu.  They  firmly  believe  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
Valshnavas  to  carry  throughout  life  a  memorial  of  their  god  on 
their  persons,  and  that  such  a  lasting  outward  and  visible  sign 
of  his  presence  helps  them  to  obtain  salvation  through  him. 

^  This  was  very  much  the  doctrine  of  the  Kabbalists,  who  equally 
held  that  nothing  could  be  produced  from  nothing.  It  resembles  also  the 
theory  of  the  Stoics. 


Vaishnavisin.     Madhva  Sect.  133 

*  On  his  right  arm  let  the  Brahman  wear  the  discus,  on  his 
left  the  conch-shell ! ' 

When  I  was  at  Tanjore  I  found  that  one  of  the  successors 
of  Madhva  had  recently  arrived  on  his  branding-visitation. 
He  was  engaged  throughout  the  entire  day  in  stamping  his 
disciples  and  receiving  fees  from  all  according  to  their  means. 

Texts  are  recited  at  the  time  of  branding,  and  in  Sayana- 
Madhava's  time  the  following  prayer  was  said  : — *  O  Discus 
(Sudarsana),  brightly  blazing,  effulgent  as  ten  million  suns, 
show  unto  me,  blind  with  ignorance,  the  everlasting  way  of 
Vishnu.  Thou,  O  Conch-shell,  aforetime  sprangest  from  the 
sea,  held  in  the  hand  of  Vishnu,  adored  by  all  the  gods, 
to  thee  be  adoration.'  (Sarva-darsana-sangraha,  Cowell  and 
Gough,  p.  92.) 

I  learnt,  too,  that  no  less  thaa  eight  Acaryas,  established  in 
eight  different  monasteries  (Maths)  with  temples  attached, 
claim  to  be  successors  of  Madhva.  There  are  also  two 
principal  religious  parties  among  the  Madhvas,  who,  no 
doubt,  quarrel  over  their  Shibboleths  like  the  two  divisions 
of  Ramanujas.  At  Udipi  itself  (p.  130),  there  are  eight 
Maths,  and  the  place  is  much  frequented  by  pilgrims  from 
Mysore. 

The  frontal  mark  of  all  the  Madhvas  is  the  same,  consisting 

kof  two  thin  vertical  lines  meeting  below  in  a  curve,  like  that  of 

the  Vada-galai  Ramanujas.     But  a  central  black  line  is  gener- 

lally  made  with  charcoal  taken  from  incense  burnt  before  the 

[idols  of  Vishnu. 

So  much  for  the  doctrines  of  two  sects  which  have  some 
[common  ground  with  Christianity  and  are  therefore  worthy  of 
[especial  attention.  Perhaps  Madhva's  system  is  the  more 
interesting  in  its  relation  to  European  thought,  but  his  Theism, 
like  that  of  Ramanuja  and  of  every  other  Hindu  Theistic 
[system,  differed  widely  in  many  important  points  from  the 
; Theism  of  Christianity,  especially  in  making  God  the  sub- 
Istantial  as  well  as  efficient  cause  of  the  visible  world. 


134  Vaishnavisrn,      Vallabha  Sect. 

Sect  foztnded  by    Vallabha. 

The  third  great  Vaishnava  sect  is  that  founded  by  Vallabha, 
or,  as  he  is  called  by  his  followers_,Vallabhacarya  (Maha-prabhu), 
said  to  have  been  born  in  the  forest  of  Camparanya  about 
A.D.  1479.  ^^  ^^'^  believed  to  have  been  an  embodiment 
of  a  portion  of  Krishna's  essence,  and  various  stories  are 
fabled  about  him.  For  instance,  his  intelligence  is  alleged 
to  have  been  so  great  that  when  he  began  learning  at  seven 
years  of  age,  he  mastered  the  four  Vedas,  the  six  systems  of 
Philosophy,  and  the  eighteen  Puranas  in  four  months. 

After  precocity  so  prodigious  he  was  able  at  the  age  of 
twelve  to  formulate  a  new  view  of  the  Vaishnava  creed,  but 
one  which  was  to  a  great  extent  derived  from  a  previous 
teacher  named  Vishnu-svaml.  Soon  he  commenced  travelling 
to  propagate  his  doctrines.  When  he  reached  the  court  of 
Krishna-deva,  King  of  Vijaya-nagar,  he  was  invited  to  engage 
in  a  disputation  with  a  number  of  Smarta  Brahmans.  In  this 
he  succeeded  so  well  that  he  was  elected  chief  Acarya  of  the 
Vaishnavas.  He  then  travelled  for  nine  years  through  different 
parts  of  India,  and  finally  settled  in  Benares,  where  he  is  said 
to  have  composed  seventeen  works,  among  which  was  a 
commentary  on  the  Bhagavata-purana.  This  last,  especially 
its  tenth  book — descriptive  of  the  early  life  of  Krishna — is 
the  authoritative  source  of  the  doctrines  of  the  sect.  Val- 
labhacarya's  view  of  the  Vaishnava  creed  has  been  called 
Pushti-marga,  the  way  of  eating,  drinking,  and  enjoying  one- 
self But  in  real  fact  he  simply  dissented  from  the  doctrine 
that  asceticism  was  a  mode  of  commending  man  to  God. 
He  maintained  that  worship  of  the  Deity  ought  not  to  be 
accompanied  with  fasting  and  self-mortification,  because  every 
individual  soul  was  a  portion  of  the  Supreme  Soul,  and 
every  man  ought  therefore  to  reverence,  and  even  foster, 
his  own  body  which  contained  it. 

He  held,  in  short,  that  individual  human  spirits  were  like 


Vaishnavisin.      Vallabha  Sect.  135 

sparks  from  the  Supreme  Spirit,  and,  though  separate,  identical 
in  essence  with  it.  His  doctrine  is  called  pure  non-duality 
(Suddhadvaita),  to  distinguish  it  from  the  qualified  non- 
duality  (Visishtadvaita)  of  Ramanuja  ;  but,  when  closely  ex- 
amined, it  seems  to  be  a  nominal  distinction  without  much 
real  difference.  He  is  known  to  have  died  at  Benares  ;  but, 
according  to  his  disciples,  was  transported  to  heaven  while 
performing  his  ablutions  in  the  Ganges. 

His  followers  are  numerous  in  Bombay,  Gujarat,  and  Central 
India,  particularly  among  the  merchants  and  traders  called 
Baniyas  and  Bhatiyas.  He  left  behind  him  eighty-four  princi- 
pal disciples,  who  disseminated  his  doctrines  in  various  direc- 
tions. But  the  real  successor  to  his  Gadi  (gaddi)  or  chair  was 
his  second  son,  Vitthal-nath,  sometimes  called  Gosainji  from 
his  having  settled  at  Gokul,  Krishna's  abode  near  Muttra. 
This  Vitthal-nath  had  seven  sons,  each  of  whom  established 
a  Gad!  in  different  districts,  especially  in  Bombay,  Kutch, 
Kathiawar,  and  Malwa.  The  influence  of  Vallabhacarya's 
successors  became  so  great  that  they  received  the  title  Maha- 
raja, '  great  king,'  the  name  Gosain  (for  Go-svamin — lord  of 
cows — an  epithet  of  Krishna)  being  sometimes  added. 

As  was  naturally  to  be  expected,  his  followers  exaggerated 
his  teaching,  especially  in  regard  to  his  non-ascetical  view  of 
religion.  They  have  been  called  '  the  Epicureans  of  India.' 
Their  spiritual  leaders,  the  Maharajas,  dress  in  the  costliest 
raiment,  feed  on  the  daintiest  viands,  and  abandon  themselves 
to  every  form  of  sensuality  and  luxury. 

The  children  of  the  Vallabhacaryans  are  admitted  to  mem- 
bership at  the  age  of  three  or  four  years,  or,  in  some  parts 
of  India,  later.  A  rosary,  or  necklace  (kanthi)  of  one  hundred 
and  eight  beads  ^,  made  of  tulsl  wood,  is  passed  round  their 
necks  by  the  Maharaja,  and  they  are  taught  the  use  of  the 

^  These  help  in  the  recitation  of  the  chief  names  of  Krishna  as  the 
Supreme  Being"  (see  p.  105),  or  of  similar  epithets  applied  to  the  successors 
of  Vallabha  ;  but  see  note  to  p.  117. 


136  Vaishnavism.      Vallabha  Sect 

eight-syllabled  prayer,  *  The  adorable  Krishna  is  my  soul's 
refuge'  (Sri-Krishnah  saranam  mama). 

The  god  worshipped  is  the  Krishna  form  of  Vishnu,  as  he 
appeared  in  his  boyhood,  when,  as  a  mere  child,  he  gave  him- 
self up  to  childish  mirth,  and  condescended  to  sport  with  the 
GopTs  or  cowherdesses  of  Mathura  (Muttra). 

I  was  once  present  at  a  kind  of  revivalist  camp-meeting 
near  Allahabad,  where  a  celebrated  Hindu  preacher  ad- 
dressed a  large  assembly  of  people  and  magnified  this 
condescension  as  a  proof  of  Krishna's  superiority  to  all  other 
gods. 

Then,  again,  images  used  in  the  temples  of  the  sect  represent 
K|*ishna  in  the  boyish  period  of  his  life  (in  the  form  called 
Bala-Krishna),  supposed  to  extend  to  his  twelfth  year.  Ac- 
cording to  the  higher  Vaishnava  creed,  Krishna's  love  for 
the  GopTs — themselves  the  wives  of  the  cowherds — and  the 
love  of  the  Gopis  for  Krishna  are  to  be  explained  allego- 
rically,  and  symbolize  the  longing  of  the  human  soul  for  union 
with  the  Supreme  (Brahma-sambandha).  When  I  have  asked 
strict  Vaishnavas  for  an  explanation  of  Krishna's  alleged 
adulteries,  I  have  always  been  told  that  his  attachment  to  the 
GopTs  was  purely  spiritual,  and  that,  in  fact,  he  was  only  a 
child  at  the  time  of  his  association  with  them. 

Yet  it  is  certain  that  the  followers  of  Vallabha  interpreted 
that  attachment  in  a  gross  and  material  sense.  Hence  their 
devotion  to  Krishna  has  degenerated  into  the  most  corrupt 
practices,  and  their  whole  system  has  become  rotten  to  the 
core.  It  is  even  said  that  the  male  members  of  the  sect 
sometimes  seek  to  win  the  favour  of  their  god  by  wearing 
long  hair  and  assimilating  themselves  to  females ;  and  even 
their  spiritual  chiefs,  the  Maharajas,  the  successors  of  Valla- 
bhacarya,  sometimes  simulate  the  appearance  of  women  (that 
is,  of  GopTs)  when  they  lead  the  worship  of  their  followers. 

But  the  real  blot,  or  rather  foul  stain,  which  defaces  and 
defiles  the  system,  remains  to  be  described.     These  Maharajas 


Vaishnavism.      Vallabha  Sect.  137 

have  come  to  be  regarded  as  representatives  of  Krishna  upon 
earth,  or  even  as  actual  incarnations  or  impersonations  of  the 
god.  So  that  in  the  temples  where  the  Maharajas  do  homage 
to  the  idols,  men  and  women  do  homage  to  the  Maharajas, 
prostrating  themselves  at  their  feet,  offering  them  incense, 
fruits  and  flowers,  and  waving  h'ghts  before  them,  as  the 
Maharajas  themselves  do  before  the  images  of  the  gods. 
One  mode  of  worshipping  the  boyish  Krishna  is  by  swinging 
his  images  in  swings.  Hence,  in  every  district  presided  over 
by  a  Maharaja,  the  women  are  accustomed  to  worship  not 
Krishna  but  the  Maharaja  by  swinging  him  in  pendent  seats. 
The  Pan-supari  ejected  from  his  mouth,  the  leavings  of  his 
food,  and  the  very  dust  on  which  he  has  walked,  are  eagerly 
devoured  by  his  devotees,  while  they  also  drink  the  water 
rinsed  from  his  garments,  and  that  used  In  the  washing  of  his 
feet,  which  they  call  Caranamrita,  'feet  nectar.'  Others, 
again,  worship  his  wooden  shoes,  or  prostrate  themselves 
before  his  seat  (gadi)  and  his  painted  portraits.  Nay,  infinitely 
worse  than  all  this :  It  is  believed  that  the  best  mode  of 
propitiating  the  god  Krishna  in  heaven  is  by  ministering  to 
the  sensual  appetites  of  his  successors  and  vicars  upon  earth. 
Body,  soul,  and  property  (in  popular  language  tan,  man,  dhan) 
are  to  be  wholly  made  over  to  them  In  a  peculiar  rite  called 
Self-devotion  (samarpana,  see  p.  117),  and  women  are  taught 
to  believe  that  highest  bliss  will  be  secured  to  themselves  and 
their  families  by  the  caresses  of  Krishna's  representative?. 

The  profligacy  of  the  Maharajas  was  exposed  in  the  cele- 
brated trial  of  the  Maharaja  libel  case,  which  came  before 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Bombay  on  the  26th  of  January,  j(S62. 
The  evidence  given,  and  the  judgment  of  the  judges,  have 
acted  as  some  check  on  the  licentious  practices  of  the  sect, 
but  it  is  still  held  to  represent  the  worst  and  most  corrupt 
phase  of  the  Vaishnava  religion. 

The  reform.ation  of  the  Vallabhadarya  system  effected  by 
Svami-Narayana  will  be  afterwards  described  (see  p.  T4(S). 


138  Vaislmavism.     Caitanya  Sect. 

Sect  founded  by  Caitanya. 

The  fourth  principal  sect  of  Vaishnavas  is  found  in  Bengal. 
They  are  the  followers  of  a  celebrated  teacher  named  Caitanya, 
and  their  precepts  and  practices  have  a  close  community  with 
those  of  the  Vallabhacaryans  already  described.  The  bio- 
graphy of  Caitanya^  as  given  by  native  writers,  is,  as  usual, 
chiefly  legendary.  Only  scattered  elements  of  truth  are 
discoverable  amidst  a  confused  farrago  of  facts,  fiction,  and 
romance.  What  respect,  indeed,  for  chronological  or  historical 
accuracy  can  be  expected  in  a  people  who  are  firmly  con- 
vinced that  their  own  existence  and  that  of  every  one  else 
is  an  illusion  ? 

I  believe  it  is  pretty  certain  that  Caitanya  was  born  at 
Nadiya  (  =  NavadvTpa)  in  Bengal  in  the  year  1485  of  our 
era,  two  years  after  Luther  in  Europe.  His  father  was  an 
orthodox  Brahman  named  Jagan-nath  Misra.  His  mother 
was  the  daughter  of  Nilambar  Cakravarti.  Since  Caitanya 
is  held  to  have  been  an  incarnation  of  Krishna,  various  pro- 
digies are  described  as  having  marked  his  first  appearance 
in  the  world.  He  was  thirteen  months  in  the  womb.  Then 
soon  after  his  birth,  at  the  end  of  an  eclipse,  a  number  of 
holy  men  (among  whom  was  his  future  disciple  Advaita) 
arrived  at  the  house  of  his  parents  to  do  homage  to  the 
new-born  child,  and  to  present  him  with  offerings  of  rice, 
fruits,  gold  and  silver.  In  his  childhood  he  resembled  the 
young  Krishna  in  condescending  to  boyish  sports  (llla).  Yet 
his  intellect  was  so  acute  that  he  rapidly  acquired  a  complete 
knowledge  of  Sanskrit  grammar  and  literature.  His  favourite 
subject  of  study  was  the  Vaishnava  bible,  consisting  of  the 
Bhagavata-purana,  and  Bhagavad-glta. 

Yet  Caitanya^,  notwithstanding  his  devotion  to  religious 
study,  did  not  shrink  from  what  every  Hindii  believes  to 
be  a  sacred  obligation — the  duty  of  marrying  a  wife,  and 
becoming  a  householder  (grihastha).     He  even  married  again 


Vaishiiavism.     Caitanya  Sect.  139 

when  his  first  wife  died  from  a  snake-bite.  At  the  a^xe  of 
twenty-five  (a.  D.  1509)  he  resolved  to  abandon  all  worldly 
connexions,  and  gave  himself  up  to  a  religious  life.  Accord- 
ingly, like  Vallabhacarya  and  at  about  the  same  period,  he 
commenced  a  series  of  pilgrimages.  His  travels  occupied 
six  years,  and  he  is  known  to  have  visited  some  of  the  most 
celebrated  shrines  of  India,  especially  those  of  Benares,  Gaya, 
Mathura,  Srirangam,  and  ultimately  the  temple  of  Jagan-nath 
at  Purl  in  Orissa. 

Having  thus  prepared  himself  for  his  mission,  he  addressed 
himself  to  the  real  work  of  preaching  and  propagating  his 
own  view  of  the  Vaishnava  creed.  It  is  noteworthy  that  just 
about  the  time  that  Luther  was  agitating  the  minds  of  men 
in  Europe,  Caitanya  was  stirring  the  hearts  of  the  people  of 
Bengal.  After  making  many  converts  he  seems  to  have 
appointed  his  two  most  eminent  followers,  Advaita  and 
Nityananda,  to  preside  over  his  disciples  in  that  part  of 
India.  He  himself  settled  for  twelve  years  at  Katak  in 
Orissa.  There  he  lived  for  the  rest  of  his  life  in  close 
proximity  to  the  great  temple  of  Jagan-nath,  and  contributed 
to  the  reputation  of  the  shrine  by  his  presence  at  the  annual 
festivals. 

His  success  as  a  preacher  was  remarkable.  Even  his 
enemies  were  attracted  by  the  persuasiveness  of  his  manner 
and  the  magnetic  power  of  his  eloquence.  The  lower  classes 
flocked  to  him  by  thousands.  Nor  was  their  admiration  of 
him  surprising.  The  first  principle  he  inculcated  was  that  all 
the  faithful  worshippers  of  Krishna  (  =  Vishnu)  were  to  be 
treated  as  equals.  Caste  was  to  be  subordinated  to  faith  in 
Krishna  ^.  '  The  mercy  of  God,'  said  (Jaitanya,  '  regards 
neither  tribe  nor  family.' 

^  This  was  his  theory,  but  among  his  numerous  followers  of  the  present 
day  the  doctrine  of  equality  does  not  overcome  caste-feeling  and  caste- 
observances  except  during  religious  services.  The  food  presented  to  the 
idol  of  Jagan-nath  is  distributed  to  all  castes  alike,  and  eaten  by  all  indis- 
criminately at  the  annual  festival. 


140  Vaishnavism.     C ait  any  a  Sect. 

By  thus  proclaiming  social  equality  he  secured  popularity. 
In  this  respect  he  wisely  imitated  the  method  of  Buddhists  and 
Saktas.  The  doctrine  of  the  latter,  who  abounded  everywhere 
in  Bengal,  was  that  magical  powers  might  be  acquired  by  the 
worship  of  the  female  principle  or  generative  energy  (sakti) 
in  nature,  personified  as  Siva's  wife.  They  believed  that  the 
male  principle,  personified  as  the  male  god  Siva,  the  great 
Reproducer,  was  helpless  in  the  work  of  Reproduction  with- 
out the  energizing  action  of  the  female  principle.  Hence  the 
union  of  the  sexes  was  thought  by  some  to  be  typical  of  a 
great  cosmical  mystery.  This  will  be  more  fully  explained 
in  the  chapter  on  Saktism  (p.  180). 

Caitanya  professed  to  oppose  these  Sakta  doctrines,  both  as 
tending  to  licentious  practices,  and  as  ignoring  the  supremacy 
of  the  god  Vishnu  over  Siva.  Yet  his  system,  like  that  of 
Vallabha,  had  a  tendency  in  the  same  direction.  He  taught 
that  the  devotion  of  the  human  soul  to  Vishnu  was  to  be 
symbolized  under  the  figure  of  human  love.  ' "  Thou  art 
dear  to  my  heart,  thou  art  part  of  my  soul,"  said  a  young 
man  to  his  loved  one  ;  "  I  love  thee,  but  why,  I  know  not." 
So  ought  the  worshipper  to  love  Krishna,  and  worship  him 
for  his  sake  only.  Let  him  offer  all  to  God,  and  expect  no 
remuneration.  He  who  asks  for  a  return  acts  like  a  trader.' 
Such  are  the  words  of  a  modern  exponent  of  this  Vaishnava 
system. 

I  have  already  pointed  out  that  the  idea  of  devotion  (bhakti) 
as  a  means  of  salvation,  which  was  formally  taught  by  the 
authors  of  the  Bhagavad-glta,  Bhagavata-purana  and  Sandilya- 
sutra,  was  scarcely  known  in  early  times.  The  leading  doc- 
trine of  the  Vedic  hymns  and  Brahmanas  is  that  works 
(karma),  especially  as  represented  by  the  performance  of 
sacrifices  (yajiia),  constitute  the  shortest  pathway  to  beati- 
tude, while  the  Upanishads  insist  mainly  on  abstract  medita- 
tion and  divine  knowledge  (jnana)  as  the  true  method. 
Caitanya  affirmed  that  intense  devotion — displayed  by  com- 


Vaishnavism.     Caitanya  Sect.  141 

plete  union  of  the  spirit  with  Krishna — was  the  only  real 
salvation.  Devotion,  in  fact,  superseded  all  other  duties. 
'  Whatever  is  accomplished  by  works,  by  penance,  by  divine 
knowledge,  by  suppression  of  the  passions,  by  abstract  me- 
ditation, by  charity,  by  virtue,  by  other  excellences, — all  this 
is  effected  by  devotion  to  me.  Paradise,  Heaven,  beatitude, 
union  with  the  Supreme  Spirit, — every  wish  of  the  heart  is 
obtainable  by  devotion  to  me.'  Such  are  Krishna's  own  words, 
according  to  the  belief  of  Caitanya  and  other  Vaishnava 
teachers.     (Bhagavata-purana  XI.) 

But  the  devotional  feelings  of  Krishna's  votaries  are  sup- 
posed to  be  susceptible  of  five  phases,  or  rather,  perhaps, 
to  be  exhibited  in  five  different  ways,  which  are  thus  enu- 
merated : — I.  Calm  contemplation  of  the  godhead  (santi)  ; 
2.  Active  servitude  (dasya)  ;  3.  A  feeling  of  personal  friend- 
ship (sakhya)  ;  4.  A  feeling  of  filial  attachment  like  that  of 
a  child  for  its  parent  (vatsalya)  ;  5.  A  feeling  of  tender  affec- 
tion like  that  of  a  girl  for  her  lover  (madhurya)= 

The  last  of  these  is  held  to  be  the  highest  feeling.  Indeed, 
Caitanya  taught  that  the  great  aim  of  every  worshipper  of 
Krishna  ought  to  be  to  lose  all  individuality  and  self-conscious- 
ness in  ecstatic  union  with  his  god  ;  and  it  is  on  this  account 
that  he  is  believed  to  have  held  the  dualistic  non-duality 
doctrine  (dvaitadvaita  of  Nimbaditya,  see  p.  147).  To  bring 
about  a  condition  of  intense  religious  fervour  various  practices 
were  enjoined — for  example,  incessant  repetition  of  the  deity's 
name  (nama-kirtana),  singing  (saiikirtana),  music,  dancing,  or 
movements  of  the  body  allied  to  dancing,  such  as  were  also 
practised  by  certain  Saiva  devotees  ^.     Caitanya  was  himself 

■^  These  correspond  to  the  Zikr  and  religious  dancing  of  the  Muham- 
madan  dervishes.  For  even  cold  Islam  has  its  devotees  who  aim  at 
religious  ecstasy,  resorting  to  expedients  very  similar  to  those  of  the 
Laitanyas.  I  have  been  twice  present  at  the  weekly  services  of  the 
Cairo  dervishes.  One  sect  repeat  the  name  of  God  with  violent  ejacu- 
lations and  contortions  of  the  body,  while  another  fraternity  whirl 
themselves  round  till  they  swoon  away  in  the  intensity  of  their  fervour. 


142  Vaiskuavism.     Caitanya  Sect. 

in  the  constant  habit  of  swooning  away  in  paroxysms  of  ecstatic 
emotion,  which  at  last  affected  his  reason.  His  biographers 
assert  that  in  one  of  these  fits  he  was  translated  directly  to 
Vishnu's  heaven  (Vaikuntha).  According  to  some  accounts 
he  ended  his  life  by  walking  into  the  sea  near  Purl  in  Orissa, 
fancying  he  saw  a  beatific  vision  of  Krishna  sporting  on  the 
waves  with  his  favourite  GopTs.  Certain  it  is  that  he  disap- 
peared mysteriously  about  A.D.  1527,  at  the  age  of  forty- two. 

Then  happened  what  has  constantly  taken  place  in  the 
religious  history  of  India.  Men  of  high  aspirations,  who  have 
laboured  for  the  revival  or  reformation  of  religion,  and  re- 
ceived homage  as  inspired  teachers  from  crowds  of  disciples 
during  life,  have  been  worshipped  as  actual  deities  at  death. 
The  only  question  in  the  minds  of  Caitanya's  devoted  fol- 
lowers was  as  to  whether  he  was  a  full  manifestation  of  the 
Supreme  Being  (Krishna)  or  only  a  descent  of  a  portion  (ansa) 
of  his  essence.  The  difficulty  seems  to  have  been  settled  by 
deciding  that  Caitanya  was  none  other  than  very  Krishna 
incarnate,  and  that  his  two  principal  disciples,  Advaita  and 
Nityananda,  were  manifestations  of  portions  of  the  same 
deity.  These  three  leaders  of  the  sect  are  therefore  called 
the  three  great  lords  (Prabhus).  They  constitute  the  sacred 
triad  of  this  phase  of  Vaishnavism. 

But  a  fourth  leader,  named  Hari-das,  who  during  his  life- 
time  was  a  companion  of  Caitanya,  is  worshipped  as  a  sepa- 
rate divinity  in  Bengal.  Indeed,  all  the  living  successors  and 
the  present  leaders  of  the  sect,  called  Gosains  (  =  Gosvamins), 
are  venerated  as  little  less  than  deities  by  the  Vaishnavas  of 
this  school.  For  the  worship  of  living  religious  leaders  and 
teachers  (usually  called  by  the  general  name  Guru)  is  a 
marked  feature  of  this,  as  of  all  forms  of  Vaishnavism.  The 
Guru  with  Vaishnavas  is  indeed  more  than  a  teacher,  and  even 
more  than  a  mediator  between  God  and  men.  He  is  the 
present  god — the  visible  living  incarnation  of  the  deity.  His 
anger  and  favour  make  themselves  instantly  felt.     He  is  on 


Vaislmavism.     Caitanya  Sect.  143 

that  account  even  more  feared  and  honoured  than  the  very 
god  of  whom  he  is  the  representative  and  embodiment. 

Another  feature  of  the  system  is  the  extraordinary  value 
attached  to  the  repetition  of  Krishna's  names,  especially  of  his 
name  Hari.  The  mere  mechanical  process  of  constantly 
repeating  this  name  Hari — though  the  mind  be  vacant  or 
fixed  on  some  other  object — secures  admission  to  Vishnu's 
heaven.  Religious  ceremonies  are  comparatively  useless. 
This  idea,  however,  prevails  among  all  Vaishnavas.  Hari-das 
is  said  to  have  retired  to  a  secluded  place  for  the  purpose  of 
repeating  the  word  Hari  300.000  times  daily. 

Even  a  blasphemous  repetition  of  Krishna's  name  may  secure 
beatitude.  In  the  Maratha  country  there  is  a  form  of  devotion 
called  Virodha-bhakti,  which  consists  in  a  man's  pretending  to 
oppose  the  deity  with  the  sole  object  of  achieving  the  bliss  of 
being  killed  by  him,  and  so  transported  to  the  god's  heaven. 
So  it  is  said  that  Sisu-pala  was  saved  by  constantly  thinking  of 
Krishna  through  enmity ;  and  the  cowherdesses  by  thinking  of 
him  through  lust  (kamat). 

It  is  related  of  a  certain  wicked  godless  man  that  he  had 
a  son  named  Narayana  (one  of  the  principal  names  of 
Vishnu).  On  his  death-bed,  and  just  before  breathing  his 
last,  the  father  called  out  his  son's  name  without  the  most 
remote  intention  of  invoking  the  god.  The  effect  was  that 
Yama's  messengers,  who  stood  ready  to  convey  the  repro- 
bate's soul  to  a  place  of  punishment,  were  obliged  to  make 
way  for  the  emissaries  of  Vishnu,  who  carried  the  spirit  off  in 
triumph  to  the  god's  paradise. 

The  repetition  of  particular  Vedic  texts  is  by  some  regarded 
as  equally  efficacious.  A  story  is  told  of  a  certain  converted 
Hindu  who  took  occasion  to  recount  his  experiences  before 
becoming  a  Christian.  It  appears  that  he  had  been  troubled 
with  a  constant  longing  for  a  vision  of  Vishnu,  and  in  his 
distress  consulted  a  Brahman,  who  informed  him  that  to 
obtain  the  desired  vision  he  would  have  to  repeat  a  particular 


144  Vaishnavisvi  at  Dakor  and  Poona. 

text  (Mantra)  8oo,coo  times.  This  he  accomphshed  by  dint 
of  hard  work  night  and  day  in  three  months,  and,  on  com- 
plaining to  his  friend  the  Brahman  that  no  result  followed, 
was  told  that  he  must  have  made  some  slight  verbal  mistake 
in  the  repetition  of  some  one  text,  and  that  any  such  slip 
necessitated  his  going  through  the  whole  process  again. 

]\Iany  treatises  held  in  high  repute  have  been  written 
by  the  disciples  of  Caitan}-a  in  support  of  his  tenets  (e.  g.  the 
Caitanya-caritamrita  by  Krishna-das  in  1590). 

The  ceremonial  acts  practised  in  worshipping  the  image  of 
Krishna  (described  at  pp.  90-94)  have  many  points  of  resem- 
blance to  those  of  Siva,  but  I  had  few  opportunities  of 
witnessing  them. 

I  visited  the  temple  of  Dakor  in  Gujarat,  where  there  is  a 
noted  idol  of  Krishna  (or  Raii-chor.  see  p.  152)  brought  from 
Dvarika  (p.  113}.  I  was  made  to  take  off  my  shoes  before 
ascending  the  steps  of  the  temple,  but  was  not  permitted  to 
see  the  image  closely  or  to  note  the  process  of  worshipping  it. 

On  one  occasion,  however,  I  was  allowed  to  look  through  an 
accidental  crevice  into  the  shrine  of  a  Vaishnava  temple  at 
Poona  while  the  early  morning  service  (puja)  was  performed. 
The  idol  of  the  god  Krishna  first  underwent  a  process  of  being 
roused  from  its  supposed  nocturnal  slumbers  by  the  attendant 
priest,  who  invoked  the  deit}'  by  name.  Then  a  respectful 
offering  of  water  in  a  boat-shaped  vessel  was  made  to  it. 
Next  the  whole  idol  was  bathed  and  holy  water  poured  over 
it  from  a  small  perforated  metal  lota.  Then  the  attendant 
priest  standing  near  applied  sandal-paste  (candana)  with  his 
finger  to  the  idol's  forehead  and  limbs,  and,  taking  a  brush, 
painted  the  face  with  a  bright  colouring  substance,  probably 
saffron.  Next,  the  idol  was  dressed  and  decorated  with  costly 
clothes  and  ornaments.  Then  the  priest  burnt  camphor  and 
incense  and  waved  lights  before  the  image,  at  the  same  time 
ringing  a  small  bell  (ghanta).  Then  flowers  (pushpa)  and  the 
leaves  of  the  sacred  tulsi  plant  were  offered,  followed  by  an 


Vaishnavism.     Idol-worship.  145 

oblation  of  food  (naivedya),  consisting  of  cooked  rice  with 
sugar.  Next  water  was  taken  out  of  a  small  metal  vessel 
with  a  spoon  and  was  presented  for  sipping  (acamana).  The 
god  was  of  course  supposed  to  consume  the  food  or  feast  on 
its  aroma,  receiving  at  the  end  of  the  meal  an  offering  of  betel 
for  the  supposed  cleansing  of  the  mouth  after  eating,  and 
a  spoonful  more  water  for  a  second  sipping.  Finally  the 
priest  prostrated  himself  before  the  idol,  and  terminated  the 
whole  ceremony  by  putting  the  god  to  sleep  for  the  day. 

While  he  was  going  through  these  ceremonial  acts,  he 
appeared  to  be  muttering  texts,  and  I  observed  that  during 
the  whole  service  a  Brahman  was  seated  on  the  ground  not 
far  off,  who  intoned  portions  of  the  tenth  book  of  the  Bhaga- 
vata-purana,  descriptive  of  the  life  of  Krishna,  from  a  copy  of 
the  work  placed  before  him.  At  the  same  time  a  band  over 
the  entrance  to  the  temple  played  a  loud  accompaniment  with 
tom-toms,  fifes,  and  drums. 

In  the  evening  the  process  of  waking,  undressing,  redressing 
the  image,  and  putting  it  to  sleep  was  repeated,  but  without 
bathing.  Flowers  and  food  were  again  offered,  texts  intoned, 
and  musical  services  performed. 

The  cooked  food  offered  to  the  idol  is  ultimately  eaten  by 
the  priests.  In  large  temples  it  is  also  distributed  to  the 
worshippers,  who  receive  it  eagerly  as  divine  nutriment,  called 
prasdda  (p.  69),  and  at  some  places  (for  example  at  a  parti- 
cular temple  in  Benares)  considerable  portions  are  sold  at  high 
prices  to  outside  applicants. 

The  water  in  which  the  idol  is  washed  is  called  tlrtha  (or 
sometimes  caranamrita).  and  is  drunk  as  holy  water. 

Sometimes  the  mode  of  worship  by  Pradakshina  (or  Pradak- 
shina) — that  is,  circumambulation,  with  the  right  side  kept 
towards  the  object  (following  the  course  of  the  sun) — is  per- 
formed. The  same  sort  of  circumambulation — but  often  on  the 
knees — is  performed  round  the  holy  house  at  Loretto  in  Italy. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Minor  Vaishnava  Sects.     Reforming 
Theistic  Movements. 

We  cannot  quit  the  subject  of  Vaishnavism  without  giving 
some  account  of  its  more  important  minor  sects,  as  well  as 
of  certain  reforming  theistic  movements  which  may  be  said 
to  have  grown  out  of  it.     We  may  begin  with  the 

Sect  founded  by  Nimbarka  or  Nimbaditya. 

This  is  perhaps  one  of  the  oldest  of  the  known  minor  sects. 
Its  founder  Nimbarka  or  Nimbaditya,  whose  followers  are 
sometimes  called  Nimanandis,  sometimes  Nimavats,  is  held 
to  have  been  identical  with  the  astronomer  Bhaskaracarya, 
who  flourished  about  the  twelfth  century.  The  poet  Jaya- 
deva,  who  is  also  supposed  to  have  lived  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, may  have  been  his  disciple.  If  so,  it  is  certain  that  the 
disciple  did  more  than  his  master  to  promote  the  doctrine  of 
devotion  to  Krishna.  In  Jaya-deva's  mystical  poem,  called 
the  Gita-govinda  (compared  by  some  to  our  Song  of  Solo- 
mon), are  described  the  loves  of  Krishna  and  the  Gopis  (wives 
and  daughters  of  the  Cowherds),  and  especially  of  Krishna 
and  Radha,  as  typical  of  the  longing  of  the  human  spirit  or 
soul  for  union  with  the  divine. 

Others  again  believe  Nimbarka  to  have  been  an  actual 
incarnation  of  the  Sun-god,  and  maintain  that  he  derived  his 
name  of  '  Nimb-tree-Sun '  from  having  one  day  stopped  the 
course  of  the  sun's  disk,  dislodged  it  from  the  heavens,  and 
confined  it  for  a  brief  season  in  a  Nimb  (Nim)  tree.  This  re- 
markable miracle  was  worked  to  enable  Nimbarka  to  offer 


Minor  Vaishiiava  Sects.     Raniananda,        147 

food  just  before  sunset  to  a  holy  guest  whose  religious  vows 
prevented  his  eating  after  dark. 

Nimbarka  propounded  a  philosophical  theory  which,  like 
that  of  Ramanuja,  amounted  to  a  compromise  between  dualism 
and  non-dualism,  and  was  called  dualistic  non-dualism  (Dvait- 
advaita).  He  held  that  every  man's  spirit  was  capable  of 
being  absorbed  into  God's  Spirit,  and  that  such  an  end  was 
to  be  aimed  at.  His  followers,  who  are  not  very  numerous, 
are  devoted  to  the  worship  of  the  goddess  Radha  in  con- 
junction with  Krishna. 

Sect  fottnded  by  Rdmdnanda. 

Ramananda  is  said  to  have  been  born  in  the  thirteenth 
century.  The  sect  founded  by  him  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury has  many  adherents  in  Gangetic  India,  especially  around 
Agra.  They  are  often  called  Ramanandis  or  Ramavats, 
and  are  sometimes  confounded  with  the  Ramanujas,  the  fact 
being  that  Ramananda  was  probably  one  of  Ramanuja's 
disciples.  The  Ramananda  Vaishnavas,  however,  have  dis- 
tinctive doctrines  of  their  own.  They  worship  Vishnu  under 
the  form  of  Rama  (the  hero  of  the  Ramayana)  either  singly 
or  conjointly  with  his  wife  Sita,  and  they  are  not,  like  the 
Ramanujas,  hyper-scrupulous  about  the  privacy  of  their  meals. 
Their  favourite  book  is  the  Bhakta-mala  of  Nabhaji — a  work 
interesting  for  its  biographies  of  certain  Vaishnavas  and  ad- 
herents of  the  sect,  among  whom  are  included  two  well- 
known  poets,  Sur-das  and  TulasT-das  (commonly  Tulsi-das). 
The  former  was  blind.  He  wrote  a  great  many  stanzas  in 
praise  of  Vishnu,  and  is  regarded  as  a  kind  of  patron  of  blind 
men,  especially  if  they  roam  about  as  wandering  musicians. 

TulsT-das,  whose  verses  are  to  this  day  household  words  in 
every  town  and  rural  district  where  the  Hindi  language  is 
spoken,  ranks  as  a  poet  of  higher  order.  He  was  born  near 
Citra-kuta  about  A.D.  1544,  and  settled  at  Benares,  where  he 

L  2 


148     Minor  Vaishnava  Sects.     Svd7ni-Narayana. 

became  an  enthusiastic  worshipper  of  Rama  and  Sita.  His 
Hindi  poem,  the  Ramayana,  or  history  of  Rama,  is  no  mere 
translation  of  Valmiki's  great  work.  It  has  all  the  freshness 
of  an  independent  and  original  composition.  He  died  about 
1624. 

But  Ramananda  is  chiefly  noted  for  his  twelve  immediate 
disciples,  the  most  celebrated  of  whom  were  Kabir,  Pipa,  and 
Ravi-das.  Of  these  again  by  far  the  most  remarkable  Avas 
Kabir.  He  was  an  enthusiastic  reformer,  who  founded  a  dis- 
tinct theistic  sect  to  be  described  hereafter  (see  p.  158). 

Let  us  first  conclude  our  description  of  strictly  Vaishnava 
sectarianism  by  giving  some  account  of  the  comparatively 
modern  Vaishnava  sect  founded  by  Svami-Narayana.  This 
sect  is  worthy  of  notice,  both  because  it  affords  a  good  ex- 
ample of  the  best  aspect  of  modern  Vaishnavism,  and  because 
the  efforts  of  its  founder  to  deliver  the  system  of  Vallabh- 
acarya  from  the  corrupting  influences  of  the  profligate  Maha- 
rajas (see  pp.  136,  137)  is  worthy  of  all  praise. 

Sect  fotmded  by  Svmti-Narayana. 

Svami-Narayana,  whose  proper  name  was  Sahajananda, 
was  a  high-caste  Brahman.  He  was  born  at  Chapai,  a  village 
one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  to  the  north-west  of  Lucknow, 
about  the  year  1780.  He  was  a  Vaishnava,  but  disgusted 
with  the  manner  of  life  of  the  so-called  followers  of  Vallabh- 
acarya,  whose  precepts  and  practice  were  utterly  at  variance, 
and  especially  with  the  licentious  habits  of  the  Bombay  Ma- 
harajas (see  p.  137),  he  determined  to  denounce  their  irregu- 
larities and  expose  their  vices.  He  himself  was  a  celibate, 
virtuous,  self-controlled,  austere,  ascetical,  yet  withal  large- 
hearted  and  philanthropic,  and  with  a  great  aptitude  for 
learning.  He  left  his  home  about  the  year  1800,  and  took 
up  his  abode  at  a  village  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Junagarh  Nawab.     There  he  placed  himself  under  the  pro- 


Minor  Vaislmava  Sects.     Svami-Narayana.       149 

tectlon  of  the  chief  Guru,  named  Ramananda-Svami.  When 
that  holy  man  removed  to  Ahmedabad,  in  1804,  Sahajananda 
followed  him. 

In  a  large  and  populous  city  a  man  of  evident  ability  and 
professed  sanctity  could  not  fail  to  attract  attention.  Soon 
Sahajananda  collected  about  his  own  person  a  little  band  of 
disciples,  which  rapidly  multiplied  into  an  army  of  devoted 
adherents.  Some  attribute  his  influence  to  a  power  of  mes- 
merizing his  followers,  but  he  probably  owed  his  success  to  a 
remarkable  fascination  of  manner  combined  with  consistency 
of  moral  character,  and  other  qualities  which  singled  him 
out  for  a  leader.  His  disciples  increased  so  rapidly  that  the 
Brahmans  and  magnates  of  Ahmedabad  began  to  be  jealous 
of  his  popularity.  He  was  obliged  to  fly,  and  sought  refuge 
at  Jetalpur,  twelve  miles  south  of  Ahmedabad.  There  he 
invited  all  the  Brahmans  of  the  neighbourhood  to  the  per- 
formance of  a  great  sacrifice.  The  native  officials  no  sooner 
heard  of  the  proposed  assemblage  than,  fearing  a  collision 
between  his  followers  and  other  religious  parties,  they  had 
him  arrested  on  some  frivolous  pretext  and  thrown  into 
prison.  Such  an  act  of  tyranny  defeated  its  own  object. 
It  excited  universal  sympathy,  and  increased  his  influence. 
He  was  soon  released.  Hymns  were  composed  in  which 
his  merits  were  extolled.  Verses  were  written  descriptive  of 
his  sufferings.  Curses  were  launched  against  the  heads  of  his 
persecutors. 

Jetalpur  then  became  the  focus  of  a  great  religious  gather- 
ing. Thousands  flocked  to  the  town  and  enrolled  themselves 
as  the  followers  of  Sahajananda,  who  took  the  name  of 
Svami-Narayana. 

Bishop  Heber,  in  his  Indian  Journal,  gives  the  following 
interesting  account  of  an  interview  with  him  at  this  period  of 
his  career : — 

About  eleven  o'clock  I  had  the  expected  visit  from  Svami-Narayana. 
The  holy  man  was  a  middle-sized,  thin,  plain-looking  person,  about  my 


150     Minor  Vaishiava  Sects.     Svami-Naraymia, 

own  age,  with  a  mild  and  diffident  expression  of  countenance,  but 
nothing  about  him  indicative  of  any  extraordinary  talent.  He  came 
in  somewhat  different  style  from  all  I  had  expected,  having  with  him 
nearly  two  hundred  horsemen.  When  I  considered  that  I  had  myself 
an  escort  of  more  than  fifty  horse  I  could  not  help  smiling,  though  my 
sensations  were  in  some  degree  painful  and  humiliating  at  the  idea  of 
two  religious  teachers  meeting  at  the  head  of  little  armies,  and  filling 
the  city  which  was  the  scene  of  their  interview  with  the  rattling  of 
quivers,  the  clash  of  shields,  and  the  tramp  of  the  war-horse.  Had  our 
troops  been  opposed  to  each  other,  mine,  though  less  numerous,  would 
have  been  doubtless  far  more  effective,  from  the  superiority  of  arms  and 
discipline.  But  in  moral  grandeur  what  a  difference  there  was  between 
his  troops  and  mine  !  Mine  neither  knew  me  nor  cared  for  me,  though 
they  escorted  me  faithfully.  The  guards  of  Svami-Narayana  were  his 
own  disciples  and  enthusiastic  admirers,  men  who  had  voluntarily 
repaired  to  hear  his  lessons,  who  now  took  a  pride  in  doing  him  honour, 
and  who  would  cheerfully  fight  to  the  last  drop  of  blood  rather  than 
suffer  a  fringe  of  his  garment  to  be  handled  roughly.  In  my  own  parish 
of  Hodnet  there  were  once,  perhaps,  a  few  honest  countrymen  who  felt 
something  like  this  for  me,  but  how  long  a  time  must  elapse  before 
a  Christian  minister  in  India  can  hope  to  be  thus  loved  and  honoured. — 
Chap.  XXV. 

It  soon  became  clear  to  Sahajananda  that  the  success  of 
his  future  operations  would  depend  on  the  consolidation  of 
his  party.  He  therefore  retired  with  his  followers  to  the 
secluded  village  of  Wartal,  where  he  erected  a  temple  to 
Narayana  (otherwise  Krishna,  or  Vishnu,  as  the  Supreme 
Being)  associated  with  the  goddess  Lakshml.  It  was  from 
this  central  locality  that  his  crusade  against  the  licentious 
habits  of  the  Vallabhacaryans  was  principally  carried  on. 
His  watchword  seems  to  have  been  '  devotion  to  Krishna 
(as  the  Supreme  Being)  with  observance  of  duty  and  purity 
of  life.' 

He  was  in  the  habit  of  making  periodical  tours  in  Gujarat, 
like  a  bishop  visiting  his  diocese.  It  was  in  one  of  these  that 
Svami-Narayana  was  struck  down  by  fever  at  Gadada  in 
Kathiawar,  where  he  died. 

His  disciples  now  number  more  than  20o,cco  persons. 
They  are  broadly  divided  into  two  classes — Sadhus,  '  holy 
men,'  and  Grihasthas,  'householders.'     These  correspond  to 


Minor  Vaishnava  Sects,     Svami-Narayana,      151 

clergy  and  laity;  the  former,  who  are  all  celibates,  being 
supported  by  the  latter.  Those  Sadhus  who  are  Brahmans 
are  called  Brahma-carls  (cf.  p.  362  of  this  volume).  Of  these 
there  are  about  300  at  Wartal,  the  whole  body  of  Sadhus,  or 
holy  men,  numbering  about  1,000.  A  still  lower  order  is 
called  Pala.     Of  these  there  are  about  500. 

The  two  principal  temples  of  the  sect  are  at  Wartal  (for 
Sanskrit  Vrittalaya  or  better  Vratalaya,  *  abode  of  religious 
observances ')  about  four  miles  to  the  west  of  the  Baroda  rail- 
way, and  at  Ahmedabad.  The  former  is  the  most  important 
and  best  endowed,  but  both  are  presided  over  by  Maharajas, 
neither  of  whom  is  willing  to  yield  the  precedence  to  the 
other.  Jealousies  are  already  springing  up  between  them. 
Probably,  in  process  of  time,  a  schism  will  take  place,  and 
perhaps  two  antagonistic  parties  be  formed,  as  in  the  other 
Vaishnava  sects. 

In  company  with  the  Collector  of  Kaira  I  visited  the  Wartal 
temple  on  the  day  of  the  Purnima,  or  full  moon  of  the  month 
Karttik — the  most  popular  festival  of  the  whole  year.  The 
Maharaja  greeted  us  at  the  Borehavi  station  of  the  Baroda 
railway  with  a  choice  of  conveyances — an  elephant,  a  bullock- 
carriage,  a  palanquin  and  four  saddle-horses,  with  a  mounted 
guard.  I  chose  the  palanquin  and  found  myself  moving  com- 
fortably forward,  while  my  companion's  vehicle  oscillated 
violently  in  response  to  the  inequalities  of  the  road.  The 
Svami-Narayana  sect  are  a  wealthy  community,  but  clearly 
object  to  spend  their  money  on  improving  their  access  to 
their  chief  temple.  One  reason  for  this  may  be  that  a  shrine's 
inaccessibility  enhances  the  merit  of  pilgrimage. 

We  were  met  at  the  entrance  to  the  court  of  the  temple 
(mandira)  by  the  Maharaja  himself,  attended  by  his  minister — 
an  old  Brahmacarl,  or  unmarried  Brahman.  The  temple 
dedicated  to  Lakshmi-Narayana,  erected  about  sixty  years 
ago,  is  a  handsome  structure.  It  has  the  usual  lofty  cupolas, 
and   stands   in   the   centre   of  a   courtyard,  formed  by  the 


152     Minor  Vaishnava  Sects,     Svami-Narayana. 

residences  of  the  Maharaja  and  his  attendants,  the  great  hall 
of  assembly,  and  other  buildings. 

We  were  conducted  by  the  Maharaja  through  a  crowd  of  at 
least  ten  thousand  persons  who  thronged  the  quadrangle  and 
all  the  approaches  to  the  temple.  They  were  waiting  to 
be  admitted  to  the  ceremony  of  the  day — the  one  object 
that  had  drawn  so  many  people  to  the  spot — the  privilege  of 
Darsana  ;  that  is,  of  seeing  and  adoring  the  idol.  It  was  a 
moment  of  intense  excitement.  Let  a  man  but  bow  down 
before  the  jewelled  image  on  this  anniversary  of  its  mani- 
festation to  the  multitude,  and  the  blessing  of  the  god  attends 
him  for  the  whole  year.  The  vast  concourse  swayed  to  and 
fro  like  the  waves  of  a  troubled  sea,  each  man  vociferating  to 
his  neighbours  in  a  manner  quite  appalling.  I  could  not  help 
thinking  of  our  apparent  helplessness  in  the  surging  crowd, 
and  asking  myself  how  two  solitary  Europeans  would  be  likely 
to  fare,  if,  from  some  accidental  circumstance,  the  religious 
fanaticism  of  a  myriad  of  excited  Hindus  were  to  break  loose 
and  vent  itself  upon  us. 

But  the  ten  thousand  people  were  docile  as  children.  At  a 
signal  from  the  Maharaja  they  made  a  lane  for  us  to  pass,  and 
we  entered  the  temple  by  a  handsome  flight  of  steps.  The 
interior  is  surrounded  by  idol  shrines.  On  the  occasion  of  the 
present  festival  the  principal  images  were  almost  concealed 
from  view  by  rich  vestments  and  jewelry. 

The  two  principal  shrines  have  three  figures.  One  of  them 
has  an  idol  of  Krishna  in  his  character  of  Ran-chor,  'deliverer 
from  evil  V — a  form  of  Krishna  specially  worshipped  at  Dvarika 
and  throughout  Gujarat  (see  p.  144), — on  the  left  of  the  spec- 
tator. An  image  of  Narayana  (Vishnu  as  the  Supreme  Being) 
is  in  the  middle ;  and  Lakshmi,  consort  of  Vishnu,  is  on  the 


^  So  the  name  was  interpreted  to  me,  but  it  properly  means  '  fight- 
quitter,'  and  rather  refers  to  Krishna's  declining  to  take  part  in  the 
great  war  of  the  Maha-bharata,  between  the  sons  of  Pandu  and  Dhrita- 
rashtra. 


Minor  Vais/mava  Sects.     Svami-Narayana.      153 

right.  A  gong  to  be  struck  in  the  performance  of  worship 
(puja)  hangs  suspended  before  the  shrine.  The  other  prin- 
cipal sanctuary  has  Krishna  in  the  middle,  his  favourite  Radha 
on  the  right,  and  Svami-Narayana,  the  founder  of  the  sect,  on 
the  left.  The  latter  is  here  worshipped,  like  other  great  reli- 
gious leaders,  as  an  incarnation  of  a  portion  of  Vishnu — that 
is,  he  is  held  to  be  one  of  the  numerous  Naravataras  or  de- 
scents of  parts  of  the  god's  essence  in  the  bodies  of  men.  In 
an  adjacent  shrine  are  his  bed  and  clothes,  the  print  of  his 
foot,  and  his  wooden  slippers. 

We  were  next  conducted  to  the  Sabha-mandapa,  or  great 
hall  of  assembly,  on  one  side  of  the  quadrangle.  Here  about 
three  thousand  of  the  chief  members  of  the  sect,  including 
a  number  of  the  Sadhus  or  clergy,  were  waiting  to  receive  us. 

r  Chairs  were  placed  for  us  in  the  centre  of  the  hall,  and  before 
us,  seated  on  the  ground,  with  their  legs  folded  under  them 
in  the  usual  Indian  attitude,  were  two  rows  of  about  thirty  of 
_  the  oldest  Sadhus,  three  or  four  of  whom  had  been  actually 
contemporaries  of  Svami-Narayana.  These  old  men  were 
delighted  when  we  questioned  them  as  to  their  personal 
knowledge  of  their  founder.  The  only  inconvenience  was 
that  they  all  wanted  to  talk  together.  I  felt  indisposed  to 
check  their  garrulity,  but  the  Maharaja  had  no  such  scruples 
and  invited  us  to  another  hall  in  the  story  above,  where  a  select 
number  of  their  best  Pandits  and  officials  were  assembled  to 
greet  us.  The  regular  Darbar  or  formal  reception  took  place 
in  this  room.  Here  we  were  garlanded  with  flowers,  be- 
sprinkled with  rosewater,  and  presented  with  fruits,  sweet- 
meats, and  pan-suparl,  in  the  usual  manner.  I  found  the 
Pandits  well  versed  in  Sanskrit.  One  or  two  astonished  me 
by  the  fluency  with  which  they  spoke  it,  and  by  their  readi- 
ness in  answering  the  difficult  questions  with  which  I  tested 
their  knowledge. 

The  Maharaja's  last  act  was  to  conduct  us  to  an  adjacent 
building,  used  as  a  lodging-house  or  asylum  (dharma-sala) 


154     Minor  Vaishnava  Sects.     Sva77ti-Naraya7ia. 

for  the  clergy.  On  the  present  anniversary  at  least  six 
hundred  of  these  good  men  were  collected  in  long  spacious 
galleries  called  Asramas  (places  of  retreat).  They  were  all 
dressed  alike  in  plain  salmon-coloured  clothes,  each  man 
being  located  in  a  small  separated  space  not  more  than  seven 
feet  long,  by  three  or  four  broad.  Above  his  head,  neatly 
arranged  in  racks,  were  his  spare  clothes,  water-jar,  &c.  When 
we  were  introduced  to  the  six  hundred  Sadhus  they  were 
all  standing  upright,  motionless,  and  silent.  At  night  they 
lie  down  on  the  hard  ground  in  the  same  narrow  space. 
These  holy  men  are  all  celibates.  They  have  abandoned  all 
worldly  ties,  that  they  may  go  forth  unencumbered  to  dis- 
seminate the  doctrines  of  their  founder.  They  itinerate  in 
pairs,  to  cheer,  support,  and  keep  watch  on  each  other.  They 
travel  on  foot,  undergoing  many  privations  and  hardships, 
and  taking  with  them  nothing  but  a  staff,  the  clothes  on  their 
back,  their  daily  food,  their  water-jar,  and  their  book  of 
instructions.  They  may  be  seen  here  and  there  in  the  or- 
dinary coarse  salmon-coloured  dress  of  ascetics,  striving  to 
win  disciples  by  personal  example  and  persuasion  rather  than 
by  controversy.  Surely  other  proselyting  societies  might  gain 
some  useful  hints  by  a  study  of  their  method. 

What  I  saw  of  their  whole  system  convinced  me  that  the 
Svami-Narayanas  are  an  energetic  body  of  men  and  their 
sect  an  advancing  one.  Notwithstanding  the  asceticism  of 
their  clergy,  the  leading  members  of  the  community  have 
a  keen  eye  to  worldly  wealth  and  the  acquisition  of  land,  and 
are  perhaps  not  over- scrupulous  in  carrying  out  their  plans 
of  aggrandisement.  Without  doubt  the  tendency  of  their 
doctrines  is  towards  purity  of  life,  which  is  supposed  to  be 
effected  by  suppression  of  the  passions  (udasa),  and  complete 
devotion  to  the  Supreme  Being  in  his  names  of  Narayana, 
Vishnu,  and  Krishna.  In  an  honest  desire  to  purify  the 
Vaishnava  faith  the  sect  has  done  and  is  doing  much  good ; 
but  there  can  be  no  question  that  its  doctrines,  like  its  gods, 


I 


Minor  Vaishnava  Sects.     Svami-Narayana.      155 

its  idols,  and  its  sectarian  marks,  are  part  and  parcel  of  genuine 
Hinduism.  At  any  rate  the  system  lacks  the  true  vivifying 
regenerating  force  which  can  alone  maintain  it  in  vigour,  and, 
like  other  Indian  reformations  and  religious  revivals,  is,  I  fear, 
destined  in  the  end  to  be  drawn  back  into  the  all-absorbing 
vortex  of  corrupt  Hinduism. 

After  my  discussion  with  the  Pandits  I  was  presented  with 
their  Siksha-patri,  or  manual  of  instructions,  written  in  San- 
skrit (with  a  long  commentary),  and  constituting  the  religious 
directory  of  the  sect.  It  was  compiled  by  their  founder,  with 
the  aid  of  a  learned  Brahman  named  Dina-nath,  and  is  a  col- 
lection of  two  hundred  and  twelve  precepts — some  original, 
some  extracted  from  Manu  and  other  sacred  Sastras,  and 
many  of  them  containing  high  moral  sentiments  worthy  of 
Christianity  itself.  Every  educated  member  of  the  sect  ap- 
peared to  know  the  whole  collection  by  heart  ^ 

Some  of  the  verses  were  recited  to  me  by  the  Pandits  in 
the  original  Sanskrit,  and  as  they  fairly  represent  the  purer 
side  of  Vaishnavism  (which  has  been  much  corrupted  by  recent 
teachers),  as  well  as  its  confused  ideas  on  all  religious  and 
philosophical  subjects,  I  here  append  a  translation  of  a  few 
selected  specimens.  The  figures  at  the  end  of  each  precept 
refer  to  the  number  of  the  verses  in  the  Siksha-patrl. 

No  disciples  of  mine  must  ever  intentionally  kill  any  living  thing  what- 
ever, not  even  a  flea  or  the  most  minute  insect  (ii). 

The  killing  of  any  animal  for  the  purpose  of  sacrifice  to  the  gods  is  for- 
bidden by  me.     Abstaining  from  injury  is  the  highest  of  all  duties  (12). 

Suicide  at  a  sacred  place  of  pilgrimage,  from  religious  motives  or  from 
passion,  is  prohibited  (14). 

No  flesh  meat  must  ever  be  eaten,  no  spirituous  or  vinous  liquor  must 
ever  be  drunk,  not  even  as  medicine  (15). 

All  theft  is  prohibited,  even  under  pretence  of  contributing  to  religious 
objects  (17). 

No  male  or  female  followers  of  mine  must  ever  commit  adultery  (18). 

No  false  accusation  must  be  laid  against  any  one  from  motives  of 
self-interest  (20). 

^  The  text  has  been  edited  by  me  with  a  complete  translation,  and 
is  pubHshed  in  the  Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  for  October  1882. 


156      Minor  Vaishnava  Sects.     Svami-Narayana. 

Profane  language  against  the  gods,  sacred  places,  Brahmans,  holy  men 
and  women,  and  the  Vedas,  must  never  be  used  (21). 

A  truth  which  causes  serious  injury  to  one's  self  or  others  ought  not  to 
be  told.  Wicked  men,  ungrateful  people,  and  persons  in  love  are  to  be 
avoided.     A  bribe  must  never  be  accepted  (26). 

A  trust  must  never  be  betrayed.  Confidence  must  never  be  violated. 
Praise  of  one's  self  with  one's  own  lips  is  prohibited  {yj). 

Holy  men  should  patiently  bear  abusive  language,  or  even  beating, 
from  evil-minded  persons,  and  wish  good  to  them  (201). 

They  should  not  play  at  any  games  of  chance,  nor  act  as  informers  or 
spies  ;  they  should  never  show  love  of  self,  or  undue  partiality  for  their 
relations  (202). 

Wives  should  honour  their  husbands  as  if  they  were  gods,  and  never 
offend  them  with  improper  language,  though  they  be  diseased,  indigent, 
or  imbecile  (159). 

Widows  should  serve  the  god  Krishna,  regarding  him  as  their  only 
husband  (163). 

They  should  only  eat  one  meal  a  day,  and  should  sleep  on  the 
ground  (168). 

Every  day  let  a  man  awake  before  sunrise,  and,  after  calling  on  the 
name  of  Krishna,  proceed  to  perform  the  rites  of  bodily  purifica- 
tion (49). 

Having  seated  himself  in  some  place  apart,  let  him  cleanse  his  teeth, 
and  then,  having  bathed  with  pure  water,  put  on  two  well-washed 
garments,  one  an  under  garment,  and  the  other  an  upper  (50). 

My  male  followers  should  then  make  the  vertical  mark  (emblematical 
of  the  footprint  of  Vishnu  or  Krishna)  with  the  round  spot  inside  it 
(symbolical  of  Lakshml)  on  their  foreheads.  Their  wives  should  only 
make  the  circular  mark  with  red  powder  of  saffron  (52). 

Those  who  are  initiated  into  the  proper  worship  of  Krishna  should 
always  wear  on  their  necks  two  rosaries  made  of  Tulsl  wood,  one  for 
Krishna  and  the  other  for  Radha  (4). 

After  engaging  in  mental  worship,  let  them  reverently  bow  down 
before  the  pictures  of  Radha  and  Krishna  ^,  and  repeat  the  eight- 
syllabled  prayer  to  Krishna  {Sri-Krishnah  scwa7iavi  mama,  '  Adorable 
Krishna  is  my  soul's  refuge ')  as  many  times  as  possible.  Then  let  them 
apply  themselves  to  secular  affairs  (54). 

Devotion  to  Krishna  unattended  by  the  performance  of  duties  must 
on  no  account  be  practised  (39). 

The  duties  of  one's  own  class  and  order  must  never  be  abandoned, 
nor  the  duties  of  others  meddled  with  (24). 

Nowhere,  except  in  Jagan-nath-puri,  must  cooked  food  or  water  be 
accepted  from  a  person  of  low  caste,  though  it  be  the  remains  of  an 
offering  to  Krishna  (19). 

^  It  is  a  characteristic  of  the  Svami-Narayana  sect  that  pictures,  instead 
of  images,  are  used  in  some  of  their  temples. 


Minor  Vaishnava  Sects,     Svami-Narayana.      157 

Duty  (dharma)  is  that  good  practice  which  is  enjoined  both  by  the 
Veda  (Sruti)  and  by  the  law  (Sniriti)  founded  on  the  Veda.  Devotion 
(bhakti)  is  intense  love  for  Krishna  accompanied  with  a  due  sense  of 
his  glory  (103). 

An  act  promising  good  reward,  but  involving  departure  from  proper 
duties,  must  never  be  committed  {^'^). 

If  by  the  great  men  of  former  days  anything  unbecoming  has  been 
done,  their  faults  must  not  be  imitated,  but  only  their  good  deeds  (74). 

If  knowingly  or  unintentionally  any  sin,  great  or  small,  be  committed, 
the  proper  penance  must  be  performed  according  to  ability  (92). 

Every  day  all  my  followers  should  go  to  the  Temple  of  God,  and  there 
repeat  the  names  of  Krishna  (63). 

The  story  of  his  life  should  be  listened  to  with  the  greatest  reverence, 
and  hymns  in  his  praise  should  be  sung  on  festive  days  (64). 

All  males  and  females  who  go  to  Krishna's  temple  should  keep 
separate  and  not  touch  each  other  (40). 

Vishnu,  Siva,  Gana-pati  (or  Ganesa),  Parvatl,  and  the  Sun  ;  these 
five  deities  should  be  honoured  with  worship  (84). 

Narayana  and  Siva  should  be  equally  regarded  as  part  of  one  and  the 
same  Supreme  Spirit,  since  both  have  been  declared  in  the  Vedas  to  be 
forms  of  Brahma  (47). 

On  no  account  let  it  be  supposed  that  difference  in  forms  (or  names) 
makes  any  difference  in  the  identity  of  the  deity  (112). 

That  which  abides  within  the  living  human  spirit  in  the  character  of 
its  internal  regulator  {antarydmitaya)  should  be  regarded  as  the  self- 
existent  Supreme  Being  who  assigns  a  recompense  to  every  act  (107). 

That  Being,  known  by  various  names — such  as  the  glorious  Krishna, 
Param  Brahma,  Bhagavan,  Purushottama — the  cause  of  all  manifesta- 
tions, is  to  be  adored  by  us  as  our  one  chosen  deity  (108). 

Having  perceived,  by  abstract  meditation,  that  the  spirit  is  distinct 
from  its  three  bodies  (viz.  the  gross,  subtle,  and  causal  bodies)  and  that 
lit  is  a  portion  of  the  one  Spirit  of  the  Universe  (Brahma),  every  man 
[ought  to  worship  Krishna  by  means  of  that  soul  at  all  times  (116). 

Towards  him  alone  ought  all  worship  to  be  directed  by  every  human 
being  on  the  earth  in  every  possible  manner.  Nothing  else  except  devo- 
tion (bhakti)  to  him  can  procure  salvation  (113). 

The  philosophical  doctrine  approved  by  me  is  the  Visishtadvaita  (of 
Ramanuja,  see  p.  122),  and  the  desired  heavenly  abode  is  Goloka.  There 
to  worship  Krishna  and  be  united  with  him  as  the  Supreme  Soul  is  to  be 
considered  salvation  (121). 

The  twice-born  should  perform  at  the  proper  seasons,  and  according 
to  their  means,  the  twelve  purificatory  rites  ^  (sanskara),  the  (six)  daily 

^  Of  these  only  six  are  now  generally  performed,  viz. : — (i)  the  birth- 
ceremony,  or  touching  the  tongue  of  a  new-born  infant  with  clarified 
butter,  etc. ;  (2)  the  name-giving  ceremony  on  the  tenth  day  ;  (3)  ton- 
sure ;  (4)  induction  into  the  privileges  of  the  twice-born,  by  investiture 


158  Theistic  Sect  of  Kabir, 

duties  ^,  and  the  Sraddha  offerings  to  the  spirits  of  departed  ances- 
tors (91). 

The  eleventh  day  of  the  waxing  and  waning  moon  should  be  observed 
as  fasts,  also  the  birthday  of  Krishna ;  also  the  night  of  Siva  {Siva-rdtri) 
with  rejoicings  during  the  day  (79). 

A  pilgrimage  to  the  Tirthas,  or  holy  places,  of  which  Dvarika 
(Krishna's  city  in  Gujarat)  is  the  chief,  should  be  performed  according 
to  rule.  Almsgiving  and  kind  acts  towards  the  poor  should  always  be 
performed  by  all  {^'^). 

A  tithe  of  one's  income  should  be  assigned  to  Krishna ;  the  poor 
should  give  a  twentieth  part  (147). 

Those  males  and  females  of  my  followers  who  will  act  according  to 
these  directions  shall  certainly  obtain  the  four  great  objects  of  all  human 
desires — religious  merit,  wealth,  pleasure,  and  beatitude  (206). 

We  now  pass  on  to  the  reformed  theistic  sects  founded  by 
Kabir  and  Nanak. 

Theistic  Sect  fotmded  by  Kabir. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  teaching  of  Kabir  exer- 
cised a  most  important  influence  throughout  Upper  India  in 
the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.  That  it  formed  the 
basis  of  the  Sikh  movement  in  the  Panjab  is  clear  from  the 
fact  that  Kabir's  sayings  are  constantly  quoted  by  the  Guru 
Nanak  and  his  successors,  the  authors  of  the  sacred  writings 
which  constitute  the  bible  (Grantha)  of  the  Sikh  religion. 

Kabir  was  a  weaver,  and  in  all  probability  a  Musalman  by 
birth.  He  is  believed  to  have  lived  partly  at  Benares  and 
partly  at  Magar,  near  Gorakhpur,  in  the  reign  of  Sikandar 
Shah  Lodi,  between  1488  and  1512.  According  to  a  legend 
he  was  miraculously  conceived  by  the  virgin  widow  of  a 
Brahman.  His  name  Kabir — an  Arabic  word  meaning 
'  Great ' — gives  support  to  the  now  generally  accepted  opinion 

with  the  sacred  thread  ;  (5)  solemn  return  home  from  the  house  of  a 
preceptor  after  completing  the  prescribed  course  of  study ;  (6)  marriage. 
They  are  described  at  p.  353. 

^  The  six  daily  duties  (called  Nitya-karma)  according  to  Parasara 
are  : — (i)  bathing  ;  (2)  morning  and  evening  prayer  (sandhya) ;  (3)  offer- 
ings to  fire  (homa) ;  (4)  repetition  of  the  Veda ;  (5)  worship  of  ancestors  ; 
(6)  worship  of  the  gods. 


Theistic  Sect  of  Kabir.  159 

that  he  was  originally  a  Musalman.  But  he  never  had  any 
sympathy  with  Muhammadan  intolerance  and  exclusiveness. 
It  is  certain  that  in  the  end  he  became  a  pupil  of  Ramananda 
(see  p.  147),  and  for  a  time  a  true  Hindu,  and,  what  is  im- 
portant to  bear  in  mind,  a  true  Vaishnava,  who,  like  other 
Vaishnava  leaders,  had  much  of  the  democratic,  tolerant,  and 
liberal  spirit  of  Buddhism.  No  wonder,  then,  that  he  laboured 
to  free  the  Vaishnava  creed  from  the  useless  and  senseless  in- 
crustations with  which  it  had  become  overlaid.  But  he  did 
more  than  other  Vaishnava  reformers.  He  denounced  all 
idol-worship  and  taught  Vaishnavism  as  a  form  of  strict 
monotheism.  True  religion,  according  to  Kabir,  meant  really 
nothing  but  devotion  to  one  God,  who  is  called  by  the  name 
Vishnu,  or  by  synonyms  of  Vishnu  such  as  Rama  and  Hari, 
or  even  by  the  names  current  among  Muhammadans.  For 
Kabir,  in  his  tolerance,  had  no  objection  to  regard  Muham- 
madans as  worshipping  the  same  God  under  a  different  name. 
In  this  way  he  was  the  first  to  attempt  a  partial  bridging 
of  the  gulf  between  Hinduism  and  Islam.  Nor  did  he  reject 
all  the  pantheistic  ideas  of  Brahmanism. 

We  have  already  noted  how  in  India  all  phases  of  religious 
belief  are  constantly  meeting  and  partially  fusing  into  each 
other.  Polytheism  is  continually  sliding  into  Monotheism, 
Monotheism  into  Pantheism,  and  this  back  to  Polytheism. 
Vaishnavism  and  Saivism  in  their  universal  receptivity  are 
open  to  impressions  from  Islam  ;  Islam,  notwithstanding  its 
exclusiveness,  is  adulterated  with  Vaishnavism  and  Saivism. 
Hence  it  happens  that  Vaishnavism  and  Saivism,  however 
decidedly  they  may  insist  on  the  separate  personality  of  the 
Godhead,  are  perpetually  slipping  back,  like  a  broad  wheel, 
into  old  pantheistic  and  polytheistic  ruts.  And  Islam,  however 
uncompromising  its  views  of  the  Unity  of  the  Deity,  has  its 
school  of  Sufi  philosophers,  who  hold  opinions  almost  identical 
with  those  of  the  Vedanta  Pantheists.  It  is  no  wonder, 
therefore,  that  Kabir — while  asserting  the  Unity  of  God,  the 


i6o  Theistic  Sect  of  Kabir, 

Creator  of  the  world,  who  is  admitted  to  have  attributes  and 
qualities  and  to  assume  any  shape  at  will — also  maintained 
that  God  and  man  are  parts  of  one  essence,  and  that  '  both 
are  in  the  same  manner  everything  that  lives  and  moves  and 
has  its  being.' 

Kablr's  adherents — still  very  numerous  in  Northern  India — 
are  generally  called  Kabir-panthis.  His  doctrines  and  pre- 
cepts are  embodied  in  the  Sukh-nidhan  and  other  Hindi 
works,  as  well  as  in  the  Sikh  Grantha.  His  successors  have 
added  precepts  of  their  own,  many  of  which  are  attributed 
to  Kabir.     His  alleged  sayings  are  innumerable. 

I  here  subjoin  a  few  specimens  ^ : — 

Hear  my  word  ;  go  not  astray. 

My  word  is  from  the  first.     Meditate  on  it  every  moment. 

Without  hearing  the  word,  all  is  utter  darkness.  Without  finding  the 
gateway  of  the  word,  man  will  ever  go  astray. 

There  are  many  words.     Take  the  pith  of  them. 

Lay  in  provender  sufficient  for  the  road  while  time  yet  serves.  Evening 
comes  on,  the  day  is  flown  and  nothing  will  be  provided. 

With  the  five  elements  is  the  abode  of  a  great  mystery.  When  the 
body  is  decomposed  has  any  one  found  it.''  The  word  of  the  teacher 
is  the  guide. 

That  a  drop  falls  into  the  ocean  all  can  perceive ;  but  that  the  drop 
and  the  ocean  are  one,  few  can  comprehend. 

The  dwelling  of  Kabir  is  on  the  peak  of  a  mountain,  and  a  narrow 
path  leads  to  it. 

No  act  of  devotion  can  equal  truth  ;  no  crime  is  so  heinous  as  false- 
hood ;  in  the  heart  where  truth  abides,  there  is  my  abode.  d 

Put  a  check  upon  the  tongue ;  speak  not  much.  Associate  with  the 
wise.     Investigate  the  words  of  the  teacher.  ^ 

When  the  master  is  blind,  what  is  to  become  of  the  scholar  ?  When 
the  blind  leads  the  blind  both  will  fall  into  the  well. 

It  is  evident  from  these  examples  that  the  key-note  of 
Kablr's  teaching  was  the  duty  of  obeying  spiritual  teachers. 
He  maintained,  in  fact,  that  every  man  was  bound  to  search 
for  a  true  and  trustworthy  spiritual  pastor  (Guru),  and,  having 
found  one,  to  make  him  his  master — to  submit  mind,  con- 
science, and  even  body  to  his  will  and  guidance.     Yet  he 

^  Selected  from  H.  H.  Wilson's  '  Hindu  Religious  Sects.' 


The  Sikh  Sect,  i6i 

never  claimed  infallibility  for  his  own  utterances.  He  con- 
stantly warned  his  own  disciples  to  investigate  for  themselves 
the  truth  of  every  word  he  uttered. 

And  this  leads  us  to  the  religious  system  founded  in  the 
Panjab  by  Kablr's  most  celebrated  follower  Nanak,  about  the 
time  of  the  Emperor  Babar. 


\ 


The  Sikh   Theistic  Sect,  founded  by  Na^iak. 


It  is  well  known  that  certain  sects  of  Christians  call  them- 
selves '  brethren,'  to  denote  their  relationship  to  each  other 
and  to  their  Head  as  members  of  a  religious  society  typified 
by  a  family.  Much  in  the  same  way  the  sect  founded  by 
Nanak  styled  themselves  Sikhs  or  '  disciples '  to  express  their 
close  dependence  on  their  teachers  or  Gurus.  For  if  the 
'  diapason  '  of  Kabir's  doctrine,  and,  indeed,  of  all  Vaishnava 
teaching,  was,  '  Hear  the  word  of  the  Guru,  the  word  of  the 
Guru  is  the  guide,'  much  more  did  Nanak  insist  on  a  similar 
submission.  Literally  interpreted,  the  Sanskrit  terms  Guru 
(derived  from  the  Sanskrit  root  gri,  '  to  utter  words '),  and 
Sishya — corrupted  into  Sikh — meaning  in  Sanskrit  '  one  who 
is  to  be  instructed,'  are  merely  correlatives  like  teacher 
and  taught.  Hence,  the  system  might  as  suitably  be  called 
Guruism  as  Sikhism. 

Great  light  has  been  thrown  on  its  religious  aspect  by  the 
labours  of  the  late  Professor  Trumpp,  of  Munich.  He  was 
commissioned  by  our  Government  to  translate  what  is  called 
the  Adi-Granth,  or  first  Sikh  bible,  and  his  work  appeared  in 
1877  with  valuable  introductory  essays.  It  is  chiefly  by  study- 
ing this  book  that  we  are  able  to  form  an  accurate  idea  of  one 
of  the  most  interesting  and  important  religious  and  political 
movements  in  the  history  of  India.  With  some  difficulty 
I  myself  procured  a  copy  of  the  Adi-Granth  at  Amritsar. 

In  the  light,  therefore,  of  Professor  Trumpp's  investigations, 
and  my  own  inquiries  at  Lahore^  I  proceed  to  give  a  brief 

M 


1 62  The  Sikh  Sect, 

account  of  Nanak  and  the  characteristic  features  of  Nanak's 
teaching. 

It  appears  to  be  a  well-ascertained  fact  that  this  great 
teacher  was  born,  not  in  Lahore  itself,  but  in  a  neighbour- 
ing village,  called  Talvandi,  on  the  river  Ravi,  not  far  from 
Lahore,  in  the  year  1469,  a  few  years  before  Caitanya  in 
Bengal  and  Martin  Luther  in  Europe.  Of  course  the  various 
biographies  of  Nanak — called  Janam-sakhls,  and  written  in 
the  Panjabi  dialect  —  are  filled  with  myths  and  stories  of 
miraculous  events,  invented  to  justify  the  semi-deification  of 
the  founder  of  the  sect  soon  after  his  death.  That  all  the 
Hindu  gods  appeared  in  the  sky  and  announced  the  birth 
of  a  great  saint  (Bhagat)  to  save  the  world,  is  not  quite 
capable  of  proof.  Nor  can  we  quite  accept  as  a  fact  another 
statement  of  his  chroniclers,  that  one  day  angels  seized  him 
while  bathing,  and  carried  him  bodily  into  the  presence  of 
the  Deity,  who  presented  him  with  a  cup  of  nectar  and 
charged  him  to  proclaim  the  one  God,  under  the  name  of 
Hari,  upon  earth.  But  we  need  not  disbelieve  the  statement 
that  at  an  early  age  he  became  a  diligent  student  of  Vaish- 
nava  religious  books,  and  that  in  his  youth  he  imitated  the 
example  of  other  incipient  reformers,  wandering  to  various 
shrines  in  search  of  some  clue  to  the  labyrinth  of  Hinduism. 
It  is  even  afifirmed  that  his  travels  included  the  performance 
of  a  hajj  to  Mecca,  and  that  on  being  reproved  by  the  Kazi 
for  lying  down  with  his  feet  towards  the  Ka'bah,  he  replied  : 
'  Put  my  feet  in  that  direction  where  the  house  of  God  is  not.' 

Nanak,  however,  laid  no  claim  to  be  the  originator  of  a  new 
religion.  His  teaching  was  mainly  founded  on  that  of  his 
predecessors,  especially  on  that  of  Kabir,  whom  he  constantly, 
quoted.  He  was  simply  a  Guru,  or  teacher,  and  his  followers 
were  simply  Sikhs  or  disciples.  But  he  was  also  a  reformer 
who  aimed,  as  other  reformers  had  done  before  him,  at  deli- 
vering Hinduism,  and  especially  the  Vaishnavism  of  Northern 
India,  from  its  incubus  of  caste,  superstition,  and   idolatry. 


The  Sikh  Sect.  163 

Yet  it  does  not  appear  that  Nanak  directly  attacked  caste 
or  denounced  it  in  violent  language.  He  simply  welcomed 
persons  of  all  ranks  as  his  followers,  and  taught  that  the 
Supreme  Being  was  no  '  respecter  of  persons.' 

The  plain  fact  was  that  Nanak  found  himself  in  a  part 
of  India  where  Muhammadans  formed  the  majority  of  the 
population.  Though  himself  originally  a  Hindu,  he  became 
partially  Islamized,  to  the  extent  at  least  of  denouncing 
idolatry.  His  idea  was  to  bring  about  a  union  between 
Hindus  and  Muhammadans  on  the  common  ground  of  a 
belief  in  one  God.  Yet  the  creed  of  Nanak  was  really  more 
pantheistic  than  monotheistic.  God,  he  said,  is  Supreme  Lord 
over  all  (Paramesvara).  He  may  be  called  Brahma,  or  by 
other  names^  such  as  Govinda,  etc.,  but  his  especial  name  is 
Hari  (= Vishnu).  This  Supreme  Being  does  not  create  the 
Universe  out  of  nothing,  but  evolves  it  out  of  himself.  It  is 
a  kind  of  expansion  of  his  own  essence  which  takes  place 
for  his  own  amusement  (khela) — such  expansion  being  made 
up  of  the  three  Gunas — Sattva,  Rajas,  and  Tamas — in  perfect 
equihbrium  (see  p.  31).  It  is  Illusion  or  Maya  which  dis- 
turbs this  equilibrium  and  causes  the  apparent  separation 
between  God,  the  world,  and  the  human  soul.  All  this  is 
pure  Brahmanism.  We  find  also  that,  except  in  denouncing 
idolatry,  Nanak  differed  very  little  from  a  pure  Vaishnava, 
for  he  taught  that  in  the  present  age  (Kali-yuga)  the  repetition 
of  the  name  of  Hari  is  the  only  means  of  salvation  from  the 
misery  of  successive  births — notwithstanding  the  merit  to  be 
gained  by  works  and  ceremonies — and  that  the  knowledge 
of  this  name  is  only  to  be  acquired  through  a  properly 
ordained  teacher  (Guru).  It  is  curious,  too,  that  a  religious 
movement  which  commenced  in  an  effort  to  draw  the  ad- 
herents of  Sikhism  and  Muhammadanism  together,  should 
have  ended  in  exciting  the  bitterest  animosity  between  them. 

Nanak's  death  is  known  to  have  occurred  on  the  icth  of 
October,   1538.     One  of  his   sons  expected  to  succeed  him, 

M  2 


164  The  Sikh  Sect. 

but  to  the  surprise  of  those  who  were  present  at  his  death,  he 
passed  over  his  own  son  and  nominated,  as  second  Guru,  his 
disciple  Lahana,  whose  name  had  been  changed  to  Ahgada 
because  of  his  devotion.  He  had,  so  to  speak,  given  up  his 
person  (ahga)  to  the  service  of  his  master.  This  appears  to 
have  been  his  chief  merit.  He  was  quite  ilHterate,  though 
tradition  makes  him  the  inventor  of  the  pecuhar  alphabet 
called  Guru-mukhl  (a  modification  of  the  Deva-nagari)  in 
which  the  Sikh  bible  was  written.  Arigada  nominated  Amar- 
das  to  succeed  him  as  third  Guru.  Seven  others  were  ap- 
pointed to  the  succession  in  a  similar  manner.  These  make 
up  the  ten  chief  Gurus  of  the  Sikh  religion.  They  were, 
4.  Ram-das  ;  5.  Arjun  ;  6.  Har-Govind  ;  7.  Har-Rai ;  8.  Har- 
Kisan  (for  Har-Krishna)  ;  9.  Teg-Bahadur  ;  and  10.  Govind- 
Sinh. 

Professor  Trumpp  has  given  an  interesting  account  of  each, 
though  he  does  not  vouch  for  the  truth  of  the  native  biogra- 
phies from  which  his  details  are  taken.  One  thing  is  certain, 
that  notwithstanding  the  agreement  of  Sikhs  and  Muhamma- 
dans  in  regard  to  the  great  doctrine  of  the  Unity  of  the  God- 
head, a  violent  political  antagonism  soon  sprang  up  between 
them.  The  truth  was,  that  when  the  Sikhs  began  to  combine 
together  for  the  promotion  of  their  worldly  as  well  as  spiritual 
interests,  they  rapidly  developed  military  tastes  and  abilities. 
This  was  the  signal  for  an  entire  change  of  attitude  between 
Sikhs  and  Muhammadans.  So  long  as  the  former  were  a 
mere  religious  sect  they  were  left  unmolested  ;  but  when  they 
began  to  band  themselves  together  for  purposes  of  political 
aggrandizement,  they  encountered  opposition  and  persecution. 
The  Muhammadan  Government  naturally  took  alarm.  It 
could  not  permit  the  growth  of  an  imperiuin  in  imperio. 
Internecine  struggles  followed.  Both  parties  treated  each 
other  as  deadly  enemies ;  but  the  hardy  and  energetic  Sikhs, 
though  occasionally  vanquished  and  dispersed,  were  not  to  be 
driven  off  the  field.     Nor  is  it  surprising  that  they  gradually 


The  Sikh  Sect,  165 

developed  a  taste  for  rapine  and  spoliation.  The  decaying 
Mogul  Empire  was  quite  unable  to  hold  its  own  against  their 
aggressiveness.  Ultimately,  they  combined  into  powerful 
associations  (misals)  under  independent  marauding  chiefs, 
seized  large  tracts  of  land,  and  took  possession  of  the  whole 
Panjab. 

The  first  to  inspire  the  Sikhs  with  a  desire  for  political 
union  was  the  fourth  Guru,  Ram-das.  He  was  himself  a 
quiet  unassuming  man,  but  he  understood  the  value  of  money 
and  the  advantage  of  organization.  His  affable  manners 
attracted  crowds  of  adherents,  who  daily  flocked  to  his  house 
and  voluntarily  presented  him  with  offerings.  With  the  con- 
tributions thus  received  he  was  able  to  purchase  the  tank 
called  Amrita-sar  (Sanskrit,  Amrita-saras,  '  lake  of  nectar '), 
and  build  the  well-known  lake-temple  at  the  place  now  known 
as  Amritsar  (Umritsur),  which  afterwards  became  a  rallying- 
point  and  centre  of  union  for  the  whole  Sikh  community. 

Ram-das  conveyed  his  precepts  to  his  followers  in  the  form 
of  verses.  Many  of  his  stanzas,  together  with  the  sayings  of 
the  previous  Gurus,  and  especially  of  the  first  Guru,  Nanak, 
were  for  the  first  time  collected  by  his  son,  the  fifth  Guru^ 
Arjun,  who  was  appointed  by  his  father  to  the  Guruship  just 
before  his  death  in  158 1.  From  that  time  forward  the  suc- 
cession was  made  hereditary,  and  the  remaining  five  Gurus 
were  regarded  as  rulers  rather  than  as  teachers. 

With  regard  to  the  fifth  Guru,  Arjun,  it  may  be  observed 
that  he  was  a  worthy  successor  of  his  father.  He  perceived 
that  to  keep  his  Sikhs  or  disciples  together,  it  w^ould  be 
necessary  to  give  them  a  written  standard  of  authority,  and 
some  sort  of  machinery  of  government.  It  is  to  him,  there- 
fore, that  the  Sikhs  owe  the  compilation  of  their  first  bible — 
called  the  Granth,  or  book  (Sanskrit,  Grantha) — and  to  him  is 
due  the  establishment  of  an  organized  system  of  collecting 
a  regular  tax  from  all  adherents  of  the  sect  in  different 
localities.     Moreover,  under  him  the  sacred  tank  and  temple 


1 66  The  Sikh  Sect, 

founded  by  Ram-das  became  the  nucleus  of  the  sacred  town 
Amritsar,  which  is  still  the  metropolis  of  the  Sikh  religion. 
He  was  the  first  Sikh  Pope  who  aimed  at  temporal  as  well 
as  spiritual  power.  It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that  his  death  is 
said  to  have  been  brought  about  by  the  Emperor  Jahanglr. 

The  lives  of  the  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  Gurus  may  be 
passed  over  as  unimportant.  The  ninth  Guru,  Teg-Bahadur, 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  Emperor  Aurangzib.  This 
fanatical  monarch,  who  was  bent  on  forcing  the  whole  world 
to  embrace  Islam,  did  not  long  leave  the  Sikhs  undisturbed. 
He  imprisoned  Teg-Bahadur,  and  tortured  him  so  cruelly 
that  the  Guru,  despairing  of  life,  induced  a  fellow-prisoner  to 
put  an  end  to  his  sufferings.  But  Aurangzlb^s  tyranny  was 
quite  powerless  to  suppress  the  Sikh  movement.  It  was  rather 
the  chief  factor  in  Sikh  progress.  The  murder  of  the  ninth 
Guru  was  the  great  turning-point  in  the  history  of  the  sect. 
Thenceforward  the  Sikhs  became  a  nation  of  fighting  men. 

Teg-Bahadur's  son,  Govind-Sinh,  succeeded  as  tenth  Guru. 
Burning  to  avenge  his  father's  death,  he  formed  the  am- 
bitious design  of  establishing  an  independent  dominion  on  the 
ruins  of  the  Muhammadan  Empire.  He  was  a  man  of 
extraordinary  energy  and  strength  of  will,  but,  born  and 
brought  up  at  Patna,  was  deeply  imbued  with  Hindu  super- 
stitious feelings.  The  better  to  prepare  himself  for  what  he 
felt  was  too  gigantic  a  task  to  be  accomplished  without 
supernatural  assistance,  he  went  through  a  course  of  severe 
religious  austerity.  He  even  so  far  abjured  the  principles  of 
his  predecessors  as  to  propitiate  the  goddess  Durga.  Nay,  it 
is  even  affirmed  that,  instigated  by  the  Brahmans  to  offer  one 
of  his  own  sons  as  a  sacrifice,  and  unable  to  obtain  the 
mother's  consent,  he  allowed  one  of  his  disciples  to  be  be- 
headed as  a  substitute  at  the  altar  of  the  bloody  goddess. 
The  story  is  noteworthy  as  pointing  to  the  probable  preva- 
lence of  human  sacrifice  at  that  time  in  Upper  India. 

In  fact,  it  was  the  tenth  Guru,  Govind,  who  converted  the 


The  Sikh  Sect.  167 

Sikhs  into  a  nation  of  fighting  men.  His  character  was  a 
curious  compound  of  pugnacity,  courage,  superstition,  and 
fanaticism.  If  Nanak,  the  first  Guru,  was  the  founder  of  the 
Sikh  rehgion,  Govind,  the  tenth  Guru,  was  the  founder  of  the 
Sikh  nationality.  Many  reformers  had  attempted  to  abolish 
caste  as  a  part  of  religion,  but  Govind  regarded  its  evils  from 
a  purely  political  standpoint.  He  perceived  that  great 
national  weakness  resulted  from  the  disunion  caused  by  caste. 
He  therefore  proclaimed  social  equality  in  the  Sikh  com- 
munity. 

Nor  was  this  all.  They  were  to  add  the  name  Sinh  ('  lion  ') 
to  their  other  names.  They  were  to  be  distinguished  by  long 
hair,  they  were  always  to  carry  a  sword — in  token  of  engaging 
in  perpetual  warfare  with  the  Musalmans — to  refrain  from 
smoking  tobacco,  and  to  wear  short  trowsers,  instead  of  the 
ordinary  Dhoti.  They  were  to  be  called  Khalsa,  or  the  pecu- 
liar property  of  the  Guru,  and  were  to  be  admitted  to  disciple- 
ship  by  a  kind  of  baptismal  rite  called  Pahul — that  is  to  say, 
sugar  was  dissolved  in  water,  consecrated  by  the  repetition  of 
certain  texts  taken  from  the  Granth,  and  stirred  with  a  two- 
edged  sword.  Then  part  of  this  decoction — euphemistically 
styled  nectar — was  administered  to  each  new  disciple,  and  the 
rest  sprinkled  on  the  head,  mouth,  eyes,  and  other  parts  of  his 
body,  while  he  was  made  to  take  an  oath  not  to  mix  with 
certain  excommunicated  persons,  not  to  worship  idols,  not  to 
bow  to  any  one,  except  a  Sikh  Guru,  and  never  to  turn  his 
back  on  a  foe. 

He  was  enjoined  to  repeat  the  Granth  during  meals  and  at 
other  times  (both  the  Jap-jl  of  Nanak  and  that  of  Govind). 
The  Vedas,  Sastras,  Puranas,  and  the  Kuran  were  not  to  be 
credited ;  no  Hindu  ceremonies  were  to  be  observed,  no 
Sraddhas  performed,  no  mark  was  to  be  applied  to  the  fore- 
head (see  p.  66),  no  sacred  cord  was  to  be  worn,  no  rosary  to  be 
used,  no  tobacco  to  be  allowed,  no  animal  to  be  eaten,  unless 
killed  by  a  Sikh,  and  no  beef  was  to  be  touched.     Especial 


1 68  The  Sikh  Sect. 

care  was  to  be  taken  in  preparing  the  Karah-Prasad.  This 
corresponded  to  the  Hindu  Prasada  (see  p.  145),  and  the  eating 
of  it  in  common  is  compared  by  Professor  Trumpp  to  the  Chris- 
tian Communion.  It  was  made  of  flour,  sugar,  and  ghi.  When 
prepared  it  was  distributed  to  the  people  who  sat  round  it, 
praying. 

Moreover  the  Sikh  was  never  to  wear  a  cap,  nor  to  shave 
his  head  or  beard ;  nor  to  take  off  his  turban  while  eating. 

Govind  even  composed  a  second  bible  (Granth),  which  was 
added  as  a  supplement  to  the  first,  and  called  the  book  of 
the  tenth  Guru.  The  precepts  of  Nanak  and  his  successors, 
which  had  been  compiled  by  Arjun,  were  too  full  of  passages 
suggestive  of  meekness  and  pacific  feelings.  In  his  own  sup- 
plement Govind  adhered  to  the  religious  teaching  of  the  Adi- 
Granth,  but  he  introduced  precepts  the  direct  object  of  which 
was  to  rouse  the  martial  ardour  of  his  followers ;  he  substi- 
tuted war  for  peace  as  a  religious  duty, — reversing  the  order 
followed  in  the  Christian  Bible,  which  advances  from  the 
sanction  of  war  in  the  Old  Testament  to  the  inculcation  of 
universal  peace  in  the  New.  Thenceforward  they  were  to 
imitate  the  Muhammadans — they  were  to  spread  their  religion, 
not  by  persuasion,  but  by  the  sword.  Nay,  they  were  to  live 
by  the  sword,  and  even  to  worship  the  sword. 

Govind  was  himself  more  of  a  military  than  a  religious 
leader.  He  was  not  only  a  brave  soldier,  but  a  daring  and 
resolute  commander,  and  his  fighting  propensities  were  in- 
tensified by  his  innate  superstition  and  fanaticism. 

It  need  not,  therefore,  be  matter  of  astonishment  that  the 
greater  part  of  Govind's  own  life  was  passed  in  strife  and 
warfare.  But  he  was  no  match  for  the  Emperor  Aurangzib, 
who  was  his  equal  in  fanatical  intolerance,  and  greatly  his 
superior  in  ability  and  military  resources.  Forced  to  with- 
draw from  a  hopeless  contest,  he  retired  to  Central  India  and 
built  himself  a  residence  in  Malwa  (called  Damdama),  which  is 
still  a  point  of  resort  for  the  Sikh  community.  On  Aurangzib's 


The  Sikh  Sect.  169 

death,  Govind  gained  the  goodwill  of  his  successor,  Bahadur 
Shah,  and  even  accepted  a  military  command  in  the  Dekhan. 
There  a  Pathan,  who  owed  him  a  grudge,  attempted  his 
assassination  and  wounded  him  so  severely  that  he  died  at  the 
town  of  Nader,  near  the  Godavarl  (a.D.  1708). 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  feature  of  the  later  Sikh 
system  was  the  quasi-deification  of  the  sacred  book,  or 
Granth.  Govind  refused  to  appoint  a  successor  to  the  Guru- 
ship,  but  he  well  knew  that  to  maintain  the  Sikh  religion  as  a 
distinctive  creed  some  visible  representative  and  standard  of 
authority  was  needed.  He  therefore  constituted  the  Granth 
a  kind  of  permanent  religious  Guru,  endowing  it  with  person- 
ality, and  even  with  the  title  Sahib  (Lord).  '  After  me,'  he  said, 
'  you  shall  everywhere  mind  the  book  of  the  Granth-Sahib  as 
your  Guru  ;  whatever  you  shall  ask  it  will  show  you.' 

It  may  be  worth  while,  therefore,  to  inquire  a  little  more 
closely  into  the  nature  of  the  book  thus  exalted  to  the 
position  of  an  infallible  guide,  and  made  to  do  duty  as  a  kind 
of  visible  vicegerent  of  God  upon  earth. 

It  consists,  as  we  have  seen,  of  two  parts,  the  Adi-Granth 
or  first  book,  which  is  the  portion  most  generally  revered,  and 
the  book  of  the  tenth  Guru,  Govind,  which  finds  greater 
favour  with  the  more  fanatical  section  of  the  community.  We 
can  only  here  glance  at  the  form  and  contents  of  the  Adi- 
Granth.  The  translator  (Professor  Trumpp)  considers  it  to 
be  '  an  extremely  incoherent  and  wearisome  book,  the  few 
thoughts  and  ideas  it  contains  being  repeated  in  endless 
variations.'  Nor  will  this  estimate  of  its  merits  be  matter  of 
wonder  when  it  is  found  that  the  Adi-Granth  is,  in  fact,  a 
jumbling  together  of  metrical  precepts  and  apophthegms  sup- 
posed to  have  been  composed  by  at  least  thirty-five  different 
authors,  among  whom  were  six  of  the  ten  chief  Gurus  (Nanak, 
Angada,  Amar-das,  Ram-das,  Arjun,  and  Teg-Bahadur),  four- 
teen Bhagats  or  saints  (Ramanand,  Kablr,  Plpa,  Ravi-das, 
Dhanna,  Namdev,  Sur-das,  etc.),  and  fifteen  Bhats    or  pro- 


lyo  The  Sikh  Sect. 

fessional  panegyrists,  whose  names  are  not  worth  recording. 
These  latter  were  employed  to  write  eulogies  on  the  Gurus, 
and  their  panegyrics,  introduced  into  the  Granth,  are  curious 
as  specimens  of  abject  adulation,  though  absolutely  worthless 
in  themselves.  It  is  noticeable  that  one  verse  by  Govind- 
Sinh  has  been  appended  to  the  Adi-Granth,  and  is  regarded 
as  an  integral  portion  of  the  volume. 

The  language  in  which  the  whole  work  is  written  is  not  so 
much  the  old  Panjabi  dialect  as  the  old  Hindi.  This  ancient 
dialect  was  probably  used  by  the  Sikh  Gurus,  though  natives 
of  the  Panjab,  that  they  might  be  better  able  to  commend 
their  utterances  to  the  whole  Hindu  community.  It  may  be 
conveniently  called  Hindu-!  to  distinguish  it  from  the  modern 
Hindis  The  graphic  system  used  by  the  writers  was  a  modi- 
fication of  the  Deva-nagari  alphabet,  called  Guru-mukhi,  the 
peculiarity  of  which  is  that  it  preserves  the  forms  of  some 
Sanskrit  letters,  but  changes  their  phonetic  power. 

Perhaps  it  is  as  unjust  to  disparage  the  Granth  as  to  exalt 
its  merits  unduly.  To  say  that  it  contains  many  noble 
thoughts  is  as  true  as  to  say  that  it  abounds  in  much  silly 
twaddle  and  inane  repetition.  Nor  can  it  be  fairly  accused 
of  absence  of  arrangement.  The  verses,  though  unconnected, 
are  arranged  in  six  divisions: — (i)  we  have  the  Japu  (com- 
monly called  Jap-jl),  which  consists  of  introductory  verses  by 
Nanak ;  (2)  then  follows  the  So-daru  ;  (3)  the  So-purkhu ; 
(4)  the  Sohila,  three  short  sections,  consisting  chiefly  of 
verses  adapted  for  evening  devotion  ;  lastly  come  (5)  the 
Rags,  verses  sung  in  particular  Rags  or  musical  keys,  thirty- 
one  in  number,  which  constitute  the  great  body  of  the 
Granth,  especially  the  first  four,  called  Sir!  Rag,  Rag  Majh, 
Rag  Gaurl,  and  Rag  Asa;  and  (6)  the  Bhog,  consisting  of 
verses  by  Nanak,  Arjun,  and  the  earlier  Gurus,  besides  others 

•^  I  believe  I  was  one  of  the  first  to  recommend  its  being  so  distinguished, 
in  the  Preface  to  the  first  edition  of  my  Sanskrit-English  Dictionary, 
published  by  the  University  of  Oxford  in  1872. 


The  Sikh  Sect.  171 

by  Kablr,  whose  sayings  are  also  scattered  everywhere  through 
every  section  of  the  Granth. 

I  select  a  few  examples  from  the  book,  slightly  abridged 
and  altered  from  Professor  Trumpp's  version  : — 

At  the  beginning  is  the  True  One. 

Know,  that  there  are  two  ways  (that  of  HindQs  and  that  of  Musal- 
mans),  but  only  one  Lord. 

By  thyself  all  the  creation  is  produced  ;  by  thyself,  having  created, 
the  whole  is  caused  to  disappear. 

Thou,  O  Hari,  alone  art  inside  and  outside  ;  thou  knowest  the  secrets 
(of  the  heart). 

Mutter  the  name  of  Hari,  Hari,  O  my  heart,  by  which  comfort  is 
brought  about ;  by  which  all  sins  and  vices  disappear  ;  by  which  poverty 
and  pain  cease. 

Thou  art  I,  I  am  thou,  of  what  kind  is  the  difference  ?  Like  gold  and 
the  bracelet,  like  water  and  a  wave. 

By  the  perfect  Guru  the  name  of  Hari  is  made  firm  in  me.  Hari  is 
my  beloved,  my  king.  If  some  one  bring  and  unite  (him  with  me),  my 
life  is  revived. 

Thou  art  my  father,  my  mother,  my  cousin,  my  brother,  my  protector 
in  all  places.  Then  what  fear  and  grief  can  there  be  to  me  ?  By  thy 
mercy  I  have  known  thee.  Thou  art  my  support,  my  trust.  Without 
thee  there  is  none  other  ;  all  is  thy  play  and  thy  arena,  O  Lord  ! 

The  Lord  is  my  dear  friend.  He  is  sweeter  to  me  than  mother  and 
father,  sister,  brother,  and  all  friends  ;  like  thee  there  is  none  other, 
O  Lord  ! 

Be  united  with  the  Lord  of  the  Universe.  After  a  long  time  this  (human) 
body  was  obtained.  In  some  births  thou  wast  made  a  rock  and  mountain. 
In  some  births  thou  wast  produced  as  a  pot-herb.  In  the  eighty-four 
lakhs  (of  forms  of  existence)  thou  wast  caused  to  wander  about. 

No  hot  wind  touches  those  who  are  protected  by  the  true  Guru.  The 
Guru  is  the  true  creator. 

Protected  by  the  Guru  he  is  admitted  to  the  true  house  and  palace  (of 
Hari).     Death  cannot  eat  him. 

I  am  continually  a  sacrifice  to  my  own  Guru. 

I  am  become  a  sacrifice  to  my  own  Lord.  From  the  Veda,  from  the 
book  (the  Kuran),  from  the  whole  world  he  is  conspicuous.  The  King 
of  Nanak  is  openly  seen. 

Having  forgotten  all  things  meditate  on  the  One  !  Drop  false  conceit, 
offer  up  (thy)  mind  and  body ! 

The  following  are  examples  of  Kabir's  sayings  quoted  in 

the  Granth : — 

Kablr  says  :  I  am  the  worst  of  all,  every  one  is  good  except  me. 
Death,  of  which  the  world  is  afraid,  is  joy  to  my  mind. 


172  The  Sikh  Sect, 

The  gate  of  salvation  is  narrow,  not  wider  than  the  tenth  part  of 
a  mustard-seed. 

If  I  make  the  seven  oceans  ink,  if  I  make  the  trees  my  pen,  if  I  make 
the  earth  my  paper,  the  glory  of  God  (Hari)  cannot  be  written. 

Hope  should  be  placed  on  God  (Ram),  hope  in  others  is  useless. 

What  thou  art  doing  to-morrow  do  now  ;  what  thou  art  doing  now  do 
at  once.  Afterwards  nothing  will  be  done  when  death  descends  on  thy 
head. 

It  will  be  sufficiently  evident  from  these  passages  that 
Sikhism  was  a  great  religious  reform,  and  yet  in  its  essence 
very  little  better  than  either  Vaishnavism  or  Brahmanism. 
The  Granth  declares  the  Oneness  of  the  Deity,  but  when  we 
sound  the  depths  of  its  inner  doctrines  we  find  that  this  unity 
is  based  on  a  substratum  of  pantheistic  ideas.  There  is  but 
One  God,  but  He  manifests  Himself  everywhere  and  is  every- 
thing. From  various  passages  of  the  Granth  it  is  clear  that 
the  Vaishnava  names  Hari,  Krishna,  Rama,  and  Govinda  are 
accepted  by  the  Sikhs  as  names  of  the  Supreme.  They  are 
even  willing  to  regard  the  different  divine  personalities  repre- 
sented by  these  names  as  manifestations  of  the  one  Supreme 
Being.  The  point  on  which  they  pride  themselves  is  the 
prohibition  of  image-worship.  Yet  they  make  an  idol  of 
their  own  sacred  book,  worshipping  it  as  truly  as  the  Hindus 
do  their  idols,  dressing  it,  decorating  it,  fanning  it,  putting  it 
to  bed  at  night,  and  treating  it  much  in  the  same  manner  as 
the  idols  of  Krishna  are  treated. 

■  a 

We  have  seen  that  one  great  distinguishing  feature  of  their 
system  is  that  war  is  made  an  essential  part  of  religion.  To 
indicate  their  belief  in  this  doctrine  they  worship  the  military 
weapons  of  the  Gurus.  In  some  respects  they  conform  to 
the  customs  of  the  Hindiis.  They  even  surpass  the  ordinary 
HindQ  in  some  of  his  most  inveterate  superstitions ;  as,  for 
example,  in  ascribing  divine  sanctity  to  the  cow.  The  killing 
of  a  cow  is,  with  Sikhs,  the  most  heinous  of  crimes  ^,  meriting 

•^  At  one  time  in  the  Panjab  it  was  infinitely  more  criminal  to  kill  a  cow 
than  to  kill  a  daughter. 


The  Sikh  Sect,  173 

nothing  less  than  capital  punishment — not,  however,  from 
any  injunction  to  that  effect  in  the  Granth,  but  from  simple 
opposition  to  the  Musalrnans,  who,  whenever  they  conquered 
any  district  peopled  by  Hindus,  invariably  slaughtered  cows, 
;  both  to  ratify  their  victories  and  to  show  their  contempt  for 
Hindu  superstitions. 

Then  again  they  accept  "n  all  its  fulness  the  Hindu  doc- 
trine of  metempsychosis,  believing  that  there  are  eighty-four 
lakhs  (or  eight  million  four  hundred  thousand)  of  forms  of 
existence  through  which  all  souls  or  spirits — represented  as 
flames  emanating  from  the  fouitain  of  life — are  liable  to  pass 
before  returning  to  their  souice.  These  forms  of  life  are 
supposed  to  consist  of  2,300,000  quadrupeds  ;  900,000  aquatic 
animals;  1,000,000  feathered  aiimals  ;  1,100,000  creeping 
animals  ;  1,700,000  immovable  cieatures  (such  as  trees  and 
stones) ;  1,400,000  forms  of  human  beings.  Deliverance  from 
all  individual  existence  (Nirvana)  is  \he  summum  bonum. 

But,  after  all,  the  chief  distinctive  feature  of  Sikhism  is 
that,  accepting  the  Vaishnava  doctrine  of  complete  submis- 
sion to  the  Guru  or  ordained  religious  teacher,  the  Sikh  Guru 
is  madC;  so  to  speak,  to  out-Guru  all  other  Gurus.  His  word 
is  to  be  law  in  every  single  matter,  human  and  divine.  First, 
he  baptizes  the  novice  with  a  decoction  of  sugar  and  water, 
which  he  has  previously  consecrated  and  stirred  with  a  two- 
edged  dagger.  Then  he  imparts  the  name  of  Hari  to  his 
disciple  in  a  particular  sacred  text,  which  loses  all  its  efficacy 
unless  orally  communicated.  He  tells  him  to  mutter  it  per- 
petually, enjoins  him  to  fix  his  mind  on  Hari's  excellences, 
and  never  to  rest  until  he  has  merged  his  own  existence  in 
that  of  Hari.  In  return  for  the  instruction  thus  imparted,  the 
disciple,  even  in  the  earliest  period  of  Sikhism,  had  to  render 
a  certain  amount  of  personal  and  even  menial  service  to  his 
Guru.  Then  as  Sikhism  advanced  and  the  Guru  gained 
temporal  as  well  as  spiritual  authority,  he  became  to  his 
disciples   exactly  what  Muhammad   became  to  his  followers 


174  The  Sikh  Sect. 

in  Arabia— not  only  teacher  and  spiritual  pastor,  but  master, 
military  leader,  and  king.  Finally,  when  he  had  ceased  to 
act  as  a  military  leader,  he  was  regarded  as  an  all-powerful 
mediator  between  God  and  man,  ani  even  as  an  actual  god  to 
whom  prayers  were  to  be  addressed  as  to  the  Supreme  Being 
Himself. 

Before  concluding  this  sketch  of  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing religious  movements  that  hss  ever  taken  place  in  India, 
I  ought  to  state  that  I  visited  t'le  tombs  of  Ranjit  Sinh  and 
Guru  Arjun  at  Lahore,  the  biith-place  of  Govind  at  Patna, 
and  the  sacred  metropolis  or  Jerusalem  of  Sikhism  at 
Amritsar. 

I  noticed  that  the  mausoleum  which  contains  the  ashes  of 
Ranjit  Sinh  at  Lahore  had  idols  of  the  Hindu  gods  Ganesa 
and  Brahma  over  the  entiance.  Inside,  resting  on  a  small 
elevated  platform,  was  tte  sacred  Granth,  and  all  around 
were  eleven  small  tombs,  mere  mounds  of  earth,  under  which 
are  preserved  the  ashes  of  Ranjit's  eleven  wives,  who  became 
Satis  at  his  death. 

It  may  be  worth  while  here  to  mention  that  it  is  against 
the  practice  of  the  Hindus  to  preserve  the  remains  of  their 
deceased  relatives  in  tombs.  The  body  is  burnt,  and, 
however  illustrious  the  man  may  have  been,  the  ashes  are 
scattered  on  sacred  rivers.  The  Sikh  leaders  were,  like 
the  Muhammadans,  ambitious  of  perpetuating  their  own 
memories  after  death.  They  continued  the  Hindu  practice  of 
burning  their  dead,  but,  like  the  Muslims,  spent  larger  sums 
in  erecting  magnificent  tombs  for  the  reception  of  their  own 
ashes  than  in  building  palaces  for  their  own  ease  and  self- 
indulgence  during  life. 

The  temple  dedicated  to  the  tenth  Guru  Govind,  at  Patna, 
was  rebuilt  by  Ranjit  Sinh  about  forty  years  ago.  I  found  it, 
after  some  trouble,  in  a  side  street,  hidden  from  view  and 
approached  by  a  gateway,  over  which  were  the  images  of  the 
first  nine  Gurus,  with  Nanak  in  the  centre.     The  shrine  is 


The  Sikh  Sect.  175 

open  to  the  air  on  one  side.  Its  guardian  had  a  high-peaked 
turban  encircled  by  steel  rings  (cakra),  used  as  weapons. 
He  was  evidently  an  Akall — or  'worshipper  of  the  time- 
less God ' — a  term  applied  to  certain  Sikh  zealots  who  be- 
lieve themselves  justified  in  putting  every  opponent  of  their 
religion  to  the  sword.  As  I  entered  the  court  of  the  temple, 
accompanied  by  a  Musalman  friend,  this  Akali  displayed 
great  excitement,  and  I  began  to  fear  an  outburst  of  fana- 
ticism which  might  have  been  dangerous  to  us  both.  Happily 
my  companion  knew  the  man  we  had  to  deal  with,  and,  under 
a  process  of  judicious  handling,  the  fiery  zealot  cooled  down, 
and  even  allowed  us  to  inspect  the  interior  of  the  tenth  Guru's 
shrine. 

On  one  side,  in  a  small  recess — supposed  to  be  the  actual 
room  in  which  Govind  was  bom  more  than  two  centuries 
before — were  some  of  his  garments  and  weapons,  and  what 
was  once  his  bed,  with  other  relics,  all  in  a  state  of  decay. 
On  the  other  side  was  a  kind  of  low  altar,  on  which  were 
lying  under  a  canopy  a  beautifully  embroidered  copy  of  the 
Adi-Granth  and  of  the  Granth  of  Govind.  In  the  centre, 
on  a  raised  platform,  were  numerous  sacred  swords,  which 
appeared  to  be  as  much  objects  of  worship  as  the  sacred 
books. 

As  to  the  golden  temple  at  Amritsar,  called  Hari-mandira, 
'  the  temple  of  Hari,'  or  sometimes  Durbar  Sahib,  it  may  be 
said  to  rank  next  to  the  Taj  at  Agra  as  one  of  the  most 
striking  sights  of  India.  To  form  an  idea  of  the  unique 
spectacle  presented  by  this  sacred  locality,  one  must  picture 
to  one's  self  a  large  square  sheet  of  water,  bordered  by  a 
marble  pavement,  in  the  centre  of  a  picturesque  Indian 
town.  Around  the  margin  of  this  artificial  lake  are  clustered 
many  fine  mansions,  most  of  them  once  the  property  of 
Sikh  chiefs  who  assembled  here  every  year,  and  spent  vast 
sums  on  the  endowment  of  the  central  shrine.  One  of  the 
houses  is  occupied  by  Sirdar  Mangal  Sinh  Ramgharia,  a  well- 


176  The  Sikh  Sect, 

known  and  much  esteemed  member  of  the  Sikh  community. 
It  has  two  lofty  towers,  from  one  of  which  I  enjoyed  a  grand 
panoramic  view  of  the  lake  and  its  vicinity — one  of  those 
rare  sights  seen  at  intervals  during  life,  which  fix  themselves 
indelibly  on  the  memory.  In  the  centre  of  the  water  rises 
the  beautiful  temple  with  its  gilded  dome  and  cupolas,  ap- 
proached by  a  marble  causeway.  It  is  quite  unlike  any  other 
place  of  worship  to  be  seen  throughout  India,  and  in  structure 
and  appearance  may  be  regarded  as  a  kind  of  compromise 
between  a  Hindu  temple  and  a  Muhammadan  mosque,  re- 
minding one  of  the  attempted  compromise  between  Hinduism 
and  Islam,  which  was  once  a  favourite  idea  with  both  Kabir 
and  Nanak. 

In  point  of  mere  size  the  shrine  is  not  imposing,  but  its 
proportions  strike  one  as  nearly  perfect.  All  the  lower  part 
is  of  marble,  inlaid,  like  the  Taj,  with  precious  stones,  and 
here  and  there  overlaid  with  gold  and  silver.  The  principal 
entrance  facing  the  causeway  looks  towards  the  north.  The 
interior  is  even  more  gorgeous  than  the  exterior.  On  the 
ground-floor  is  a  well-proportioned  vaulted  hall — its  richly 
gilded  ceiling  ornamented  with  an  infinite  number  of  small 
mirrors,  and  its  walls  decorated  with  inlaid  work  of  various 
designs,  flowers,  birds,  and  elephants.  Four  short  passages, 
entered  by  carved  silver  doors,  one  on  each  of  its  four  sides, 
lead  to  this  vaulted  chamber,  giving  it  a  shape  not  unlike 
that  of  a  Greek  cross.  All  around  on  the  outside  is  a  narrow 
corridor.  In  the  interior,  opposite  the  principal  entrance,  sits 
the  presiding  Guru — his  legs  folded  under  him  on  the  bare 
ground — with  the  open  Granth  before  him.  He  is  attended 
by  other  oflicials  of  the  temple,  who  assist  him  in  chanting 
the  sacred  texts.  The  Brahmans  maintain  that  God  may 
infuse  his  essence  into  images,  but  they  never  make  an  idol  of 
the  written  Veda,  which,  according  to  their  theory,  is  divine 
knowledge  communicated  orally  to  inspired  sages,  and  by 
them  orally  transmitted — not  written  down.     Sikhism,  on  the 


b 


The  Sikh  Sect.  177 

contrary,  denies  that  God  associates  himself  with  images,  but 
believes  that  he  is  manifested  in  a  written  book  (Granth). 

Hence,  although  the  temple  is  free  from  images,  and  is 
dedicated  to  the  one  God  under  his  name  Hari  (applied 
also  to  Krishna  or  Vishnu),  a  visible  representation  of  the 
invisible  God  is  believed  to  be  present  in  the  sacred  book. 
The  Granth  is,  in  fact,  the  real  divinity  of  the  shrine,  and 
is  treated  as  if  it  had  a  veritable  personal  existence.  Every 
morning  it  is  dressed  out  in  costly  brocade,  and  reverently 
placed  on  a  low  throne  under  a  jewelled  canopy,  said  to  have 
been  constructed  by  Ranjit  Sinh  at  a  cost  of  50,000  rupees. 
All  day  long  chowries  are  waved  over  the  sacred  volume, 
and  every  evening  it  is  transported  to  the  second  temple  on 
the  edge  of  the  lake  opposite  the  causeway,  where  it  is  made 
to  repose  for  the  night  in  a  golden  bed  within  a  consecrated 
chamber,  railed  off  and  protected  from  all  profane  intrusion 
by  bolts  and  bars.     Of  this  I  was  myself  a  witness. 

On  the  occasion  of  my  first  visit  to  the  Golden  Temple 
two  or  three  rows  of  temple  officials  and  others  were  seated 
in  a  circle  round  the  vaulted  chamber,  to  the  number  of  about 
a  hundred,  listening  to  the  Granth  which  was  being  chanted 
by  the  presiding  Guru  and  his  assistants  in  a  loud  tone,  with 
an  accompaniment  of  musical  instruments.  The  space  in  the 
centre  was  left  vacant  for  offerings,  and  was  strewn  with 
flowers,  grain,  and  small  coin.  A  constant  line  of  wor- 
shippers, male  and  female,  entered  one  after  the  other,  cast 
down  their  offerings,  bowed  their  heads  to  the  ground  before 
the  Granth  and  before  the  presiding  Guru,  and  reverently 
circumambulated  the  corridor  of  the  temple.  I  noticed  that 
one  poor  old  woman  threw  in  two  small  coins,  and  then, 
bending  low,  touched  the  marble  floor  with  her  forehead. 

On  leaving  the  temple  I  talked  for  a  time  with  an  in- 
telligent Sikh  who  had  received  an  English  education. 
Pointing  to  an  idol  of  Krishna  which  had  been  set  up  on 
the  margin   of  the  lake,   I  asked  whether  the   Sikhs  were 

N 


178  The  Dadu-panthis. 

returning  to  the  worship  of  Vaishnava  images.  '  Yes,'  he 
said,  'we  are  gradually  lapsing  back  into  our  old  habits. 
Our  first  Guru  abolished  caste  and  forbad  the  worship  of 
idols.  Our  tenth  Guru  was  a  thorough  Hindu  at  heart,  and 
by  his  own  example  encouraged  the  return  to  Hindu  practices  ; 
so  that  of  the  Sikhs  now  found  in  the  Panjab  a  large  number 
adopt  caste,  wear  the  Brahmanical  thread,  keep  Hindu  fes- 
tivals, observe  Hindu  ceremonies  (such  as  the  Sraddha),  and 
even  present  offerings  to  idols  in  Hindu  temples.' 

In  short,  a  careful  observation  of  the  present  condition  of 
Sikhism  must  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Sikh  reforming 
movement,  like  others  which  preceded  it,  is  gradually  being 
drawn  back  into  the  all-absorbing  current  of  ordinary  Vaish- 
navism.  Yet  the  possession  of  a  distinct  rule  of  faith  and 
standard  of  doctrine  in  the  Granth  must  have  a  prophylactic 
effect.  It  must  keep  the  crumbling  elements  of  Sikhism 
together  for  a  time.  Nor  need  the  process  of  reabsorption 
involve  the  obliteration  of  all  distinctive  marks.  For  just 
as  the  strength  of  Hinduism  is  Vaishnavism,  so  the  strength 
of  Vaishnavism  is  its  tolerance  of  an  almost  infinite  diversity 
within  its  own  pale.  Probably,  in  the  end,  the  Granth  itself 
will  be  accepted  by  the  whole  body  of  Vaishnavas  as  a 
recognized  portion  of  their  sacred  literature. 

The  census  of  ten  years  ago  made  the  number  of  Sikhs  in 
India  amount  to  1,853,426,  of  whom  only  806,928  were  females. 

In  regard  to  the  sect  called  Kukas  see  p.  268. 

But  Sikhism  was  not  the  only  offshoot  of  the  school  founded 
by  the  great  reformer  Kabir.  He  is  said  to  have  had  twelve 
disciples,  like  his  predecessor  Ramananda  ;  and  each  disciple 
is  supposed  to  have  taken  a  distinct  line  (panthah)  of  his  own, 
and  to  have  originated  a  distinct  school  of  religious  thought. 

Two  of  these  may  be  singled  out  for  special  notice — the 
Dadu-panthls  and  the  Satnamls. 

The  Dadu-panthls,  as  their  name  implies,  were  founded  by 
Dadu,  a  cotton-cleaner  of  Ahmedabad,  who  flourished  about 


The  Sabtamts.  1 79 

A.D.  1600.     They  are  really  Vaishnava  Theists  like  the  Sikhs  ; 
that  is,  worshippers  of  the  one  God  under  some  of  the  names 
of  Vishnu,   according  to   the   doctrine   of  Kablr,  on   whose 
precepts  the  religious  works  of  the  sect  are  all  founded. 
In  the  same  way  the  SatnamTs  are  only  Vaishnava  Theists, 

I'  who  call  the  one  God  by  a  peculiar  name  of  their  own 
(Satnam),  and  base  their  doctrines  like  the  Sikhs  on  Kablr's 
school  of  theology. 

According  to  Professor  H.  H.  Wilson,  the  founder  of  the 
Satnamis  was  Jag-jivan-das  (for  Jagaj-jTvana-das),  a  native  of 
Oudh,  whose  samadh  or  tomb  is  at  Katwa,  between  Lucknow 
and  Ajudhya.  He  is  said  to  have  flourished  about  A.D,  1750, 
and  to  have  written  certain  tracts  in  Hindi,  called  Jiiana- 
prakasa,  Maha-pralaya,  and  Prathama-grantha.  When  I  was 
last  in  India  I  heard  of  a  branch  of  the  Satnamis  at  Chatlsgarh, 
in  the  Central  Provinces.  They  are  the  followers  of  a  low- 
caste  Chamar  named  Ghasl-das  and  his  son  Balak-das,  who 
%  flourished  about  the  beginning  of  this  century.  I  was  able 
to  obtain  some  account  of  their  tenets  and  practices  from  the 
missionaries  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  at  Madras. 
They  are  also  described  in  one  or  two  numbers  of  the  Madras 
Missionary  Record  for  1872. 

Like  other  varieties  of  Hindu  Unitarians,  all  of  whom  mix 
up  pantheistic  ideas  with  monotheistic  doctrines,  they  submit 
implicitly  to  their  Gurus,  regarding  them  as  vicegerents  of 
God  upon  earth,  and  occasionally  as  actual  incarnations  of 
the  Deity. 

The  following  are  a  few  of  their  precepts  and  rules  : — 

God  pervades  the  universe.  He  is  present  in  every  single  thing.  The 
title  Lord  (Sahib)  should  be  added  to  every  object  in  which  God  is 
present.  God  is  the  spring  and  source  of  everything  good  and  evil. 
Idols  must  not  be  worshipped.  The  ordained  religious  teacher  (Guru) 
is  holy.  Even  the  water  in  which  his  feet  are  washed  is  holy,  and 
should  be  drunk  by  his  disciples.  Distinctions  of  caste  are  not  to  be 
observed.  Fasts  need  not  be  kept.  Feed  the  poor.  Wound  no  one's 
feelings.  When  the  dead  are  burned  let  no  one  cry  or  weep  ;  let  them 
only  exclaim,  '  The  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  has  taken  away  ! ' 

N   2 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Saklism,  or  Goddess-worship. 

Saktism  in  the  simplest  acceptation  of  the  term  is  the 
worship  of  force  (Sanskrit  Sakti)  personified  as  a  goddess  and 
subordinately  in  all  women.  Doubtless  there  may  be  some 
educated  Hindus  whose  worship  of  this  goddess  amounts  to 
little  more  than  reverence  for  a  personification  of  the  energy 
of  Nature  ;  but  a  true  Sakta  adores  her  with  a  view  to  the 
acquisition  of  supernatural  faculties  through  her  help,  or  to 
the  destruction  of  enemies  through  her  co-operation. 

Of  course  it  is  alleged  by  all  Saiva  and  Vaishnava  secta- 
rians that  the  gods  Siva  and  Vishnu,  as  identified  with  the 
Supreme  Being,  are  themselves  the  source  and  spring  as  well 
as  the  controllers  of  all  the  forces,  energies  and  phenomena 
of  nature.  Yet  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  it  is  a  rooted 
idea  with  all  Hindu  theologians,  of  whatever  denomination, 
that  the  highest  condition  of  the  Self-existent  Being  is  a 
condition  of  complete  quiescence  and  inactivity,  as  well  as 
of  complete  oneness,  solitariness,  and  impersonality. 

In  fact  Brahmanism  holds  that  the  One  Universal  Self- 
existent  Spirit  is  Existence,  Thought,  and  Joy — or,  in  other 
words — is  Life  without  anything  to  live  for.  Thought  without 
anything  to  think  about,  Joy  without  anything  to  be  joyful 
about.  But  the  moment  this  one  Self-existent  pure  Spirit 
begins  to  be  conscious  (in  our  sense)  of  existence  and  to 
exercise  thought  and  feel  joy — it  assumes  personality  and 
material  organization.  It  becomes,  in  fact,  a  personal  God  ; 
and  when  this  personal  God  wills  to  put  forth  energy  for  the 
creation  or  evolution  of  a  world  out  of  himself  his  nature 
becomes  duplex.     Evidently  the  absolute  unity  and  strictly 


Saktism^  or  Goddess-worship.  i8i 

masculine  character  of  that  nature  might  have  been  preserved 
in  his  personal  development,  but  the  idea  of  a  kind  of  duality 
in  unity  very  soon  suggested  itself  to  the  Hindu  mind.  He 
was  held  to  possess  a  double  nature,  partly  male  and  partly 
female,  the  female  constituting  his  left  side. 

Then,  again,  this  duality  might  have  been  evenly  balanced, 
or  the  preponderance  of  active  energies  might  have  been 
assigned  to  the  male  side.  The  Hindus,  however,  in  dividing 
the  divine  nature  into  two  halves,  had  no  idea  of  any  due  co- 
ordination of  working  power  between  man  and  woman.  The 
male  side  of  the  god  was  believed  to  relegate  his  more 
onerous  executive  functions  to  the  female.  Hence  the  female 
side  of  the  personal  god  is  often  more  propitiated  than  the 
male,  and  the  worshipper  is  inclined  to  turn  with  greater 
devotion  to  the  goddess  than  to  the  god  when  he  supplicates 
any  powerful  intervention  on  his  own  behalf  in  circumstances 
of  unusual  exigency  or  peril. 

The  Kumarl-tantra  says  :  '  The  whole  world  is  embodied 
in  the  woman.  One  should  be  a  woman  one's  self.  Women 
are  gods.     Women  are  vitality.' 

This  I  believe  to  be  the  true  theory  of  Saktism  in  its 
simplest  and  most  general  aspect.  It  is  a  theory  which  is 
certainly  more  closely  connected  with  Saivism  than  with  any 
other  system.  Like  Saivism,  too,  it  traces  back  its  origin  to 
philosophical  Brahmanism,  and  through  Brahmanism  to  the 
earliest  conceptions  foreshadowed  in  the  Veda. 

Perhaps  the  first  dawn  of  the  idea  of  duality  in  unity  is  to 
be  found  in  the  well-known  129th  hymn  of  the  loth  Mandala 
of  the  Rig-veda  already  quoted  (p.  13).  In  that  hymn  we 
find  it  stated  that  in  the  beginning  when  the  universe  was 
about  to  be  developed  there  arose  in  the  One  Being  Desire 
which  produced  Mind  and  all  existing  things  (p.  29). 

But  the  idea  of  a  universe  proceeding  from  a  female  prin- 
ciple brought  into  union  with  a  male  is  more  fully  developed 
in  other  Vedic  texts. 


1 82  Saktism,  or  Goddess-worship. 

Probably  Heaven  (Dyaus)  and  Earth  (Prithivi)  are  the 
most  ancient  of  all  Vedic  gods,  and  from  their  fancied  union, 
as  husband  and  wife,  the  other  deities  and  the  whole  Uni- 
verse were  at  first  supposed  to  spring.  They  are  often  de- 
scribed as  parents  (janitri,  Rig-veda  X.  no.  9;  pitara,  III. 
3.  II  ;  matara,  I.  155.  3).  Or  Heaven  alone  is  called  father 
(pita)  and  Earth  mother  (mata).  On  the  other  hand,  else- 
where in  the  Veda  the  female  deity  Aditi — probably  a 
personification  of  the  sky  or  of  universal  nature — seems  to 
stand  alone,  taking  the  place  of  both  Heaven  and  Earth 
as  parent  of  the  deities,  her  counterpart  being  Diti  the 
mother  of  the  demons.  Another  important  goddess  in  the 
Rig-veda  is  the  Dawn^  (Ushas,  'Hcoj),  the  Sky's  daughter, 
who  is  of  course  closely  connected  with  the  Sun-god  ;  but 
is  not  described  as  married  to  him,  though  followed  by  him, 
as  a  mistress  is  pursued  by  her  lover. 

And  here  it  may  be  noted  as  remarkable  that  the  wives 
of  two  chief  Vedic  gods,  Indra  and  Agni  (Indrani  and 
Agnayi),  are  not  associated  with  their  husbands  or  exalted 
to  equal  rank  as  objects  of  worship.  Nor  is  the  popular 
goddess  Lakshmi,  afterwards  wife  of  Vishnu,  mentioned  at 
all  in  the  Rig-veda  -.  Nor  is  SarasvatT  held  to  be  the  con- 
sort of  Brahma.  She  is  rather  a  river-goddess,  though  often 
invoked  in  other  characters,  and  once  associated  with  a 
river-god  Sarasvat  (VH.  96.  4,  6).  It  is  only  when  we  come 
to  the  Brahmanas  and  Upanishads  that  we  find  the  duality 
of  the  divine  nature  clearly  enunciated.  For  example,  in  the 
Satapatha-Brahmana  (XIV.  4.  2.  4,  etc.),  before  noticed, 
and  Brihad-aranyaka  Upanishad  (3)  we  read  to  the  following 

^  Sometimes  spoken  of  as  plural. 

'^  Dr.  Muir  shows  this  (Sanskrit  Texts,  V.  337),  and  points  out  that 
Lakshmi  is  once  used  for  good-fortune  in  Rig-veda  X.  71.  2,  and  that  in 
Atharva-veda  VII.  115.  i  a  plurality  of  Lakshmis  is  spoken  of.  Five  are 
often  mentioned.  At  Madura  I  noticed  carvings  of  seven  or  eight  different 
Lakshmis  who  preside  over  different  kinds  of  good-luck.  They  are  often 
found  over  the  doors  of  houses. 


Sdktism,  or  Goddess-worship.  183 

effect :  '  The  One  Being  did  not  enjoy  happiness  when 
alone.  He  was  desirous  of  a  second.  He  divided  himself 
into  two.  Hence  were  husband  and  wife  produced.  There- 
fore was  this  (second)  only  a  half  of  himself,  as  the  half  of 
a  split  pea  is.'  It  is  then  related  how  all  beings  were  pro- 
duced by  the  union  of  the  divine  male  and  divine  female. 
Safikara,  in  his  comment  on  the  Upanishad,  observes,  in 
relation  to  the  above  passage  :  *  Because  this  male  half  is 
void  as  wanting  the  female  half,  therefore  after  taking  a 
wife  it  is  completed  by  the  female  half,  as  a  split  pea  is  by 
being  joined  with  its  other  half  (see  Roer's  translation). 

If  we  pass  on  to  Manu,  we  find  that  the  Self-existent  is 
described  as  dividing  his  own  substance  and  becoming  half 
male  and  half  female  (I.  5,  etc. ;  see  p.  30). 

Turning  next  to  the  Sahkhya  philosophical  system,  we 
know  that  it  teaches  the  separate  existence  of  eternal  Spirit 
called  '  the  Self  or  '  Male'  on  the  one  side  and  of  an  eternal 
productive  force  or  prolific  germ  (Prakriti  fem.,  or  Maya)  on 
the  other.  The  union  of  the  two  was  believed  to  be  indis- 
pensable before  any  creation  could  result. 

The  Vedanta  system  is  virtually  very  similar  (see  p.  37). 

Of  course  ordinary  thinkers  gave  a  concrete  reality  to  all 
such  metaphysical  speculations.  The  Spirit — which  was 
called  'the  Self  (Atman)  in  one  system  and  'the  Male' 
(Purusha)  in  the  other — became  in  the  popular  creed  a  sepa- 
rate male  god,  while  the  productive  prolific  force  became  a 
separate  female  god.  The  union  of  the  two  was  expressed  in 
the  later  mythology  by  the  Ardha-narl  or  androgynous  form 
of  Siva — in  which  the  right  side  of  the  god  is  represented 
as  male,  and  the  left  side  as  female  (see  p.  85) — or  by  the 
united  male  and  female  symbols  (Linga  and  Yoni)  set  up  in 
innumerable  shrines  throughout  every  part  of  India.  (Com- 
pare the  union  of  Hermes  and  Aphrodite.) 

The  same  doctrine  is  often  repeated  in  the  Puranas  ;  but 
even  in  those  writings  it  is  to  be  noted  that  although  they 


184  Saktism,  or  Goddess-worship. 

often  countenance  and  even  promote  Sakta  views  by  making 
the  active  power  of  the  goddess  a  subject  of  special  lauda- 
tion, and  by  according  greater  honour  to  the  female  deity 
(as  for  example  in  placing  the  goddess  first  in  such  com- 
pounds as  Lakshmi-Narayanau,  Sita-Ramau,  Radha-Krish- 
nau  ^),  yet  no  exclusive  or  extravagant  worship  of  the  goddess 
is  inculcated. 

It  was  reserved  for  the  latest  sacred  writings  called  Tantras 
(see  p.  205)  to  personify  Energy  or  Force  as  a  female  deity, 
and  to  teach  an  undue  adoration  of  the  wives  of  Siva  and 
Vishnu  to  the  neglect  of  their  male  counterparts. 

Practically,  as  we  shall  see,  the  Saktism  of  the  present  day 
is  a  mere  offshoot  of  Saivism.  It  inculcates  an  exclusive 
adoration  of  Siva's  wife  as  the  source  of  every  kind  of  super- 
natural faculty  and  mystic  craft.  This,  in  fact,  is  the  central 
doctrine  and  leading  idea  of  all  Tantrik  writings.  For  the 
Tantras,  believed  as  they  are  to  be  a  direct  revelation  from 
Siva  to  his  wife  Parvati  (p.  205),  are  the  bible  of  Saktism,  just 
as  the  Puranas  are  the  bible  of  ordinary  Saivism  and  Vaish- 
navism.  That  they  are  regarded  by  some  as  of  equal 
authority  with  the  Puranas,  and  even  as  a  kind  of  secondary 
revelation,  is  evident  from  a  passage  in  Kulluka's  commen- 
tary on  Manu  II.  1.  There  he  asserts  that  divine  truth  is  of 
two  kinds — '  that  revealed  in  the  Vedas  and  that  found  in  the 
Tantras.'     It  is  even  alleged  that  Sarikaracarya  was  a  Sakta. 

Unhappily  a  vast  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  of  India, 
especially  in  Bengal,  are  guided  in  their  daily  life  and  practices 
by  Tantrik  teaching,  and  are  in  bondage  to  the  doctrines  in- 
culcated in  these  writings. 

It  is  noteworthy,  too,  that  the  system  is  closely  connected 
with  the  mysticism  of  the  Yoga  philosophy  and  with  the  cor- 
rupt forms  of  Buddhism  prevalent  in  Tibet  (see  my  volume 

^  According  to  a  Varttika  on  Panini  II.  2,  34  (Kasika  Vritti)  the 
more  honourable  should  stand  first  in  a  compound,  as  in  Mata-pitarau, 
Sraddha-medhe,  Brahmana-Kshatriya-Vit-Sudrah. 


Saktism^  or  Goddess-worship.  185 

on  Buddhism,  p.  223).  Its  demoralizing  effect  on  the  life  and 
conduct  of  the  Hindiis  cannot  be  doubted. 

And  indeed  it  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  Saktism  is 
Hinduism  arrived  at  its  worst  and  most  corrupt  stage  of 
development.  To  follow  out  the  whole  process  of  evolution 
would  not  be  easy.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  just  as  Hinduism 
resolved  itself  into  two  great  systems — Saivism  and  Vaish- 
navism — so  the  adherents  of  those  two  systems  respectively 
separated  into  two  great  classes.  The  first  are  now  called 
'  followers  of  the  right-hand  path  '  (Dakshina-margTs).  These 
make  the  Puranas  their  real  Veda  (Nigama),  and  are  devoted 
to  either  Siva  or  Vishnu  in  their  double  nature  as  male  and 
female.  But  they  do  not  display  undue  preference  for  the 
female  or  left-hand  side  of  the  deity;  nor  are  they  addicted 
to  mystic  or  secret  rites.  The  second  class  are  called  '  fol- 
lowers of  the  left-hand  path '  (Vama-margis).  These  make  the 
Tantras  their  peculiar  Veda  (Agama),  tracing  back  their  doc- 
trines to  the  Kaula  Upanishad,  which  is  held  to  be  the  original 
authority  for  their  opinions  ;  whence  their  system  is  called 
Kaula,  as  well  as  Sakta,  and  they  themselves  Kaulikas. 

And  it  is  these  left-hand  worshippers  who,  I  repeat,  devote 
themselves  to  the  exclusive  worship  of  the  female  side  of  Siva 
and  Vishnu^ ;  that  is,  to  the  goddess  Durga  or  Kali  (  =  Amba, 
Devi)  rather  than  to  Siva ;  to  Radha  rather  than  to  Krishna ; 
to  Sita  rather  than  to  Rama  ;  but  above  all  to  Amba  or 
Devi,  the  mother-goddess,  sometimes  confounded  with  Siva's 
consort,  but  rather,  in  her  more  comprehensive  character,  the 
great  Power  (Sakti)  of  Nature,  the  one  Mother  of  the 
Universe  (Jagan-mata,  Jagad-amba) — the  mighty  mysterious 
Force,  whose  function  is  to  direct  and  control  two  quite 
distinct  operations  ;  namely,  first,  the  working  of  the  natural 
appetites  and  passions,  whether  for  the  support  of  the  body 

^  The  wives  of  the  deities  are  generally  placed  on  their  left.  The  only 
exception  is  in  representations  of  the  marriage  ceremony.  On  that  occasion 
the  bride  takes  her  station  on  the  right  of  the  bridegroom. 


1 86  Saktism,  or  Goddess-worship. 

by  eating  and  drinking,  or  for  the  propagation  of  living  organ- 
isms through  sexual  cohabitation  ;  secondly,  the  acquisition 
of  supernatural  faculties  (siddhi),  whether  for  a  man's  own  in- 
dividual exaltation  or  for  the  annihilation  of  his  opponents. 

And  here  it  is  necessary  to  observe  that  the  Sakta  form  of 
Hinduism  is  equipped  with  a  vast  mythological  Personnel  of 
its  own — an  immense  array  of  female  personalities,  consti- 
tuting a  distinct  division  of  the  Hindu  Pantheon. 

Yet  the  whole  array,  spreading  out  as  it  does  into  count- 
less ramifications,  has  its  root  in  the  wife  of  Siva.  By 
common  consent  she  is  held  to  be  the  source  or  first  point 
of  departure  of  the  entire  female  mythological  system.  She 
also  stands  at  its  head  ;  and  it  is  remarkable  that  in  every 
one  of  the  male  god  Siva's  characteristics,  his  consort  is  not 
only  his  counterpart,  but  a  representation  of  all  his  attributes 
intensified.  We  have  already  pointed  out  (pp.  76-78)  how 
it  came  to  pass  that  the  male  god  gradually  gathered  under 
his  own  personality  the  attributes  and  functions  of  all  other 
divinities,  and  thus  became  to  his  own  special  worshippers 
the  great  god  (Maha-devah)  of  Hinduism  ^.  Similarly  and  in 
a  much  greater  degree  did  his  female  counterpart  become  the 
one  great  goddess  (Maha-devi)  of  the  Sakta  hierarchy;  re- 
presenting in  her  own  person  all  other  female  manifestations 
of  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva,  and  absorbing  all  their  func- 
tions. For  this  reason  even  the  wives  of  Brahma  and  Vishnu 
were  said  to  be  her  daughters.  As  to  the  contradictory 
qualities  attributed  to  her,  these  are  no  source  of  difficulty 
to  a  Hindu  mind.  She  is  simply  in  all  respects  a  duplicate 
of  her  husband,  painted  in  deeper  or  more  vivid  colours. 

And  just  as  Siva  (p.  80)  is  at  one  time  white  (Sveta,  sukla) 
both  in  complexion  and  character,  at  another  black  (Kala) ; 
so  his  female  nature  also  became  one  half  white  (whence  her 
name  Gauri)  and  the  other  half  black  (whence  her  name  Kali). 

^  At  Pokhar  and  on  the  road  to  Amber  in  Rajputana  I  passed  two  tem- 
ples where  the  Liiiga  of  Siva  has  four  faces  and  is  worshipped  as  Brahma. 


Saktism,  or  Goddess-worship.  187 

Then^  again,  each  of  these  opposite  characters  became 
variously  modified  and  endlessly  multiplied.  The  white  or 
mild  nature  ramified  into  the  Saktis  called  Uma,  Gaurl, 
LakshmT,  SarasvatT,  etc.  ;  the  black  or  fierce  nature  into 
those  called  Kali,  Durga,  CandT,  Camunda,  etc.  And  just 
as  Siva  has  ioo8  names  or  epithets,  so  his  wife  possesses  a 
feminine  duplicate  of  nearly  every  one  of  his  designations. 
At  least  one  thousand  distinct  appellations  are  assigned  to 
her,  some  expressive  of  her  benignant,  some  of  her  ferocious 
character.  Notably  it  is  declared  in  the  Tantras  that  if  any 
one  repeats  eight  of  her  names  containing  the  letter  vi,  kings 
will  become  his  servants,  all  men  will  love  him,  and  all  his 
difficulties  come  to  a  happy  termination. 

In  short,  all  the  other  Saktis  came  to  be  included  by  the 
Saktas  under  the  Sakti  or  female  energy  of  Siva,  which  eventu- 
ally developed  into  innumerable  separate  personifications. 

These  personifications,  following  the  analogy  of  some  of 
Vishnu's  incarnations,  are  sometimes  grouped  according  to  a 
supposed  difference  of  participation  in  the  divine  energy,  such 
for  example  as  the  full  energy  (purna  sakti),  the  partial  (ansa- 
rupinl),  the  still  more  partial  (kala-rOpini),  and  the  partial  of 
the  partial  (kalansa-rupini),  this  last  including  mortal  women 
in  various  degrees,  from  Brahman  women  downwards,  who  are 
all  worshipped  as  forms  of  the  divine  mother  manifesting 
herself  upon  earth  ;  for  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  the 
Sakta  creed  every  female  is  a  present  divinity. 

The  more  usual  classification,  however,  begins  with  the 
Maha-vidyas.  These  are  held  to  be  ten  in  number,  that 
number  being  probably  selected  to  match  the  ten  chief  in- 
carnations of  Vishnu.  They  are  called  Maha-vidyas  as  sources 
of  the  goddess's  highest  knowledge  ;  that  is  to  say,  of  the 
knowledge  which  confers  preternatural  powers.  They  have 
all  different  attributes,  and  are  thus  designated: — i.  Kali 
(sometimes  called  Syama),  black  in  colour,  fierce  and  irascible 
in  character.     2.  Tara,a  more  benign  manifestation,  worshipped 


1 88  Saktism,  or  Goddess-worship. 

especially  in  Kasmlr.  3.  Shodasi,  a  beautiful  girl  of  sixteen 
(also  called  Tripura,  worshipped  in  Malabar).  4.  Bhuvanesvari. 
5.  Bhairavl.  6.  Chinna-mastaka,  a  naked  goddess  holding  in 
one  hand  a  blood-stained  scimitar  and  in  the  other  her  own 
severed  head,  which  drinks  the  warm  blood  gushing  from 
her  headless  trunk.  7.  Dhumavati.  8.  Vagala  or  Bagala  or 
Bagala-mukhi.  9.  Matangi,  'a  woman  of  the  BhangI  caste.' 
10.  Kamalatmika  or  Kamala.  Of  these  the  first  two  are 
especially  Maha-vidyas,  the  next  five  Vidyas,  and  the  last 
three  Siddha-vidyas. 

The  next  class  of  personifications  or  manifestations  of  the 
goddess  are  the  Matris  or  Matrikas  (or  Maha-matris),  the  great 
mothers  of  the  Universe.  These  are  more  important  than  the 
Maha-vidyas  in  their  connexion  with  the  prevalence  of  Mother- 
worship,  a  form  of  religion  which,  among  the  peasantry  of 
India,  often  takes  the  place  of  every  other  creed.  This  will  be 
more  fully  explained  in  the  chapter  on  tutelary  deities  (p.  209). 

The  Matris  or  Mothers  are — i.  Vaishnavl.  2.  Brahmi  or 
Brahmani,  often  represented  with  four  faces  or  heads  like  the 
god  Brahma.  3.  Karttikeyi,  sometimes  called  Mayuri.  4. 
IndranT.  5.  Yami.  6.  Varahi,  connected  with  the  boar  in- 
carnation of  Vishnu.  7.  Devi  or  IsanT,  represented  with  a 
trident  in  one  hand  as  wife  of  Siva.  8.  Lakshmi^.  Each  of 
these  divine  Mothers  is  represented  with  a  child  in  her  lap. 

Closely  related  to  the  Mothers  is  a  class  of  female  personi- 
fications called  the  eight  Nayikas  or  mistresses.  These,  of 
course,  are  not  necessarily  mothers.  In  fact  no  other  idea  is 
connected  with  them  than  that  of  illegitimate  sexual  love. 
They  are  called  Balini,  Kamesvarl,  Vimala,  Aruna,  Medini, 
Jayini,  SarvesvarT,  and  Kaulesi. 

Another  class  of  manifestations   is    that   of  the  Yoginis. 

^  Some  lists  give  nine  Matrikas  (viz.  i.  Narasinhi  ;  2.  Camunda;  3. 
Varahi;  4.  VarunI ;  5.  Lakshml ;  6.  Kali;  7.  Kapall;  8.  Kurukulya  ;  9. 
Indranl),  some  sixteen,  and  some  fifty-two,  among  whom  are  enumerated 
Narayanij  Kaumarl,  Aparajita,  Durga,  Mahesvarl,  etc. 


Sdktism,  or  Goddess-worship.  \  89 

These  are  sometimes  represented  as  eight  fairies  or  sorceresses 
created  by  and  attendant  on  Durga,  sometimes  as  mere  forms 
of  that  goddess,  sixty  or  sixty-five  in  number,  and  capable  of 
being  multiplied  to  the  number  of  ten  millions. 

Other  classes  not  worth  enumerating  are  the  DakinTs  and 
Sakinis.  These  are  simply  female  fiends  or  ogresses  of  most 
repulsive  habits,  and  are  not  so  much  manifestations  of  the 
goddess  as  impish  servants  always  attendant  on  her. 

But  it  is  in  the  form  Kali  —  the  form  under  which  the 
goddess  is  worshipped  at  Calcutta — that  she  is  most  terrible. 

The  following  is  a  free  translation  of  two  passages  in  the 
Tantras  descriptive  of  Kali's  appearance  ^  : — 

'  One  should  adore  with  liquors  and  oblations  that  Kali 
who  has  a  terrible  gaping  mouth  and  uncombed  hair  ;  who 
has  four  hands  and  a  garland  formed  of  the  heads  of  the 
demons  whom  she  has  slain  and  whose  blood  she  has  drunk  ; 
who  holds  a  sword  in  her  lotus-like  hand  ;  who  is  fearless 
and  awards  blessings  ;  who  is  as  black  as  the  large  clouds 
and  has  the  whole  sky  for  her  clothes  ;  who  has  a  string 
of  skulls  round  her  neck  and  a  throat  besmeared  with  blood ; 
who  wears  ear-rings  (consisting  of  two  dead  bodies) ;  who 
carrries  two  dead  bodies  in  her  hands;  who  has  terrible  teeth 
and  a  smiling  face  ;  whose  form  is  awful  and  who  dwells  in 
burning-grounds  (for  consuming  corpses) ;  who  stands  on  the 
breast  of  her  husband  Maha-deva  ^.' 

'  A  Kaulika  (i.  e.  a  Sakta)  should  worship  Kali,  who  lives 
amongst  dead  bodies  ;  who  is  terrible  and  has  fearful  jaw^s  ; 
who  has  uncombed  hair  and  a  glowing  tongue  ;  who  constantly 
drinks  blood  ;  who  stands  over  her  husband  Maha-kala ""  and 

^  All  my  extracts  from  the  Tantras  are  taken  from  the  Hon.  Rao  Bahadur 
Gopal  Hari  Deshmukh's  work  called  Agama-prakasa,  where  the  original 
Sanskrit  of  all  the  passages  quoted  in  this  chapter  will  be  found, 

^  The  images  of  Kali  at  Calcutta  represent  her  trampling  on  her 
husband.  The  explanation  of  this  is  that  she  had  a  contest  with  the 
thousand-headed  Ravana  (whose  story  is  told  in  the  Adbhuta-Ramayana) 
for  ten  years,  and,  having  conquered  him,  became  so  elated  and  danced  so 


190  Saktisni^  or  Goddess-worship. 

wears  a  garland  of  skulls  on  her  blood-besmeared  throat  ;  who 
has  prominent  breasts  ;  who  is  waited  on  by  all  the  Siddhas 
as  well  as  by  the  Siddhis.' 

It  is  this  goddess  who  thirsts  for  blood,  and  especially  for 
human  blood  ;  and  if  the  blood  of  animals  is  not  offered  to  her, 
she  takes  that  of  men.  In  one  of  the  Tantras  kings  are 
directed  to  appease  her  by  blood  and  even  by  human  sacrifice 
(nara-bali).  The  blood  of  a  tiger  is  said  to  satisfy  her  for 
100  years,  and  that  of  a  man  for  1000  years. 

It  might  have  been  expected  that  a  creed  like  this,  which 
admits  of  an  infinite  multiplication  of  female  deities  and 
makes  every  woman  an  object  of  worship,  would  be  likely  to 
degenerate  into  various  forms  of  licentiousness  on  the  one 
hand  and  of  witchcraft  on  the  other.  But  if  such  consequences 
might  have  been  anticipated,  the  actual  fact  has  been  worse 
than  the  most  gloomy  pessimist  could  possibly  have  foretold. 
In  Saktism  we  are  confronted  with  the  worst  results  of  the 
worst  superstitious  ideas  that  have  ever  disgraced  and  degraded 
the  human  race.  It  is  by  offering  to  women  the  so-called 
homage  of  sensual  love  and  carnal  passion  \  and  by  yielding 
free  course  to  all  the  grosser  appetites,  wholly  regardless  of 
social  rules  and  restrictions,  that  the  worshippers  of  the  female 
power  (Sakti)  in  Nature  seek  to  gratify  the  goddess  represent- 
ing that  power,  and  through  her  aid  to  acquire  supernatural 
faculties,  and  even  ultimately  to  obtain  union  with  the  Supreme 
Being.  Incredible  as  it  may  appear,  these  so-called  worship- 
pers actually  affect  to  pride  themselves  on  their  debasing 
doctrines,  while  they  maintain  that  their  creed  is  the  grandest 

energetically  that  the  Universe  would  have  collapsed  under  her  movements 
had  not  Siva  mercifully  interposed  his  body.  When  the  goddess  found 
that  she  was  treading  on  her  husband's  sacred  person,  she  suddenly  ceased 
dancing,  and,  as  is  not  unusual  with  Hindu  women  when  struck  with  horror 
or  shame,  protruded  her  red  tongue  in  a  manner  not  altogether  consonant 
with  European  ideas  of  womanly  dignity. 

^  The  Tantras  make  no  secret  of  the  fact  that  the  virile  retas  itself  is 
regarded  as  the  offering  most  pleasing  to  the  goddess. 


Saktism,  or  Goddess-worship.  191 

of  all  religions,  because  to  indulge  the  grosser  appetites  and 
passions,  with  the  mind  fixed  on  union  with  the  Supreme 
Being,  is  believed  to  be  the  highest  of  all  pious  achievements. 
Indeed,  according  to  the  distorted  ideas  and  perverted  phrase- 
ology of  the  sect,  all  who  are  uninitiated  into  this  system  arc 
styled  'beasts'  (pasu  ^),  the  initiated  being  called  Siddha,  'the 
perfect  ones.' 

The  rite  of  initiation  (Dlksha)  must  be  performed  by  a  proper 
Guru  or  teacher,  who  does  little  more  than  impart  a  know- 
ledge (upadesa)  of  certain  mystic  texts  and  syllables  to  the 
candidate,  but  the  rite  ought  never  to  take  place  unless  moon, 
planets,  and  stars  are  favourable.  If  a  pupil  can  be  initiated 
during  the  occurrence  of  a  solar  eclipse  wonderful  advantages 
may  be  expected  to  accrue  to  both  teacher  and  taught. 

Of  course,  the  principal  rites,  or  rather  orgies,  of  Sakta  wor- 
shippers take  place  in  secret  and  with  closed  doors.  This  secrecy 
is  strictly  in  accordance  with  Tantrik  precept.  Thus,  we  read : — 

'  One  should  not  practise  the  Kaula  system  in  the  presence 
of  the  uninitiated  (Pasus  or  beasts),  any  more  than  one  should 
recite  the  Veda  in  the  presence  of  a  Sudra. 

'  One  should  guard  the  Kaula  system  from  the  Pasus  just  as 
one  guards  money  and  grain  and  clothes  from  thieves. 

'  One  should  conceal  the  Kaula  system  like  the  water  in  the 
cocoa-nut ;  one  should  be  a  Kaula  internally,  a  Saiva  ex- 
ternally, and  a  Vaishnava  when  talking  at  public  meetings. 

'The  Vedas,  the  Sastras,  and  the  Puranas  are  clearly  like  a 
common  woman  (open  to  all),  but  this  mystical  Saiva  science 
is  like  a  high-born  woman  (kept  secluded).' 

Hence  no  one  who  has  been  initiated  into  the  practices  of 
the  sect  can  be  persuaded  to  speak  of  them  to  the  uninitiated. 
Probably  the  spread  of  education  and  the  influence  exercised 
by  Christian  men  and  women  throughout  India  are  gradually 
operating  to  abolish  all  the  grosser  forms  of  Saktism,  as  they 

^  Another  name  for  an  uninitiated  person  is  Kantaka,  '  a  thorn.' 


192  Saktism,  or  Goddess-worship. 

have  already  helped  to  do  away  with  SatI,  female  infanticide, 
human  sacrifices,  and  other  monstrous  evils.  Still  it  is  well 
known  that  even  in  the  present  day,  on  particular  occasions, 
the  adherents  of  the  sect  go  through  the  whole  ceremonial  in 
all  its  revolting  entirety.  When  such  occasions  occur,  a  circle 
is  formed  composed  of  men  and  women  seated  side  by  side 
without  respect  of  caste  or  relationship  ^.  Males  and  females 
are  held  for  the  particular  occasion  to  be  forms  of  Siva  and 
his  wife  respectively,  in  conformity  with  the  doctrine  pro- 
pounded in  one  of  the  Tantras,  where  Siva  addressing  his  wife 
says  :  '  All  men  have  my  form  and  all  women  thy  form  ; 
any  one  who  recognizes  any  distinction  of  caste  in  the  mystic 
circle  (Cakra)  has  a  foolish  soul.' 

The  actual  performance  of  the  ceremonial  then  follows.  It 
consists  of  five  separate  actions  : — i.  The  drinking  of  wine  and 
liquors  of  various  kinds  (madya) ;  2.  the  eating  of  meat 
(mansa) ;  3.  the  eating  of  fish  (matsya) ;  4,  the  eating  of 
parched  or  fried  grain  (mudra) ;  5.  sexual  union  (maithuna)^. 

With  regard  to  the  first  four  of  these  acts  the  Tantras 
prescribe  twelve  sorts  of  liquors,  three  sorts  of  wine,  and  three 
sorts  of  meat.  Pulastya,  one  of  the  ancient  sages  who  are  the 
supposed  authors  of  certain  law-books,  also  enumerates  twelve 
kinds  of  liquors  as  follow  : — i.  liquor  extracted  from  the 
bread-fruit  (panasa),  called  Jack-liquor ;  2.  from  grapes 
(draksha) ;  3.  from  date-palm  (kharjurl) ;  4.  from  common 
palm  (tall),  or  toddy;  5.  from  cocoa-nut  (narikela) ;  6.  from 

^  The  verse  cited  as  the  authority  for  the  temporary  suppression  of 
caste  at  these  meetings  is  as  follows  : — Prapte  hi  Bhairave  (fakre  sarve 
varna  dvijatayah  Nivritte  Bhairave  cakre  sarve  varnah  prithak  prithak. 
'  On  entering  the  circle  of  Bhairava,  all  castes  are  on  an  equality  with 
the  best  of  the  twice-born  ;  on  leaving  it,  they  are  again  separated 
into  castes.' 

-  The  five  acts  are  called  the  five  Ma-karas,  because  the  letter  M 
begins  each  Sanskrit  word.  '  The  assemblage  of  five  things  beginning 
with  the  letter  M,'  says  one  of  the  Tantras,  '  satisfies  the  gods.' 

The  term  Mudra,  which  here  means  '  fried  grain,'  is  also  used  to  denote 
mystical  intertwinings  of  the  fingers. 


Saklism,  or  Goddess-worship,  193 

sugar-cane  (ikshu) ;  7.  from  the  Madhvika  plant ;  8.  long- 
pepper  liquor  (saira) ;  9.  soap-berry  liquor  (arishta) ;  10.  liquor 
from  the  Bassia  Latifolia  (madhijka) ;  11.  a  kind  of  rum  or 
liquor  prepared  from  molasses,  etc.  (called  GaudI,  or  some- 
times Maireya) ;  12.  arrack,  or  liquor  prepared  from  rice  or 
other  grain  (sura,  or  varum,  or  paishtl). 

Besides  the  above  twelve  kinds  of  spirituous  drink  others 
are  frequently  mentioned ;  for  example,  Tahka,  made  from 
wood-apple  ;  Koli,  made  from  the  jujube ;  and  Kadambarl ; 
the  last  being  the  favourite  beverage  of  Bala-rama. 

The  meat  may  be  that  of  birds,  beasts,  or  fish.  The 
parched  grain  is  eaten,  like  dry  biscuit,  as  a  relish  with  the 
wine  and  spirituous  liquors.  The  drinking  of  each  kind  of 
drink  is  supposed  to  be  attended  with  its  own  peculiar  merit 
and  advantage.  Thus  one  liquor  gives  salvation,  another 
learning,  another  power,  another  wealth,  another  destroys 
enemies,  another  cures  diseases,  another  removes  sin,  another 
purifies  the  soul. 

The  Matrika-bheda  Tantra  (quoted  by  Dr.  Rajendralala 
Mitra)  makes  Siva  address  his  own  wife  thus  : — ^  O  sweet- 
speaking  goddess,  the  salvation  of  Brahmans  depends  on 
drinking  wine.  I  impart  to  you  a  great  truth,  O  mountain- 
born,  when  I  say  that  the  Brahman  who  devotes  himself  to 
drinking  and  its  accompaniments,  forthwith  becomes  a  Siva. 
Even  as  water  mixes  with  water,  and  metal  blends  with 
metal ;  even  as  the  confined  space  in  a  pitcher  merges  into 
the  great  body  of  surrounding  space  on  the  destruction  of  the 
confining  vessel,  and  air  mingles  with  air,  so  does  a  Brahman 
melt  into  Brahma,  the  universal  Soul. 

'  There  is  not  the  least  doubt  about  this.  Likeness  to 
the  divinity  and  other  forms  of  beatitude  are  designed  for 
t  Kshatriyas  and  others ;  but  true  knowledge  can  never  be 
acquired  without  drinking  spirituous  liquor  ;  therefore  should 
Brahmans  always  drink.  No  one  becomes  a  Brahman  by 
repeating  the  Gayatri,  the  mother  of  the  Vedas ;  he  is  called 

O 


194  Saktism,  or  Goddess-worship., 

a  Brahman  only  when  he  has  knowledge  of  Brahma.  The 
ambrosia  of  the  gods  is  their  Brahma,  and  on  earth  it  is 
arrack  (or  liquor  distilled  from  rice) ;  and  because  one  attains 
through  it  the  condition  of  a  god  (suratva),  therefore  is  that 
liquor  called  sura.' 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  in  Bengal  some  respect- 
able mothers  of  families,  who  believe  the  above  passage 
to  be  a  direct  revelation  from  Siva  and  who  would  not  dream 
of  drinking  spirits  for  their  own  gratification,  never  say  their 
prayers  without  touching  their  tongues  with  a  pointed  instru- 
ment dipped  in  arrack,  and  never  offer  flowers  to  their  god 
without  sprinkling  them  with  a  few  drops  of  that  liquor. 

In  short,  the  drinking  of  spirituous  liquor  is  as  much  an 
essential  part  of  the  Sakta  ceremonial  as  the  drinking  of  Soma 
juice  was  of  the  Vedic  sacrifices,  and  the  drinking  of  arrack 
(sura)  was  of  the  Sautramani  and  Vajapeya  and  other  sacri- 
ficial rites.  Indeed  these  ancient  rites  are  appealed  to  in 
the  Tantras  as  a  justification  for  the  Sakta  practice. 

Nor  can  there  be  any  doubt  that  at  one  time  the  drinking 
of  wine  and  spirituous  liquors  was  prevalent  all  over  India^. 

^  This  is  well  shown  by  Rajendralala  Mitra  in  one  of  his  Essays  on  the 
Indo-Aryans.  The  reason  given  for  the  cessation  of  the  custom  of  wine- 
drinking  among  the  Hindus  is  that  wine  and  spirituous  liquors  were  on 
two  particular  occasions  cursed  by  the  gods  Sukra  and  Krishna.  The 
cause  of  Sukra's  curse  is  related  in  the  First  Book  of  the  Mahabharata 
(ch.  76).  It  appears  that  Kac^a,  son  of  Vrihaspati,  had  become  a  pupil  of 
Sukra  Acarya  with  a  view  to  learn  from  him  the  charm  (mantra)  for 
restoring  dead  men  to  life,  which  none  else  knew.  The  Asuras  came  to 
know  of  this,  and,  dreading  lest  the  pupil  should  obtain,  and  afterwards 
impart,  the  great  secret  to  the  Devas,  assassinated  him,  and  mixed  his 
ashes  with  the  wine  drunk  by  his  tutor,  thus  transferring  him  to  the  bowels 
of  Sukra  Acarya.  It  happened,  however,  that  during  his  pupilage  Kaca 
had  won  the  affection  of  Deva-yanI,  the  youthful  and  charming  daughter 
of  Sukra  Acarya,  and  that  lady  insisted  upon  her  father's  restoring  the 
youth  to  her,  threatening  to  commit  suicide  if  the  request  was  not  granted. 
Sukra,  unable  to  deny  any  favour  to  his  daughter,  repeated  the  charm, 
and  forthwith,  to  his  surprise,  found  the  youth  speaking  from  his  own 
stomach.  The  difficulty  was  now  to  bring  the  youth  out,  for  this  could 
not  be  accomplished  without  ripping  open  his  tutor's  abdomen.     Sukra 


Sdktism,  or  Goddess-worship,  195 

Some  of  the  gods  were  supposed  to  set  the  example — notably 
Siva  ^  with  his  wife  Durga,  and  Balarama  elder  brother  of 
Krishna  with  his  wife  RevatI — and  we  find  that  one  of  the 
products  of  the  ocean  when  churned  by  the  gods  and  demons 
was  Sura,  or  spirit  distilled  from  rice,  and  that  one  of  the 
seven  seas  encircling  the  earth  was  believed  to  be  composed 
entirely  of  that  liquor  ^.  Drunkenness  in  fact  became  such 
an  evil  that  to  remedy  it  a  kind  of  temperance  movement 
appears  to  have  been  eventually  organized,  leading  to  a 
complete  reaction  to  the  other  extreme  of  total  abstinence. 
Hence  we  find  that  in  Manu's  time  the  penalty  for  drinking 
spirits  was  to  commit  suicide  by  drinking  them  when  in  a 
boiling  state  (XL  91). 

In  the  same  way  the  eating  of  meat  was  once  universal  in 
India  ;  cows  were  sacrificed  ^  and  the  flesh  eaten,  especially  at 
Sraddhas,  where  the  aroma  of  beef  was  thought  to  be  an 
excellent  aliment  for  the  spirits  of  the  dead.  Manu  allows 
all  sorts  of  animal  food  to  be  eaten,  provided  that  small 
portions  are  first  offered   to  the  gods  and  to  the  spirits  of 

A(^arya  thereupon  taught  the  youth  the  great  charm,  and  then  allowed 
himself  to  be  ripped  open,  and  Kaca,  in  grateful  acknowledgment  for  his 
own  restoration  to  life,  immediately  repeated  the  Mantra  and  resuscitated 
his  tutor.  But  Sukra  Acarya,  seeing  that  it  was  spirituous  liquor  which 
had  made  him  swallow  the  ashes  of  his  pupil,  and  that  pupil  a  Brahman, 
prohibited  for  ever  afterwards  the  use  of  any  kind  of  strong  drink  by 
Brahmans.  '  From  this  day  forward,'  said  he,  '  the  Brahman,  who, 
through  infatuation,  drinks  arrack  (sura)  shall  lose  all  his  religious  merit. 
The  wretch  shall  be  considered  guilty  of  the  sin  of  killing  Brahmans,  and 
be  condemned  in  this  as  well  as  in  a  future  world.' 

With  regard  to  the  curse  pronounced  by  Krishna  on  all  spirituous  liquor, 
the  reason  assigned  for  it  is  that  his  kinsmen  the  Yadavas  had  brought 
great  trouble  on  themselves  by  their  potations. 

^  It  is  said  that  even  in  the  present  day  it  is  not  uncommon  for  the  ad- 
herents of  the  Sakta  sect  to  sprinkle  spirituous  liquor  instead  of  water  on 
the  lihga  of  Siva. 

^  See  Vishnu-purana. 

^  The  Taittirlya-brahmana  mentions  various  ceremonies  at  which 
cattle  had  to  be  sacrificed.  All  this  is  well  shown  by  Dr.  Rajendralala 
Mitra. 

O  2 


196  Saktism,  or  Goddess-worship. 

departed  ancestors  (V.  32) ;  and  Valmiki,  when  he  entertained 
Vasishtha  at  his  hermitage  (as  described  in  the  Uttara-Rama- 
caritra),  regaled  him  with  the  '  fatted  calf.'  The  Saktas, 
therefore,  have  good  ground  for  asserting  that,  in  drinking 
wine  and  eating  meat,  they  are  merely  reverting  to  the  prac- 
tice of  their  ancestors.  Yet  it  is  curious  that  they  think  it 
necessary  to  go  through  the  form  of  neutralizing  the  curse 
of  the  great  Sukra  Acarya  (see  note,  p.  194)  before  beginning 
their  potations.  This  they  do  by  repeating  three  particular 
Mantras  and  certain  magical  formulae,  after  drawing  a  triangle 
on  the  ground  with  the  finger  dipped  in  spirituous  liquor. 

The  fifth  act  of  the  Sakta  ceremonial — the  union  of  the 
actual  man  and  woman — is  held  to  be  the  most  important  of 
all.  In  the  minds  of  some  it  is  supposed  to  symbolize  a  great 
cosmical  mystery — the  production  of  the  universe  through 
the  union  of  Purusha  and  Prakriti  (see  pp.  30,  31) — a  mystery 
constantly  kept  before  the  mind  by  the  worship  of  the  two 
stone  symbols  Liiiga  and  Yoni. 

'  The  only  salvation,'  says  a  Tantra,  '  is  that  which  results 
from  spirituous  liquors,  meat,  and  cohabitation  with  women.' 

The  holy  circle  (sri-cakra)  or  meeting  of  the  members  of  the 
sect  on  solemn  occasions  (represented  by  a  mystical  diagram) 
is  said  to  be  '  the  door  to  the  highest  form  of  salvation — com- 
plete union  with  the  Supreme  Being  (sayujya-mukti,  p.  41).' 

These  circles  are  of  different  kinds  according  to  the  differ- 
ence in  the  rank,  character,  and  occupation  of  the  women 
(saktis)  present  at  them.  Thus  there  is  the  VTra-(^akra ;  then 
the  Maha-cakra,  the  Deva-dakra,  the  Raja-cakra,  etc. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  all  the  five  acts  we  have 
described  do  not  necessarily  take  place  at  every  meeting. 

Moreover,  besides  the  five  so-called  ceremonial  acts  per- 
formed by  Saktas  at  their  secret  meetings,  there  are  six  other 
methods  of  propitiating  the  goddess  with  a  view  to  acquire 
superhuman  powers  (siddhi) — namely,  by  the  use  of  Mantras, 
Bijas  (or  Vljas),  Yantras,  Kavacas,  Nyasas,  Mudras. 


Mantras  and  Bijas,  197 

The  subject  of  the  employment  of  Mantras  or  sacred  texts, 
their  use,  misuse,  and  prostitution  to  the  worst  purposes,  is  one 
of  the  greatest  interest  and  importance  in  its  bearing  on  the 
past  and  present  rehgious  condition  of  the  Hindus. 

A  Mantra,  as  most  persons  know,  is  properly  a  divinely 
inspired  Vedic  text,  but  with  the  Saktas,  and  indeed  with  the 
great  mass  of  the  Hindus  in  the  present  day,  it  loses  this 
character  and  becomes  a  mere  spell  or  charm.  Even  though 
the  text  be  taken  from  the  Rig,  Yajur  or  Atharva-veda  (p.  8), 
and  be  generally  employed  as  a  prayer  or  invocation  with 
a  definite  meaning  and  application  attached  to  the  words, 
it  becomes  with  the  Saktas  a  mere  collection  of  magical 
letters  and  sounds,  which,  if  properly  uttered  and  repeated 
according  to  prescribed  formularies,  possesses  in  itself  a 
mystical  power  capable  of  causing  every  conceivable  good 
to  one's  self  or  evil  to  one's  enemies. 

The  Bijas,  again,  are  mystical  letters  or  syllables  invented 
for  the  sake  of  brevity  to  denote  the  root  (mula)  or  essential 
part  of  such  Mantras,  or  the  name  of  the  deity  to  whom  it 
may  be  addressed,  or  some  part  of  the  body  over  which  that 
deity  presides.  For  example  : — Am  is  said  to  denote  Siva, 
U  Vishnu,  Hrim  the  sun,  Lam  the  earth.  Nam  the  mind, 
Dham  both  the  goddess  Bhuvanesvarl  and  the  tongue.  Nam 
both  the  goddess  Anna-purna  and  the  nose,  Pam  the  ear,  etc. 

Perhaps  the  following  abridgment  of  a  passage  from  a  little 
work  by  Pratapa-dandra  Ghosha,  descriptive  of  the  worship  of 
Durga  (Durga-puja)  in  Bengal;,  and  giving  directions  for  the 
performance  of  a  preparatory  rite  called  Bhuta-suddhi, 
'  removal  of  evil  demons,'  will  give  the  best  idea  of  the  uses 
to  which  the  Bljas  are  applied  :  — 

Holding  a  scented  flower,  anointed  with  sandal,  on  the  left  temple, 
repeat  07n  to  the  Gurus,  Orn  to  Ganesa,  Oni  to  Durga.  Then  with  Om 
phat  rub  the  palms  with  flowers,  and  clasp  the  hands  thrice  over  the  head, 
and  by  snapping  the  fingers  towards  ten  different  directions,  secure  im- 
munity from  the  evil  spirits.  Next  utter  the  Mantra  Rani^  sprinkle  water 
all  around,  and  imagine  this  water  as  a  wall  of  fire.    Let  the  priest  identify 


198  Mantras  and  Bijas. 

himself  with  the  living  spirit  (jivatman)  abiding  in  man's  breast,  in  the 
form  of  the  tapering  flame  of  a  lamp,  and  conduct  it  by  means  of  the 
Sushumna  nerve  through  the  six  spheres  within  the  body  upwards  to  the 
Divine  Spirit.  Then  meditate  on  the  twenty-four  essences  in  nature  ; 
viz.  the  Producer,  Intellect,  Egoism,  the  five  subtle  and  five  gross  ele- 
ments, the  five  external  organs  of  sense,  the  five  organs  of  action,  with 
mind.  Conceive  in  the  left  nostril  the  Mantra  Yam,  declared  to  be 
the  Bija  or  root  of  wind  ;  repeat  it  sixteen  times  while  drawing  air  by 
the  same  nostril  ;  then  close  the  nose  and  hold  the  breath,  and  repeat  the 
Mantra  sixty-four  times. 

Then  meditate  on  the  Matrika,  and  say, '  Help  me,  goddess  of  speech  : ' 
Am  to  the  forehead.  Am  to  the  mouth,  Im  to  the  right  eye,  Im  to  the 
left  eye,  Utn  to  the  right  ear,  Um  to  the  left  ear,  l7?t  to  the  right  cheek,  hn 
to  the  left  cheek.  Rim  to  the  right  nostril,  Rmi  to  the  left  nostril,  Lrim  to 
the  right  cheek,  Lrlm  to  the  left  cheek,  Eju  to  the  upper  lip,  Aim  to  the 
lower  lip,  Om  to  the  upper  teeth,  Atim  to  the  lower  teeth.  Tarn,  Tham, 
Da7n,  Dham,  and  Nam  to  the  several  parts  of  the  left  leg,  Pa7n  to  the 
right  side,  Phain  to  the  left.  Bam  to  the  back,  Mam  to  the  stomach,  Yam 
to  the  heart,  Ram  to  the  right  shoulder,  Latn  to  the  neck-bone,  Vam  to 
the  left  shoulder,  Sa?n  from  the  heart  to  the  right  leg.  Ham  from  the 
heart  to  the  left  leg,  Ksham  from  the  heart  to  the  mouth. 

To  US  it  may  seem  extraordinary  that  intelligent  persons 
can  give  credence  to  such  absurdities,  or  lend  themselves  to 
the  practice  of  superstitions  so  senseless ;  but  we  must  bear 
in  mind  that  with  many  Hindia  thinkers  the  notion  of  the 
eternity  of  sound — as  propounded  in  Patanjali's  Mahabhashya 
(I.  I.  i)  and  in  the  Purva-mlmansa  of  Jaimini — is  by  no 
means  an  irrational  doctrine.  According  to  the  well-known 
Mimansa  aphorisms  (I.  i.  18-23),  sound  is  held  to  have 
existed  from  the  beginning.  Hence  the  letters  of  the  alphabet, 
being  the  ultimate  instruments  by  which  sounds  are  uttered 
and  thoughts  expressed,  are  considered  to  possess  supernatural 
qualities  and  attributes  and  to  contain  within  themselves  an 
occult  magical  efficacy. 

Let  a  man  only  acquaint  himself  with  the  proper  pronun- 
ciation and  application  both  of  the  Mantras  and  of  their  Bijas 
or  radical  letters,  and  he  may  thereby  propitiate  the  Saktis  so 
as  to  acquire  through  them  superhuman  power  (siddhi) — nay, 
he  becomes,  through  their  aid,  competent  to  accomplish  every 
conceivable  object. 


Mantras  and  Bijas,  199 

At  the  same  time  it  is  to  be  observed  that  for  any  ordinary- 
man  to  make  himself  conversant  with  the  Mantras  is  no  easy 
task ;  if  at  least  we  are  to  believe  a  statement  in  the  Tantras 
that  the  primary  Mantras  are  seventy  millions  ^  in  number, 
while  the  secondary  are  innumerable. 

This,  no  doubt,  is  an  absurd  exaggeration ;  but  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  only  a  certain  number  are  regarded  as 
efficacious,  and  that  in  the  present  day  there  are  Brahmans 
called  Mantra-sastris  who  make  a  knowledge  of  these  Mantras 
their  peculiar  business,  learning  them  by  heart  with  the  sole 
object  of  using  them  as  spells  and  charms.  Only  a  few,  how- 
ever, are  believed  to  have  acquired  perfect  mastery  over  the 
most  powerful  Mantras,  which  must  be  pronounced  according 
to  certain  mystic  forms  and  with  absolute  accuracy,  or  their 
efficacy  is  destroyed.  Indeed,  this  kind  of  craft,  though 
supposed  to  endow  the  possessor  of  it  with  very  enviable 
omnipotence,  is  not  unattended  with  unpleasant  risks  and 
drawbacks  ;  for  if  in  the  repetition  of  a  Mantra  the  slightest 
mistake  is  made,  either  by  omission  of  a  syllable  or  de- 
fective pronunciation,  the  calamity  which  it  was  intended  to 
bring  down  on  an  enemy  will  inevitably  recoil  on  the  head  of 
the  repeater.  Then,  again,  there  are  various  methods  of  ob- 
structing or  neutralizing  the  effect  of  Mantras  used  by  Mantra- 
sastris  for  the  destruction  or  humiliation  of  others.  The 
difficulty,  of  course,  is  to  find  out  the  exact  Mantra  which  is 
being  employed  for  one's  injury;  but,  having  done  so,  every 
such  Mantra  is  rendered  powerless  by  uttering  it  with  one's 
face  bending  over  a  vessel  full  of  milk  and  then  swallowing 
the  milk,  or  by  writing  it  on  the  leaf  of  a  banian  tree  and 
throwing  the  leaf  into  a  river  ^. 

It  must  be  noted,  too,  that  Mantras  are  not  always  repeated 
without  a  knowledge  of  their  meaning,  though  the  meaning  is 

^  The  same  number  is  given  in  the  Saiva-darsana  of  Madhava's  Sarva- 
darsana-sangraha. 

^  Full  directions  are  given  in  the  Tantra-sara. 


200  Mantras  and  Bijas, 

of  little  importance  compared  with  the  magical  force  of  the 
letter  and  sound.  Their  efficacy  also  is  greatly  increased  if 
they  are  employed  on  lucky  days  or  at  particular  times  and 
seasons.  One  Tantra  teaches  that  Mantras  should  be  repeated 
in  the  month  Caitra  to  give  valour  ;  in  Vaisakha  to  obtain 
jewels  ;  in  Magha  for  intelligence ;  on  Sundays  for  wealth  ; 
on  Mondays  for  tranquillity;  on  Tuesdays  for  long  life,  and 
so  on.  The  intercalary  month  ought  always  to  be  avoided  ^ 
A  few  translations  of  common  Mantras  ^  are  here  given  : — 

'  Cause  stupefaction  (stambhana)  of  the  enemy,  paralyze  his 
mouth  and  tongue  ;  confuse  his  senses,  arrest  his  speech.' 

'  Om — reverence  to  the  Lord — svaha.  Let  everything  be 
auspicious ;  let  everything  opposed  to  me  perish ;  let  every- 
thing be  favourable.' 

'  Let  Brahmani,  Mahesvari,  Kaumari,  Indranl,  (Tamunda, 
Varahi,  and  Vaishnavi  protect  my  head,  mouth,  neck,  hands, 
heart,  waist  and  feet,  together  with  my  whole  body;  protect 
me,  O  great  goddess,  Bhadra-Kali.'  This  Mantra  is  worn  as 
a  kavaca  or  amulet ;  see  p.  204. 

'  I  invoke  BhavanI,  accompanied  by  her  husband,  attended 
by  her  subordinates,  by  her  retinue,  by  her  power  (sa-saktika), 
by  her  vehicle,  by  her  weapons,  and  by  all  defensive  things.' 

'  Salutation  to  the  god  of  love  (Kama-deva)  with  his  five 
arrows  : — the  arrow  that  puts  to  flight  (dravana-bana)  ;  the 
arrow  that  enchants  (sammohana) ;  the  arrow  that  fascinates 
(vasikarana) ;  the  love-kindling  arrow  (sandlpana) ;  the  love- 
inflaming  arrow  (santapana).' 

The  Gayatrl  or  holiest  text  of  the  Rig-veda  (see  p.  19)  is  of 
course  the  most  potent  of  all  Mantras.  It  is  not  surprising, 
therefore,  that  many  Mantras  employed  by  the  Saktas  are 
composed  after  the  model  of  that  text.  The  following  are 
translations  of  Gayatrl  Mantras  : — 

^  The  Tantra-sara  gives  full  directions  on  this  subject. 
'^  The  original  Sanskrit  text  of  these,  as  of  all  the  extracts  from  the 
Tantras,  will  be  found  in  Gopal  Hari  Deshmukh's  Agama-prakasa. 


Mantras  and  Bijas.  201 

'  We  meditate  on  that  being  who  has  ashes  for  weapons ; 
we  think  of  that  being  who  possesses  sharp  teeth ;  let 
our  fever  (jvara)  incite  him.'  This  is  called  the  fever- 
gayatrl. 

'  We  meditate  on  the  goddess  of  nectar ;  we  think  of  the 
goddess  of  love  (Kamesvari) ;  let  our  affection  incite  him.' 
This  is  called  the  nectar-gayatrl. 

'  We  meditate  on  the  lord  of  water  (Jalesvara) ;  we  think 
of  the  fish-net ;  let  the  fish  (mina)  incite  him.''  This  is  called 
the  fish-gayatrl. 

'  We  meditate  on  that  being  who  has  a  snare  for  snaring 
animals ;  we  think  of  the  act  of  cutting  off  the  victim's  head 
(Siras-cheda) ;  let  our  offering  (bali)  incite  him.'  This  is  called 
the  bali-gayatrl. 

No  magician,  wizard,  sorcerer  or  witch  whose  feats  are  re- 
corded in  history,  biography,  or  fable,  has  ever  pretended  to 
be  able  to  accomplish  by  incantation  and  enchantment  half  of 
what  the  Mantra-sastrl  claims  to  have  power  to  effect  by  help 
of  his  Mantras.  For  example,  he  can  prognosticate  futurity, 
work  the  most  startling  prodigies,  infuse  breath  into  dead 
bodies,  kill  or  humiliate  enemies,  afflict  any  one  anywhere 
with  disease  or  madness,  inspire  any  one  with  love,  charm 
weapons  and  give  them  unerring  efficacy  ^,  enchant  armour 
and  make  it  impenetrable,  turn  milk  into  wine,  plants  into 
meat,  or  invert  all  such  processes  at  will.  He  is  even  superior 
to  the  gods,  and  can  make  gods,  goddesses,  imps  and  demons 
carry  out  his  most  trifling  behests.  Hence  it  is  not  surprising 
that  the  following  remarkable  saying  is  everywhere  current 
throughout  India : — 

'  The  whole  universe  is  subject  to  the  gods ;  the  gods  are 


^  Warlike  weapons  when  thus  charmed  were  supposed  to  possess  super- 
natural powers,  and  to  assume  a  kind  of  divine  personality  like  the  genii 
of  the  Arabian  Nights.  Certain  spells  had  to  be  learnt  for  their  restraint 
as  well  as  for  their  use.  When  once  let  loose,  he  only  who  knew  the  secret 
Mantra  for  recalling  them  could  bring  them  back. 


202  Mantras  and  Bijas, 

subject  to  the  Mantras  ;  the  Mantras  to  the  Brahmans ;  there- 
fore the  Brahmans  are  our  gods  ^.' 

Often  these  Mantra-sastrls  are  mere  fortune-tellers. 

I  may  mention  as  an  illustration  that  a  Sakta  Brahman  of 
this  type  came  to  see  me  one  day  at  Patna.  He  asked  to 
look  at  my  hand,  and,  after  examining  it  for  a  minute,  prophe- 
sied that  my  stay  in  India  would  be  happy  and  prosperous, 
except  that  on  that  day  fortnight  I  should  meet  with  a  great 
disappointment.  I  smiled  at  the  absurdity  of  his  attempting 
to  forecast  my  future  biography,  but  it  is  certain  that  I  only 
met  with  one  unexpected  and  most  mortifying  contretemps 
from  the  day  of  my  departure  from  England  to  the  day  of  my 
return,  and  that  happened  on  the  very  day  predicted.  It  must 
at  least  be  acknowledged  that  the  coincidence  was  remarkable. 

I  may  also  give  an  outline  of  a  story  told  to  me  by  a 
Maratha  Pandit,  which  well  illustrates  the  sort  of  use  these 
Mantra-sastrls  are  supposed  to  make  of  their  magical  powers. 
A  certain  Sakta  Brahman,  named  Bhaskaracarya,  well-versed 
in  the  Mantras,  expected  to  be  asked  to  a  dinner-party  given 
by  a  wealthy  friend,  but  received  no  invitation.  This  so  irri- 
tated the  Brahman  that  he  determined  to  revenge  himself  on 
the  householder  who  had  ventured  so  imprudently  to  slight 
him.  Having  waited  till  the  moment  when  the  assembled 
guests,  with  appetites  stimulated  by  the  fragrance  of  an  array 
of  choice  dishes,  were  about  to  feast  on  the  delicacies  prepared 
for  their  consumption,  he  quietly  in  his  own  house  selected  a 
particular  Mantra,  and  by  simply  repeating  it  turned  all  the 
viands  into  foul  and  fetid  excrementitious  matter.  The  story 
goes  on  to  relate  how  the  householder,  suspecting  the  cause  of 
this  disastrous  metamorphose,  sent  a  messenger  in  hot  haste  to 
implore  the  immediate  presence  of  the  offended  Brahman, 

^  The  Sanskrit  version  of  this  saying  is  given  incorrectly  by  Dubois 
(P-  n)'  I  have  heard  it  variously  rendered.  Perhaps  the  following  is  the 
most  usual  : — Devadhinam  Jagatsarvam  Mantradhlnas-ca  Devatah  Man- 
tras-ca  Brahmanadhlna  Brahmana  mama  Devatati.  . 

•  •  • 


Yantras,  or  mystic  diagrams.  203 

who  thereupon  becoming  mollified,  obligingly  consented  to 
repeat  another  Mantra  which  reconverted  all  the  filth  into  the 
most  delicious  ambrosial  food. 

We  now  pass  on  to  the  Yantras.  These  are  mystical  dia- 
grams drawn  on  metallic  tablets,  often  of  copper — generally 
combinations  of  triangular  figures  like  the  inverted  triangles 
of  the  Freemasons — supposed  to  possess  occult  powers. 

Each  of  the  goddesses  worshipped  by  the  Saktas  has  a 
Yantra  assigned  to  her,  which  is  sometimes  placed  in  the 
centre  of  a  lotus-diagram,  the  Blja  belonging  to  the  goddess 
being  also  inscribed  a  certain  number  of  times  on  each  petal. 

The  SrI-dakra  or  holy  circle  is  delineated  in  a  diagram  of 
this  kind  and  then  worshipped.  It  is  supposed  to  represent  the 
orb  of  the  earth,  nine  triangles  being  drawn  within  the  circle 
to  denote  the  nine  continents.  In  the  centre  is  the  drawing 
of  a  mouth,  which  is  believed  to  typify  the  female  energy 
(Sakti)  presiding  over  the  circle.  According  to  some  authori- 
ties, even  the  orthodox  Sahkaracarya  must  have  been  a  Sakti- 
worshipper  ;  for  he  is  known  to  have  placed  a  representation  of 
the  SrI-cakra  in  each  of  the  four  monasteries  founded  by  him. 

These  Yantras  or  mystic  diagrams  are  thought  to  be  quite 
as  effective  in  their  operation  as  the  Mantras,  and  of  course 
a  combination  of  both  is  held  to  be  absolutely  irresistible. 
An  enemy  may  be  killed  or  removed  to  some  other  place, 
or  a  whole  army  destroyed,  or  salvation  and  supreme  felicity 
in  a  future  state  obtained  by  drawing  a  six-sided  or  eight- 
sided  diagram  and  writing  a  particular  Mantra  underneath. 
If  this  be  done  with  the  blood  of  an  animaP  killed  sacrificially 
in  a  place  where  corpses  are  burned  (Smasana),  no  power  in 
earth  or  heaven  can  resist  the  terrific  potency  of  the  charm. 
Triangular,  pentangular,  and  nine-triangled  Yantras  are 
equally  efficacious. 

^  It  may  give  an  idea  of  the  depths  of  superstition  and  degradation  to 
which  Saktism  can  lead  if  we  note  here  that  the  Retas  (semen)  of  either 
male  or  female  is  believed  to  be  still  more  efficacious. 


204  Kavacas,  Nyasas,  and  Mudras. 

Let  us  pass  to  a  brief  explanation  of  the  Kavacas.  I  need  not 
tell  Sanskrit  scholars  that  the  word  kavaca  properly  means  a 
kind  of  cuirass,  breast-plate,  or  similar  armour  worn  as  a  de- 
fence in  battle.  With  the  Saktas  a  kavaca  is  an  amulet  or 
talisman  worn  as  a  preservative  against  evil  influences,  or  to 
bring  about  the  attainment  of  some  desired  object.  It  may 
consist  of  a  stone,  piece  of  paper,  metal,  leaf  or  other  material 
on  which  Mantras,  Yantras,  mystical  words  and  formulae  of 
various  kinds  are  inscribed.  It  is  then  worn  on  the  neck, 
breast,  arms,  or  loins,  especially  in  times  of  pestilence  and 
sickness.  Women  often  wear  kavacas  with  the  object  of 
propitiating  the  goddess,  and  so  inducing  a  condition  of  body 
favourable  to  the  production  of  male  offspring. 

The  term  kavaca  is  also  applied  to  whole  hymns  when 
they  are  used  as  charms. 

As  to  the  Nyasas,  these  consist  in  mentally  assigning 
various  parts  of  the  body  to  the  protection  of  tutelary  pre- 
siding deities,  with  imposition  of  the  hand  or  fingers,  and 
repetition  of  texts,  mystical  words,  and  syllables. 

The  Mudras,  on  the  other  hand,  are  intertwinings  of  the 
fingers  supposed  to  possess  an  occult  meaning  and  to  have 
extraordinary  efficacy.  Their  use  as  well  as  that  of  the 
Nyasas  will  be  more  fully  explained  in  treating  of  the  morn- 
ing and  evening  religious  services  called  Sandhya. 

It  may  be  noted  here  that  four  days,  or  rather  nights,  are 
kept  as  principal  festivals  by  the  left-hand  worshippers : — 
namely,  (i)  the  night  of  the  Krishna-janmashtami  (see  note  2, 
p.  113),  called  the  Kala-ratri ;  (2)  the  Moha-ratri,  or  Kali- 
caturdasl,  kept  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  second  half  of 
Asvina ;  (3)  the  Siva-ratri  or  Maha-ratri,  kept  on  the  four- 
teenth of  the  dark  half  of  Magha ;  (4)  the  Daruni  Ratrih, 
kept  on  the  day  before  the  Holl  festival,  which  is  on  the 
fifteenth  day  of  the  first  half  of  Phalguna.  But  besides 
these  four  festivals,  nine  nights  in  each  of  the  months  Asvina, 
Caitra,    Pausha,   and    Ashadha    are    also   observed    as    holy 


The   Tantras,  205 

nights.  It  is  declared  that  ceremonies  performed  on  any 
of  these  nights  must  of  necessity  confer  superhuman  power 
(siddhi). 

Before  concluding  this  part  of  our  subject,  it  may  be  well 
to  note  a  few  more  particulars  in  regard  to  the  works  we  have 
so  often  quoted  as  the  chief  authority  for  the  doctrines  and 
practices  of  the  Saktas. 

The  Tantras,  I  repeat,  are  the  bible  of  Saktism.     Like  the 
Puranas,  they  are  sometimes  called  a  fifth  Veda.     Very  com- 
monly, too,  the  name  Agama,  '  that  which  has  come  down ' 
(also  applied  to  the  Brahmana  portion  of  the  Veda),  is  given  to 
them  in  contradistinction  to  Nigama,  which  is  a  general  name 
for  the   \ipdas,    Dharma-sastras,    Puranas,  and  other  Smriti 
works.    Sometimes  the  authorship  of  the  Tantras  is  attributed 
to  Dattatreya,  who  is  worshipped  as  an  incarnation  of  Brahma, 
Vishnu,  and  Siva  (p.  267),  but  the  general  opinion  is  that  they 
were  revealed  by  Siva  alone.     None  of  them  have  as  yet  been 
printed  or  translated  in  Europe.     They  are  said  to  be  sixty- 
four  in  number,  without  counting  a  large  collection  of  works  of 
a  Tantrik  character  and  Sakta  tendency.     As  a  general  rule 
they  are  written  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue  between  the  god  Siva 
and  his  wife ;  and  every  Tantra  ought,  like  a  Purana,  to  treat 
of  five  subjects — the  creation,  the  destruction  of  the  world,  the 
worship  of  the  gods,  the  attainment  of  superhuman  power,  and 
the  four  modes  of  union  with  the  Supreme  Spirit  (given  at 
p.  41),  to  which  is  sometimes  added  a  fifth,  Sarshti, '  attaining  to 
the  same  rank  as  that  of  the  Deity.'     In  some  of  the  Tantras 
it  is  stated  that  five  Amnayas  or  sacred  systems  of  teaching 
have  been  handed    down    from    primeval   times,  one  having 
issued  from  each  of  Siva's  five  mouths.     As  a  matter  of  fact 
very  few  conform  to  any  systematic  arrangement.     Those  I 
have  examined  seem  to  be  mere  hand-books  for  the  practices 
I  have  attempted  to  describe,  which  to  Europeans  appear  so 
monstrous   that  the  possibility  of  any  persons   believing  in 
their  efficacy  seems  in  itself  almost  incredible. 


2o6  The   Tantras. 

Whole  Tantras  teach  nothing  but  various  methods  of 
making  use  of  spells  for  acquiring  magical  power. 

Some  give  collections  of  charms  for  making  people  enamoured, 
for  destroying  enemies  and  rivals,  for  producing  or  prevent- 
ing diseases,  for  curing  blindness,  for  injuring  crops.  Others 
simply  describe  the  most  effectual  modes  of  worshipping  the 
Saktis,  Maha-vidyas,  Matris.  YoginTs,  Vatukas,  or  by  whatever 
name  the  innumerable  manifestations  of  Siva  and  his  wife 
may  be  called.  Others  confine  themselves  to  an  explanation 
of  the  Yantras,  Bijas,  and  Mudras  (intertwining  of  the  fingers) 
belonging  to  each  manifestation,  the  places  suited  for  the 
worship  of  each,  the  names  of  trees  and  plants  sacred  to  each, 
or  permeated  by  each,  and  the  days  of  the  year  allotted  to 
each.  Some  few  touch  on  nearly  every  conceivable  topic  of 
human  knowledge,  and  contain  here  and  there  really  interest- 
ing matter. 

Even  alchemy  comes  in  for  a  share  of  attention ;  but  the 
Sakta  idea  of  this  pretended  science  (Rasayana^,  Rasesvara- 
vidya)  is  that  its  only  use  is  to  enable  the  devotee  to  trans- 
mute the  decaying  particles  of  his  body  into  an  incorruptible 
substance  by  means  of  elixirs  compounded  of  mercury  and 
mica,  supposed  to  consist  of  the  essences  of  Siva  and  his  wife 
Gaurl  respectively.  After  long  persistence  in  the  practice  of 
swallowincr  these  elixirs  the  candidate  for  beatitude  becomes 

o 

immortal,  and  not  merely  united  with  Siva  but  identified 
with  him.  This  kind  of  transformation  is  called  Jivan- 
mukti,  '  salvation  during  life  ^.' 

So  little  is  known  about  the  composition  of  the  Tantras 
that  it  is  not  possible  to  decide  at  present  as  to  which  are  the 
most  ancient,  and  still  less  as  to  the  date  to  be  assigned  to 


^  One  of  the  systems  described  by  Madhava  in  his  Sarva-darsana- 
sangraha  is  called  the  Rasesvara-darsana,  or  the  system  which  teaches  the 
use  of  mercury  or  quicksilver  as  a  means  of  strengthening  the  body  and 
giving  it  divine  stability  capable  of  resisting  death  and  preventing  further 
transmigration.  Mercury  is  said  to  be  named  Para-da  because  it  gives 
par  a  J  or  the  farther  shore  of  Metempsychosis. 


The   Tantras.  207 

any  of  them.  They  are  all  said  to  be  founded  on  the  Kaulo- 
panishad.  It  may,  however,  be  taken  for  granted  that  the 
extant  treaties  are,  like  the  extant  Puranas,  based  on  older 
works ;  and  if  the  oldest  known  Purana  is  not  older  than  the 
sixth  or  seventh  century,  an  earlier  date  can  scarcely  be 
attributed  to  the  oldest  known  Tantra.  Perhaps  the  Rudra- 
yamala  is  one  of  the  most  deservedly  esteemed  and  most 
encyclopedic  in  its  teaching^.  Others  are  the  Sakti-sahgama, 
Visva-sara,  Maha-nirvana,  Vira,  Kularnava  (a  text-book  of 
the  Kaulas),  Syama-rahasya,  Sarada-tilaka,  Uddlsa,  Kama- 
khya,  Vishnu-yamala. 

Full  as  the  above  works  are  of  doubtful  symbolism,  they 
are  not  all  necessarily  full  of  impure  allusions,  though  the 
teaching  contained  in  the  best  of  them  unquestionably  tends 
towards  licentiousness.  When  they  are  better  known,  their 
connection  with  a  distorted  view  of  the  Sarikhya  philosophy, 
and  with  some  of  the  corrupt  forms  of  Buddhism,  will  pro- 
bably be  made  clearer.  Doubtless  they  have  greatly  in- 
fluenced the  later  Buddhist  literature  of  Nepal,  and  would 
probably  throw  much  light  on  the  magical  hymns  and  spells 
of  the  Atharva-veda. 

There  are  also  works  called  Vaishnava  Tantras,  such  as 
the  Gautamiya  and  the  Sanat-kumara,  but  even  in  these 
Siva  is  the  narrator  and  his  wife  the  supposed  listener. 
Moreover  their  teaching,  which  makes  Radha,  the  wife  of 
Krishna,  take  the  place  of  Durga  as  the  chief  object  of 
adoration,  has  the  same  tendency  as  that  of  the  other  Tantras, 
and  equally  leads  to  licentiousness. 

Happily  the  worst  abominations  of  Saktism  are  gradually 
dying  out  in  British  India ;  and  its  true  character  is  im- 
pressing itself  on  the  convictions  of  the  more  highly  edu- 
cated Hindus. 


I-*  It  is  said  to  consist  of  100,000  verses.     A  section  of  it,  called  Jati- 
mala,  treating  of  caste,  has  been  printed  at  Calcutta. 


2o8  The  Tantras. 

Nor  can  the  power  of  the  Mantra-sastris  stand  against  the 
moral  and  intellectual  revolution  which  is  slowly  but  surely 
upheaving  the  whole  fabric  of  superstition.  That  power  is 
already  much  weakened,  and  the  field  for  its  exercise  among 
a  people,  steeped  for  centuries  in  debasing  and  degrading  re- 
ligious and  social  ideas,  is  daily  becoming  narrower.  Still  in 
most  of  the  native  States,  where  all  the  grosser  forms  of 
Hinduism  are  still  rampant,  the  whole  system  is  as  firmly 
established  as  ever.  Even  those  in  high  positions,  who  have 
no  faith  in  it  themselves^,  find  themselves  unable  to  offend 
the  prejudices  of  their  subordinates  by  venturing  to  engage 
in  any  work  or  perform  the  most  ordinary  act  without  the 
sanction  of  crafty  and  ignorant  Brahmans  claiming  divine 
authority  and  professing  to  work  miracles  through  their 
knowledge  and  application  of  the  Mantras. 

Well  may  the  enlightened  Brahman  before  quoted  (see 
p.  189)  give  expression  to  his  indignation  thus  : — 

'All  sensible  people  ought  to  say  to  the  Mantra-sastris, 
We  have  suffered  much  misery  through  your  deceit,  we  have 
been  taxed  very  heavily  by  you,  and  you  have  involved  us  in 
the  results  of  all  your  wickedness.  It  is  true  your  ancestors 
had  some  knowledge  of  different  sciences  and  imparted  some 
of  that  knowledge  to  us.  In  return  for  these  benefits  we  have 
fed  you  and  supported  you  and  promoted  your  interests. 
When  you  found  your  power  established  over  us  you  aban- 
doned the  duty  of  seeking  after  knowledge,  and  worked  only 
mischief.  Your  teaching  is  now  a  mere  reflection  of  your 
ignorance,  wickedness,  folly,  and  hypocrisy.  You  harass  and 
injure  us  in  a  thousand  ways.  If  our  knowledge  increases, 
you  try  to  prevent  it,  thinking  that,  if  inquiry  is  encouraged, 
your  customers  will  decrease.  We  begin  to  see  through  your 
artifices.  Begone,  every  one  of  you,  and  don't  attempt  to 
deceive  us  any  more.' 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

Tutelary  a^id  Village  Deities. 

It  may  be  said  that  all  deities  ought  to  be  called  tutelary, 
and  no  doubt  the  idea  of  protecting  from  harm  is  essential  to 
the  later  idea  of  a  god.  But  among  rude,  uncultivated  races 
the  first  conception  of  a  god  is  never  that  of  a  beneficent 
saviour.  Primitive  man,  just  emerging  from  the  depths  of  a 
merely  animal  existence,  finds  himself  face  to  face  with 
mighty  mysterious  natural  forces.  He  sees,  feels,  and  dreads 
their  operation.  He  personifies  and  deifies  them,  and  gives 
them  names  expressive  of  the  awe  with  which  their  power  has 
impressed  him,  or  of  his  desire  to  propitiate  them.  It  is  a 
question  whether  any  of  the  primary  names  for  God  in  any 
country  are  significant  of  his  attributes  as  a  Guardian, 
Saviour,  and  Deliverer.  In  India  tutelary  functions  were 
no  doubt  ultimately  associated  with  both  Siva  and  Vishnu, 
but  in  the  case  of  Vishnu  they  were  delegated,  as  we  have 
seen,  to  his  Incarnations  or  descents  on  earth,  and  In  the  case 
of  Siva  to  his  sons  Ganesa  and  Skanda  and  to  his  consort  the 
great  goddess  Devi,  regarded  as  the  mother  of  the  world  and 
worshipped  under  a  great  variety  of  dlfi"erent  names  in 
different  localities.  In  the  South  of  India  another  tutelary 
god  named  Ayenar,  the  reputed  son  of  Vishnu  and  Siva 
(see  p.  218),  is  very  popular  among  the  peasantry. 

Whether  the  worship  of  these  village  deities  (grama- 
devata)   Is  a  mere   offshoot    or    ramification   of   the  reh'glon 

I  of  Siva  and  Vishnu  is  very  doubtful.  It  Is  much  more 
probable  that  the  village  gods  represent  far  earlier  and  more 
primitive  objects  of  worship.  Possibly  they  may  even  be 
! 


2IO  Tutelary  a7id  Village  Deities, 

developments  of  local  fetishes  once  held  in  veneration  by 
uncivilized  aboriginal  tribes  and  afterwards  grafted  into  the 
Hindu  system  by  the  Brahmans,  whose  wise  policy  it  has 
ever  been  to  appropriate  and  utilize  all  existing  cults,  cus- 
toms, and  superstitions.  It  is  certain  that  even  in  the  present 
day  scarcely  a  village,  and  indeed  scarcely  a  household  in 
India,  is  without  its  tutelary  divinity,  usually  represented  by 
some  rudely  carved  image  or  symbol,  located  in  homely 
shrines  or  over  doorways,  or,  it  may  be,  denoted  by  simple 
patches  of  red  paint  on  rocks  or  under  sacred  trees  or  in 
cross-ways,  and  always  taking  the  place  of  the  superior  gods 
in  the  religion  of  the  lower  orders. 

The  question  however  arises  : — In  what  sense  are  these 
homely  village  deities  tutelary?  From  whom  or  what  are 
they  believed  to  protect  ? 

A  Christian,  when  he  prays  for  deliverance  from  evil,  means 
not  only  deliverance  from  a  personal  evil  spirit,  but  from  the 
evil  of  sin  and  from  the  general  evil  existing  in  the  world 
around  him. 

An  ordinary  Hindu  peasant's  religion  consists  mainly  in 
seeking  deliverance  from  the  evil  inflicted  by  demons.  The 
religiously-minded  are  no  doubt  sincere  in  their  desire  to 
be  freed  from  inborn  sin  and  its  effects  through  ceremonial 
washings  and  purificatory  rites  (sanskaras),  but  the  majority 
are  much  more  eager  to  escape  the  calamities  which  may  over- 
take them  through  demoniacal,  planetary,  and  atmospheric 
influences.  In  truth  I  am  convinced  that  those  Europeans 
who  have  lived  in  closest  contact  with  the  Hindi!  mind  will 
bear  me  out  in  my  assertion  that  the  great  majority  of  the 
inhabitants  of  India  are,  from  the  cradle  to  the  burning- 
ground,  victims  of  a  form  of  disease  which  is  best  expressed 
by  the  term  demonophobia.  They  are  haunted  and  oppressed 
by  a  perpetual  dread  of  demons.  They  are  firmly  convinced 
that  evil  spirits  of  all  kinds,  from  malignant  fiends  to  merely 
mischievous  imps  and  elves,  are  ever  on  the  watch  to  harm, 


Worship  of  Ganesa  and  Sii-brahmanya.       2 1 1 

harass  and  torment  them,  to  cause  plague,  sickness,  famine 
and  disaster,  to  impede,  injure  and  mar  every  good  work. 

Hence  a  tutelary  god  among  the  Hindias  is  simply  one 
that  delivers  from  the  calamities,  actual  and  potential,  be- 
lieved to  be  due  to  demons. 


Worship  of  Ganesa  (Ganapati^  and  Su-brahmanya, 

At  the  head  of  tutelary  village  deities  I  place  the  two  sons 
of  Siva: — i.  Ganesa  (p.  59) — also  called  Gana-pati  (commonly 
Gan-pati,  and  in  Southern  India  Puliyar,  'the  son')  ;  i.  Skanda 
— often  called  Karttikeya,  and  still  more  commonly  Su-brah- 
manya.  But  in  so  placing  these  two  gods  I  must  explain 
that  my  investigations  in  India  have  led  me  to  take  a  view  of 
their  character  and  functions  somewhat  different  from  that 
hitherto  propounded  by  European  writers  on  Hindu  Mytho- 
logy. It  is  usual  for  such  writers  to  describe  Ganesa  as  the 
god  of  learning  and  patron  of  letters  ^ ;  whereas  the  whole 
province  of  speech,  language,  and  literature  is  really  placed 
under  the  presidency  of  the  goddess  Sarasvatl^.  The  only 
possible  ground  I  have  been  able  to  discover  for  connecting 
Ganesa  with  the  patronage  of  learning  is  the  circumstance 
that  every  Indian  book  opens  with  the  formula  Sri  Ganesaya 
namah. 

But  the  real  explanation  of  this  is  that  the  writing  of  a 
book  is  among  Hindias  a  very  serious  and  solemn  under- 
taking, peculiarly  liable  to  obstruction  from  spiteful  and 
jealous  spirits  of  evil,  and  the  favour  of  Ganesa  is  invoked 
to  counteract  their  malignity.  It  seldom  occurs  to  an 
ordinary  Hindii  writer  to  suppose  that  the  failure  of  his 
literary  efforts  is  likely  to  be  due  to  his  own  incapacity.     In 

^  I  find  that  even  M.  Barth,  in  his  recent  excellent  work  on  the  religions 
of  India,  falls  into  this  mistake. 

^  Thus  we  find  the  first  verse  of  the  Mahabharata  addresses  homage 
to  Sarasvati,  not  to  Ganesa. 

P  2 


2T2       Worship  of  Gane'sa  and  Su-brahmanya. 

this,  as  In  all  other  enterprises,  want  of  success  is  attributed 
not  to  want  of  skill,  energy,  or  persistency,  but  to  negligence 
in  taking  proper  precautions  against  demoniacal  jealousy  and    I 
obstruction. 

So  far  indeed  is  Ganesa  from  being  the  god  of  learning,  he 
is  peculiarly  the  god    of  the  lower  orders  and  uneducated    A 
classes.     Hence  in  a  verse  said  to  be  extracted  from  the  old 
version  of  Manu  he  is  called  the  god  of  the  Sudras^. 

Again,  it  is  usual  to  describe  Skanda  as  the  god  of  war,  as 
if  he  were  a  kind  of  Hindu  Mars,  whereas  his  martial  quali- 
ties are  only  displayed  in  leading  the  armies  of  the  gods 
ap-ainst  the  countless  host  of  their  enemies  the  evil  demons. 

With  a  view  then  to  a  fuller  explanation  of  the  history  and 
character  of  two  gods  so  generally  honoured  and  propitiated 
throughout  India,  I  must  begin  by  pointing  out  that  the  cultus 
of  both  Ganesa  and  Su-brahmanya  is  a  mere  offshoot  of 
Saivism.  The  very  name  Ganesa  (Gana-isa)  or  Gana-pati, 
meaning  'lord  of  hosts,'  belonged  originally  to  Siva  (see 
p.  77),  for  Siva  is,  as  we  have  seen,  surrounded  by  countless 
troops  or  hosts  (gana)  of  servants  and  officers,  who  are  con- 
stantly in  readiness  to  traverse  earth  and  air  for  the  execu- 
tion of  his  orders. 

And  just  as  Siva  is  ever  engaged  in  two  opposite  duties — 
on  the  one  hand,  as  Rudra  and  Kala,  directing  and  control- 
ling dissolution  and  death,  on  the  other  hand,  as  Siva  and 
Sambhu,  presiding  over  re-integration  and  new  life — so  by  a 
figment  of  mythology,  those  of  his  emissaries  who  are  charged 
with  carrying  out  the  former  operation  are  converted  into  evil 
demons,  imps,  and  devils,  while  those  who  are  agents  in  the 
latter  are  held  to  be  good  angels,  ministering  spirits,  and 
beneficent  genii. 

And  hence  it  is  that  two  entirely  opposite  classes  of  de- 
moniacal beings  are  believed  to  be  continually  roaming  about 

^  The  verse  is — Vipranam  daivatam  Sambhuh  Kshatriyanam  tu  Madha- 
vah  Vaisyanam  tu  bhaved  Brahma  Sudranarn  Gana-nayakah. 


Worship  of  Gaiie'sa  and  Sit-brahmanya.       21 


earth,  air  and  sky — the  one  ill-disposed  towards  all  forms  of 
life,  human  and  divine,  the  other  well-disposed ;  the  one 
destroyers,  the  other  protectors ;  the  one  instruments  of 
calamity  and  disaster,  the  other  agents  of  good-fortune  and 
prosperity. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  too,  that  differences  of  rank^  character, 
and  function  are  supposed  to  separate  both  good  and  bad 
spirits  ^  into  various  subdivisions.  For  example,  the  highest 
order  of  evil  demons,  who  may  be  called  arch-fiends,  disdain 
any  lower  aim  than  the  humiliation  and  subjugation  of  the 
gods ;  and,  to  effect  this,  they  will  sometimes  undergo  long 
courses  of  austerity  and  self-mortification,  in  the  hope  of 
making  themselves  omnipotent.  The  next  in  order  vent 
their  rancour  and  hostility  upon  human  beings.  Of  these, 
again,  some  destroy  life,  some  inflict  diseases,  some  disturb 
religious  rites.  Another  class  are  mere  demons  of  mischief 
and  obstruction  who  delight  in  hindering  good  works  or 
frightening  women  and  children,  like  the  ghosts,  hobgoblins, 
elves,  and  bogies  of  nursery  tale  and  fable. 

Similar  differences  are  supposed  to  divide  good  demons 
into  various  orders  and  degrees  of  rank  and  power. 

It  is  over  these  countless  hosts  of  good  and  evil  demons 
that  the  god  Siva  exercises  sovereignty.  They  are  all 
primarily  subject  to  his  authority;  but  the  actual  command 
over  them  is  delegated  to  his  two  sons,  Ganesa  and  Skanda. 

As  for  Skanda,  although  the  younger  and  less  generally 
worshipped,  he  holds  the  more  ambitious  office.  He  is 
called  the  god  of  war,  because  he  is  commander-in-chief  or 
generalissimo  (Sena-pati)  of  the  good  demon  armies.  These 
he  leads  against  the  hosts  of  their  enemies  the  evil  demons ; 
notably  against  those  rebellious  and  arrogant  arch-fiends 
who  seek  to  overcome  and  enslave  the  gods.  He  is  often 
called  Karttikeya,  from  his  foster-mothers,  the  six  Krittikas 

^  The  use  of  the  term  '  spirit '  for  demon  is  not  intended  to  imply  that 
demons  are  incorporeal  spiritual  beings. 


214       Worship  of  Gane'sa  and  Su-brahnianya. 

or  Pleiades,  and  then  has  six  heads  ^  and  twelve  arms.  These 
are  to  enable  him  to  hold  weapons  of  different  kinds,  like 
a  person  armed  with  the  many-chambered  revolver  of  modern 
times. 

But  he  is  not  seldom  represented  in  other  characters.  For 
example,  in  some  places  he  appears  as  simply  a  beautiful 
youth  (Kumara)  riding  on  a  peacock,  divested  of  all  martial 
attributes.  Again,  in  the  South  of  India,  where  his  cultus 
prevails  most  extensively,  he  is  not  worshipped  as  presiding 
over  war,  but  under  the  name  Su-brahmanya,  '  very  pious  or 
sacred.'  He  is  sometimes  held  to  be  unmarried,  but  I  found 
that  his  temples  are  either  frequented  by  those  who  seek 
through  his  intervention  to  be  delivered  from  evil  spirits,  or  else 
by  women  who  hope  by  propitiating  him  to  obtain  handsome 
sons.  He  is  himself  married,  and  has  two  wives  popularly 
called  DevayanI  and  Valll-amman.  These,  like  their  hus- 
band, are  believed  to  grant  children,  to  prevent  the  attacks 
and  thwart  the  malice  of  devils,  and  when  evil  spirits  have 
actually  taken  possession  of  any  one,  to  be  capable  of  casting 
them  out.  At  Tanjore  and  other  places  in  the  South  of 
India  I  found  the  temples  of  Skanda  in  his  character  of 
Su-brahmanya  side  by  side  with  those  of  his  brother  Ganesa, 
and  in  some  districts  Su-brahmanya  is  the  more  popular. 
He  has  a  celebrated  temple  on  the  Pulney  hills. 

As  to  Ganesa,  it  is  certain  that  he  has  no  pretensions 
whatever  to  be  regarded  as  a  martial  deity.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  is  essentially  a  homely  village-god.  Fighting  and 
activity  of  any  kind  are  repugnant  to  his  nature,  which, 
however,  appears  to  be  somewhat  contradictory  and  full  of 
curious  enigmas.  His  form  resembles  that  of  a  bloated, 
well-fed  Brahman  seated  at  his  ease  with  legs  folded  under 
him  on  a  lotus-throne,  the  very  beau-ideal  of  satiated  appetite 
and   indolent   self-complacency,   but   with   the   head    of    an 

^  The  six  heads  were  to  enable  him  to  be  nursed  by  his  six  nurses. 


Worship  of  Ganesa  and  Sti-brahmanya,       215 

elephant  to  denote  shrewdness  or  wisdom,  and  with  four 
arms,  holding  an  elephant-hook,  a  noose,  a  mace  ^,  and  a 
cake,  one  in  each  of  his  hands.  Not  unfrequently  he  is 
represented  riding  on  a  rat,  and  is  always  associated  with 
images  of  that  animal,  probably  as  emblematical  of  sagacity. 
In  Southern  India  I  occasionally  found  his  idols  in  company 
with  those  of  Nagas  or  snakes.  Sometimes  he  has  a  garland 
round  his  neck,  sometimes  the  sacred  Brahmanical  cord. 
Unlike  Su-brahmanya  or  Skanda,  he  is  not  generally  repre- 
sented as  married  ;  though  according  to  some  he  has  two 
wives  called  Riddhi  and  Siddhi^,  'Prosperity'  and  'Success.' 

Contrasting  Ganesa  then  with  Su-brahmanya,  we  must 
always  bear  in  mind  that  Ganesa  is  not  the  commander 
and  leader,  but  rather  the  king  and  lord  of  the  demon-host, 
ruling  over  both  good  and  bad  alike,  and  controlling  those 
malignant  spirits  who  are  ever  plotting  evil  and  causing 
hindrances  and  difficulties.  But  he  controls  them,  not  as 
Skanda  does,  by  the  exercise  of  bravery  and  physical  energy, 
but  by  artifice  and  stratagem,  very  much  after  the  manner  of 
some  indolent,  wily  Brahman  who,  skilled  in  the  Mantras,  sits 
comfortably  at  home  and  by  the  simple  repetition  of  a  few 
texts,  spells  and  cabalistic  words,  compels  good  and  evil 
spirits  to  obey  his  behests. 

Nor  is  it  out  of  harmony  with  this  theory  of  the  true 
character  of  the  god  that  the  Ganesa  of  modern  mythology 
is  thought  by  some  Pandits  to  be  a  development  of  the 
Vedic  Brahmanas-pati  or  Brihaspati,  '  lord  of  prayer ' — once 
the  personification  of  religion  and  devotion — who  by  the 
simple  force  of  his  supplications  protects  the  pious  from 
the   machinations   of  the   impious.       It   is    certain  that  the 


^  Instead  of  a  mace  he  has  sometimes  a  lotus,  and  sometimes  a  frag- 
ment of  one  of  his  own  tusks  which  he  once  broke  off  in  a  fit  of  uncon- 
trollable passion. 

^  Others  make  his  two  wives  Buddhi  and  Siddhi,  '  Intelligence '  and 
'  Success.' 


2i6       Worship  of  Ganesa  and  Su-bralmiaiiya. 

modern  popular  Ganesa  has  no  place  in  the  Veda,  the  epi- 
thet Gananam  Gana-patih,  which  occurs  in  Rig-veda  II. 
23.  I,  having  reference  to  Brahmanas-pati  as  lord  of  the 
Ganas  or  troops  of  divinities  ■^. 

What  the  Ganesa  or  Gana-pati  of  the  present  day  really 
represents  is  a  complex  personification  of  sagacity,  shrewd- 
ness, patience,  and  self-reliance — of  all  those  qualities,  in  short, 
which  overcome  hindrances  and  difficulties,  whether  in  per- 
forming religious  acts,  writing  books,  building  houses,  making 
journeys,  or  undertaking  anything.  He  is  before  all  things 
the  typical  embodiment  of  success  in  life ;  with  its  usual 
accompaniments  of  good-living,  plenteousness,  prosperity,  and 
peace.  This  is  the  true  secret  of  his  popularity.  This  is  why 
his  images  and  shrines  smeared  with  red  paint  are  seen  every- 
where throughout  India.  In  all  ceremonies,  except  funeral 
rites ^  and  in  all  undertakings  Ganesa  is  first  invoked. 

It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  although  his  principal 
office  is  to  remove  impediments,  especially  from  religious 
rites,  he  may  also  cause  hindrances  ;  and  this  in  fact  is  implied 
in  his  names  Vighnesa  and  Vighna-raja,  '  lord  of  obstacles.' 
So  also,  although  he  is  essentially  a  god  who  presides  over 
domestic  happiness  and  rural  prosperity,  driving  away  evil 
demons  from  houses,  fields,  crops,  and  herds,  he  may  also,  if 
not  propitiated,  allow  malicious  imps  to  haunt  houses,  infest 
roads,  mar  harvests,  and  cause  a  murrain  among  cattle. 

When  I  was  nearly  dashed  to  pieces  by  restive  horses,  one 
of  which  broke  away  from  my  carriage  and  was  precipitated 
over  a  precipice  on  the  Ghat  between  Poona  and  Mahaba- 
lesvar,  I  was  told  by  a  wise-looking  native  who  witnessed  the 
accident  that  the  road  in  that  district  was  infested  by  demons 
who  often  caused  accidents,  and  that  if  I  had  taken  care  to 
propitiate  Ganesa  before  starting  I  should  have  escaped  all 
molestation  and  all  risk  of  being  upset. 

*  The  same  expression  Gananam  Gana-patih  occurs  also  in  the  Vaja- 
saneyi-Samhita  of  the  Yajur-veda,  XXIII.  19. 


Worship  of  Gane'sa  and  Stt-brahinanya.       2 1 7 

Altogether,  the  god  Ganesa  represents  a  being  who  is  a 
curious  mixture  of  divine  and  demoniacal,  benevolent  and 
malevolent,  intellectual  and  animal  propensities,  all  of  which 
are  typified  by  the  somewhat  grotesque  and  bizarre  assem- 
blage of  symbols  noticeable  in  his  image. 

Notably,  too,  his  worship  is  combined  with  that  of  every 
other  god.  For  all  sects  unite  in  claiming  him  as  their  own. 
It  is  on  this  account  that  his  shrines  and  images  are  generally 
found  in  association  with  those  of  other  deities,  and  arc 
usually  to  be  seen  in  the  approaches  or  vestibules  of  large 
temples.  Often,  however,  they  stand  alone,  and  are  then  to 
be  found  outside  villages,  under  trees,  or  in  cross-ways,  or 
indeed  in  any  kind  of  locality,  but  always  smeared  with  red 
paint  in  token  of  good-luck  and  auspiciousness.  Solitary 
temples  of  large  size  dedicated  to  Ganesa  are  rare.  The 
largest  I  saw  anywhere  in  India  was  at  Wa-i,  between  Poona 
and  Mahabalesvar.  It  contained  a  colossal  image  of  the  god, 
and  in  this  temple  I  noticed  a  singularly  simple  and  easy 
method  of  doing  him  honour.  A  man  entered  with  a  small 
vessel  of  holy  water  from  the  neighbouring  river.  He  re- 
peated no  prayers,  but  with  a  diminutive  spoon  poured  a  little 
of  the  water  two  or  three  times  on  the  lower  extremities  of 
the  huge  image  and  then  retired.  Another  large  Ganesa 
temple  which  I  visited  is  on  the  summit  of  the  rock  of 
Trichinopoly,  Ganesa  being  there  called  Ujjhl  Puliyar  ^. 

In  point  of  fact  Ganesa  has  in  the  present  day  few  ex- 
clusive adorers ;  that  is  to  say,  there  are  few  sectarians  who 
trust  to  him  alone  for  salvation,  though  all  propitiate  him 
for  success.  In  former  times  the  Ganesa  or  Ganapatya  sect, 
as  it  was  called  (see  p.  59),  was  divided  into  six  sub-sects  who 
worshipped  six  different  forms  of  the  god,  named  respectively 
(according  to  the   Sankara-vijaya)  Maha-Ganapati,  Haridra- 

^  There  is  also  a  shrine  to  Su-brahmanya  on  this  celebrated  rock,  and 
I  noticed  as  a  peculiarity  that  the  image  of  a  peacock  was  represented 
looking  into  Ganesa's  shrine,  not  into  that  of  his  brother. 


2i8  Worship  of  Ayenar. 

Ganapati,  Ucchishta-GanapatI  (also  called  Heramba),  Nava- 
nlta-Ganapati,  Svarna-Ganapati,  and  Santana-Ganapati  ^. 


Worship  of  Ayenar. 

Closely  allied  to  the  worship  of  Ganesa  and  Skanda  (Su- 
brahmanya),  and  generally  to  Saivism,  is  the  worship  of 
Ayenar ;  a  village-god  very  popular  in  the  extreme  South 
of  India,  but  little  known  in  other  parts.  One  distinction, 
however,  may  be  noticed  between  the  worship  of  Ayenar 
and  that  of  Siva's  two  sons.  He  is  never  asked  for  any 
positive  good.  He  only  protects  from  harm,  and  his  wor- 
ship consists  solely  in  propitiation.  His  name  Ayenar  is 
said  to  be  a  corruption  of  Hari-hara  (  =  Vishnu  and  Siva, 
see  p.  6^^  and  he  is  believed  to  be  the  son  of  both  these 
deities  ;  that  is,  he  is  the  product  of  the  marriage  of  Siva 
and  Vishnu  when  the  latter  took  the  form  of  a  beautiful 
woman.  He  is  popularly  called  Ayenar-appan  ^,  and  some- 
times has  another  name,  Sasta,  '  the  ruler  or  governor.' 

Like  Ganesa  and  Skanda,  the  popular  deity  Ayenar  is  a 
lord  and  leader  of  the  demon-host,  and  his  province  is  to 
guard  the  fields,  crops,  and  herds  of  the  peasantry,  and  drive 
away  their  enemies  the  devils  and  fiends,  who  are  ever  on  the 
watch  to  inflict  disease,  blight,  and  other  calamities.  Accord- 
ingly, outside  every  village  in  Southern  India,  and  generally 
among  a  group  of  trees  to  the  west  of  the  village,  may  be 
seen  the   shrines   of  Ayenar,  surrounded  with   rude  clay  or 

1  Dhundhi-raja,  said  to  mean  'king  of  Siva's  hosts,'  is  another  popular 
form  of  Ganesa  at  Benares.  I  noticed  numerous  worshippers  at  his 
shrine,  as  well  as  at  that  of  another  shrine  of  the  same  god  in  his 
character  of  Sakshin  or  witness.  In  this  latter  character  he  is  usually 
called  Sakshi-Vinayaka  (vulgarly  Sakhi-Vinayaka).  Every  pilgrim  who 
has  been  the  round  of  the  shrines  in  the  PaficakosI  of  Benares  must 
finish  up  by  a  visit  to  Ganesa,  '  the  witness,'  who  then  bears  testimony  to 
the  completeness  of  the  difficult  task  he  has  accomplished. 

^  Appan  is  the  Tamil  for  '  father/  as  Amman  is  for  '  mother.' 


Worship  of  Aye^iar.  2 1 9 

terra-cotta  figures  of  horses  and  other  animals — often  of  hfe- 
size — on  which  he  is  supposed  to  ride  when  keeping  guard. 
His  image  is  that  of  a  human  form  painted  a  reddish  colour 
and  very  roughly  carved,  sometimes  in  a  sitting  posture, 
sometimes  on  horseback.  When  properly  represented,  he 
ought  to  have  a  crown  on  his  head,  the  Saiva  mark  on  his 
forehead,  a  sceptre  in  his  hand,  and  ornaments  on  his  person. 
Often  images  of  Ganesa  are  placed  near  him.  He  has  two 
wives  (known  by  the  names  PuranT  and  Pudkala),  who 
generally  sit  on  each  side  of  him,  and  take  an  active  part 
in  driving  away  demons,  especially  at  night,  when  like  their 
husband  they  ride  about  the  fields  on  horses.  It  is  on  this 
account  that  no  villager  in  Southern  India  likes  to  be  out  in 
the  fields  at  night,  and  on  no  account  will  any  one  pass  near 
the  shrines  of  Ayenar  and  his  wives  after  dark.  If  any 
venturesome  person  happens  to  cross  their  path  when  they 
are  careering  about  the  fields,  he  is  liable  to  be  taken  for  an 
evil  spirit  and  slain. 

After  recovery  from  sickness,  or  to  commemorate  any  piece 
of  good-fortune,  the  villagers  place  fresh  clay  horses  round 
the  shrine  of  Ayenar,  as  thank-offerings  or  in  fulfilment  of 
vows.  He  is  also  at  such  times  propitiated  by  offerings  of  the 
blood  of  swine,  goats,  sheep,  cocks  and  other  animals,  or  by 
cooked  food  and  libations  of  strong  liquor. 

If  cholera  or  pestilence  of  any  kind  breaks  out,  the  villagers 
redouble  their  offerings  to  the  priests  of  the  shrine,  who  are 
generally  very  poor  and  of  the  lowest  caste,  and  are  very  glad 
to  receive  any  money  or  consume  any  eatables  that  may  be 
offered  to  the  god. 

I  examined  with  great  interest  many  shrines  of  Ayenar  in 
Southern  India,  and  particularly  one  at  Permagudy,  on  my 
way  from  Madura  to  Ramesvaram.  It  was  situated  close  to 
a  grove  of  small  trees  not  far  from  the  village.  Under  a 
rough  stone  canopy  was  a  rudely  carved  stone  male  idol. 
The  wives  of  the  god  were  not  represented,  but  about  twenty- 


2  20  Worship  of  Hamtman, 

five  toy-like  terra-cotta  horses,  some  as  large  as  life,  were 
ranged  on  each  side  of  the  shrine.  Several  of  these  fictile 
animals  had  grotesque  images  upon  them  representing  riders, 
and  some  of  them  were  so  badly  formed  that  it  w^as  difficult 
to  say  whether  they  were  intended  for  lions  or  horses.  In 
the  front  of  the  shrine  was  a  rude  stone  altar  for  sacrifices 
and  oblations,  but  I  saw  no  signs  of  any  recent  offerings,  nor 
was  a  single  worshipper  of  the  god  to  be  seen  anywhere.  I 
noticed  indeed  that  all  the  shrines  of  Ayenar  had  a  deserted 
appearance,  the  fact  being  that  he  is  never  worshipped  in  our 
sense  of  the  word.  He  is  only  propitiated  in  emergencies. 
Every  year  after  harvest-time  a  festival  is  kept  in  his  honour, 
when  numerous  animals  are  sacrificed,  and  images  of  the  god 
are  decorated  with  ornaments  and  drawn  about  through  the 
village  streets  on  the  rude  clay  horses  which  I  have  described. 

Worship  of  Hammian. 

In  connexion  with  the  subject  of  local  tutelary  deities  it 
ought  to  be  mentioned  that  a  very  common  village-god  in  the 
Dekhan,  Central  and  Upper  India,  is  Hanuman  (nom.  case 
of  Hanumat,  a  name  meaning  '  possessing  large  jaws ').  This 
god  derives  his  popularity  from  the  part  he  took  in  assisting 
Rama  to  recover  his  wife  Sita  after  she  had  been  carried 
away  to  Ceylon  by  the  demon  Ravana.  He  is  one  of  the 
chiefs  of  a  host  of  semi-divine  monkey-like  beings  who,  ac- 
cording to  the  Ramayana  (I.  16),  were  created  to  become 
Rama-candra's  allies.  In  point  of  fact,  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  Hanuman  was  originally  a  mere  poetical  deifi- 
cation of  some  well-known  leader  of  the  wild  aboriginal 
tribes,  whose  appearance  resembled  that  of  apes,  and  who 
really  rendered  effective  assistance  to  Rama  in  his  battles  with 
Ravana.  There  were  several  of  these  powerful  aboriginal 
chiefs,  who,  from  their  accomplishing  apparently  supernatural 
feats  of  strength,  were   held  to  be  the  progeny  of  various 


Worship  of  Hannmdn.  221 

gods.     Thus  the  Simian  king  Sugriva  was  said  to  be  a  son  of 
the  Sun,  and  another  chief  named  Bali  was  a  son  of  Indra. 

Hanuman,  on  the  other  hand,  was  believed  to  be  a  son  of 
the  wind  (Pavana  or  Maruta).  He  could  assume  any  form  at 
will,  wield  rocks,  remove  mountains,  dart  through  the  air, 
seize  clouds,  and  rival  Vishnu's  divine  bird  Garuda  in  swift- 
ness  of  flight.  His  devotion  to  Rama's  service  was  so  great 
that  he  is  worshipped  over  a  great  part  of  India  as  the  type 
and  model  of  a  faithful  devoted  servant.  Many  believe  that, 
when  propitiated,  he  can  confer  supernatural  muscular  strength 
and  bodily  power.  His  images,  which,  to  denote  the  reverence 
in  which  they  are  held,  are  always  smeared  with  vermilion 
(sindura)  and  oil,  are  generally  rudely  formed.  I  noticed, 
however,  that  they  were  most  common  in  the  Dekhan,  where 
they  are  generally  found  outside  villages.  Not  that  there  is 
any  lack  of  them  in  large  towns.  In  the  centre  of  Poona, 
I  came  across  a  shrine  containing  a  shapeless  idol,  which  was 
said  to  be  an  image  of  Hanuman  several  hundred  years  old. 
It  was  set  up  under  a  Banian  tree.  A  man  was  in  the  act  of 
painting  it  with  bright  red  paint  as  I  passed,  and  another 
man  was  prostrating  himself  at  full  length  on  the  ground 
before  it. 

Again,  I  visited  a  large  temple  dedicated  to  Hanuman 
outside  the  town  of  Kaira.  It  is  said  to  be  well  endowed. 
Offerings  of  oil  are  constantly  presented  to  Hanuman,  and 
eighty  Maunds  of  oil  had  recently  been  offered  to  this  idol. 
Within  the  enclosure  of  his  temple  were  shrines  to  Rama 
and  Krishna,  both  of  which  occupied  subordinate  positions. 
Of  course  the  worship  of  Hanuman  is  usually  connected 
with  that  of  Vishnu,  but  here  in  this  enclosure  was  also  a 
Linga  shrine  ^,  and  another  of  the  goddess  of  small-pox, 
and  all  around  was  a  cloister  which  served  as  a  Dharma- 
sala,  or  lodging  for  travellers. 

^  According  to  some  legends,  Hanuman  was  a  son  of  Siva. 


2  2  2  Mother-worship. 

The  veneration  in  which  apes  and  monkeys  of  every  kind 
are  held  throughout  India  cannot  fail  to  strike  a  stranger  as 
remarkable.  This  is  doubtless  connected  with  the  homage 
paid  to  Hanuman.  It  is  not,  however,  identified  with  that 
homage ;  for  although  monkeys  are  believed  to  be  his  near 
relations,  they  were  probably  independent  objects  of  worship 
from  the  earliest  times  ^.  Yet  these  animals  are  very  ungod- 
like  in  their  habits,  and  not  one  whit  superior  to  the  most 
mischievous  monkeys  in  any  other  part  of  the  world.  Often  a 
troop  will  make  its  appearance  in  an  Indian  village,  tear  off 
the  roof  of  a  native  house,  or  do  even  worse  damage  out  of 
sheer  wantonness.  Yet  no  householder  would  ever  dream  of 
reprisals.  The  sacred  character  of  the  monkey  shields  him 
from  all  harm. 

Mother-worship, 

Undoubtedly  the  most  popular  tutelary  deities  of  India  are 
the  divine  Matris  or  Mothers.  The  propitiation  of  Ayenar 
and  his  wives  is  confined  to  the  South,  but  mother-worship  is 
extended  everywhere  throughout  India.  In  the  first  place, 
every  living  mother  is  venerated  as  a  kind  of  deity  by  her 
children.  Then  every  village  has  its  own  special  guardian 
mother,  called  Mata  or  Amba,  Generally  there  is  also  a 
male  deity,  who  protects  like  the  female  from  all  adverse  and 
demoniacal  influences.  But  the  mother  is  the  favourite  object 
of  adoration ;  and  no  wonder  ;  for,  as  we  have  seen  in  the 
preceding  chapter,  activity,  power,  and  force  (sakti)  are  sup- 
posed to  be  her  peculiar  attributes.  Perhaps  however  the  real 
reason  for  her  attracting  more  homage  than  the  god  is  that 
she  is  held  to  have  a  thoroughly  feminine  nature.  She  is 
more  easily  propitiated  by  prayer,  flattery,  and  offerings  ;  more 

^  It  seems  not  unlikely  that  the  Vrishakapi  of  Rig-veda  X.  86  may 
point  to  a  very  early  veneration  of  apes,  arising,  perhaps,  from  their 
mysterious  resemblance  to  men. 


Mother-worsh  ip.  223 

ready  to  defend  from  evil ;  more  irritable,  uncertain,  and  way- 
ward in  her  temper  and  moods  ;  more  dangerously  spiteful, 
and  prone  to  inflict  diseases,  if  offended  by  neglect. 

In  point  of  fact,  the  worship  of  the  divine  Mothers  (Matris) 
is,  as  already  pointed  out,  a  branch  of  Saivism,  and  particu- 
larly of  that  form  of  Saivism  called  Saktism  (p.  181). 

Indeed,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  features  of  the  multi- 
form and  many-sided  Hindu  religion  is  the  efficacy  supposed 
to  belong  to  this  form  of  worship.  Probably  the  idea  of 
Mother-worship  had  its  origin  in  the  patriarchal  constitution 
of  ancient  Aryan  society.  Among  the  early  Aryans  the 
paternal  and  maternal  tie,  and,  indeed,  the  whole  family  bond, 
was  intensely  strong.  If  the  father  was  regarded  with  awe 
as  the  primary  source  of  life,  the  mother  was  an  object  of 
devotion  to  the  children  of  the  family  as  the  more  evident 
author  of  their  existence.  And  again,  if  the  father  was  vene- 
rated as  the  food-supplier  and  protector  (pita),  the  mother 
was  beloved  as  the  meter  out  (mata)  of  daily  nourishment — the 
arranger  of  the  household,  measuring  and  ordering  its  affairs 
as  the  moon  (also  called  mata)  measured  the  time.  To  the 
Aryan  family  the  father  and  mother  were  present  gods. 

Can  we  wonder  that,  with  the  growth  of  devotional  ideas 
and  the  increasing  sense  of  a  higher  superintending  pro- 
vidence, the  earliest  religious  creed  was  constructed  on  what 
may  be  called  paternal  and  maternal  lines  ?  At  first  the  sky 
(Dyaus,  Zeus),  bending  over  all,  was  personified  as  a  Heavenly 
Father  (Dyaus-pitar,  Jupiter),  and  the  Earth  as  the  Mother 
of  all  creatures.  Then,  in  place  of  the  Earth,  Infinite  Space 
(A-diti)  was  thought  of  as  an  eternal  Mother.  Then  Prakriti 
was  the  germinal  productive  principle — the  eternal  Mother, 
capable  of  evolving  all  created  things  out  of  herself,  but  never 
so  creating  unless  united  with  the  eternal  spiritual  principle 
called  the  eternal  Male  (Purusha). 

To  the  prevalence  of  such  ideas  must,  I  think,  be  attri- 
buted the  fact  that  everywhere  throughout  India  are  scattered 


2  24  Mother-worship, 

shrines  which  on  inspection  are  found  to  contain  no  images  or 
idols  shaped  hke  human  beings,  but  simply  stone  symbols  of 
a  double  form,  intended  to  typify  the  blending  of  the  male 
and  female  principles  in  creation.  The  casual  tourist,  whose 
notions  of  propriety  are  cast  in  a  European  mould,  is  shocked 
by  what  he  considers  an  evidence  of  the  utter  degradation  of 
Indian  thought.  He  turns  away  in  disgust,  and  denounces 
the  Hindu  religion  as  simple  abomination. 

My  own  researches  into  Indian  religious  thought  have  led 
me  to  view  in  these  symbols  a  proof  of  the  hold  which  the 
ancient  dualistic  philosophy  has  on  the  Hindu  mind.  It  is 
common  to  say  that  Brahmanism  is  Pantheism,  and  no  doubt 
it  is,  broadly  speaking,  true  that  Brahmanism  is  a  kind  of 
Pantheism ;  but  to  apply  the  term  Pantheism,  without  any 
qualification,  to  the  ordinary  religion  of  the  Hindus^  is  alto- 
gether misleading.  A  small  minority  of  orthodox  Brahmans 
are  strict  Pantheists  according  to  the  Vedantic  doctrine  (see 
p.  36),  but  a  large  majority  of  the  Hindus  are  believers  in 
one  personal  God — that  is  to  say,  in  either  Siva  or  Vishnu  or 
their  manifestations — and  are  therefore  Theists.  Yet  it  is 
true  that  their  Theism  is  no  stern  belief  in  the  unity  of  God. 
It  constantly  tends  to  pantheistic  or  polytheistic  superstitions, 
and  especially  to  the  mystical  theory  of  a  duality  in  unity 
before  explained  (see  p.  181).  Such  a  theory  rests,  as  we 
have  seen,  on  the  philosophical  doctrine  of  two  distinct  eter- 
nally existing  essences — Spirit  regarded  as  a  male  principle, 
and  Matter  or  the  germ  of  the  external  world  regarded  as  a 
female.  Without  the  union  of  the  two  no  creation  takes  place. 
To  any  one  imbued  with  these  dualistic  conceptions  the  Liiiga 
and  the  Yoni  are  suggestive  of  no  improper  ideas.  They  are 
either  types  of  the  two  mysterious  creative  forces — the  efficient 
and  material  causes  of  the  universe — or  symbols  of  one  divine 
power  delegating  procreative  energy  to  male  and  female  organ- 
isms.    They  are  mystical  representatives,  and  perhaps  the  best 

^  As  I  have  heard  it  applied  by  Missionaries  and  others. 


Mother-worship.  225 

possible  Impersonal  representatives,  of  the  abstract  expres- 
sions '  paternity '  and  '  maternity.' 

Of  course,  such  ideas  are  too  mystical  for  the  masses  of  the 
people.  Yet  the  ordinary  Hindu  finds  no  difficulty  in  ac- 
cepting the  theory  of  a  universe  proceeding  from  a  divine 
father  and  mother.  Hence,  as  we  have  already  seen,  some 
images  of  Siva  (called  Ardha-narisa)  represent  him  as  female 
on  one  side  of  his  body  and  male  on  the  other,  to  indicate 
that  he  combines  in  his  own  person  maternal  as  well  as 
paternal  qualities  and  attributes,  and  that  all  the  mothers  of 
India  are  simply  manifestations  of  portions  of  his  essence.  I 
need  not  repeat  here  that  the  god's  energy  is  supposed  to  be 
located  more  especially  in  the  female  half  of  his  nature,  and 
that  the  divine  mothers  are  variously  classified  according  to 
various  degrees  of  participation  in  that  energy,  the  highest 
being  identified  with  different  forms  of  his  supposed  consort, 
the  lowest  including  human  mothers  downwards,  who  are  all 
worshipped  as  incarnations  of  the  one  divine  productive 
capacity  of  nature.     Compare  p.  183. 

There  are  about  one  hundred  and  forty  distinct  Mothers 
in  Gujarat,  besides  numerous  varieties  of  some  of  the  more 
popular  forms.  In  all  likelihood  every  one  of  these,  though 
declared  by  the  Brahmans  to  be  separate  forms  of  Siva's 
consort  Kali,  is  really  the  representative  of  some  local 
deity  (Grama-devata),  worshipped  by  the  inhabitants  from 
time  immemorial.  Some  are  represented  by  rudely  carved 
images,  others  by  simple  symbols,  and  others  are  remarkable 
for  preferring  empty  shrines  and  the  absence  of  all  visible 
representation. 

The  first  genuine  country  village  I  visited  on  reaching 
Bombay  in  1875  was  in  Gujarat.  It  had  as  usual  two 
shrines,  one  to  Siva  and  his  son  Ganesa,  the  other  to  the 
local  Mata  or  Mother,  believed  to  be  a  manifestation  of 
Siva's  wife  and  called  Khodiyar,  or  '  Mischief.'  The  attitude 
of  mind  and  usual  disposition  of  this  Mother  towards   the 

Q 


2  26  Mother-worship. 

villagers  appears  to  be  anything  but  maternal.  Her  shrine 
when  I  visited  it  was  of  a  very  rough  and  ready  character, 
little  better  than  a  mere  mud  shed,  open  to  all  the  winds  of 
heaven  and  accessible  to  all  comers — even  to  unbelievers  like 
myself,  quite  as  much  as  to  her  faithful  votaries.  Her  image 
too  was  by  no  means  attractive  in  its  contour  and  accom- 
paniments. It  was  carved  in  the  rudest  manner,  and  might 
have  done  duty  for  an  African  fetish.  I  noticed  that  in  some 
villages  the  Mother  is  represented  by  a  simple  unworked 
stone,  but  always  recumbent,  never  erect,  and  occasionally  a 
wall  or  some  markings  on  it  are  believed  to  symbolize  the 
presence  of  the  goddess.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  every 
Hindu  temple  has  an  anthropomorphic  idol.  I  passed  a  shrine 
near  Allahabad  dedicated  to  a  local  Mother  euphemistically 
called  Alopi  or  '  Non-destroyer,'  who  here  takes  the  place 
of  the  goddess  worshipped  in  the  South  under  the  name  of 
Mari-amman,  the  '  Destroying  Mother,'  or  goddess  of  small- 
pox (see  p.  228).  There  was  no  image  in  Alopi's  shrine,  only 
a  flat  stone  slab,  on  which,  in  consequence  of  a  late  outbreak 
of  small-pox,  an  immense  number  of  offerings  of  flowers, 
cocoa-nuts,  and  grain  were  being  laid  by  a  succession  of 
worshippers,  both  Hindu  and  Muhammadan. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  I  visited  the  village  over  which 
Khodiyar  presides,  I  found  no  offerings  near  her  image  ;  or  if 
any  had  been  placed  there  before  my  arrival  they  had  dis- 
appeared. Most  probably  the  few  that  had  been  offered  had 
been  already  appropriated  by  the  village  priest,  who  was 
nowhere  to  be  seen.  The  name  Khodiyar,  '  Mischief,'  is 
very  significant  of  this  particular  Mother's  character,  for 
although  her  function  is  to  shield  from  harm,  she  is  more 
inclined  to  turn  mischievous  and  cause  harm,  and  will  cer- 
tainly do  so  if  her  temper  is  ruffled  by  any  remissness  in  the 
daily  process  of  coaxing  and  conciliating  her. 

Hence  it  is  no  matter  of  surprise  that  an  outbreak  of  sick- 
ness in  the  village  was  attributed  entirely  to  a  little  temporary 


Mother-worship.  227 

slackness  in  supplying  her  with  her  daily  nutriment.  Extra- 
ordinary offerings,  therefore — some  of  them  accompanied  by 
the  killing  of  animals  and  pouring  out  of  blood — had  to 
be  made  till  the  disease  had  abated.  When  no  sickness 
remained  it  was  believed  that  the  Mother's  anger  was 
appeased,  no  further  trouble  was  taken,  and  everything 
returned  to  the  old  routine. 

Had  any  native  of  the  district,  who  happened  to  have  been 
educated  at  the  Bombay  Presidency  College,  suggested  a  little 
attention  to  sanitary  rules  as  a  more  effective  remedy  against 
cholera  or  small-pox,  he  would  have  been  laughed  to  scorn  by 
his  fellow-villagers. 

Each  of  the  remaining  139  Mothers  of  Gujarat  has  some 
speciality.  One,  named  Becarajl,  has  numerous  imageless 
shrines.  The  shrine  most  frequented  is  at  a  place  seventy-five 
miles  north  of  Ahmedabad.  Sometimes  she  is  represented  by 
a  coloured  square  figure,  divided  into  six  compartments. 

Another,  named  Untai,  causes  and  prevents  whooping- 
cough  ;  another,  named  Beral,  prevents  cholera ;  another,  called 
Maraki  (popularly  Marki),  causes  cholera ;  another,  Hadakai, 
controls  mad-dogs  and  prevents  hydrophobia  ;  another,  Asa- 
pura,  represented  by  two  idols,  satisfies  the  hopes  of  wives 
by  giving  children.     Others  are  Kalka  and  Hingraj. 

Not  a  few  are  worshipped  either  as  causing  or  protecting 
from  demoniacal  possession  as  a  form  of  bodily  disease.  The 
offering  of  goats'  blood  to  some  of  these  Mothers  is  supposed 
to  be  very  effectual ;  the  animals  are  not  always  killed. 

A  story  is  told  of  a  Hindu  doctor  who  cured  a  whole 
village  of  an  outbreak  of  virulent  influenza,  attributed  to  the 
malignant  influences  of  an  angry  goddess,  by  simply  assem- 
bling the  inhabitants,  muttering  some  cabalistic  texts,  and 
solemnly  letting  loose  a  pair  of  scape-goats  into  a  neigh- 
bouring wood  as  an  offering  to  the  offended  deity. 

The  small-pox  goddess  is  a  form  of  divine  mother  universally 
adored  under  different   names  through  every  part  of  India. 


2  28  Mother-worship. 

In  the  upper  provinces  she  is  called  Sitala  Devi,  or  simply 
Devi.  In  the  South  her  name  is  Marl-amman,  '  Mother  of 
Death.'  This  goddess  may  either  avert  small-pox — of  which 
there  are  three  different  kinds — cause  small-pox,  or  be  herself 
small-pox.  In  some  parts  of  the  country  persons  who  die  of 
small-pox  are  not  burnt,  lest  the  goddess  herself  should  be 
burnt  too.  She  also  presides  over  cholera  and  other  diseases 
causing  death.  Her  shrines  are  generally  found  outside  vil- 
lages, under  trees,  or  in  groves,  and  are  often  associated  with 
the  shrines  of  Ganesa. 

Some  of  the  most  important  local  Mothers  in  the  South  are 
deifications  of  celebrated  women  who  were  great  benefac- 
tresses and  came  to  be  regarded  after  death  as  manifestations 
or  forms  of  Siva's  wife.  Such  are  MinacI  (for  Minakshi, 
worshipped  at  Madura),  KamacI,  Visalaci,  and  others. 

In  the  South  of  India  the  Mothers  are  called  Ammans. 

Notably  a  Mother  named  EUa-amman  presides  over  boun- 
daries, and  is  supposed  to  have  great  power  over  serpents  and 
to  be  particularly  fond  of  fish. 

Another,  called  Pidarl,  is  said  to  be  '  a  queen  among  the 

devils,'  because  all  who  hang  or  poison  themselves,  or  die  any 

violent  death,  are  turned  into  malignant  demons  who  would 

destroy  the  whole  human  race  if  not  kept  in  check  by  Pidari. 

Other  Mothers  dreaded  for  their  fierce  nature  are  them- 

/  _  _  _ 

selves    simply  demons  ;    for  example,   Camunda,    Marudayi, 

and  Katerl.     The  last  is  an  evil  spirit  inhabiting  the  air,  and 

is  thought  to  be  too  aerial  in  character  to  be  represented  by 

an  image. 

All  these  Mothers  are  believed  to  delight  in  blood  and  to 

drink  it.     Hence  the  blood  of  swine,  goats,  and  cocks,  besides 

all  kinds  of  cooked  grain,  are  offered  to  them.     One  Mother 

called  Kulumandi-amman  is  said  to  have  a  special  fancy  for 

black  kids,  and  can  only  be  appeased  and   prevented  from 

causing  sickness  and  death  if  the  blood  of  at  least  three  or 

four   thousand   such  kids   is    presented   to  her    every   year. 


Mother-worsh  ip.  229 

Sometimes  she  is  personated  by  a  man  who  is  carried  on 
the  shoulders  of  two  other  men  and  sucks  up  some  of  the 
blood  of  the  slaughtered  animals. 

When  a  woman  dies  unpurified  within  fifteen  days  after 
childbirth  she  becomes  a  demon  called  Cudel  (Churcl).  She 
is  then  always  on  the  watch  to  attack  other  young  mothers. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  power  of  at  least  one  well-disposed 
Mother  in  Gujarat  is  exerted  in  a  remarkable  way  for  the 
benefit  of  women  after  childbirth.  Among  a  very  low-caste 
set  of  basket-makers  (called  Pomla)  it  is  the  usual  practice  of 
a  wife  to  go  about  her  work  immediately  after  delivery,  as  if 
nothing  had  happened.  The  presiding  Mata  of  the  tribe  is 
supposed  to  transfer  her  weakness  to  her  husband,  who  takes 
to  his  bed  and  has  to  be  supported  with  good  nourishing  food. 

The  goddess  Shashthi  (Chathi)  protects  infants,  and  is 
therefore  worshipped  on  the  sixth  day  after  delivery.  She  is 
represented  by  a  simple  stone  set  up  under  some  tree. 

The  eight  Mothers  worshipped  by  the  Tantrikas  of  Bengal 
are  each  represented  with  a  child  in  her  lap,  and  it  is  remark- 
able that  Uma,  wife  of  Siva,  when  worshipped  as  a  type  of 
beauty  and  motherly  excellence,  is  always  regarded  as  a 
virgin  ^. 

All  the  Mothers  are  believed  to  have  control  over  magical 
powers,  and  especially  over  the  secret  operations  of  nature 
and  all  those  mysterious  occult  agencies  which  are  intensi- 
fied by  darkness  and  invisibility.  These  powers  and  preter- 
natural faculties  they  can  impart  to  their  worshippers,  if 
properly  propitiated.  This  is  a  proof  of  the  intimate  con- 
nexion subsisting  between  Mother-worship  and  the  doctrines 
of  Saktism  as  described  in  the  preceding  chapter. 


^  So  in  particular  churches  at  Munich  and  elsewhere  the  shrines  of 
the  black  Virgin  are  frequented  by  vast  numbers  of  pilgrims,  who  hang 
up  votive  offerings,  often  consisting  of  waxen  arms  and  legs,  around  her 
altar,  in  the  firm  belief  that  they  owe  the  restoration  of  broken  limbs  and 
the  recovery  from  various  diseases  to  her  intervention. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

Demon-worship  and  Spirit-worship. 

This  subject  has  already  been  to  some  extent  anticipated 
in  the  previous  chapter.  There  I  have  endeavoured  to  point 
out  that  the  universal  prevalence  of  the  worship  of  tutelary- 
deities  among  the  great  mass  of  the  population  in  India  is 
the  result  of  a  perpetual  dread  of  evil  demons — a  dread  which 
haunts  Hindus  of  all  ranks  and  stations,  from  the  highest 
to  the  lowest,  with  the  exception  of  those  fortunate  persons 
whom  a  European  education  has  delivered  from  the  dominion 
of  superstitious  ideas. 

My  object  in  the  present  chapter  will  be  to  show  that 
the  very  demons  and  evil  spirits  are  as  much  objects  of  wor- 
ship as  the  gods  who  defend  men  from  their  malice ;  just  as 
the  tutelary  deities  themselves  may  under  aggravating  cir- 
cumstances turn  into  angry  demons  who  require  to  be 
propitiated  (see  p.  245). 

In  fact,  a  belief  in  every  kind  of  demoniacal  influence  has 
always  been  from  the  earliest  times  an  essential  ingredient 
in  Hindu  religious  thought.  The  idea  probably  had  its  origin 
in  the  supposed  peopling  of  the  air  by  spiritual  beings — the 
personifications  or  companions  of  storm  and  tempest.  Cer- 
tainly no  one  who  has  ever  been  brought  into  close  contact 
with  the  Hindus  in  their  own  country  can  doubt  the  fact 
that  the  worship  of  at  least  ninety  per  cent,  of  the  people 
of  India  in  the  present  day  is  a  worship  of  fear.  Not  that 
the  existence  of  good  deities  presided  over  by  one  Supreme 
Being  is  doubted  ;  but  that  these  deities  are  believed  to  be 
too  absolutely  good  to  need  propitiation  ;  just  as  in  ancient 
histories  of  the  Slav  races,  we  are  told  that  they  believed 


Demon-worship  and  Spirit-worsJiip,  231 

in  a  white  and  a  black  god,  but  paid  adoration  to  the  last 
alone,  having,  as  they  supposed,  nothing  to  apprehend  from 
the  beneficence  of  the  first  or  white  divinity. 

The  simple  truth  is  that  evil  of  all  kinds,  difficulties, 
dangers,  and  disasters,  famines,  diseases,  pestilences,  and 
death,  are  thought  by  an  ordinary  Hindu  to  proceed  from 
demons,  or,  more  properly  speaking,  from  devils,  and  from 
devils  alone.  These  malignant  beings  are  held,  as  we  have 
seen,  to  possess  varying  degrees  of  rank,  power,  and  male- 
volence. Some  aim  at  destroying  the  entire  world,  and 
threaten  the  sovereignty  of  the  gods  themselves.  Some 
delight  in  killing  men,  women,  and  children,  out  of  a  mere 
thirst  for  human  blood.  Some  take  a  mere  mischievous  plea- 
sure in  tormenting,  or  revel  in  the  infliction  of  sickness,  injury, 
and  misfortune.  All  make  it  their  business  to  mar  or  impede 
the  progress  of  good  works  and  useful  undertakings. 

And  the  remarkable  thing  is,  that  the  power  wielded  by 
certain  arch-demons  over  men,  and  even  gods,  is  supposed 
to  have  been  acquired  by  the  practice  of  religious  austerities. 
It  is  said  of  the  demon  Ravana,  that  after  undergoing  severe 
austerities  in  a  forest  for  ten  thousand  years,  standing  in 
the  midst  of  five  fires  with  his  feet  in  the  air,  he  obtained 
from  the  god  Brahma  powers  greater  than  those  possessed 
by  the  gods  themselves. 

We  must,  however,  at  the  outset  guard  against  the  idea 
that  in  Hindu  mythology  the  expressions  devil  and  demon — 
any  more  than  the  Greek  8td/3oA.o?  and  baifxcov — are  con- 
vertible terms ;  or  that  these  two  words  at  all  adequately 
express  the  immense  variety  of  spiritual  beings  supposed  to 
hold  communication  with  man  or  liable  to  be  brought  into 
relationship  with  him. 

It  is  well  known  that  Indian  literature  makes  constant 
mention  of  numerous  regions  above  and  below  the  earth  which 
serve  as  the  abode  of  such  beings.  Thus  we  learn  from  the 
Epic  poems  and    Puranas    that    there  are   seven  upper  and 


232  Demon-worship  mid  Spirit-worship. 

seven  lower  worlds  ^  (see  p.  102,  note),  and  beneath  the  latter 
are  twenty-one  hells.  They  are  enumerated  in  Manu  IV. 
88-90,  and  others  are  added  in  Vishnu-purana  II.  6  ^. 

The  hells  are  for  the  infliction  of  various  degrees  of  suf- 
fering on  sinful  men.  Yet  they  are  not  places  of  eternal 
punishment.  They  are  merely  temporary  purgatories.  One 
is  a  place  of  terrific  darkness  ;  another  consists  of  heated 
caldrons  (tapta-kumbha)  ;  another  of  red-hot  iron  (tapta- 
loha) ;  another  contains  pits  of  red-hot  charcoal  ;  another  of 
blood  ;  another  is  a  dense  forest  whose  leaves  are  sharp  swords  ; 
another  is  a  hell  of  pincers  (Sandansa)  ;  another  is  a  sea  of 
fetid  mud  ;  another  is  a  plain  paved  with  iron  spikes  ^.     In 

^  All  fourteen  worlds  are  believed  to  rest  on  the  thousand  heads  of  the 
great  serpent  Sesha  ;  or  the  earth  which  is  the  lowest  of  the  seven  upper 
worlds  is  supposed  to  be  supported  at  the  quarters  and  intermediate 
quarters  of  the  sky  by  eight  male  and  eight  female  mythical  elephants. 
Then,  again,  the  earth  is  thought  to  be  composed  of  seven  great  circular 
islands  (most  of  which  are  known  by  the  name  of  some  tree  or  plant, 
such  as  Jambu,  Kusa,  Plaksha,  Salmali),  surrounded  by  seven  circular 
seas,  all  of  which  are  described  in  Maha-bharata  VI.  236,  etc.,  and  in  the 
Vishnu-purana  II.  2,  etc.     See  also  my  '  Indian  Wisdom,'  p.  419. 

^  This  Purana  and  the  Bhagavata  make  twenty-eight  hells. 

^  In  a  recent  number  of  a  Chicago  paper  I  find  the  following  curiously 
parallel  ideas  quoted  from  a  Roman  Catholic  book  for  children,  by  the 
Rev.  J.  Furniss  :  '  The  fourth  dungeon  is  the  boiling  kettle.  Listen  ; 
there  is  a  sound  like  that  of  a  kettle  boiling.  The  blood  is  boiling  in 
the  scalded  brains  of  that  boy  ;  the  brain  is  boiling  and  bubbling  in  his 
head  ;  the  marrow  is  boiling  in  his  bones.  The  fifth  dungeon  is  the  red- 
hot  oven,  in  which  is  a  little  child.  Hear  how  it  screams  to  come  out  ; 
see  how  it  turns  and  twists  itself  about  in  the  fire  ;  it  beats  its  head 
against  the  roof  of  the  oven ;  it  stamps  its  feet  upon  the  floor  of  the 
oven.'  The  idea  of  terrific  torture  lasting  to  all  eternity  seems  a  wholly 
Western  conception.  The  same  Chicago  paper  goes  on  to  quote  from 
another  author  :  '  The  world  will  probably  be  converted  into  a  great  lake 
or  liquid  globe  of  fire,  in  which  the  wicked  shall  be  overwhelmed,  which 
shall  always  be  in  tempest,  in  which  they  shall  be  tossed  to  and  fro, 
having  no  rest  day  nor  night  ....  their  heads,  their  eyes,  their  tongues, 
their  hands,  their  feet,  their  loins  and  their  vitals  shall  for  ever  be  full  of 
a  glowing,  melting  fire,  fierce  enough  to  melt  the  very  rocks  and  elements.' 
So,  again,  a  celebrated  preacher  is  reported  to  have  said  in  a  sermon  : 
'  When  thou  diest  thy  soul  will  be  tormented  alone  ;  that  will  be  hell 
for  it ;   but  at  the  Day  of  Judgment  thy  body  will  join  thy  soul  and  thou 


Demon-worship  and  Spirit-worship.  2  ^  '^ 


00 


the  same  way  the  Svarga  or  heaven  of  Brahmanism  is  merely 
a  temporary  paradise  (pp.  49  ;  71). 

On  the  other  hand,  the  seven  worlds  immediately  below 
the  earth  are  not  places  of  punishment  at  all.  According 
to  the  Vishnu-purana  (II.  5)  they  are  regions  adorned  with 
beautiful  palaces,  groves  and  streams,  where  the  sun  diffuses 
light,  not  heat,  and  the  moon  shines  for  illumination,  not 
for  cold  ;  where  the  air  is  resonant  with  the  song  of  birds,  and 
where  are  all  kinds  of  delicious  food  and  beverages. 

All  seven  lower  regions  (which  are  not  to  be  confounded 
with  the  hells),  and  especially  the  one  called  Patala,  are  in- 
habited by  demoniacal  creatures — such  as  the  Daityas  and 
Danavas  (p.  238),  of  a  nature  not  necessarily  wicked,  and  in 
some  respects  superior  to  that  of  men.  According  to  one 
legend,  the  Demon  Bali  reigns  in  these  regions^  (see  p.  no), 
but,  if  this  be  accepted,  he  is  not  to  be  confounded  with 
Yama  (p.  290).  Notably  they  are  peopled  by  a  race  half  men, 
half  serpents,  called  Nagas.  These  serpent-demons  (see  pp. 
321-323),  who  are  described  as  having  jewels  in  their  heads, 
are  fabled  to  have  sprung  from  Kadru  wife  of  Kasyapa,  and 
some  of  the  females  among  them  (naga-kanyas)  are  even 
said  to  have  married  human  heroes^.  They  are  ruled  over 
by  three  chief  serpents  called  Sesha,  Vasuki,  and  Takshaka, 
who  also  exercise  control  over  the  ordinary  snakes  which 
infest  the  earth. 

Again,  the  seven  upper  worlds,  including  the  world  which  is 


wilt  have  twin  hells  ;  thy  body  sweating  drops  of  blood,  and  thy  soul 
suffused  with  agony.  In  fierce  fire,  exactly  like  that  we  have  on  earth, 
thy  body  will  be,  asbestos-like,  for  ever  unconsumed  ;  all  thy  veins  roads 
for  the  feet  of  pa-in  to  travel  on  ;  every  nerve  a  string  on  which  the  devil 
shall  for  ever  play  his  diabolical  tune  of  hell's  unutterable  lament.' 

^  At  the  Calcutta  Exhibition  of  1 883-1 884,  I  was  greatly  amused  by 
coming  across  an  image  of  the  Demon  Bali,  which  had  been  labelled  by 
a  native  clerk  '  King  of  the  Netherlands.' 

"  In  this  way  Ulupl  became  the  wife  of  Arjuna,  and,  curiously  enough, 
a  tribe  of  Rajputs,  now  existing,  claims  descent  from  the  Nagas. 


2  34  Demon-worship  and  Spirit-worship, 

the  peculiar  abode  of  man,  are  inhabited  by  countless  hosts  of 
superhuman  and  semi-divine  creatures  of  all  kinds.  Apparently 
some  of  the  highest  worlds  are  set  apart  for  the  exclusive  occu- 
pation of  those  beatified  creatures  who  have  attained  a  state 
of  absolute  perfection  ;  for  example,  the  Siddhas  and  others. 
But  the  regions  just  above  the  earth — especially  the  region 
corresponding  to  the  atmosphere,  called  Bhuvar — are  tenanted 
by  numerous  demonized  spirits  of  dead  men  and  superhuman 
beings,  who,  like  the  inhabitants  of  the  lower  worlds,  may 
fitly  be  designated  by  the  general  name  '  demons  ^.'  They 
have  been  already  alluded  to  in  chapter  VIII  (p.  209).  Like 
men,  they  are  generally  gifted  with  free-will,  and  may  have 
good  or  evil  proclivities,  and  even  the  best  of  them  may  fall 
away  from  religion  and  virtue.  They  may  be  pious  or  im- 
pious, benevolent  or  malevolent,  merciful  or  cruel.  They  may 
be  obedient  to  the  gods  as  their  servants  or  followers,  or  may 
be  opposed  to  them  as  enemies.  Similarly  they  may  be 
the  friends  or  foes  of  man.  Some  of  these  beings  are  con- 
stantly traversing  the  earth  and  the  world  immediately  above 
the  earth.  They  are  innumerable  and  constitute  a  vast 
Pandemonium,  for  ever  balancing,  as  it  were,  the  equally  vast 
Pantheon  of  330  million  gods.  Moreover,  this  Pandemonium 
is  constantly  replenished,  as  we  shall  see,  with  new  inhabitants 
from  the  world  of  human  beings. 

And  here  again  we  must  guard  against  the  notion  that 
the  demons,  whether  good  or  bad,  of  Hindu  mythology  are 
in  their  nature  and  organization  wholly  spiritual  and  im- 
material. Though  they  are  sometimes  called  by  English 
writers  on  Hindu  mythology  'spirits,'  and  though  they  are 
certainly  endowed  with  frames  of  a  finer  and  more  ethereal 
structure  than  the  bodies  of  men,  and  not  necessarily  visible 
to  men,  yet  these  frames  have  for  their  essential  elements 
gross  (sthula)  material  particles.     In  point  of  fact,  according 

^  The  Sanskrit  term  Bhuta,  though  often  restricted  to  evil  demons  and 
devils,  may  be  used  generally  in  the  same  way.     Compare  p.  242. 


Demon-worship  and  Spirit-wo7'ship.  235 

to  Hindu  ideas,  the  corporeal  organization  of  the  gencraHty 
of  demons  stands  midway  between  that  of  men  and  gods. 
For  it  is  must  be  borne  in  mind  that,  in  accordance  with  the 
theory  before  explained,  even  the  gods  have  forms,  composed 
of  material  atoms  requiring  the  support  of  daily  food  (see 
pp.  22,  28,  Bhagavad-glta  III.  11),  that  they  are  capable  of 
undergoing  austerities  (see  Manu  XI.  243,  244),  that  they  are 
liable  to  passions  and  affections  like  men  and  animals,  and 
that  all,  not  excepting  the  one  Supreme  Personal  God,  are 
subject  to  the  inexorable  law  of  disintegration  and  ultimate 
absorption  into  the  one  universal  and  sole  eternal  Essence. 
In  short,  gods,  demons,  and  men  are  so  closely  connected 
and  inter-related  that  it  is  difficult  to  draw  any  line  of  de- 
marcation between  them.  All  three  are  subject  to  distinc- 
tions of  sex  ;  all  three  have  bodies  made  up  of  gross 
elementary  (sthula)  particles — these  bodies  being  ethereal 
in  the  case  of  gods,  less  ethereal  in  the  case  of  demons,  and 
earthly  in  the  case  of  men. 

It  is  noticeable,  too,  that  all  men  living  on  the  earth  are 
said  to  fall  under  two  categories,  those  who  have  divine 
(daiva)  natures,  and  those  who  have  demoniacal  (asura),  and 
that  instances  are  recorded  of  demons  allying  themselves  with 
mortal  women.  These  ideas  are  quite  in  keeping  with  the 
theory  of  transmigration  (pp.  26-29). 

Moreover,  it  is  to  be  observed  that,  as  it  is  common  to  find 
the  bodies  of  even  secondary  deities  possessed  of  an  extra 
number  of  hands  and  arms,  the  same  is  true  of  the  demons. 
Again,  as  all  the  gods  have  the  power  of  assuming  any  shape 
they  like  and  of  moving  through  the  air  in  all  directions,  so 
also  have  the  generality  of  demons.  In  epic  poetry  the  bodies 
of  the  gods  are  described  as  very  similar  to  those  of  men. 
They  differ  only  in  the  power  of  walking  above  the  surface  of 
the  ground,  in  being  shadowless,  in  being  free  from  per- 
spiration, in  having  eyes  that  never  w'ink,  and  flowery  orna- 
ments that  never  wither  (Nala  V.  24).     Whether  these  latter 


236  Deni07i-worship  and  Spirit-worship, 

attributes  belong  also  to  all  demon-frames  is  not  so  clear. 
Some  classes  of  demons  have  shapes  peculiarly  their  own  which 
they  cannot  alter.  In  general  they  are  dwarfish  and  shorter 
than  men  ^,  but  the  majority  enjoy  the  faculty  of  assuming  any 
shape  suited  to  their  needs,  and  even  that  of  human  beings. 

It  would  be  difficult  in  fact  to  enumerate  all  the  varieties 
of  these  beings,  separable  as  they  are,  both  good  and  bad, 
into  numberless  classes  according  to  differences  of  rank, 
powers,  and  functions. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  important  to  note  that  they  all  fall 
under  two  grand  divisions.  The  first  division  embraces  all 
demons  created  by  God  at  the  creation  of  the  world,  or 
brought  into  existence  by  the  act  of  superior  deities  at  other 
times. 

The  second  comprehends  all  demons  whose  creation  or 
existence  is  due  to  men,  that  is  to  say,  to  the  spirits  of  men 
who  have  once  lived  upon  the  earth. 

To  begin  with  the  first  of  these  grand  divisions,  although 
it  is  said  to  comprise  seven  principal  classes  of  beings  cor- 
responding to  the  seven  worlds — seven  demon-kings,  with 
frames  in  stature  equal  to  a  palm-tree^,  being  mentioned  in 
the  Sankara-vijaya  (chap.  LI) — yet  it  would  be  easy  to  show 
by  extracts  from  both  the  earlier  and  later  sacred  literature 
that  no  clearly  definite  classification  or  arrangement  of 
demoniacal  creatures  in  any  regular  series  or  gradation  is 
possible. 

Probably  the  earliest  Sanskrit  expression  for  a  '  demon '  is 
Asura ;  and  we  know  that  although  this  word  is  used  in  the 
later  literature  as  a  general  term  for  evil  demons  of  malignant 
disposition,  it  was  originally  restricted  to  beings  of  a  god-like 
nature,  and  even  applied  to  the  gods  themselves. 

Thus  in  the  Rig-veda  the  word  Asura  is  used  as  the  epithet 
of  Indra,  the   Maruts,  Rudra,  and  other  deities,  and  is  espe- 

•^  I  noticed  that  all  Siva's  troops  of  demons  are  represented  as  dwarfish 
in  the  sculptures  of  the  caves  of  Elephanta. 


Demon-worship  and  Sphdt-worship.  237 

cially  an  attribute  of  the  ancient  deity  Varuna,  who  is  first 
an  impersonation  of  the  vault  of  heaven,  and  then  identified 
with  the  Supreme  Being. 

Furthermore,  in  the  Taittiriya-Sanihita  (VI.  4.  10.  i)  it  is 
said  that  there  was  an  original  equality  in  goodness  and 
power  between  the  gods  and  Asuras^. 

In  the  Taittiriya-Brahmana,  Praja-pati,  or  '  the  Lord  of 
Creation,'  creates  the  Asuras  with  his  breath  (asu).  In  the 
Satapatha-Brahmana  the  seventh  Manu  (or  Manu  of  the 
present  period)  is  made  to  produce  gods,  Asuras,  and  men. 
In  other  passages  of  the  Brahmanas  they  are  said  to  have 
their  own  priests  and  sacrificial  rites. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  the  Veda  various  orders  of  evil 
beings  are  spoken  of  under  the  name  of  Dasyus,  Rakshasas, 
Yatudhanas,  Kimldins,  and  are  described  as  without  religious 
rites,  godless,  haters  of  prayer  (brahma-dvish),  eaters  of 
flesh  (kravyad),  monstrous  in  form,  and  possessors  of  magical 
powers  ^. 

Then,  again,  in  Manu's  law-book  (I.  37)  we  find  it  stated 
that  the  ten  Praja-patis  or  secondary  creators,  after  creating 
the  gods  and  great  sages,  afterwards  created  various  orders  of 
beings,  such  as  the  Yakshas,  Rakshasas,  Pisacas,  Gandharvas, 
Apsarasas  (pi.  of  Apsaras),  Asuras,  Nagas,  etc.  It  is  not  af- 
firmed that  any  of  these  beings  were  aboriginally  evil-minded, 
though  they  were  certainly  capable  of  becoming  so.  In 
the  Ramayana  constant  mention  is  made  of  beings  hostile 
to  gods  and  men  called  Rakshasas.  They  are  the  haters  and 
disturbers  of  religious  rites,  they  change  their  shapes  at  will, 
harass  holy  men  and  devotees,  and  utter  frightful  sounds 
in  the  ears  of  the  faithful. 

Most  Rakshasas  are  men-eaters,  and  one,  called  Viradha,  is 
described  as  resembling  a  mountain-peak,  with  long  legs,  a 
crooked   nose,   hideous   eyes,    pendant   belly,   and    an    open 

^  Muir's  Sanskrit  Texts,  v.  230.  ^  Ibid.  ii.  418. 


238  Demon-worship   and  Spirit-worship. 

mouth  like  that  of  death.  At  the  head  of  them  is  the  Demon 
Ravana,  who  is  an  impersonation  of  selfish  ambition.  It  does 
not  appear,  however,  that  in  other  respects  he  was  innately 
wicked.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  only  by  severe  religious 
austerities  carried  on  for  ten  thousand  years  that  he  acquired 
unbounded  power  over  gods  and  men.  Others,  too,  of  these 
same  Rakshasas  are  described  as  virtuous  and  pious,  and 
among  them  especially  Vibhishana,  who  is  the  brother  of 
Ravana,  and  exactly  his  opposite  in  character  and  conduct. 
In  the  Maha-bharata,  again,  Kansa,  Kali,  and  numerous  other 
demons  are,  like  Ravana  in  the  Ramayana,  impersonations 
of  evil.  Kansa  is  the  implacable  enemy  of  Krishna,  and 
Kali  is  for  ever  instilling  evil  thoughts  into  men's  hearts 
in  an  age  of  universal  degeneration. 

We  may  note,  too,  that  in  epic  poetry  frequent  mention  is 
made  of  another  class  of  beings  who  are  more  especially 
hostile  to  the  gods,  and  for  ever  engaged  in  warfare  with 
them.  They  are  called  Daityas,  as  the  supposed  children 
of  the  goddess  Diti  by  Kasyapa  (the  gods  being  children  of 
Aditi).  Others,  too,  are  often  alluded  to  under  the  name  j 
of  Danavas,  as  daughters  of  Danu.  Both  of  these  classes 
of  beings  are  said  in  the  Vishnu-purana  to  occupy  some  of  \ 
the  seven  regions  below  the  earth  of  which  Patala  is  one 
(II.  5),  and  appear  to  belong  to  a  higher  order  of  creation 
than  the  Rakshasas,  whose  nature  is  of  a  type  inclined  to 
baser  forms  of  wickedness,  and  whose  malignity  is  more 
particularly  directed  against  men. 

Then  there  are  troops  (ganas)  of  beings  called  Pramathas, 
who  constitute  the  armies  of  the  god  Siva.  There  are  also  the 
Yakshas,  who  wait  on  Kubera  (Kuvera),  and  the  Gandharvas 
(Atharva-veda  XI.  5.  2)  or  heavenly  choristers,  and  their 
wives  the  Apsarasas,  who  attend  on  Indra.  To  these  may 
be  added  the  Kinnaras  (with  human  figure  and  equine  head), 
the  Kimpurushas,  the  Vidya-dharas,  Pannagas,  &c. 

Most  of  these  creatures  are  good  and  benign  in  character ; 


Demon-worship  and  Spirit-worship,  239 

but  all  were  created  free  agents,  and  are  therefore  liable  to 
fall  away,  and,  after  committing  acts  of  sin  or  disobedience, 
may  become  malignant  beings  animated  with  a  spirit  of 
bitter  hostility  towards  gods  and  men. 

It  is  in  consonance  with  the  theory  of  a  continual  conflict 
between  the  powers  of  good  and  the  powers  of  evil  that  we 
find  the  chief  gods  of  the  Hindu  Pantheon  constantly  repre- 
sented in  the  act  of  crushing;  their  demon  foes.  Thus  Krishna 
is  seen  bruising  the  head  of  the  great  demon  serpent  Kaliya, 
while  Siva  tramples  on  the  arch-fiend  Tripura,  and  holds 
venomous  serpents  in  his  hands  in  token  of  his  supremacy 
over  all  malignant  influences. 

Hence,  too,  a  great  number  of  the  t,ooo  names  of  both 
Vishnu  and  Siva  will  be  found  to  be  simple  epithets — like 
Murari  '  enemy  of  Mura,'  Purari  '  enemy  of  Pura  ' — significant 
of  their  victory  over  certain  typical  demon  antagonists. 
Furthermore,  the  symbols  held  in  the  hands  of  both  deities, 
the  discus  and  club  of  Vishnu,  and  the  trident  and  bow  of 
Siva,  are  merely  weapons  of  supposed  irresistible  efficacy  in 
their  conflicts  with  the  spirits  of  evil. 

We  pass  on  now  to  the  second  great  division  of  the  demon 
world — that  which  is  said  to  owe  its  creation  to  man.  This 
is  by  far  the  more  important  of  the  two  great  divisions  in  its 
bearing  on  the  subject  of  the  present  chapter,  for  it  is  chiefly 
to  those  demons  whose  existence  is  derived  from  the  departed 
spirits  of  human  beings  that  adoration  and  propitiation  are 
commonly  offered. 

And,  indeed,  it  is  a  noteworthy  point  in  the  rehgious  creed 
of  all  ordinary  Hindus  that  the  majority  of  malignant  devils 
are  believed  to  have  been  originally  human  beings. 

If  any  man  is  killed  by  a  tiger  or  the  bite  of  a  snake,  or 
has  died  a  sudden  violent  death  of  any  kind,  away  from  his 
relations  and  out  of  reach  of  proper  funeral  ceremonies,  he 
forthwith  becomes  an  unquiet  spirit,  roaming  about  with 
malevolent  proclivities.     In  one  place  I  found  people  wor- 


240  Demon-woi^ship  and  Spirit-worship. 

shipping  the  ghost  of  a  milkman  who  was  killed  by  a  tiger 
and  became  a  devil.  In  another  place  the  ghost  of  a  potter 
became  a  devil  and  a  terror  to  the  neighbourhood.  The  priests 
of  these  demons  were  milkmen  and  potters  respectively. 

And  a  curious  notion  prevails  in  some  parts  of  India  that, 
the  better  the  man,  the  more  mischievous  will  his  ghost  turn 
out  to  be,  if  his  body  has  not  received  proper  cremation, 
or  if  from  any  accident  the  succeeding  funeral  rites  have  not 
been  carefully  performed  or  partially  omitted. 

Again,  a  still  more  remarkable  doctrine  is  rife  in  India, 
especially  in  the  South.  There  it  is  a  fixed  article  of  belief 
that  when  a  man  notorious  for  any  particular  vices  dies,  the 
man  himself  may  become  extinct,  but  his  evil  nature  never 
dies  ;  nay,  every  one  of  his  vices  may  then  assume  personality 
and  live  after  him  as  a  demon. 

And  this  applies  equally  to  women,  so  that  the  resulting 
demons  may  be  of  either  sex,  and  the  female  is  not  unfre- 
quently  more  spiteful  and  malignant  than  the  male.  It  also 
applies  to  persons  of  all  castes,  high  or  low,  so  that  the 
demons  created  may  be  of  all  ranks,  and  may  have  either 
refined  or  low  tastes. 

It  is  thus  that  legion  after  legion  of  foul  fiends  and  un- 
clean spirits,  bearing  names  corresponding  to  such  expressions 
as  deceit-devils,  lying-devils,  gambling-devils,  pride-devils, 
cruelty-devils,  lust-devils,  gluttony-devils,  strife-devils,  drunk- 
enness-devils, are  supposed  to  have  originated. 

The  same  applies  to  a  man  who  has  been  guilty  of  great 
crimes  or  sins.  His  crimes  and  sins  live  after  him  in  the 
shape  of  malignant  demons. 

Hence  have  arisen  any  number  of  murder-devils,  theft- 
devils,  perjury-devils,  adultery-devils,  blasphemy-devils,  who 
are  always  on  the  look-out  for  weak-minded  victims,  and  ever 
instigating  them  to  the  commission  of  similar  crimes. 

Nay,  a  man  may  sometimes  become  a  demon  without 
dying  ;  for  example,  we  read  in  the  Maha-bharata  and  Vishnu- 


Demon-ivorship  and  Spirit -worship.  241 

purana  that  Nahusha  son  of  Ayus  was  changed  Into  a  serpent- 
demon,  in  consequence  of  a  curse  pronounced  on  him  by  the 
sage  Agastya  for  his  excessive  pride  in  having  gained  by 
penance  the  rank  of  Indra  and  then  insulted  some  of  the 
Rishis  (Maha-bh.  V.  343 ;  Vishnu-purana,  p.413 ;  Manu  VII.  41). 

Furthermore,  all  the  diseases  that  either  human  or  bestial 
flesh  is  heir  to  are  personified  and  converted  into  demons — 
such  as  the  demons  of  small-pox,  of  cholera,  and  of  various 
forms  of  typhus  and  jungle  fever,  and  of  cattle-disease.  And 
this  idea  of  personifying  and  demonizing  diseases  is  extended 
to  unseasonable  calamities  and  disasters,  such  as  hail-storms, 
drought  and  blight,  which  all  do  duty  in  the  devil  army. 

Indeed,  I  found  that  some  villages  in  India  possess  a  pro- 
fessional exerciser  or  charmer,  called  Garpagari  (probably  for 
Gar-apakarl,  gar  in  MarathI  meaning  '  hail '),  whose  peculiar 
business  is  to  repeat  incantations  for  warding  off  the  hail- 
storm-demon from  the  growing  crops. 

It  is  important,  however,  to  bear  in  mind  that  there  is  in 
Hinduism  a  per-contra  side  to  the  vastness  of  the  demon-host. 
For  if  it  is  an  awful  thought  that  year  after  year,  and  even  day 
by  day,  men  and  women  are  themselves  through  their  sinful 
habits  causing  fresh  accessions  to  the  demon-armies,  it  is,  on 
the  other  hand,  a  comforting  reflection  that  the  ranks  of  good 
demons  and  benevolent  spirits  are  continually  recruited  by 
the  deaths  of  righteous  men,  saints  and  sages,  who  are  ranged 
with  the  gods  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  battle-field,  and 
are  ever  contending  with  their  fiendish  antagonists. 

It  is,  then,  these  lower  forms  of  evil  demons — once  the 
occupants  of  human  bodies — that  are  most  dreaded  by  the 
generality  of  Hindus,  and  therefore  most  worshipped.  Such 
demons  fitly  take  rank  with  devils. 

According  to  some  authorities  they  may  be  grouped  under 
the  three  classes  of  Bhuta,  Preta,  and  Pisaca,  each  class 
having  a  distinct  origin. 

A   Bhuta,   they  say,  is  a  spirit  emanating   from   a    man 

R 


242  Demon-worship  and  Spirit-worship. 

who  has  died  a  violent  death  either  by  accident,  suicide,  or 
capital  punishment,  and  has  not  had  proper  funeral  cere- 
monies performed  afterwards. 

A  Preta  is  the  spirit  of  a  deformed  or  crippled  person, 
or  of  one  defective  in  some  limb  or  organ,  or  of  a  child  that 
dies  prematurely,  owing  to  the  omission  of  ceremonies  during 
the  formation  of  the  embryo.  It  is  not  necessarily  wicked  or 
malicious  or  evil-disposed  towards  living  men. 

A  Pisaca  is  a  demon  created  by  a  man's  vices.  It  is  the 
ghost  of  a  liar,  drunkard,  adulterer,  or  criminal  of  any  kind, 
or  of  one  who  has  died  insane. 

In  real  truth,  however,  this  kind  of  triple  classification  is 
nowhere  universally  accepted,  and  is  never  consistently  main- 
tained. My  own  inquiries  led  me  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
terms  Bhuta  and  Preta  are  as  a  general  rule  applied  to  all 
demons  and  ghosts  indifferently,  and  the  term  Pisaca  to 
malicious  and  mischievous  imps  and  fiends.  Such  demons 
and  malicious  beings  haunt  cemeteries  or  take  up  their  abode 
in  trees,  and  are  addicted  to  roaming  about  between  the 
hours  of  12  and  3  in  the  morning.  They  may  take  either 
hideous  or  beautiful  shapes,  and  even  the  form  of  men. 
They  require,  as  we  have  seen,  the  support  of  food  ;  and 
what  satiates  their  appetites  more  than  any  other  kind  of 
nutriment  is  the  blood  of  living  animals.  But  according  to 
popular  belief  they  may  also  feed  on  corpses,  ordure  and 
carrion,  and  may  even  occupy  and  vivify  dead  bodies.  Nay, 
they  may  enter  living  bodies  through  the  open  mouth,  if  it 
happen  to  be  opened  imprudently  wide.  Thus,  if  a  man  in  an 
unguarded  moment  yawns  or  gapes  without  holding  his  hand 
or  snapping  his  fingers  before  his  face,  they  may  promptly 
dart  in  and  take  up  their  abode  in  his  interior,  feeding  on 
the  refuse  of  the  food  as  it  passes  through  the  intestines. 

When  malignant  demons  thus  take  possession  of  the 
bodies  of  living  men,  they  may  cause  diseases  and  un- 
pleasant  affections   of  all   kinds,    or   they  may  agitate   the 


Demon-worship  and  Spirit-iuorship .  24 


'> 


limbs   of  the   person  possessed,   and    impel    him   to   frantic 
movements,  in  which  all  devils  take  particular  delight. 

Occasionally  they  may  take  the  shape  or  character  of  a 
dog,  cat,  serpent,  or  other  animal.  It  is  fully  believed  that 
if  a  person  happens  to  be  possessed  by  a  dog-demon  he  will 
take  to  barking  like  a  dog. 

With  regard  to  so-called  demon-worship,  it  must  be  noted 
that  there  is  no  real  worship.  Nor  has  any  demon — not  even 
one  of  the  highest  class — any  imposing  temple-like  structure 
erected  to  him.  Often  a  mere  heap  of  earth  piled  up  in 
pyramidal  shape  near  some  tree,  or  a  similar  erection  formed 
with  bricks  and  painted  with  streaks  of  white,  constitutes  the 
only  shrine,  while  another  heap  in  front  with  a  flat  surface 
does  duty  for  the  altar.  Sometimes  the  whole  is  covered 
with  a  wooden  roof  supported  on  rough  columns.  There  is 
rarely  any  idol  ;  though  sometimes,  if  the  demon's  origin  be 
traceable  to  the  ghost  of  some  high  personage,  whose  elevation 
of  rank  or  office  made  him  during  lifetime  formidable  to  his 
followers,  he  may  be  represented  by  a  rude  image  of  some  of 
the  terrible  forms  of  Siva.  No  real  prayers  are  said  at  such 
shrines,  though  incantations  may  be  recited.  The  propitia- 
tion consists  in  offerings  of  food,  as  mentioned  in  the  preceding 
chapter  (p.  221),  and  in  various  ceremonies  which  differ  in 
different  localities. 

A  spirit  of  one  of  these  classes  highly  reverenced  and  very 
commonly  propitiated  by  villagers  in  some  parts  of  India 
is  one  popularly  called  Bhumya,  or  the  '  earth-spirit.'  He  is 
supposed  to  be  the  spirit  of  the  founder  of  the  village.  If 
a  village  is  deserted  by  its  inhabitants,  no  new  colony  of 
people  will  dare  to  settle  there  without  going  through  a 
careful  process  of  propitiating  the  earth-spirit,  who  never, 
under  any  circumstances,  quits  his  old  haunts. 

Another  class  consists  of  the  spirits  of  young  men  who 
have  died  without  becoming  fathers.  These  wander  about 
in  a  restless  miserable  manner,   like   people  burdened  with 

R  2 


244  De^non-worship  and  Spirit-worship. 

an  enormous  debt  which  they  are  quite  unable  to  discharge. 
They  are  euphemistically  called  Pitas,  '  fathers,' — that  is, 
by  the  name  to  which  they  are  least  entitled, — and  are 
propitiated  by  offerings  presented  at  small  shrines  of  a  very 
simple  construction  erected  near  rivers  or  pools  of  water. 
Often  these  shrines  are  formed  by  merely  setting  up  two 
bricks  with  a  little  interval  between  them  covered  by  another 
brick. 

And  here  it  should  be  noted  that  although  nearly  every 
village  has  its  own  special  demon,  whose  cultus  may  not 
only  have  existed  from  time  immemorial,  but  may  have  an 
origin  antecedent  to  the  introduction  of  Hinduism,  yet  it  is 
always  possible  to  connect  every  form  and  variety  of  such 
worship  with  that  of  the  god  Siva,  his  consort  Durga  (or 
Devi)  and  his  two  sons  Ganesa  and  Su-brahmanya  (see  p.  212). 

It  is  important,  too,  to  bear  in  mind  that  as  the  South  of 
India  is  the  region  in  which  Saivism  is  particularly  prevalent, 
so  also  it  is  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  South  that  devil- 
worship  is  most  systematically  practised.  No  one  who  has 
travelled  in  that  region  can  doubt  that  demonophobia  is  a 
disease  with  which  the  whole  Southern  population  is  almost 
hopelessly  and  incurably  afflicted.  Possibly  one  reason  of 
this  may  be  that  when  the  Dravidians  invaded  India  they 
found  the  South  inhabited  by  wild  aboriginal  savages,  whose 
whole  aspect  and  demeanour  appeared  to  them  to  resemble 
those  of  devils.  Again,  the  Aryans  as  they  advanced  towards 
the  South  found  it  occupied  by  hostile  Dravidian  races,  as 
well  as  by  apparently  aboriginal  tribes,  and  their  excited 
imaginations  converted  these  powerful  enemies  into  super- 
natural giants,  and  the  most  formidable  of  them  into  veritable 
demons  (Rakshasas). 

In  due  time  Aryans,  Dravidians,  and    aborigines  blended    1 
amicably   together,  but  the  dread   of  demon-foes   remained, 
and  this  dread  still  prevails  not  only  in  the  South,  but  over 
every  part  of  India.     In  fact,  so  deep-seated  and  ineradicable 


Demon-worship  and  Spirit-zuorship,  245 

is  the  fear  of  evil  spirits  in  the  minds  of  the  lower  orders,  that 
in  many  villages  of  India  the  doors  of  the  houses  are  never 
allowed  to  face  the  South,  lest  the  entrance  of  some  dreaded 
demon  should  be  facilitated.  Perhaps,  however,  the  true 
devil-region  is  the  extreme  Southern  peninsula,  near  the 
Island  of  Ceylon.  The  nearer  indeed  we  approach  that 
island,  the  more  do  we  find  the  people  (like  the  Shanars  of 
Tinnevelly)  steeped  in  demonolatry  and  saturated  with  every 
form  of  superstitious  fear  of  evil  spirits,  ghosts,  and  goblins. 

Every  village  has  its  ow^n  peculiar  devil  or  devils,  to  the 
attacks  of  which  it  is  constantly  in  imagination  exposed. 
Happily  every  village  has  also,,  as  we  have  already  pointed  out, 
its  own  tutelary  deities.  Curiously,  too,  many  good  spirits 
are  believed  to  be  equestrian  in  their  tastes.  Possibly  the 
villagers  suppose  that  by  turning  them  into  a  kind  of  cavalry 
regiment  they  give  them  an  advantage  over  their  impish  op- 
ponents, who  prowl  about  on  foot,  and  sneak  into  the  village 
domain  at  unguarded  corners. 

Certain  it  is  that  to  propitiate  these  tutelary  divinities  the 
villagers  set  up  horses  of  baked  clay  in  their  fields — often  as  large 
as  life,  and  generally  ten  or  twenty  in  a  row  or  in  a  semicircle 
round  a  shrine — and  present  them  as  offerings  to  the  good 
divinity  of  the  shrine,  in  token  of  gratitude  for  deliverances. 

They  are  especially  presented — though  not  without  other 
oblations — to  the  male  guardian  God  Ayenar  (see  p.  219), 
who  is  believed  to  be  a  daring  horseman  capable  of  clearing 
hedges  and  ditches  and  riding  down  the  most  active  demon- 
antagonist. 

As  to  the  female  tutelary  deities  called  Mothers  (see  p.  223), 
we  have  already  seen  that  if  not  propitiated  by  constant 
offerings,  and  especially  with  blood,  they  will  themselves 
assume  the  personality  of  the  very  demon  dreaded  by  the 
villagers,  and  inflict  the  very  plague  from  which  they  usually 
protect  them. 

The  most  terrible  of  all  demons  are  thought  to  be  those 


246  Demon-worship  and  Spirit-worship. 

created  by  Europeans.  Of  course  the  propitiating  process 
must  vary  according  to  the  character  of  the  man  whose 
demonized  spirit  is  to  be  coaxed  into  good-humour.  His 
tastes  and  idiosyncrasies  during  life  must  be  carefully  inquired 
into  and  judiciously  indulged.  The  story  is  told  of  a  certain 
choleric  Englishman  who  was  a  terror  to  the  inhabitants  of  a 
district  in  the  South  of  India,  and  whose  ghost  after  his  death 
had  to  be  constantly  appeased  by  offerings  of  good  cooked 
meat,  brandy,  soda-water,  and  cigars  placed  daily  on  his 
tomb.  The  same  was  done  to  secure  the  continued  good-will 
of  a  philanthropic  sportsman,  who  when  he  was  alive  delivered 
a  large  tract  of  country  from  the  ravages  of  tigers. 

And  here  we  may  note  other  methods  of  neutralizing  the 
evil  influences  of  demons  prevalent  in  Southern  India.  Male 
and  female  devils  are  supposed  to  delight  in  dancing,  particu- 
larly when  accompanied  with  wild  cries,  violent  gesticulations, 
ringing  of  bells,  and  noisy  discordant  music.  Hence  it  happens 
that,  when  pestilence  is  rife  in  any  district,  professional 
wizard-like  exorcisers,  or  persons  selected  for  the  purpose, 
paint  their  faces,  put  on  hideous  masks,  dress  up  in  fantastic 
garments,  arm  themselves  with  strange  weapons,  and  com- 
mence dancing.  Their  object  is  to  personate  particular 
demons,  or  to  induce  demoniacal  spirits  to  leave  the  persons 
of  those  possessed  by  them  and  to  occupy  the  persons  of  the 
dancers,  who  shriek,  fling  themselves  about,  and  work  them- 
selves up  into  a  phrenzy  of  excitement,  amid  beating  of  tom- 
toms, blowing  of  horns,  and  ringing  of  bells.  When  the 
dancers  are  thoroughly  exhausted  by  their  gesticulations  they 
sink  down  in  a  kind  of  trance,  and  are  then  beHeved  to  be 
actually  possessed  by  the  spirit  of  the  demon  and  are  turned 
for  a  time  into  demon-mediums,  gifted  with  clairvoyance 
and  a  power  of  delivering  prophetic  utterances.  The  spec- 
tators ask  them  questions  about  missing  relatives  or  future 
events,  and  their  deliverances  are  supposed  to  be  oracular. 
This  is  akin  to  Shamanism. 


Demon-worship  and  Spirit-worship,  247 

I  witnessed  such  a  dance  on  a  dark  night  In  a  garden  near 
Colombo  in  Ceylon.  The  dancers  represented  the  demons  of 
various  forms  of  typhus  fever,  carried  flaring  torches,  wore 
hideous  masks,  and  had  jingling  bells  on  their  legs.  Their 
wild  cries  and  horrible  antics  will  remain  indelibly  impressed 
on  my  recollection.     (See  my  'Buddhism,'  p.  217,) 

When  I  was  at  Tanjor  the  late  learned  Dr.  Burnell,  then 
judge  of  that  district,  gave  me  some  interesting  information  in 
regard  to  the  demon-festivals  which  recur  periodically  in  the 
district  of  Mangalor,  where  he  held  office  for  some  time. 

One  of  the  most  popular  of  these  festivals,  called  Illecchida 
Nema,  is  celebrated  every  fifteen  or  twenty  years.  At 
another  called  Kallyata,  a  wild  dance  is  performed  every 
sixtieth  year  before  a  particular  rock  or  stone,  which  is  sup- 
posed to  tremble  and  shake  periodically. 

Sometimes  the  performance  takes  place  in  a  large  shed  in 
the  middle  of  which  burns  a  common  lamp  under  a  canopy. 
Around  are  images  of  the  Bhutas.  At  the  distance  of  about 
a  foot  in  front  of  the  lamp  is  placed  a  common  wooden 
tripod-stand,  two  or  three  feet  high,  on  which  is  constructed 
a  square  frame  of  cocoa-nut  leaves.  Inside  this  frame  rice 
and  turmeric  are  piled  up  in  the  form  of  a  pyramid  into 
which  a  three-branched  iron  lamp  is  inserted.  Around  are 
arranged  offerings  consisting  of  fruits  and  living  victims,  such 
as  fowls  and  goats.  The  latter  are  adorned  with  garlands, 
and  both  fowls  and  goats  are  afterwards  decapitated,  the 
warm  blood  being  either  poured  out  on  the  ground  or  on  the 
altar,  or  else  drunk  by  the  officiating  priest.  The  idea  is  that 
the  demon  thirsts  for  blood,  and  becomes  irritated  if  his 
cravings  are  not  satisfied.  The  sole  object  of  sacrificing 
animals  is  to  assuage  his  thirst  and  appease  his  anger. 

All  this  is  preliminary  to  the  principal  performance,  which 
takes  place  in  an  open  space  in  front  of  the  slaughtered 
victims.  The  priest,  or  some  other  devotee  who  has  under- 
gone a  long  preparatory  fasting,  comes  forward  to  personate 


248  Demon-worship  and  Spirit-worship. 

a  particular  demon.  He  is  dressed  up  in  a  fantastic  costume, 
often  covered  with  grotesque  dangling  ornaments  and  jingling 
bells.  Sometimes  he  wears  a  hideous  mask ;  sometimes  his 
faced  is  daubed  with  paint  of  different  colours.  In  one  hand 
he  holds  a  sword,  trident,  or  other  implement,  and  perhaps  a 
bell  in  the  other.  He  then  commences  dancing  or  pacing  up 
and  down  in  an  excited  manner,  amid  beating  of  tom-toms, 
blowing  of  horns,  and  all  kinds  of  noisy  music,  while  an 
attendant  sings  songs,  or  recites  rude  poems  descriptive  of 
the  deeds  of  the  demons.  Meanwhile  spirituous  liquor  is 
distributed,  the  performer  becomes  violently  excited,  and  the 
demon  takes  complete  possession  of  him.  Finally  he  suc- 
cumbs in  an  hysterical  fit,  and  gives  out  oracular  responses  to 
any  inquiries  addressed  to  him.  Most  of  the  bystanders 
consult  him  as  to  their  several  wants  and  destinies,  or  the 
welfare  of  absent  relatives,  but  are  not  allowed  to  do  so  with- 
out first  presenting  offerings. 

Of  course,  variations  occur  in  different  districts. 

According  to  Mr.  Walhouse,  in  his  paper  read  before  the 
Anthropological  Institute,  the  structures  and  observances  con- 
nected with  devil-worship  on  the  Western  coast  of  India  are 
both  domestic  and  public.  In  villages,  and  very  generally  in 
towns,  there  is  in  every  house  a  wooden  cot  or  cradle,  placed 
on  the  ground  or  suspended  by  ropes  or  chains,  and  dedicated 
to  the  Bhuta  of  the  spot.  On  these  are  deposited  a  bell,  a  knife 
or  sword,  and  a  pot  filled  with  water,  all  which  are  collectively 
called  the  Bhandara  of  the  Bhuta,  and  kept  either  in  a  part 
of  the  house  itself,  or  in  a  small  separate  building.  The 
object  seems  to  be  to  propitiate  the  spirit  that  haunts  the  spot 
by  making  a  sort  of  abode  for  it. 

On  the  last  day  of  every  lunar  month  flowers  are  laid  on 
the  cot,  and  perfume  burnt  before  it  ;  and  once  a  year,  towards 
the  end  of  April,  a  ceremony  called  Tambila  is  performed. 
A  fire  is  lit  on  the  spot  where  the  cot  and  paraphernalia 
stand,  then  fried  rice,  mixed  with  coarse  sugar  and   grated 


Demon-worship  and  Spirit-worship.  249 

cocoa-nut  kernel,  is  heaped  on  two  plantain  leaves,  which  are 
placed  on  the  cot,  together  with  some  young  cocoa-nuts, 
pierced  ready  to  drink  from.  A  ball  is  then  formed  of  boiled 
rice,  coloured  yellow  with  turmeric,  and  laid  on  a  piece  of 
plantain-leaf  on  a  small  stool,  which  is  placed  before  the  cot, 
with  a  lighted  torch  upon  it.  A  fowl  is  held  above  the  rice- 
ball  and  torch,  its  throat  cut,  and  the  blood  allowed  to  drop 
upon  the  ball  ;  some  perfume  is  burnt,  and  the  ceremony  ends. 
Should  a  member  of  the  family  be  stricken  with  any  unusual 
attack,  a  fowl  is  turned  three  times  round  before  the  patient's 
face,  its  neck  then  twisted,  and  the  blood  let  fall  upon  him  ; 
the  meaning  being  to  offer  life  for  life — the  fowl  in  lieu  of  the 
man.  The  family  priest  is  then  consulted,  who  recommends 
alms  to  be  given  to  himself  to  satisfy  the  hostile  stars,  with 
a  promise  to  perform  a  special  ceremony  to  the  Bhuta. 

Mr.  Walhouse  informs  us  that  these  demons  have  shrines 
called  Bhuta-sthans,  sometimes  of  considerable  size,  but  far 
more  commonly  small  plain  structures,  four  or  five  yards  deep 
by  two  or  three  wide,  with  a  door  at  one  end,  covered  by  a 
portico  supported  on  two  pillars  with  a  thatched  roof,  and 
windowless.  Inside  the  Bhuta-sthan  a  number  of  brass  images 
roughly  made  in  human  shape,  or  resembling  animals 
such  as  pigs,  tigers,  fowls,  etc.,  are  usually  found.  The 
Bhiatas  themselves  are  commonly  represented  by  mere  rough 
stones.  These  rustic  fanes  are  thickly  scattered  over  the  face 
of  the  country — under  a  green-tree,  on  hill-sides,  down  in  hol- 
lows, in  jungles,  on  plains,  by  roadsides,  in  villages,  amid  rice- 
fields,  but  always  on  a  small  plot  of  waste  ground. 

Once  a  year  a  festival  called  Kolla  is  held.  The  festival 
always  takes  place  at  night,  and  about  nine  o'clock  all  the 
villagers  assemble  in  their  best  attire.  Then  the  Pujari,  or 
priest,  takes  the  Bhuta  sword  and  bell  in  his  hands,  and  whirls 
round  and  round,  imitating  the  supposed  gestures  of  the  demon. 
A  Dher  (Dheda),  or  man  of  the  lowest  caste — at  other  times 
regarded  with  contempt,  but  now  advanced  to  the  foremost 


250  Demon-worship  and  Spirit-worship. 

post — comes  forward  naked,  except  round  the  loins,  his 
head  and  body  being  grotesquely  and  frightfully  besmeared 
with  white,  yellow,  and  red  paint.  Meanwhile  a  dozen  or 
more  tom-toms  are  beaten  with  a  continually  increasing 
din,  and  the  Dher  (Dheda)  presently  breaks  into  a  maniac 
dance,  capering,  bounding,  and  spinning  vehemently.  At 
length  he  stops  ;  he  is  full  of  the  demon,  and  stands  fixed  and 
rigid,  with  staring  eyes.  Presently  he  speaks,  or  rather  the 
demon  speaks  through  him,  in  loud,  hoarse,  commanding  tones, 
wholly  unlike  his  own,  or  indeed  any  natural  voice.  Various 
disputes  and  litigated  matters,  especially  when  evidence  and 
ordinary  means  of  adjustment  fail,  are  then  brought  forward 
and  submitted  to  the  decision  of  the  Bhuta,  and  his  award, 
pronounced  through  the  Dher,  is  generally,  though  not  al- 
ways, submitted  to.  After  this  the  demon  desires  to  have 
food,  and  the  Dher  eats  fried  rice  and  drinks  the  milk  of 
young  cocoa-nuts ;  or,  if  the  demon  he  represents  be  one  of 
low  degree,  he  eats  animal  food  and  drinks  arrack. 

Among  the  demons  most  feared  in  Kanara  are  Kalkatti, 
Kallurti,  and  Panjurli. 

The  story  of  the  former  two  is  as  follows  : — Kalkatti  and 
Kallurti  were  respectively  the  son  and  daughter  of  one 
Kalkuda,  a  sculplor,  who  must  have  lived  in  the  fifteenth 
century  of  our  era.  Kalkatti  was  a  mason,  and  one  day  found 
fault  with  his  father's  work,  which  so  distressed  him  that  he 
forthwith  killed  himself.  The  son  then  followed  his  father's 
trade,  and  succeeded  so  well  that  he  made  the  celebrated 
Jain  statue  at  Karakal.  After  completing  this  masterpiece 
he  wanted  to  go  elsewhere,  but  the  king  of  the  country 
forbad  him,  and  to  prevent  his  producing  any  similar  statue 
cut  off  his  left  hand  and  right  leg.  Notwithstanding  this 
mutilation  he  went  to  Yenur  and  made  a  still  larger  statue 
there.  His  sister  Kallurti  determined  to  join  him  at  Yenur. 
There  they  lived  together  for  some  time,  and  then  both 
committed  suicide.     It  was  thus  that  they  became  formidable 


Demon-worship  and  Spirit-worship.  251 

demons,  who  revenged  themselves  on  the  king  of  Karakal  by 
burning  down  his  palace  and  town  and  annoying  people 
throughout  the  country  in  various  ways.  Their  story  is  a 
long  one,  and  the  books  which  recount  it  give  directions  for 
appeasing  their  anger. 

The  story  of  Paiijurli  is  also  a  long  one.  He  is  a  terrible 
pig-faced  demon,  created,  it  is  said,  through  a  curse  of  Siva 
pronounced  on  some  young  pigs  which  had  laid  waste  his 
garden,  and  were  thereupon  collectively  transformed  into  a 
single  mischievous  demon. 

In  South  Kanara,  according  to  Mr.  Walhouse,  there  is  a 
noted  temple,  which  is  beHeved  to  be  the  residence  of  seven 
most  dreaded  demons.  Certain  devil-stones  are  sold  there  in 
which  the  powers  of  the  Bhiitas  are  held  to  be  inherent. 
These  are  taken  home  and  used  by  the  purchasers  against 
their  enemies. 

I  add  an  extract  from  Bishop  Caldwell's  account  of  the 
Religion  of  the  Shanars,  a  tribe  in  the  South  of  India,  whose 
occupation  consists  in  cultivating  and  climbing  the  palmyra 
tree  for  the  sake  of  its  juice.  They  have  been  largely  con- 
verted to  Christianity,  and  chiefly  through  the  Bishop's 
devoted  labours  among  them. 

In  his  description  of  their  devil-worship,  he  says  : — '  Every 
malady,  however  trivial,  is  supposed  by  the  more  superstitious 
to  be  inflicted  by  a  devil,  and  a  sacrifice  is  necessary  for 
its  removal  ;  but  the  unusual  severity  or  continuance  of  any 
disease,  or  the  appearance  of  symptoms  which  are  not  re- 
corded in  the  physician's  Sastra,  are  proofs  of  possession  of 
which  no  Shanar  can  entertain  any  doubt.  The  medical 
science  of  so  rude  a  people  not  being  very  extensive,  cases 
of  unquestionable  possession  are  of  frequent  occurrence. 
When  a  woman  is  heard  to  weep  and  laugh  alternately, 
without  any  adequate  cause,  or  shriek  and  look  wild  when 
no  snake  or  wild  beast  can  be  perceived,  what  Shanar  can 
suppose  anything  but  a  devil  to  be  the  cause  of  the  mischief? 


252  Demon-zvorship  and  Spirit-worship. 

The  native  doctor,  himself  a  Shanar,  is  sent  for  to  give  his 
advice.  He  brings  his  Hbrary  with  him  (he  cannot  read, 
but  it  is  all  in  his  memory),  his  complete  science  of  medicine 
in  one  hundred  stanzas,  as  revealed  by  the  sage  Agastya  to 
his  disciple  Pulastya  ;  but  in  vain  he  recites  his  prescriptions, 
in  vain  he  coins  hard  words.  As  no  description  of  hysterical 
complaints  is  contained  in  his  authorities,  what  can  he  do 
but  decide  that  a  devil  has  taken  possession  of  the  woman, 
and  recommend  that  a  sacrifice  be  offered  to  him  forthwith, 
with  a  cloth  and  a  white  fowl  to  the  doctor  ? 

'  Sometimes  the  friends  are  not  desirous  of  expelling  the 
evil  spirit  all  at  once,  but  send  for  music,  get  up  a  devil-dance, 
and  call  upon  the  demon  to  prophesy. 

'  If  they  desire  to  expel  the  devil,  there  is  no  lack  of 
moving  ceremonies  and  powerful  incantations,  each  of  which 
has  been  tried  and  found  successful  innumerable  times.  If 
the  devil  should  prove  an  obstinate  one  and  refuse  to  leave, 
charm  they  never  so  wisely,  his  retreat  may  generally  be 
hastened  by  the  vigorous  application  of  a  slipper  or  a  broom 
to  the  shoulders  of  the  possessed  person,  the  operator  taking 
care  at  the  same  time  to  use  the  most  scurrilous  language  he 
can  think  of.  After  a  time  the  demoniac  loses  his  downcast, 
sullen  look.  He  begins  to  get  angry  and  writhe  about  under 
the  slippering,  and  at  length  cries,  "  I  go,  I  go."  Then  they 
ask  him  his  name,  and  why  he  came  there.  He  tells  them 
he  is  such  and  such  a  devil,  whom  they  have  neglected, 
and  he  wants  an  offering ;  or  he  calls  himself  by  the  name 
of  some  deceased  relative,  who,  as  they  now  learn  for  the 
first  time,  has  become  a  demon.  As  soon  as  the  demon 
consents  to  leave,  the  beating  ceases  ;  and  not  unfrequently 
immediate  preparations  are  made  for  a  sacrifice,  as  a  com- 
pensation to  his  feelings  for  the  ignominy  of  the  exorcism. 
The  possessed  person  now  awakes  as  from  a  sleep,  and 
appears  to  have  no  knowledge  of  anything  that  has  hap- 
pened.' 


Demon-worship  and  Spirit-worship,  25 


■1 


I  must  not  omit  to  note  one  or  two  other  facts  connected 
with  a  beHef  in  demoniacal  influences  and  their  counteraction. 

Demons  or  evil  spirits  in  India  are  supposed  to  be  often 
the  cause  of  what  in  Europe  is  called  '  an  evil  eye,'  that  is, 
a  mysterious  power  of  fascinating,  bewitching,  or  inflicting 
some  injury  on  others  by  a  fixed  look,  gaze,  or  glance. 
Indeed,  a  look  of  admiration  from  friend  or  foe  is  believed 
to  be  fraught  with  great  danger  and  possibly  serious  calamity 
to  any  individual  who  is  the  object  of  it. 

Europeans  who  are  often  unaware  of  the  universal  pre- 
valence of  this  superstition  are  occasionally  the  innocent 
cause  of  great  distress  to  the  parents  of  Indian  children 
by  looking  at  them  approvingly  and  uttering  some  exclama- 
tion of  praise. 

A  story  was  told  me  with  the  utmost  gravity — as  if 
its  truth  was  beyond  all  dispute — of  a  person  who  was  born 
a  twin,  but  whose  twin  brother  was  a  spirit  who  constantly 
attended  him  and  gifted  him  with  various  preternatural 
faculties,  and  amongst  others  the  power  of  an  evil  eye. 
It  was  declared  to  be  a  fact,  that  whatever  this  person 
looked  at  with  admiration  instantly  faded  away  and  perished. 
Old  women  who  are  believed  to  have  this  power  are  par- 
ticularly dreaded  and  shunned  as  dangerous  witches. 

Another  story  was  told  me  of  a  man  who  fell  in  love  with 
his  neighbour's  wife.  By  calling  in  demoniacal  aid  he  was 
able  to  fix  his  gaze  on  her,  and  after  successfully  bewitching 
her  to  cause  her  death.  Then  he  managed  to  get  possession 
of  a  hair  or  two  from  her  head.  These  he  handed  over  to 
a  well-known  sorcerer  at  Lahore,  who,  once  possessed  of  a 
portion  of  her  person,  had  no  difficulty  in  bringing  her  to 
life  again  by  his  incantations,  and  in  return  for  a  good  sum 
of  money  delivered  her  to  her  lover,  who  married  her. 

Some  sorcerers,  if  called  upon  to  get  rid  of  an  enemy, 
mould  a  human  ^^^y  in  wax,  pronouncing  over  it  a  few 
mysterious  cabahstic  words.    The  waxen  figure  is  then  placed 


2  54  Demon-worship  and  Spirit-worship, 

before  a  fire,  and,  as  it  melts,  brings  down  deadly  calamities 
on  the  head  of  the  person  to  be  destroyed.  Or,  if  a  human 
bone  from  a  cemetery  can  be  procured,  and  certain  Mantras 
recited  over  it,  very  fatal  results  will  ensue  (compare  p.  201). 

Many  charms  are  used  against  the  misfortunes  which  may 
at  any  time  be  brought  about  by  malicious  spirits,  or  by  evil 
influences  connected  with  the  human  eye.  In  some  parts 
of  India  a  tiger's  claw  or  tooth  is  worn  on  the  neck  and  held  to 
be  very  efficacious.  In  other  places  an  image  of  the  liiiga^  is 
worn,  or  some  bright  ornament — such  as  a  string  of  white 
cowries — which  is  supposed  to  arrest  evil  glances,  or  divert 
them  from  the  person  wearing  such  a  necklace.  A  small 
iron  ring  is  also  commonly  carried  about  as  an  amulet.  It  is 
particularly  effective  if  inlaid  with  pearls.  Frequently  a  lime 
is  carried  in  the  turban,  and  great  faith  is  reposed  in  its  pro- 
phylactic properties.  Or  again,  any  ornament  with  a  figure 
of  Hanuman  (p.  220)  engraved  on  it  makes  an  admirable 
charm  which  few  demons  can  withstand. 

In  some  districts — especially  in  the  South — I  have  often 
remarked  white  pots,  with  black  marks  or  grotesque  objects 
covered  with  streaks  of  white  paint,  placed  here  and  there 
in  the  fields,  and  intended  to  catch  the  eye  so  as  to  avert 
envious  glances  or  the  malignant  influences  of  demons 
from  the  growing  crops.  In  remote  villages,  too,  was  oc- 
casionally to  be  observed  an  apparatus  for  curing  cattle- 
disease,  when  caused  (as  universally  believed  in  India)  by 
the  machinations  of  evil  demons.  At  the  entrance  to  the 
village  were  two  upright  posts  with  a  cord  stretched  between 
them,  on  which  were  hung  rude  models  of  ploughs,  etc.,  and 
in  the  centre  dangled  a  large  pot-cover.  On  inquiry  I  found 
that  charms  resembling  physicians'  prescriptions  in  rather 
unreadable  hieroglyphics  were  written  on  this  cover,  and  all 
the  afflicted  cattle  driven  under  them.     The  power  of  such 

^  In  Southern  Italy  an  ornament  with  a  finger  pointing  downwards  is 
to  this  day  used  as  a  charm  against  the  evil  eye. 


^Demon-worship  and  Spirit-wo^^ship.  255 

charms  is  supposed  to  depend  a  good  deal  on  the  reputation 
of  the  sorcerers  employed  to  write  them,  and  every  village 
does  not  possess  such  men.  They  are  sometimes  sent  for 
from  great  distances,  and,  in  my  opinion,  a  long  period  must 
elapse  before  any  filtering  down  of  education  from  the  upper 
classes  will  avail  to  undermine  the  faith  of  the  simple  vil- 
lagers in  the  efficacy  of  a  pot-cover  inscribed  with  the  charms 
of  the  more  noted  sorcerers^. 


^  The  following  abridgment  of  an  article  on  Indian  '  Haunted  Bunga- 
lows,' taken  from  the  '  Graphic'  newspaper  (June  9,  1883),  will  be  inter- 
esting in  connexion  with  the  subject  of  the  chapter  here  concluded  : — 

'The  notion  of  Indian  houses  being  haunted  is,  on  first  thought,  rather 
ridiculous.  Nevertheless,  there  is  scarcely  a  station  in  Hindostan  which 
has  not  its  haunted  bungalow.  The  spirits  appear  to  the  appalled  be- 
holders by  sunlight  as  well  as  by  night,  and  are  apparently  indifferent  to 
the  time  of  day.  A  curious  and  very  well  authenticated  instance  of  this 
disregard  of  the  hour  is  that  of  an  after-noon  ghost,  which  punctually  ap- 
pears at  sunset  in  a  certain  house  at  Madras. 

'  But  there  are  evil  and  beneficent  spirits  in  India.  There  is  a  well- 
known  haunted  house  in  one  of  the  stations  of  the  North  of  India, 
where  the  "house-ghost,"  if  we  may  so  call  him,  evinces  malicious  and 
malignant  idiosyncracies.  It  is  this  wretched  spirit's  mundane  amuse- 
ment to  try  and  upset  the  charpoy,  or  bed,  on  which  the  bewildered 
tenant  seeks  repose  ;  and  so  persistent  are  his  efforts  in  this  direction, 
that  they  have  been  compared  to  shocks  of  earthquake,  and  to  the 
explosions  of  subterraneous  mines.  People  laugh,  but  no  one  particularly 
cares  to  sleep  twice  in  that  haunted  bungalow. 

'  Another  species  of  malignant  spirit  which  becomes  most  intimately 
associated  with  an  Indian  house  is  a  disease.  There  are  houses  in 
Indian  towns  and  stations  of  which  the  citizens  say  it  is  as  much  as 
any  man's  life  is  worth  to  enter  them.  C,  who  was  superior  to  super- 
stition, went  into  a  house  of  this  character,  just  to  show  the  absurdity  of 
believing  "  in  such  rot,"  and  speedily  lost  his  wife  and  three  children. 
It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  mortality  in  some  Indian  bungalows  of  an 
unlucky  reputation  is  unaccountable. 

'  It  is  a  relief  to  turn  from  the  vagaries  of  evil  spirits  to  the  beneficence 
of  the  good. 

'  In  England  one  seldom  hears  of  a  good  ghost,  or  of  a  ghost  who 
puts  himself  out  of  his  way  to  oblige  any  one  ;  but,  in  India,  ghosts  of 
this  cheerful  temperament  are  quite  common.  Sometimes  they  assume 
the  appearance  of  Europeans  ;  sometimes  that  of  natives.  These  ghosts 
have  done  the  living  no  end  of  good.  The  warnings  and  other  informa- 
tion they  have  imparted  have  been  endless.' 


256  De^non-worship  and  Spirit-worship, 

I  also  add  a  statement  of  one  part  of  the  creed  of  American  Spiritual- 
ists in  the  present  day  (written  by  the  Rev.  C.  Ware,  and  quoted  in  the 
'  Religio-Philosophical  Journal'),  as  offering  many  curious  analogies  to 
ideas  current  in  India  for  centuries  before  '  Spiritualism  '  was  ever  heard 
of  in  either  Europe  or  America  : — 

*  It  is  a  fact  that  myriads  of  disembodied  human  beings  are  living  in  a 
world  that  is  merely  the  duplicate  or  counterpart  of  the  earth,  a  realm 
"as  closely  connected  with  the  earth's  atmosphere  as  the  atmosphere  is 
with  the  earth  itself;  all  above  it  and  below  it  being  links  of  one  endless 
chain.  This  is  what  we  mean  by  earth-bound  spirits ;  they  are  so  earthly, 
their  nature  is  so  unrefined,  so  material  in  its  tendencies,  that  they  can- 
not rise  above  their  surroundings.  They  cannot  rise  to  those  spheres  of 
light,  and  love,  and  blessedness  ;  because  the  external  surroundings  of 
a  spirit  always  correspond  with  its  inward  condition  ;  they  must  remain 
in  that  first  sphere,  which  is  only  a  step  higher  than  the  earth,  until  they 
become  spiritually  developed. 

'  Religious  professors  talk  about  going  on  the  wings  of  faith  to  the 
home  beyond  the  skies,  but,  unfortunately  for  them,  everything  in  the 
infinite  universe  is  determined  by  immutable  laws,  laws  which  cannot 
be  set  aside,  laws  which  are  self-operating;  and  by  these  laws  is  the 
relative  position  of  every  individual  spirit  determined.  You  will  pass 
into  the  spirit-world  with  your  spiritual  body,  but  your  position  there 
will  be  determined  by  the  degree  of  refinement  which  characterizes  that 
same  spiritual  body.  The  tippler,  the  smoker,  the  glutton  and  the 
sensualist,  are,  whether  they  recognize  it  or  not,  constantly  defiling 
themselves  with  the  elements  which  will  keep  them  down  to  earth. 
It  is  such  habits  and  tendencies  that  make  spirits  "earth-bound."  If 
these  habits  are  not  conquered  and  overcome  here,  they  will  have  to 
be  there,  before  the  spirit  can  rise  to  association  with  the  pure  and 
the  holy. 

'  This  immense  realm,  then,  which  is  earth's  counterpart,  surrounds 
this  earth,  and  its  myriads  of  inhabitants  constantly  exert  an  influence 
upon  this  world  ;  and  this  is  a  solemn  thought,  when  you  remember 
that  here  dwell  millions  of  ignorant,  debased,  degraded  souls,  where 
they  remain  exerting  their  baneful  influence,  until  they  are  enlightened, 
purified  and  reformed. 

'  More  particularly  we  mean  by  earth-bound  spirits,  not  only  those 
who,  through  ignorance,  sensual  habits,  and  material  tendencies  are 
kept  down  by  their  own  specific  gravity,  but  also  those  who  are  fettered 
to  the  earth  by  wrong-doing,  crime  and  injustice  committed.  Thousands 
of  such  are  here  wandering,  full  of  remorse  ;  they  have  to  repent,  to  do 
their  best  to  repair  the  wrong  and  to  make  atonement,  before  they  can 
rise.' 


CHAPTER    X. 

Hero-worship  and  Saint-worship. 

The  worship  of  great  men,  saints  and  sages,  who  have 
been  remarkable  for  the  possession  of  unusual  powers  or 
striking  qualities  of  any  kind,  is  a  phase  of  religious  deve- 
lopment which  perhaps  more  than  any  other  is  the  natural 
outcome  of  man's  primitive  devotional  instincts.  In  India 
a  tendency  to  this  kind  of  worship  has  always  prevailed  from 
the  earliest  period.  Nascent  in  Vedic  times,  it  speedily  grew 
with  the  growth  of  a  belief  in  the  doctrine  of  divine  incarna- 
tion and  embodiment.  For  although  it  is  true  that  Indian 
philosophers  disparage  the  body  and  invent  elaborate  schemes 
for  getting  rid  of  all  corporeal  encumbrances,  yet  it  is  equally 
true  that  nowhere  in  the  world  has  the  conception  of  God's 
union  with  man,  and  of  His  ennobling  the  bodily  frame, 
not  only  of  men  but  of  animals  and  plants,  by  taking  it 
upon  Himself,  struck  root  so  deeply  in  the  popular  mind 
as  in  India. 

We  know  indeed  that,  according  to  the  pantheistic  creed 
of  Brahmanism,  God  and  the  Universe  are  One.  His  pre- 
sence pervades  inanimate  as  well  as  animate  objects,  and 
every  human  being  is  a  manifestation  of  His  energy ;  but 
He  is  believed  to  be  specially  manifested  in  all  great,  good, 
and  holy  men.  All  such  men  are  held  to  be  entitled  to  worship 
at  the  hands  of  their  less-favoured  fellow-men,  in  virtue  of 
their  being  embodiments  in  a  higher  degree  of  portions  of  His 
essence.  The  homage  they  receive  may  not  always  amount  to 
actual  worship  during  life,  but  after  their  decease  their  claim 

S 


258  '  Hero-worship  and  Saint-worship, 

to  a  position  in  the  celestial  hierarchy  is  pretty  sure  to  be 
fully  recognized  ;  and  if  their  lives  have  been  marked  by 
any  extraordinary  or  miraculous  occurrences,  they  soon  be- 
come objects  of  general  adoration.  It  is  not  merely  that  a 
niche  is  allotted  to  them  among  the  countless  gods  of  the 
Hindu  Pantheon  (popularly  330,000,000,  see  p.  44).  A 
shrine  is  set  up  and  dedicated  to  their  deified  spirits  upon 
earth,  and  generally  in  the  locality  where  they  were  best 
known.  There  they  are  supposed  to  be  objectively  present — 
not  indeed  visibly  to  men,  and  not  always  represented  by 
visible  images  or  symbols — but  as  ethereal  beings  possessed 
of  ethereal  frames  which  need  the  aroma  or  essence  of  food 
for  their  support  (see  p.  12).  The  idea  seems  to  be  that 
the  localizing  of  a  deified  or  canonized  spirit  involves  the 
duty  of  its  maintenance.  Hence  oblations  are  daily  offered, 
and  if  by  a  happy  accident  some  miraculous  event,  such  as 
the  unexpected  recovery  of  a  sick  man,  occurs  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood, the  celebrity  of  the  new  god  rapidly  rises,  till  he 
takes  rank  as  a  first-class  divinity,  and  his  sanctuary  be- 
comes a  focus  to  which  tens  of  thousands  of  enthusiastic 
devotees  annually  converge. 

There  seems  indeed  to  be  no  limit  to  this  kind  of  deifi- 
cation, and  it  is  often  a  mere  device  for  making  some  locality 
popular. 

Volumes  might  be  written  in  describing  instances  that 
have  occurred  and  are  constantly  occurring  in  all  parts  of 
the  country.  And  it  is  remarkable  that  the  rank  or  import- 
ance to  which  a  canonized  or  deified  human  being  may 
attain  in  the  world  of  spirits  does  not  always  depend,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  on  the  estimation  in  which  he  was  held, 
or  even  on  the  measure  of  divinity  attributed  to  him  while 
on  the  earth.  Any  man  of  the  lowest  rank,  whose  influence 
during  life  was  perhaps  quite  insignificant,  may  be  elevated 
to  the  highest  pinnacle  of  honour  when  severed  from  ter- 
restrial ties,  if  his  relatives    can   show   that   his  career  was 


Hero-worship  and  Saint-worship.  259 

marked  by  any  extraordinary  act  of  self-sacrifice  or  heroism, 
or  so-called  miracle.  Nevertheless,  it  is  important  to  note 
that  the  idea  of  divinity  seems  to  be  specially  associated  with 
five  classes  of  living  persons — kings,  warriors,  Brahmans,  saints, 
and  sages — and  that  these  enjoy  a  kind  of  a-priori  claim  to 
subsequent  apotheosis. 

And  first  in  regard  to  kings  —  every  king  is  regarded 
as  little  short  of  a  present  god.  In  Manu's  law-book  a  king 
is  said  to  be  created  by  drawing  eternal  particles  from  the 
essence  of  the  eight  guardian  deities  (VII.  4).  Again,  he  says, 
*  A  king,  even  though  a  mere  child,  must  not  be  treated 
with  contempt,  as  if  he  were  a  mortal ;  he  is  a  great  divinity 
in  human  shape '  (VII.  8). 

In  proof  of  the  hold  which  these  ideas  still  have  on  the 
people,  it  is  stated  in  a  recent  number  of  a  native  newspaper, 
that  there  is  now  a  sect  of  persons  in  Orissa  who  worship  the 
Queen  of  England  as  their  chief  divinity. 

The  transition  from  the  worship  of  kings  to  that  of  mili- 
tary heroes  and  conquerors  is  of  course  easy.  Great  war- 
riors have  always  in  India  commanded  a  large  share  of 
popular  homage,  though  their  full  apotheosis  has  generally 
been  deferred  until  after  death,  and  until  their  human  origin 
has  become  obscured  in  the  mists  of  tradition.  The  most 
noteworthy  instances  of  such  deification  have  been  Rama 
and  Krishna,  both  of  whom,  notwithstanding  their  human 
parentage  and  human  career,  were  ultimately^,  as  we  have 
seen  (pp.  110-114),  exalted  by  their  worshippers  to  the  first 
rank  among  Vishnu's  incarnations. 

And,  to  this  day,  all  living  persons  remarkable  for  great  per- 
sonal valour  and  strength,  or  for  supposed  miraculous  powers, 
run  the  risk — like  Paul  and  Barnabas  at  Lystra — of  being 
converted  into  gods.  Even  any  unusual  deformity  or  strange 
eccentricity  may  be  an  evidence  of  divinity. 


^  In  the  Maha-bharata  the  divinity  of  Krishna  is  occasionally  disputed, 
as  by  Sisu-pala  and  others. 

S  1 


L 


26o  Hero-worship  and  Saint-worship. 

The  story  has  often  been  told  of  a  number  of  Hindus  in 
the  Panjab  who  formed  themselves  into  a  sect  of  Nikkal 
Sen  worshippers.  The  explanation  of  this  was,  that  General 
Nicholson  was  a  soldier  of  such  unexampled  bravery  and  hero- 
ism, that  neither  argument  nor  force  could  prevent  his  native 
admirers  from  worshipping  him.  '  This  man,'  they  said,  '  is 
the  great  power  of  God.'  He  endeavoured  by  punishing 
them  to  put  a  stop  to  the  absurdity,  but  this  only  filled  them 
with  greater  awe,  and  made  them  persist  in  their  puja  with 
more  obstinate  determination. 

Nor  is  the  object  of  such  adoration  always  really  worthy 
of  honour,  or  even  decently  respectable.  It  is  well  known 
that  a  certain  tribe  in  India  worship  a  notorious  robber, 
whose  deeds  merit  nothing  but  general  execration.  Perhaps, 
however,  a  sufficient  explanation  of  this  circumstance  may 
be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  tribe  in  question  is  itself 
addicted  to  occasional  plundering  on  its  own  account. 

It  was  on  a  similar  principle  that  the  Thugs  (Thags)  wor- 
shipped Kali  as  goddess  of  destruction,  and  strangled  their 
victims  in  her  honour  (see  chap.  XXII). 

Another  robber,  who  was  hung  at  Trichinopoly,  became 
so  popular,  as  a  demon,  that  children  were  constantly  named 
after  him. 

Turning  next  to  Brahmans,  we  find  it  affirmed  by  Manu 
that  a  *  Brahman  is  a  mighty  god,  a  supreme  divinity, 
whether  he  be  learned  or  unlearned,  and  even  if  employed 
in  inferior  occupations'  (IX.  317,  319).  'From  his  birth 
alone  a  Brahman  is  regarded  as  a  divinity  even  by  the  gods ' 
(XI.  84). 

With  regard  to  a  Brahman  who  is  also  a  Guru  or  teacher, 
his  person  is  still  more  sacred,  and  he  is  everywhere  the 
object  of  divine  honours  (see  p.  117).  'The  teacher  (Guru) 
is  God,  and  the  teacher  is  a  refuge  (gati).  If  Siva  be  angry 
the  teacher  becomes  a  protector,  but  there  is  no  other  refuge 
if  the  teacher  be  offended.     Any  one  who  worships  another 


Hero-worship  and  Saint-worship,  261 

god  or  goddess  when  his  preceptor  is  at  hand  incurs  terrible 
perdition.  The  preceptor  alone  is  the  divine  power,  whether 
he  be  learned  or  unlearned.  His  ways  may  be  good  or 
bad,  but  he  is  the  only  safe  guide'  (Tantra-sara,  p.  i). 

In  illustration  of  this  I  may  mention,  that  I  was  admitted 
as  a  great  favour  to  a  sort  of  religious  camp-meeting  which 
took  place  at  one  of  the  most  sacred  places  in  all  India — 
the  confluence  of  the  Ganges  and  the  Jumna.  There  I  found 
that  a  celebrated  preacher  was  addressing  a  congregation  of 
about  one  hundred  persons,  who  hung  upon  his  lips  in  rapt 
attention.  The  subject  of  the  sermon,  which  was  delivered 
with  great  eloquence,  was  the  condescension  of  Krishna  in 
becoming  first  a  child  and  then  a  man  for  the  benefit  of  the 
human  race.  No  sooner  was  the  sermon  over  than  certain 
persons  in  the  audience  took  lighted  lamps,  and  standing  up 
before  the  preacher,  waved  them  before  him  in  homage  as 
before  the  chief  deity  of  the  place  ^. 

Perhaps  the  most  readily  conceded  of  all  claims  to  apo- 
theosis is  that  of  the  saint  or  holy  sage  who  has  become 
a  SannyasI  —  that  is  to  say,  has  renounced  all  family  ties, 
and  lives  a  life  of  asceticism,  self-denial,  and  austerity. 
When  such  a  man  dies  in  India,  his  body  is  not  burnt  but 
buried,  because  in  fact  he  is  not  supposed  to  die  at  all. 
He  is  believed  to  lie  in  a  kind  of  trance,  called  Samadhi  ; 
sanctity  exhales  from  his  body,  and  his  tomb — popularly 
called  a  Samadh — often  becomes  a  noted  place  of  pilgrimage, 
resorted  to  by  myriads  from  all  parts  of  India. 

Very  similar  is  the  adoration  paid  to  the  faithful  wife, 
commonly  called  Suttee  (  =  Sanskrit  Sati),  who  in  former 
days  burnt  herself  on  her  husband's  funeral  pile.  Monu- 
ments are  erected  over  her  ashes,  and  within  the   shrine  is 

^  I  witnessed  a  similar  proceeding  in  a  Roman  Catholic  Cathedral  not 
long  ago.  During  the  mass,  and  after  waving  the  censer  full  of  incense 
before  the  altar,  one  of  the  officiating  attendants  waved  it  before  the 
chief-priests  who  were  present,  in  token,  I  presume,  of  homage. 


262  Hero-worship  and  Saint-worship. 

often    a    representation   of  her   foot-prints,   which  are   wor- 
shipped with  the  greatest  veneration. 

Of  course  jealousies  and  rivah'ies  occasionally  spring  up 
between  the  adherents  and  admirers  of  various  departed 
saints  or  heroes,  especially  if  much  expense  has  been  in- 
curred in  erecting  shrines  and  monuments  in  the  hope  of 
attracting  pilgrims  to  particular  localities.  Nor  is  there  any 
dominant  ecclesiastical  authority  in  India  capable  of  arbi- 
trating between  competing  claims  or  fixing  the  relative  rank 
of  fresh  accessions  to  the  celestial  sphere. 

It  seems  that  such  things  are  managed  better  in  China. 
In  that  country,  according  to  Sir  A.  Lyall,  '  The  Emperor 
— himself  a  sacred  and  semi-divine  personage — seems  to 
have  gradually  acquired  something  like  a  monopoly  of  dei- 
fication, which  he  uses  as  a  constitutional  prerogative,  like 
the  right  of  creating  peers.'  In  fact,  '  The  government  not 
only  bestows  on  deceased  persons  its  marks  of  posthumous 
approbation  and  rank  in  the  State  Heaven ;  it  also  decorates 
them  with  titles.'  The  Peking  Gazette  of  May,  1878,  contains 
a  decree  conferring  a  great  title  upon  the  dragon  spirit  of 
Han  Tan  Hien,  in  whose  temple  is  the  well  in  which  the  iron 
tablet  is  deposited.  '  This  spirit  has  from  time  to  time  mani- 
fested itself  in  answer  to  prayer,  and  has  been  repeatedly  in- 
vested with  titles  of  honour.  In  consequence  of  this  year's 
drought  prayers  were  again  offered  up,  and  the  provinces 
(mentioned)  have  been  visited  with  sufficient  rain.  Our  grati- 
tude is  indeed  profound,  and  we  ordain  that  the  Dragon  Spirit 
shall  be  invested  with  the  additional  title  of  the  Dragon  Spirit 
of  the  Sacred  Well.'  Another  spirit  had  already  obtained  the 
title  of  '  Moisture-diffusing,  beneficial-aid-affording,  universal- 
support-vouchsafing-Prince,'  and  received  additional  titles  in  a 
Gazette  of  1877  ^ 

It   might  have   been    conjectured   that    in   India   a  crafty 


1  ( 


Asiatic  Studies,'  by  Sir  Alfred  Lyall  (John  Murray),  pp.  138,  139. 


Hero-worship.      Vitho-ba.  263 

priesthood  would  have  taken  care  to  lay  its  hands  on  a 
prerogative  so  valuable  and  far-reaching  in  its  effects  as  that 
thus  exercised  by  the  Chinese  government.  But  we  do  not 
find  that  the  Brahmans  have  ever  claimed  the  exclusive 
privilege  of  converting  men  into  gods,  or  even  of  conferring 
honorary  degrees  and  titles  of  distinction  on  departed 
spirits.  The  origin  of  the  popularity  of  many  celebrated 
shrines  is  lost  in  remote  antiquity,  and  without  doubt  it  has 
often  been  due  to  a  happy  hit  on  the  part  of  the  relatives 
of  some  well-known  character,  who  have  erected  a  tomb 
over  his  ashes  or  a  monument  to  his  memory  on  simple 
speculation,  and  then  sent  agents  everywhere  to  advertise 
its  virtues  or  spread  reports  of  great  miracles  worked  in  the 
neighbourhood. 

Such  shrines  may  often  bring  in  a  large  revenue  to  their 
proprietors,  and  may  even  be  more  frequented  than  those 
of  Vishnu's  two  most  celebrated  incarnations,  Krishna  and 
Rama  ;  but  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  almost  every 
case  where  a  local  hero  or  remarkable  person  of  any  kind 
has  attained  to  deification,  he  ends  by  being  worshipped  as 
a  form  of  either  Vishnu  or  Siva. 

To  give  a  few  instances  of  local  deifications  which  fell 
under  my  own  observation  in  India : — It  is  well  known  that 
at  Pandharpur  in  the  Deccan  (on  the  Bhlma,  about  112  miles 
south-east  of  Poona)  and  in  the  surrounding  districts  the 
favourite  god  is  Vitho-ba  (also  called  Viththal).  Very  little  is 
known  of  his  origin,  but  he  is  said  to  have  been  a  Brahman 
named  Pundarlka  (sometimes  corrupted  into  Pundalika),  who 
gained  a  great  reputation  for  filial  piety,  and  so  pleased 
Vishnu  that  the  god,  in  recognition  of  his  merits,  infused  into 
him  a  large  portion  of  his  own  essence.  Vitho-ba  is  now  every- 
where regarded  as  a  form  of  Krishna.  Idols  of  him  are  com- 
mon, and  have  this  peculiarity,  that  he  is  represented  standing 
on  a  brick  (vTt  for  it)  with  his  arms  akimbo,  the  hands  resting 
on  the  hips.     A  legend  has  been  framed  to  account  for  this 


264  Hero-worship.      Vitho-ba. 

position.  Probably  it  was  a  favourite  attitude  of  the  man 
before  his  deification  ^.  Some  of  his  images  have  the  impres- 
sion of  a  kick  given  by  the  sage  Bhrigu's  foot  clearly  marked 
on  the  breast  (see  p.  45). 

Pandharpur  is  one  of  the  most  sacred  places  in  the  Maratha 
country,  and  vast  numbers  of  pilgrims  flock  to  the  shrine  of 
Vitho-ba  twice  a  year — once  in  the  month  Ashadha,  and 
once  again  in  Karttika.  The  place  was  probably  at  one 
time  a  stronghold  of  the  Buddhists.  Indeed  it  was  stated 
to  me^  as  one  reason  for  the  great  popularity  of  Vitho-ba, 
that  his  principal  idol  took  the  place  of  an  image  of  the 
Buddha,  and  so  became  acceptable  to  all  castes.  Others 
believe  it  to  have  been  a  Jaina  idol.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
caste  is  still  to  a  great  extent  ignored  by  the  worshippers 
of  Vitho-ba  at  times  of  pilgrimage.  It  is  remarkable,  too, 
that  worshippers  make  him  no  offerings,  nor  ask  the  god  for 
special  benefits.  He  is  supposed  to  love  all  mankind,  and 
require  nothing  but  love  in  return  ;  so  people  simply  praise 
him,  and  sometimes  even  embrace  his  image.  The  idol, 
which  is  said  to  be  svayambhu  (p.  69),  is  dressed  every  day 
in  jewelled  dresses,  and  hymns  are  sung  before  it.  It  is 
supposed  to  change  its  appearance  and  look  like  a  child  in 
the  morning,  a  man  at  noon,  and  an  old  man  in  the  evening. 
Doubtless  Vitho-ba  owes  much  of  his  celebrity  to  the  songs 
of  the  Maratha  national  poet  Tuka-rama.  A  common  de- 
votional service  among  the  pilgrims  is  a  Kirtana  or  '  song 
of  praise '  extracted  from  his  poems.  Hundreds  of  men  and 
women  sit  in  a  circle  on  the  ground,  while  behind  the  sitters 
are  many  standing.  The  principal  singers  form  a  kind  of 
inner  semicircle.  The  leader  thereupon  gives  out  a  verse, 
such  as  the  following :  '  All  earthly  things  are  vanity  ;  there- 
fore draw  thy  heart  away  and  elevate  it  to  Vitho-ba.'     These 

^  One  of  Tuka's  Abhangas  begins,  '  Beautiful  is  that  object,  upright  on 
the  brick,  resting  his  hands  on  his  loins.'  I  cannot  agree  in  thinking  it 
possible  that  the  name  Vitho-ba  may  be  derived  from  vit  '  a  brick,'  and 
udkd  '  upright.' 


Hero-worship,      Tzika-7'dma.  265 

words  are  caught  up  by  the  other  performers,  and  then 
chanted  enthusiastically  by  all  with  a  vigorous  accompani- 
ment of  lutes  (vinas),  cymbals,  and  drums.  Sometimes  a 
discourse  on  the  vanity  of  human  life  follows  the  singing. 

Even  a  woman  may  be  the  preacher.  When  Dr.  Murray 
Mitchell  visited  Pandharpur  a  widow  named  Salu-bai  ad- 
dressed a  large  audience,  commencing  her  discourse  by  utter- 
ing the  names  Rama,  Krishna,  Hari,  which  were  caught  up  by 
her  hearers  in  a  prolonged  shout  (Indian  Antiquary,  June  1  882). 

A  ceremony  is  also  performed  which  consists  in  breaking 
a  large  black  clay-vessel  fastened  on  a  tree.  The  contents, 
consisting  of  curdled  milk  and  grain,  fall  on  the  ground  and 
are  eagerly  snatched  up  by  the  struggling  crowd. 

The  celebrated  national  poet  of  the  Marathas,  Tuka-rama, 
was  a  Sudra  of  the  trading  caste  who  lived  in  the  days  of 
Siva-jT,  about  250  years  ago,  at  Dehu  near  Poona,  and  wrote 
about  5Poo  hymns.  Though  he  devoted  his  genius  to  the 
extolling  of  Vitho-ba  as  a  form  of  God,  he  is  himself  also  an 
object  of  adoration,  and  is  believed  to  have  worked  many 
miracles — amongst  others  ascending  in  bodily  shape  to  heaven 
in  Vishnu's  car.  Dehu  is  now  a  much-frequented  place  of 
pilgrimage,  especially  at  an  annual  festival  when  the  poet's 
ascension  is  commemorated.  People  of  all  castes  who  worship 
at  this  place  and  at  Pandharpur  are  called  Varkari.  The  follow- 
ing is  a  specimen  of  the  religious  sentiments  in  Tuka-rama's 
songs  translated  by  Sir  A.  Grant : — 

Sing-  the  song  with  earnestness,  making  pure  the  heart  ; 
If  you  would  attain  God,  then  this  is  an  easy  way  : — 
Make  your  heart  lowly,  touch  the  feet  of  Saints, 
Of  others  do  not  hear  the  good  or  bad  qualities. 
Tuka  says:  Be  it  much  or  little,  do  good  to  others'. 

'  A  musician  performed  before  me  on  the  Sitar  at  Poona,  and  sang  a 
song  from  Tuka-rama,  which  may  be  thus  translated  :  '  O  God,  grant  this 
boon  that  I  may  never  forget  Thee,  and  that  I  may  sing  Thy  praise 
with  zest.  This  is  all  the  wealth  I  ask.  I  desire  not  extinction,  nor 
riches.  I  want  not  emancipation  from  existence.  I  pray  that  I  may  live 
to  praise  Thee,  and  enjoy  the  company  of  the  good.' 


266  Hero-worship.     Khando-ba, 

Another  deification,  Khando-ba  (also  called  Khande-Rao), 
was  a  personage  who  lived  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  hill 
Jejurl  (  =  Sanskrit  Jayddri\  thirty  miles  from  Poona.  He 
is  probably  a  deification  of  some  powerful  Raja  or  aboriginal 
chieftain  who  made  himself  useful  to  the  Brahmans.  He  is 
now  regarded  as  an  incarnation  of  Siva  in  his  form  Mallari. 
The  legend  is  that  the  god  Siva  descended  in  this  form  to 
destroy  a  powerful  demon  named  Mallasura,  who  lived  on  the 
hill  and  was  a  terror  to  the  neighbourhood.  Parvati  descended 
at  the  same  time  to  become  Khando-ba's  wife.  His  worship  is 
very  popular  among  the  Kolis  and  people  of  low  caste  in  the 
Maratha  country.  I  was  informed  that  he  is  the  family  god 
of  Holkar,  who  is  of  the  shepherd  caste.  Sheep  are  sacrificed 
at  the  principal  temple  on  the  Jejiarl  hill,  where  there  is  an 
image  of  the  Linga  ;  and  a  bad  custom  prevails  of  dedicating 
young  girls  to  the  god's  service.  They  are  called  Muralls 
(or  Murlis),  and  although  nominally  wives  of  the  god,  are 
simply  prostitutes.  Khando-ba  is  sometimes  represented 
with  his  wife  on  horseback  attended  by  a  dog  ^ 

As  to  another  local  deification  called  Jnanesvara  (pro- 
nounced in  Marathi  Diiyanesvara  and  popularly  Dilyano-ba), 
he  was  a  learned  Brahman,  living  at  a  place  called  Alandi, 
twelve  miles  from  Poona,  who  wrote  a  commentary  in  verse 
on  the  Bhagavad-glta  called  Jnanesvarl.  Towards  the  end  of 
his  life  he  became  a  SannyasI,  and  on  dying,  or  appearing 
to  die,  his  body  was,  as  usual,  not  burnt,  but  buried,  and  a 
tomb  (Samadh)  erected  over  it.  The  belief,  of  course,  is 
that  he  merely  lies  in  a  trance,  and  that  he  occasionally 
shows  himself  alive  to  his  worshippers.  He  is  held  to  have 
been  an  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  and  is  said  to  have  given 
evidence  of  his  divinity  while  he  lived  as  a  Brahman  on  the 
earth  by  one  or  two  notable  miracles.  For  example,  he  one 
day  caused  a  buffalo  to  speak  and  recite  a  hymn  from  the 

^  A  sect  existed  in  Sankara's  time  who  worshipped  Mallari  as  'lord  of 
dogs  '  (see  Sankara-vijaya,  chap.  29).    So  Rudra  is  lord  of  dogs  (see  p.  ^^). 


Saint-worship.     Dattatreya.  267 

Veda.  On  another  occasion,  he  commanded  a  wall  on  which 
he  was  sitting  to  transport  him  for  a  mile  into  the  presence 
of  a  holy  person  who  wished  to  see  him.  The  wall  obeyed, 
and  remains  to  this  day  at  some  distance  from  the  town,  but 
the  old  mouldering  erection  seemed  likely  to  disappear  under 
the  plundering  hands  of  relic-seekers,  and  the  piety  of  the 
inhabitants  has  therefore  recently  cased  it  with  stone.  It  is 
still,  however,  greatly  venerated,  and  a  hole  has  been  made  in 
the  stone-casing  to  enable  pilgrims  to  express  their  faith  by 
touching  the  original  structure.  Indeed,  in  the  belief  of  the 
generality  of  Hindus,  such  miracles  are  of  common  occur- 
rence all  over  India.  No  one  is  troubled  by  any  misgivings 
as  to  their  improbability,  or  supposes  for  a  moment  that  a 
saint  of  any  pretensions  could  be  incapable  of  working  them. 

Again,  I  found  that  in  certain  localities  in  the  Maratha 
country  a  holy  Brahman,  named  Dattatreya  (vulgarly 
Dattatre),  who  lived  about  the  tenth  century  of  our  era,  is 
worshipped  as  an  incarnation  of  all  three  gods,  Brahma, 
Vishnu,  and  Siva,  or,  according  to  some,  especially  of  Vishnu^ 
He  was  greatly  revered  for  his  wisdom  and  self-mortification, 
and  before  his  death  became  a  Sannyasi.  His  shrines  are 
scattered  here  and  there  in  the  districts  around  Poona. 
I  visited  a  remarkable  one  at  Wai — a  sacred  town  on  the 
Krishna  (Kistna)  near  Sattara — where  the  image  of  Datta- 
treya has  three  heads,  to  represent  the  Hindu  triad.  Two 
or  three  worshippers  of  the  male  sex  appeared  to  be  en- 
gaged in  earnest  devotion  before  this  idol. 

Another  deification  is  that  of  Vyaiikatesa  (Veiikatesa)  or 
Tri-pati  (for  Sanskrit  Sri-pati),  a  name  given  to  Vishnu  or 
Krishna  when  he  became  incarnate  in  a  man  popularly 
called  Bala-ji.  Little  is  known  about  this  man,  except 
that  he   was  a  person   remarkable  for  many   extraordinary 

^  There  is  a  strange  legend  connected  with  Dattatreya  current  in  some 
parts  of  India.  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva  are  said  to  have  visited  the 
wife  of  a  holy  man  and  tried  to  seduce  her,  but  without  success. 


268  Hero-worship.      Vehkatesa. 

qualities,  and  that  he  lived  in  the  neighbourhood  of  a 
hill  called  Seshadri  in  the  Madras  presidency.  It  is  cer- 
tain that  a  celebrated  temple  dedicated  to  him  has  been 
erected  at  that  place — usually  called  the  Hill  of  Tri-pati  or 
Vyafikata  (Vehkata) — and  that  pilgrimages  are  made  to  it 
from  every  part  of  the  country.  It  is  especially  resorted  to 
for  religious  shaving. 

Of  more  recent  deifications  and  canonizations  a  few  ex- 
amples may  be  given.  I  have  already  described  how  the 
followers  of  a  Brahman  named  Sahajananda  or  Svami- 
Narayana,  who  flourished  about  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century,  regard  him  as  a  portion  of  Vishnu  (see  p.  153). 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  followers  of  the  cotton- 
bleacher  Dadu,  who  lived  in  less  recent  times  (see  p.  17^). 

Then  Mira-bai,  a  princess  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Akbar, 
and  married  the  Rana  of  Udayapur  (Udaipur),  is  worshipped 
by  a  sect,  who  believe  that  she  disappeared  one  day  into  her 
tutelary  idol — an  image  of  Krishna — which  opened  to  receive 
her  and  protect  her  from  persecution.  She  is  the  authoress 
of  some  religious  odes. 

Again,  Ram-singh,  the  son  of  a  carpenter,  was  a  man  who 
founded  a  small  sect  of  Sikhs  called  Kukas,  which  had  to  be 
repressed  not  long  since  with  an  iron  hand,  because  in  their 
fanaticism  they  took  to  murdering  the  butchers  who  killed  oxen 
for  food.  His  followers  scarcely  worshipped  him  as  a  god,  yet 
they  fully  believed  in  his  power  of  working  miracles.  (Com- 
pare the  last  paragraph  at  p.  172  of  this  volume.) 

Another  founder  of  a  sect — Ram-das — was  the  Guru  of 
Siva-jl.  His  followers,  who  are  numerous  in  the  Maratha 
country,  adore  him  in  connexion  with  the  worship  of  the 
great  Rama,  and  therefore  also  worship  Hanuman.  His 
tomb  or  Samadh  is  at  Parali,  near  Sattara. 

I  may  add,  that  in  a  village  of  Gujarat  called  Sarsa  there 
lives  (or  did  live  in  1878)  a  man  named  Kubera.  This  man 
is   of  the   Koli   caste.     He   has  been   a   teacher  of  rehgion 


Saint-worship.     Santa-rain.  269 

for  more  than  thirty-five  years,  and  gives  himself  out  to  be 
a  portion  of  the  god  Krishna.  He  has  gathered  around 
him  at  least  20,000  disciples,  and  formed  them  into  a  re- 
ligious society  who  call  themselves  Hari-jana.  They  are 
also  called  Kuber-bhaktas.  They  worship  or  worshipped 
Kubera  their  founder,  as  a  living  incarnation,  in  his  own 
dwelling,  but  they  have  temples  or  meeting-houses  in  many 
villages,  and  send  missionaries  to  all  parts  of  Gujarat.  Like 
the  Svami-Narayana  sect,  they  are  divided  into  Sadhus  and 
Grihasthas,  or  Clergy  and  Laity  (see  p.  150).  At  one  of 
their  temples  (Mandirs)  in  the  town  of  Nariad,  two  of 
their  clergy  minister  daily.  Several  members  of  the  sect 
attend  and  listen  to  expositions  of  their  sacred  books,  but 
worship  no  idols. 

Another  considerable  temple  which  I  saw  at  Nariad  is 
dedicated  to  a  holy  man  named  Santa-Ram  (probably  =  Santa- 
rama,  or  perhaps  Santosha-rama).  His  body  is  buried  in  the 
precincts  of  the  temple,  and  I  observed  that  the  courtyard 
around  was  kept  scrupulously  clean.  He  has  no  very  large 
number  of  disciples,  but  they  appeared  to  be  very  devoted  in 
their  homage. 

I  heard  of  another  man  in  Gujarat,  named  Hari-Krishna, 
who  not  very  long  ago  proclaimed  himself  to  be  a  mani- 
festation of  the  Supreme  Being,  and  attracted  a  few  disciples ; 
but  he  is  now  dead,  and  the  sect  has  also,  I  believe,  died  out. 

Again,  when  I  was  at  Kaira  I  visited  a  small  shrine,  dedi- 
cated to  a  Sadhu  or  holy  man  whose  name  I  understood  to 
be  Parinama.  There  was  no  image,  but  only  the  empty  seat 
which  he  had  once  occupied  as  a  religious  teacher,  with  some 
of  the  vestments  which  he  wore  at  the  time  of  his  decease. 
Yet  the  place  was  regarded  as  so  sacred  that  I  was  not 
allowed  to  enter  without  taking  off  my  shoes. 

I  believe  the  followers  of  this  man  are  gradually  decreasing, 
and  will  ultimately  disappear.  In  fact,  it  ought  to  be  noted 
that  the  most  astounding  exploits  of  great   heroes  and  the 


2  70  Hero-worship.     Parasu-rama. 

most  startling  miracles  of  eminent  saints  are  liable  to  be 
eclipsed  by  still  greater  wonders,  wrought  by  still  greater 
heroes  and  saints,  who  are  always  appearing  on  the  scene  and 
engrossing  the  attention  of  an  ignorant  and  superstitious 
multitude. 

In  no  other  way  can  we  account  for  the  little  honour  now 
paid  to  such  an  eminent  hero  as  Bala-rama,  '  the  strong 
Rama,'  who  was  an  elder  brother  of  Krishna  and  brought  up 
with  him  (see  p.  112)^. 

Again,  as  to  the  well-known  Parasu-rama,  or  Rama  with  the 
axe — he  was  a  Brahman  who  achieved  so  great  a  reputation 
in  conflicts  with  the  Kshatriyas  that  his  admirers  converted 
him  into  one  of  Vishnu's  ten  principal  incarnations  (see 
p.  no).  Yet  he  is  little  worshipped  except  in  some  parts  of 
the  western  coast  of  India.  The  story  of  his  clearing  the 
earth  twenty-one  times  of  the  Kshatriya  race  and  of  his  ulti- 
mate defeat  by  his  rival  the  great  Rama-dandra,  who  was  the 
Kshatriya  incarnation  of  Vishnu  and  also  one  of  the  god's 
ten  principal  descents,  proves  that  the  axe-Rama  was  at  one 
time  a  man  of  pre-eminent  valour  and  renown  (see  p.  no, 
and  Maha-bharata  Vana-p.  IT071;  Santi-p.  1707;  Bhagavata- 
purana,  book  IX).  Tradition  ascribes  the  colonizing  of  the 
Konkan — called  Parasu-rama-kshetra — and  the  creation  of 
the  whole  country  of  Malabar  (Kerala)  to  Parasu-rama. 

He  must  have  been  a  very  extraordinary  personage,  for  he 
is  believed  to  have  compelled  the  ocean  to  retire  for  the 
formation  of  the  Malabar  coast,  and  to  have  caused  vast 
fissures  in  the  Western  Ghats  and  other  mountains  by  blows 
of  his  axe^.  At  the  same  time  he  is  said  to  have  reared 
great  stone  cairns  on  the  Travancore  mountains,  and  to  have 
scattered  small  spangle-like  gold  coins  everywhere  on  the  soil. 

.  ^  Both  Bala-rama  and  Krishna  refused  to  take  any  part  as  warriors  in 
the  great  war  between  the  Pandava  and  Kaurava  princes. 

^  Unusual  formations  in  hills  and  other  curious  physical  phenomena 
are  often  attributed  to  Parasu-rama,  and  sometimes  to  Bhima. 


Hero-ivorship.     Five  Pandavas.       ^       271 

It  is  certain  that  earthen  vessels  containing  coins  are  often 
dug  up  on  the  hills.  No  wonder  that  he  has  many  followers 
in  Malabar  and  the  Konkan\  but  I  met  with  no  actual 
worshippers  in  other  places  who  adore  him  as  a  god. 

Similarly  the  five  Pandava  princes,  Yudhi-shthira,  Bhima, 
Arjuna,  Nakula,  and  Sahadeva,  who  are  all  great  heroes  of 
the  Maha-bharata,  receive  little  actual  worship  at  the  present 
day,  though  Krishna,  another  great  hero  of  the  same  poem, 
is  universally  adored.  The  five  brothers  were  the  reputed 
children  of  Pandu  and  his  wife  KuntI  (or  Pritha),  but  are 
believed  to  have  really  derived  their  origin  from  the  gods 
Yama  (  =  Dharma-raja),  Vayu,  Indra,  and  the  two  Asvins 
respectively.  These  deities  infused  portions  of  their  essences 
into  Kunti's  children,  and  great  prodigies  occurred  at  their 
birth.  When  grown  up  they  had  one  wife  in  common,  called 
Draupadl.  DraupadI  (in  Southern  India  Draupadl-Amman) 
has  several  shrines,  but  her  five  husbands  receive  little  adora- 
tion.    This  story  proves  the  prevalence  of  polyandry  ^. 

Nevertheless,  any  marvel  or  prodigy,  any  rock  of  fantastic 
shape,  or  any  wonderful  work  the  performance  of  which 
appears  to  be  beyond  human  power,  is  often  ascribed  to 
the  Pandavas.     I  visited   some  remarkable  Buddhistic  caves 

^  A  tribe  of  Brahmans  in  the  Konkan  calied  Lit-pavans  is  said  to 
have  been  created  by  Parasu-rama  thus  : — After  his  contest  with  the 
Kshatriyas  he  took  up  his  abode  in  the  mountains  of  that  part  of  India. 
There  he  had  a  quarrel  with  some  Brahmans  who  resided  with  him  in 
the  same  region.  Then  to  spite  them  he  went  to  the  sea-shore,  and 
finding  fourteen  funeral  piles  (citas  =  caityas)  with  the  remains  of  a 
number  of  persons  who  had  been  burnt,  resuscitated  them  and  converted 
them  into  Brahmans. 

^  Certain  hill-tribes  in  the  Himalaya  mountains  are  still  given  to 
polyandry.  It  is  practised  also  among  the  Todas  and  the  Nayars  in 
Malabar,  and  among  certain  tribes  in  New  Zealand,  the  Pacific  islands, 
the  Aleutian  islands,  Africa,  Australia,  as  well  as  among  the  Kalmucks, 
Iroquois,  and  in  Bhotan  and  other  barren  regions  where  a  large  popula- 
tion is  not  easily  supported.  The  ancient  Britons,  according  to  Caesar, 
were  addicted  to  the  same  practice.  See  De  Bello  Gallico,  v.  14.  Com- 
pare Lubbock's  '  Origin  of  Civilization,'  p.  139. 


272  Hero-ivorship.     Five  Paridavas. 

excavated  at  a  considerable  height  from  the  ground  in  the  hills 
near  Nasik.  The  people  of  the  country  fully  believe  them  to 
have  been  the  work  of  the  Pandavas,  and  call  them  Pandu-lene. 
It  is  therefore  surprising  that  so  few  shrines  dedicated  to  these 
heroes  are  found  in  any  part  of  India. 

In  one  of  the  galleries  of  the  temple  at  Tinnevelly  I 
observed  well-carved  images  of  all  the  five  brothers ;  Arjuna 
being  especially  conspicuous  with  his  bow  Gandlva,  and 
Bhima  with  his  club.  It  is  worthy  of  note,  too,  that  five 
rough  stones  smeared  with  red  paint  may  occasionally  be 
seen  set  up  in  fields.  These  are  probably  intended  to  repre- 
sent the  five  Pandava  princes  who  are  supposed  to  guard 
the  crops.  Such  stones  abound  in  various  parts  of  India, 
but  are  not  always  five  in  number,  sometimes  as  many  as 
twenty  being  ranged  together  in  a  kind  of  circle. 

Again,  I  saw  images  to  the  honour  of  the  Pandavas  at 
Madura,  and  at  Buddha-gaya,  but  no  worshippers  were  near 
them-^.  Yet  the  characters  of  these  heroes  are  quite  as  much 
venerated  now  as  they  ever  were  in  ancient  times,  and  their 
virtues,  as  narrated  in  the  Maha-bharata,  are  to  this  day  pro- 
verbial throughout  India.  Arjuna,  who  is  the  most  renowned, 
is  a  pattern  of  bravery  and  generosity ;  Yudhi-shthira  of 
justice,  passionless  self-command,  and  cold  heroism  ;  Nakula 
and  Sahadeva  of  wisdom,  temperance,  and  beauty  ;  while 
Bhima  is  a  type  of  brute  courage  and  physical  strength. 

Representations  of  Bhima's  gigantic  form  are  not  uncommon, 
but  are  rather  curiosities  to  excite  wonder,  than  objects  to 
attract  worship.  I  saw  a  huge  image  of  him  on  one  of  the 
Ghats  at  Benares,  and  another  near  the  Agra  fort,  and  another 
in  a  corridor  of  the  Linga  temple  at  Tinnevelly.  This  last  is 
about  20  feet  high  and  holds  a  huge  club.  It  is  painted 
bright  red  and  made  for  moving  about  in  processions. 

Bhima's  great  strength   is   illustrated  by   a   curious  story. 

^  In  the  Maratha  country  a  single  rudely-carved  figure,  especially  if 
mounted,  is  called  a  Vir  [vira,  hero),  or  sometimes  a  Dev  {deva,  god). 


Hero-worship.     Karna,  273 

Soon  after  his  birth  his  mother,  who  was  carrying  him  in  her 
arms  up  a  mountain,  accidentally  let  him  fall  over  a  precipice, 
and  on  descending  in  great  agony  of  mind,  expecting  to 
find  her  baby  dashed  to  pieces  on  the  rock  beneath,  she 
found  to  her  amazement  and  delight  that  the  boy  was 
unhurt,  and  the  rock  shivered  to  atoms  by  contact  with  his 
body. 

Karna,  too,  another  of  the  Maha-bharata  heroes  (also  son 
of  Kunti  by  the  Sun-god),  is  greatly  revered,  and  often  cited 
in  proverbial  expressions,  as  a  model  of  liberality,  chivalrous 
honour,  and  self-sacrificing  generosity.  I  saw  one  or  two 
images  of  him  in  Southern  India,  but  met  with  no  shrines 
dedicated  to  his  worship. 

Clearly  the  hero-worship  of  India  is  subject  to  constant 
changes  and  fluctuations.  Worshippers  are  capricious  ;  great 
warriors,  great  saints,  and  great  sages  have  their  day  and  find 
themselves  gradually  pushed  into  the  background,  while  their 
places  are  taken  by  rival  warriors,  saints,  and  sages  who  claim 
to  be  still  greater  ^. 


^  That  man-worship  is  not  confined  to  India  may  be  proved  by 
numerous  examples  drawn  from  all  countries.  In  Africa  the  King  of 
Loango  is  honoured  as  a  god.  His  person  is  so  sacred  that  no  one  is 
allowed  to  see  him  eat.  In  Peru  a  particular  Inca  was  adored  as  a  god 
during  his  lifetime.  In  New  Zealand  the  warrior  chief,  Hongi,  was  called 
a  god  by  his  followers.  At  the  Society  Islands,  King  Tamatoa  was 
worshipped,  and  in  the  Marquesas  there  are  several  men  named  atiia 
believed  to  possess  the  power  of  gods.  At  Tahiti  the  king  and  queen 
were  once  held  so  sacred  that  the  sounds  forming  their  names  could 
not  be  used  for  ordinary  words.  See  '  Origin  of  Civilization,'  by  Sir  J. 
Lubbock,  p.  355. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

Death,  Fmieral  Rites,  and  Ancestor-worship. 

In  the  two  preceding  chapters  we  have  had  occasion  to 
state  incidentally  the  Hindu  doctrine  in  regard  to  the  spirits 
of  the  dead.  We  have  seen  that  they  are  supposed  to  pass 
into  one  or  other  of  two  very  different  conditions.  They  may 
be  degraded  to  the  state  of  evil  demons  or  elevated  to  the 
position  of  divinities^.  In  the  former  case  they  are  rather 
feared  and  propitiated  than  worshipped  ;  in  the  latter  they 
are  rather  reverenced  and  worshipped  than  propitiated.  In 
the  present  chapter  I  have  to  point  out  how  far  this  varying 
condition  of  deceased  persons  depends  on  the  performance  of 
funeral  and  ancestral  rites  by  living  relatives  and  descendants. 

Of  all  forms  of  religious  devotion  homage  to  dead  relations 
is  the  most  widely  extended  ^.  It  forms  a  part  of  nearly  all 
religions,  and  is  an  element  in  the  creed  of  nearly  every  race  ^. 
Perhaps  the  one  exception  is  Protestant  Christianity.  The 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  as  is  well  known,  teaches  that  suppli- 
cations and  prayers  may  avail  to  improve  the  condition  of 
departed  spirits  in  purgatory.     Not   only,  therefore  does   it 


^  In  the  same  way  among  the  Romans  some  souls  of  the  dead  were 
good,  pure,  and  bright,  and  therefore  called  Manes  ;  while  others,  called 
Larvae  and  Lemures,  wandered  about  as  unquiet  ghosts,  and  were  often 
regarded  as  evil  spirits.  Compare  also  the  Roman  ideas  respecting  the 
Penates.  With  regard  to  the  ideas  prevalent  among  the  Greeks,  the 
following  passages  bear  on  the  existence  of  the  -^vxh  after  death  as  an 
el'fifoXoi/  in  Hades  :  II.  xxiii.  72,  104  ;  Od.  xi.  213,  476  ;  xx.  355  ;  xxiv.  14. 

2  I  refer  any  one  who  doubts  this  fact  to  Mr.  E.  B.  Tylor's  '  Primitive 
Culture,'  vol.  ii.  chap,  xviii. 

^  The  Bishop  of  Madagascar  stated  not  long  ago,  that  when  he  had  to 
descend  a  dangerous  stream  in  that  island,  the  boatmen  made  offerings  to 
the  spirits  of  their  ancestors  before  attempting  to  shoot  the  rapids. 


i 


Death,  Ftme7'al  Rites ^  and  Ancestor-worship.   275 

permit  special  masses  to  be  offered  for  the  souls  of  deceased 
relations,  it  introduces  a  prayer  for  the  dead  into  the  regular 
daily  mass  ^. 

According  to  the  Protestant  creed,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
condition  of  the  dead  is  irrevocably  fixed.  To  think  of  ame- 
liorating it  by  human  intercession  is  nothing  short  of  heresy. 
Nor  is  it  customary  to  perpetuate  by  any  kind  of  act,  peri- 
odically repeated,  the  memory  of  one's  nearest  and  dearest 
relatives.  It  is  no  doubt  true  that  tombs  are  occasionally 
visited,  and,  in  the  case  of  royal  personages,  memorial  ser- 
vices performed  ;  and  an  eminent  Bishop  ^  once  gave  it  as  his 
opinion  that  the  Church  of  England  does  not  condemn  special 
services  for  the  spirits  of  the  dead  ^ ;  provided,  I  presume, 
that  their  condition  is  not  supposed  to  be  thereby  altered. 

It  is  also  true  that  every  respectable  man  who  has  had  a 
respectable  father  or  mother  will  be  careful  to  reverence  their 
memory*,  but  I  question  whether  the  same  man  ever  feels  it 
his  duty  to  bestow  a  single  reverential  thought  on  either  of 

^  Our  prayer  for  the  Church  mihtant  has,  I  believe,  taken  the  place  of 
this.  In  some  Roman  Catholic  countries  it  is  customary  to  exhume 
skeletons  at  intervals  of  several  years,  and  to  place  their  skulls  in  a 
small  chapel  adjoining  the  parish  church.  This  chapel  is  in  German 
Switzerland  called  the  Schadel-haus,  '  Skull-house,'  and  is  used  as  an 
oratory  where  people  pray  for  their  dead  relations  and  friends. 

^  According  to  the  late  Bishop  of  Peterborough,  the  belief  was  once 
general  in  the  early  Church  that  the  souls  of  the  faithful,  though  free 
from  all  suffering,  were  capable,  while  awaiting  their  final  consummation 
and  bliss,  of  a  progress  in  holiness  and  happiness ;  and  that  prayers  for 
such  progress  might  lawfully  be  made  in  their  behalf.  Accordingly, 
prayers  for  '  the  rest  and  refreshment  of  the  departed  '  abound  in  the 
early  liturgies  of  the  Church.  See  the  Bishop's  letter  to  the  Rev.  J. 
Mason's  parishioners  who  complained  of  Mr.  Mason's  having  given 
notice  that  he  intended  celebrating  the  Holy  Communion  for  the  repose 
of  Dr.  Pusey's  soul. 

^  All  Souls'  day  is  observed  as  a  festival  (on  Nov.  2)  in  the  Church 
of  Rome.  It  is  said  that  in  countries  where  superstition  is  rife  feasting 
takes  place,  and  the  souls  of  the  dead  are  supposed  to  join  in  the  fes- 
tivities and  consume  the  essence  of  the  food  before  it  is  eaten. 

*  The  feeling  seems  to  find  expression  in  putting  periodical  advertise- 
ments '  in  loving  memory  '  in  the  obituary  of  modern  newspapers. 

T  2 


276    Death,  Funeral  Rites,  and  Ancestor-worship, 

his  departed  grandfathers  and  grandmothers,  and  whether  the 
world  would  feel  quite  sure  of  the  sanity  of  any  one  who  was 
in  the  habit  of  offering  periodical  homage  to  his  two  great- 
grandfathers and  great-grandmothers. 

This  utter  neglect  of  one's  ancestors,  which  seems  to  spring 
not  so  much  from  any  want  of  sympathy  with  the  departed  as 
from  a  disbelief  in  any  interconnexion  between  this  world  and 
the  world  of  spirits,  is  perhaps  with  good  reason  regarded  as 
a  defect  in  our  religious  character  and  practice. 

In  Eastern  countries,  especially  India,  China,  and  Japan, 
the  opposite  extreme  prevails.  We  know  that  in  India,  every 
religious  duty  is  magnified  and  intensified.  There,  to  speak 
of  mere  reverence  for  the  dead  is  a  very  inadequate  expres- 
sion. The  constant  periodical  performance  of  commemora- 
tive obsequies  is  regarded  in  the  light  of  a  positive  and 
peremptory  obligation.  It  is  the  simple  discharge  of  a  solemn 
debt  due  to  one's  forefathers — a  debt  consisting  not  only  in 
reverential  worship,  but  in  the  performance  of  acts  necessary 
to  their  support,  happiness,  and  progress  onward  in  the  spirit- 
world.  A  man's  deceased  relatives,  for  at  least  three  genera- 
tions, are  among  his  cherished  divinities,  and  must  be 
honoured  by  daily  offerings  (see  p.  410),  or  a  Nemesis  of  some 
kind  is  certain  to  overtake  his  living  family. 

Nothing,  in  fact,  seemed  to  me  more  noteworthy  in  com- 
paring Hinduism  with  other  religions,  than  the  elaborate 
nature  of  its  funeral  rites  and  the  extraordinary  importance 
attached  to  marriage,  with  a  view  to  providing  sons  for  the 
due  performance  of  these  rites  and  of  the  subsequent  cere- 
monial worship  called  Sraddha. 

And  here  at  the  outset  "it  may  be  well  to  point  out  that  the 
main  object  of  a  Hindu  funeral  is  very  different  from  that 
of  European  obsequial  rites. 

It  is  nothing  less  than  the  investiture  of  the  departed 
spirit  with  a  kind  of  intermediate  body— a  peculiar  frame 
interposed,  as   it   were   parenthetically,  between   the  terres- 


Death,  Ftmeral  Rites,  and  Ancestor-worship.  277 

trial  gross  body  which  has  just  been  destroyed  by  fire,  and 
the  new  terrestrial  body  which  it  is  compelled  ultimately  to 
assume.  The  creation  of  such  an  intervenient  frame — com- 
posed of  gross  elements,  though  less  gross  than  those  of 
earth — becomes  necessary,  because  the  individualized  spirit 
of  man,  after  cremation  of  the  terrestrial  body,  has  nothing 
left  to  withhold  it  from  re-absorption  into  the  universal  soul, 
except  its  incombustible  subtle  body,  which,  as  composed 
of  the  subtle  elements,  is  not  only  proof  against  the  fire 
of  the  funeral  pile,  but  is  incapable  of  any  sensations  in 
the  temporary  heaven  or  temporary  hell  (p.  49),  through  one 
or  other  of  which  every  separate  human  spirit  is  forced  to 
pass  before  returning  to  earth  and  becoming  reinvested  with 
a  terrestrial  gross  body. 

Were  it  not  for  this  intermediate  frame — believed  to  be 
created  by  the  offerings  made  during  the  funeral  ceremonies 
— the  spirit  would  remain  with  its  subtle  body  in  the  con- 
dition of  an  impure  and  unquiet  ghost  (preta)  wandering 
about  on  the  earth  or  in  the  air  among  demons  and  evil 
spirits,  and  condemned  itself  to  become  an  evil  spirit-^.  Its 
reception  of  the  intervenient  body  converts  it  from  a  Preta 
or  ghost  into  a  Pitri  or  ancestor ;  but  this  does  not  satisfy 
all  its  needs.  The  new  body  it  has  received,  though  not 
so  gross  as  that  of  earth,  must  be  developed  and  sup- 
ported. It  must,  if  possible,  be  rescued  from  the  fire  of 
purgatory.  It  must  be  assisted  onwards  in  its  course 
from  lower  to  higher  worlds  and  back  again  to  earth. 
And  these  results  can  only  be  accomplished  by  the  cere- 
monies   called    Sraddha  —  ceremonies   which    may   in    some 


^  It  is  curious  that  the  Hindu  notion  of  the  restless  state  of  the  soul 
until  the  Sraddha  is  performed  agrees  with  the  ancient  classical  super- 
stition that  the  ghosts  of  the  dead  wandered  about  as  long  as  their 
bodies  remained  unburied,  and  were  not  suffered  to  mingle  with  those 
of  the  other  dead.  See  Od.  xi.  54  ;  II.  xxiii.  72  ;  and  cf.  ^n.  vi.  325  ; 
Lucan,  i,  ii  ;  Eur.  Hec.  30. 


278  Death,  Funeral  Rites,  and  Ancestor-worship, 

respects  be  compared  to  the  Roman  Catholic  masses  for 
the  dead.  The  first  Sraddha — to  be  described  (at  p.  303,  etc.) 
— is  performed  very  soon  after  the  funeral  rites,  and  is  always 
a  costly  affair. 

In  England,  the  religious  services  at  a  funeral  occupy 
about  half  an  hour,  and  the  entire  ceremony,  with  all  its 
attendant  circumstances,  is  performed  in  the  present  day  at 
little  cost. 

In  India,  the  funeral  ceremonies  of  the  older  members  of  a 
family^  occupy  ten  days,  and  with  the  succeeding  Sraddha 
rites — carried  on  with  the  help  of  Brahmans  and  including 
the  feasting  of  numberless  guests  and  the  distribution  of 
presents — may  involve  an  enormous  expenditure.  I  found 
that  the  cost  to  even  the  poorest  respectable  person  was 
forty  rupees,  and  that  any  one  well-to-do  in  the  world 
would  incur  the  everlasting  obloquy  of  his  family  and  friends 
and  be  almost  excommunicated  from  society  if  he  spent 
less  than  six  thousand  or  seven  thousand  rupees  on  the 
funeral  of  a  father  and  in  the  carrying  out  of  all  the  other 
necessary  ceremonies  consequent  on  his  death.  It  is  well 
known  that  the  expenditure  incurred  on  such  occasions  by 
rich  Bengal  Rajas  and  Zamlndars  of  high  family  has  often 
impoverished  them  for  the  remainder  of  their  lives.  In- 
stances are  on  record  of  a  single  funeral  and  Sraddha  costing 
a  sum  equivalent  to  ;^  120,000,  the  greater  part  of  that  amount 
being  squandered  on  worthless  Brahmans,  indolent  Pandits, 
hypocritical  devotees,  and  vagabond  religious  mendicants. 

In  truth,  the  expenditure  of  time,  money,  and  energy 
needed  to  satisfy  public  opinion  before  a  man  is  held  to 
have  discharged  the  debt  due  to  a  deceased  father,  and 
before  he  is  relieved  from  the  long  course  of  fasting  and 
mourning  he  is  expected  to  undergo,  constitutes  an  evil 
which  has  gradually  grown  till  it  has  become  a  veritable 
curse  to  the  country,  and  one   of  the  principal  bars  to  any 

^  The  funeral  rites  of  children  are  much  simpler  and  shorter. 


Death,  Ftmeral  Rites,  and  Ancestor-worship.   279 

advance  in  its  social  condition  (compare  p.  ^'^'2i).  Nor  is 
there  any  warrant  for  the  system  in  the  more  ancient  books 
held  sacred  in  India  as  authoritative  guides. 

Let  us  try  to  ascertain  the  ancient  practice  by  a  reference 
to  the  Veda  and  Sutras. 

The  ceremonies  in  Vedic  times  must  have  been  very  ) 
simple.  We  gather  from  the  i8th  hymn  of  the  10th  Man 
dala  of  the  Rig-veda  that  the  dead  body  was,  in  all  proba- 
biljf}^  not  burnt  hnt  huripH  It  was  deposited  near  a  grave-^ 
dug  ready  for  its  reception,  while  the  widow  lay  down  or 
seated  herself  by  its  side,  and  the  relatives — female  as  well 
as  male — ranged  themselves  in  a  circle  all  around.  Their 
first  concern  seems  to  have  been  to  propitiate  Death,  sup- 
posed to  be  personally  present  and  to  be  naturally  eager 
to  take  the  opportunity  of  laying  his  hands  on  any  other 
member  of  the  family,  who  might  be  brought,  by  the  necessity 
of  attending  the  funeral,  within  easy  and  tempting  reach  of 
his  clutches.  Hence  the  person  appointed  to  perform  the 
ceremony  addressed  Death,  calling  upon  him  to  keep  clear 
of  the  path  of  the  living,  and  deprecating  any  attack  on 
the  survivors,  who  were  assembled  to  perform  pious  rites 
for  their  dead  relative,  but  had  no  idea  of  yielding  them- 
selves up  into  his  power,  or  renouncing  the  expectation  of 
a  long  life  themselves.  The  leader  of  the  funeral  next 
placed  a  boundary  of  stones  between  the  dead  body  and 
the  living  relations^  to  mark  off  the  limits  of  Death's  au- 
thority. Then  followed  a  prayer  that  none  of  those  present 
might  be  removed  to  another  world  before  attaining  to  the 
full  period  of  a  life  lasting  for  a  hundred  years.  This 
prayer  was  no  doubt  accompanied  with  oblations  in  fire, 
after  which  the  widow's  married  female  relatives  were  di- 
rected by  the  performer  of  the  ceremony  to  prepare  for  the 
return  home.  They  were  to  lead  the  way  without  weeping 
or  any  signs  of  grief,  and  without  taking  off  their  jewelry  \ 

^  The  words  of  the  hymn  are,  Anasravo  'namivdh  sii-rat?td  a  rohantu 


-\s^^ 


28o    Death,  Funeral  Rites,  and  Ancestor-worship. 

Then  the  widow  herself  was  told  to  leave  the  corpse  of  her 
dead  husband  in  the  inner  circle  assigned  to  Death,  and 
join  her  surviving  relations  outside  the  boundary  line.  She 
was  addressed  in  words  to  the  following  effect :  '  Rise  up, 
O  woman  (udlrshva  nari),  come  back  to  the  world  of  the 
living  ;  thou  art  lying  by  a  dead  man ;  come  back.  Thou 
hast  sufficiently  fulfilled  the  duty  of  a  wife  to  the  husband 
who  formerly  wooed  thee  and  took  thee  by  the  hand ' 
(Rig-veda  X.  i8.  8).  Next,  the  performer  of  the  ceremony 
took  a  bow,  previously  placed  in  the  hand  of  the  deceased, 
and  gave  it  to  his  relatives  in  token  that  the  manly  courage 
he  had  displayed  during  life  was  not  to  perish  with  him, 
but  to  remain  with  his  family.  Addressing  the  dead  man 
he  said  :  '  I  take  the  bow  out  of  thy  hand  for  our  own  pro- 
tection, for  our  glory,  and  for  our  strength  ;  remain  thou 
here,  we  will  remain  here  as  heroes,  so  that  in  all  battles 
we  may  conquer  our  foes'  (X.  i8.  9).  The  body  was  then 
tenderly  committed  to  its  ^  house  of  clay '  (mrin-mayarn  gri- 
ham,  Rig-veda  VII.  89.  i),  with  the  words:  'Return  to  thy 
mother  Earth,  may  she  be  kind  to  thee  and  lie  lightly  on 
thee,  and  not  oppress  thee ; '  and  with  other  similar  words, 
which  may  be  thus  freely  translated : — 

Open  thy  arms,  O  earth,  receive  the  dead 
With  gentle  pressure  and  with  loving  welcome. 
Enshroud  him  tenderly,  e'en  as  a  mother 
Folds  her  soft  vestment  round  the  child  she  loves. 

(X.  18.  II.) 

Finally,  a  mound  or  column  (sthuna)  of  earth  was  reared 
over  the  grave,  and  the  Pitris  or  deified  ancestors  and  the 
god  Yama  were  entreated  to  preserve  it. 

janayo  yonim  agre,  *  without  tears,  without  sorrow,  bedecked  with  jewels, 
let  the  wives  go  to  the  house  first.'  It  is  said  that  the  Brahmans 
fraudulently  substituted  agneh,  '  of  fire,'  for  agre,  '  first,'  and  that  this 
verse  was  then  quoted  as  the  Vedic  authority  for  the  burning  of  widows  ; 
whereas  neither  the  Veda  nor  Manu  directed  or  even  hinted  at  the  con- 
cremation  of  the  living  wife  with  her  dead  husband. 


Death,  Funeral  Rites,  and  Ancestor-zvorship.   28  r 

It  is  remarkable  that  in  some  passages  of  the  hymns  (X. 
58.  7;  16.  3)  there  are  dim  hints  of  a  belief  in  the  possible 
migration  of  the  spirits  of  the  deceased  into  plants,  trees,  and 
streams.     Compare  pp.  18  ;  24. 

It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  no  very  distinct  account 
of  the  condition  of  the  virtuous  dead  is  to  be  found  in  the 
oldest  hymns  of  the  Rig-veda,  although  a  future  life  is  fully 
recognized,  and  although  the  Pitris  or  departed  ancestors 
are  addressed  with  the  utmost  reverence  (VI.  52.  4  ;  VII. 
0^^.  12  ;  X.  14.  7,  8,  etc.).  Nor  do  we  find  any  clear  mention 
of  hells  or  places  of  torment  for  the  wicked,  although  we 
read  of  dark  and  deep  abysses  into  which  bad  men  are 
thrown  along  with  the  evil  demons^. 

Passing  from  Vedic  times  to  the  period  when  the  Asva- 
layana  and  other  collections  of  domestic  rules  (Grihya-sutras) 
were  composed,  probably  about  five  or  six  centuries  before 
Christ,  we  find  that  funeral  rites,  though  still  conducted  with 
much  simplicity,  were  beginning  to  be  more  elaborate  and 
more  in  unison  with  present  custom.  If  the  practice  of  cre- 
mation was  doubtful  in  Vedic  times  it  was  now  invariable, 
except  in  the  case  of  infants  and  of  great  saints.  As  far 
as  can  be  gathered  from  a  study  of  the  rules  laid  down, 
the  ceremonial  must  have  been  much  as  follows : — 

When  a  man  died,  his  immediate  family,  headed  by  the 
eldest  son  or  other  near  relative,  formed  a  procession  to  a 
properly  prepared  place  in  the  Smasana  or  '  burning  ground,' 
carrying  the  sacred  fires  and  sacrificial  implements.  The 
younger  walked  first,  the  elder  behind — the  men  separated 
from  the  women  ^ — bearing  the  corpse,  the  hair  and  nails  of 
which  had  been   clipped,   and  leading  the  sacrificial  animal. 


^  *  Indra  and  Soma  plunge  the  wicked  in  inextricable  darkness,  so  that 
not  one  of  them  may  again  issue  from  it.'  See  Rig-veda  VII.  104.  3, 
and  compare  IV.  5.  5  ;  IX.  'j'^.  8. 

^  In  the  present  day  the  only  part  women  take  in  funeral  ceremonies 
is  that  of  weeping  and  wailing  and  uttering  loud  cries  of  grief  at  home. 


282    Death,  Ftmeral  Rites,  mid  Aiicestor-wo7^ship. 

either  a  cow  -^  or  a  black  she-goat.  The  remaining  relatives 
followed  with  their  garments  hanging  down  and  their  hair 
dishevelled — the  elder  in  front,  the  younger  behind.  When 
they  reached  the  funeral  ground,  the  son  or  brother  or  other 
near  relative  appointed  to  perform  the  ceremony,  taking  a 
branch  of  the  SamT-tree,  sprinkled  holy  water  on  the  spot 
excavated  and  prepared  for  the  pile,  repeating  Rig-veda 
X.  14.  9  :  '  Depart  (ye  evil  spirits),  slink  away  from  here ; 
the  Fathers  (his  departed  ancestors)  have  made  for  him  this 
place  of  rest.' 

Then  the  sacred  fires  were  deposited  around  the  margin 
of  the  excavated  place,  and  a  heap  of  fire-wood  was  piled 
up  inside  the  sacrificial  ground  (antar-vedi).  Next,  a  layer 
of  Kusa  grass  was  spread  over  the  pile  along  with  the  black 
skin  of  the  goat.  Then  the  clipped  hair  and  the  dead  body 
were  placed  upon  it,  with  the  feet  towards  one  of  the  fires 
and  the  head  towards  the  other.  Next,  the  widow  was 
made  to  lie  down  on  the  funeral  pile  north  of  the  body, 
along  with  the  bow  of  her  deceased  husband,  but  was  not 
allowed  to  remain  there  long.  Soon  the  leader  of  the 
funeral  called  upon  her  to  rise,  repeating  Rig-veda  X.  18.  8, 
already  quoted  (see  p.  280). 

Next,  he  took  back  the  bow,  repeating  Rig-veda  X.  18.  9 
(quoted  at  p.  280). 

Then  he  placed  the  various  sacrificial  implements  and 
portions  of  the  sacrificial  animal  in  the  two  hands  and  on 
different  parts  of  the  body  of  the  corpse.  This  being 
done,  he  kindled  the  three  sacred  fires.  While  the  body 
was  burning,  portions  of  hymns   of  the   Rig-veda  (such  as 


•^  The  sacrifice  of  a  cow  (called  Anustarani)  at  ancient  funeral  cere- 
monies proves,  according  to  Dr.  Rajendra-lala  Mitra,  that  in  early  times 
there  was  no  law  against  the  eating  of  flesh,  and  even  of  beef.  A  cow 
was  killed,  that  the  dead  might  have  a  supply  of  the  essence  of  beef  for 
their  journey ;  and  when  the  spirits  of  the  departed  had  feasted  on  the 
aroma  of  the  immolated  animal,  the  actual  flesh  was  left  for  the  living. 


Death,  Funeral  Rites,  and  A 7ices tor-worship.  283 

X.  14.  7,  8,  10,  II  ;  16.  1-4;  17.  '^-6',  18.  II  ;  154.  l-S)  were 
repeated. 

The  following  are  free  translations  of  some  of  the  verses  : — 

Soul  of  the  dead !  depart  ;  take  thou  the  path — 
The  ancient  path — by  which  our  ancestors 
Have  gone  before  thee  ;  thou  shalt  look  upon 
The  two  kings,  mighty  Varuna  and  Yama, 
Delighting  in  oblations  ;  thou  shalt  meet 
The   Fathers  and  receive  the  recompense 
Of  all  thy  stored-up  offerings  above. 
Leave  thou  thy  sin  and  imperfection  here  ; 
Return  unto  thy  home  once  more  ;  assume 
A  glorious  form.     By  an  auspicious  path 
Hasten  to  pass  the  four-eyed  brindled  dogs — 
The  two  road-guarding  sons  of  Sarama  ; 
Advance  to  meet  the  Fathers  who,  with  hearts 
Kindly  disposed  towards  thee,  dwell  In  bliss 
With  Yama  ;  and  do  thou,  O  mighty  god. 
Intrust  him  to  thy  guards^  to  bring  him  to  thee, 
And  grant  him  health  and  happiness  eternal. 

(X.  14.  7-1 1.) 

When  a  dead  body  was  thus  burnt  the  spirit — invested 
with  its  incombustible  subtle  frame — was  supposed  to  rise 
along  with  the  smoke  to  heaven. 

Then  the  performer  of  the  ceremony  repeated  the  verse 
(Rig-veda  X.  18.  3):— 

We  living  men,  survivors,  now  return 
And  leave  the  dead;  may  our  oblations  please 
The  gods  and  bring  us  blessings !  now  we  go 
To  dance  and  jest  and  hope  for  longer  life. 

After  this  they  proceeded  homewards,  the  younger  walking 
in  front,  the  elder  behind.  But  before  re-entering  the  house 
they  purified  themselves  by  chewing  leaves  of  the  Nimba- 
tree  2,  and  by  touching  fire,  grains  of  barley,  oil,  and  water. 
During  one  night  they  cooked  no  food,  and  for  three  nights 
ate  nothing  containing  salt. 

After  the  tenth  day  the  bones  and  ashes  of  the  deceased 

^  These  are  the  two  four-eyed  watch-dogs  mentioned  at  p.  289. 
^  This,  however,  is  not  mentioned  in  the  Asvalayana  Sutras. 


284    Death,  Funeral  Rites,  and  Ancestor-worship. 

were  gathered  together  and  placed  in  a  plain  undecorated 
funeral  vase.  This  particular  act,  which  in  modern  times  is 
generally  performed  on  the  fourth  day,  was  called  Asthi- 
sancaya,  '  bone-collection.'  A  hole  was  excavated  and  the 
vessel  placed  in  it,  while  Rig-veda  X.  18.  10  was  repeated  : 
'  Return  to  thy  mother  Earth,  the  Widely-extended,  the 
Broad,  the  Auspicious  ;  may  she  be  to  thee  like  a  young 
maiden,  soft  as  wool  (urna-mrada) !  may  she  protect  thee 
from  the  embrace  of  the  goddess  of  corruption ! ' 

Then  earth  was  scattered  over  the  excavation,  with  re- 
petition of  the  twelfth  verse  of  the  same  hymn.  Lastly,  a 
cover  was  placed  over  the  vase  and  the  hole  was  filled  up 
with  earth,  while  the  thirteenth  verse  was  repeated :  '  I  raise 
up  the  earth  around  thee  for  a  support,  placing  this  cover 
on  thee  without  causing  injury.  May  the  Fathers  guard  this 
funeral  monument  for  thee !  May  Yama  establish  a  habitation 
for  thee  there ! ' 

The  principal  rite  being  thus  brought  to  a  close,  the  re- 
lations returned  home,  and  after  performing  an  ablution 
offered  the  first  Sraddha  to  the  deceased  person. 

I  may  mention  here  that,  being  one  day  on  the  Bombay 
burning-ground,  I  was  a  spectator  of  a  '  bone-gathering '  cere- 
mony (see  p.  302)5  which  had  many  features  in  common  with 
the  ancient  rite.  A  Brahman  and  five  women  were  seated 
in  a  semicircle  round  the  ashes  and  bones  of  a  young  mar- 
ried girl  of  low  caste,  whose  body  had  recently  been  burnt. 
Before  them  was  an  earthenware  vase,  and  around  it  were 
flowers,  fruits,  and  betel-leaves.  The  Brahman  had  a  metal 
vase  shaped  something  like  a  tumbler  in  his  hand  containing 
consecrated  or  holy  water.  With  a  small  round  spoon  or  ladle 
he  took  out  a  small  portion  of  the  water  and  poured  it  into 
the  hands  of  the  woman,  at  the  same  time  muttering  texts 
and  prayers.  Then  he  poured  water  into  the  vase,  and  on 
the  top  of  the  water  placed  the  fruit,  flowers,  and  leaves. 
Next,  he  collected  the  half-calcined  bones,  and  having  put 


Deaths  Funeral  Rites,  arid  Ancestor-worship.   285 

them  carefully  and  reverentially  into  the  vase,  he  made  a 
hole  in  the  ground  a  few  yards  off  and  buried  it.  I  was 
told  that  the  vase  would  be  left  there  for  ten  days,  when  a 
Sraddha  would  be  performed  in  the  same  place. 

Turning  next  to  the  law-books  (see  p.  51),  which  follow 
on  the  Sutras  and  are  based  on  them,  we  find,  as  might  be 
expected,  that  the  practice  they  inculcated  differed  little 
from  that  enjoined  in  the  Sutras.  Funeral  rites  are  called 
'  the  last  sacrifice '  (antyeshti),  that  is  to  say,  the  sacrifice 
of  the  body  in  fire.  They  are  regarded  as  inauspicious 
(amarigala),  because  impurity  is  thought  to  result  from  con- 
tact with  a  dead  body  and  from  connexion  with  the  departed 
spirit,  which,  though  released  by  the  burning  of  the  body, 
is  still  regarded  as  impure  until  the  Sraddha  ceremonies  are 
performed.  Manu  even  declares  that  some  implication  of 
impurity  attaches  to  the  sound  of  the  Sama-veda  because 
it  is  chanted  at  funeral  services. 

The  Sraddha,  on  the  other  hand,  is  held  to  be  auspicious 
(maiigala),  because  it  is  performed  for  the  benefit  of  a  de- 
ceased person  after  he  has  received  an  intermediate  body 
and  become  a  Pitri  or  beatified  father.  It  is  true  that 
both  funeral  and  Sraddha  ceremonies  consist  in  the  offering 
of  balls  (pinda)  of  rice  or  fiour  and  libations  of  water,  with 
texts  and  prayers  ;  but  in  the  funeral  rites  the  ball  of  rice 
is  for  the  nourishment  of  the  ghost  and  for  the  formation 
of  a  body  as  its  vehicle,  whereas  in  the  Sraddha  the  Pinda 
is  said  to  represent  the  body  so  formed,  and  is  offered  as 
an  act  of  homage.  Nevertheless  it  is  plainly  declared  in 
Manu  (III.  i-^^"])  and  elsewhere  that  the  embodied  Pitris 
require  the  periodical  offering  of  these  Pindas  and  water  for 
their  continual  nourishment  and  refreshment. 

A  large  number  of  relatives  are  supposed  to  partake  in  the 
benefits  of  the  Sraddha.  They  are  as  follow: — (i)  Father, 
father's  father, father's  grandfather;  (2)  Mother,  mother's  father, 
mother's  grandfather ;    (3)  Stepmother,  if  any ;    (4)  Father's 


2  86    Death,  Funeral  Rites,  and  Ancestor-worsJiip, 

mother,  his  grandmother,  and  his  great-grandmother;  (5) 
Father's  brothers;  (6)  Mother's  brothers;  (7)  Father's 
sisters;  (8)  Mother's  sisters;  (9)  Sisters  and  brothers;  (10) 
Fathers-in-law.  We  know,  in  fact,  that  the  Hindu  family 
(gotra)  is  held  to  be  a  corporate  society,  bound  together 
by  a  right  of  participation  in  the  Sraddha  offerings.  This 
right  furnishes  the  principal  evidence  of  kinship,  on  which 
the  title  to  share  in  the  patrimony  is  founded,  no  power  of 
making  wills  being  recognized  in  Manu  or  any  other  autho- 
ritative code  of  Hindu  jurisprudence.  All  who  unite  in 
presenting  to  their  deceased  ancestors  the  balls  (pinda)  of 
rice  or  flour  and  libations  of  water  (udaka),  are  called  Sa- 
pindas  ^  and  Samanodakas  to  each  other,  and  a  kind  of 
intercommunion  and  interdependence  is  thus  continually 
maintained  between  the  dead  and  living  members  of  a  family 
— between  past,  present,  and  future  generations.  Practically, 
however,  the  closeness  of  the  interconnexion  extends  only 
to  three  generations  on  each  side.  In  this  way  a  kind  of 
family  chain,  consisting  of  seven  links,  is  formed.  The 
householder  represents  the  central  link,  and  is  himself  linked 
to  father,  grandfather,  and  great-grandfather  on  one  side, 
and  to  son,  grandson,  and  great-grandson  on  the  other 
(Manu  V.  60).  The  first  three  are  supposed  to  be  de- 
pendent on  the  living  paterfamilias  for  their  happiness  and 
support,  through  the  constant  offering  of  the  ball-like  cakes 
and  water ;  and  he  himself,  the  moment  he  dies,  becomes 
similarly  dependent  on  the  three  succeeding  generations. 

The  connexion  which  is  kept  up  by  the  common  offering 
of  water  lasts  longer,  and  ends  only  when  the  family  names 
are  no  longer  known  (V.  60).  Manu's  law-book,  however, 
which  stands  at  the  head  of  all  the  others  and  is  the  earliest 
in  date,  makes  no  positive  statement  as  to   the  precise  dis- 

^  According  to  the  Mitakshara  school,  Pinda  may  also  signify  body,  and 
some  interpret  sapiiida  to  mean  persons  united  by  bodily  relationship. 
The  other  school  is  that  of  the  Daya-bhaga,  which  prevails  in  Bengal. 


Deaths  Fune^'al  Rites ^  afid  Ancestor-worship.    287 

tinction  between  the  funeral  or  Sraddha  ceremonies.  Nor 
does  it  discriminate  clearly  between  the  subtle,  the  terres- 
trial, and  the  intermediate  bodies.  It  merely  affirms  that  a 
Sraddha  means  an  oblation  of  grain,  water,  or  other  sub- 
stances offered  with  faith  (sraddha),  and  that  the  perform- 
ance of  Sraddhas  by  a  son  is  necessary  to  deliver  a  father 
from  the  hell  called  Put  (IX.  138) ;  whence  a  son  is  called 
Put-tra,  '  rescuer  from  Put  ^.'  This,  of  course,  sufficiently 
explains  the  desire  of  every  Hindu  for  the  birth  of  a  son 
rather  than  a  daughter. 

The  law-book  of  Yajnavalkya  is  later  in  date.  The  pre- 
cepts it  lays  down  (Book  III)  prove  that  in  the  early  centuries 
of  our  era  funerals  were  conducted  in  a  simple  manner.  Still, 
much  of  the  practice  was  in  harmony  with  modern  usage, 
as  well  as  with  that  of  the  Grihya-sutras  (p.  281). 

For  example,  a  child  under  two  years  of  age  was  not  burnt 
but  buried,  and  no  offering  of  water  was  made  to  it.  (See 
also  Manu  V.  68.)  The  corpse  of  any  other  deceased  per- 
son, except  that  of  a  great  saint  or  ascetic,  was  accom- 
panied by  a  procession  of  relations  to  the  burning-place, 
and  there  burnt  with  common  fire  (laukikagnina),  while  a 
hymn  to  Yama  was  repeated.  Next,  the  relatives  poured 
out  a  single  libation  of  water  to  the  deceased,  uttering  his 
name  and  family.  Then,  instead  of  shedding  tears  or  giving 
way  to  grief,  the  relatives,  after  performing  their  ablutions, 
seated  themselves  on  a  spot  covered  with  soft  grass,  while 
the  elder  repeated  to  the  younger  some  verses  from  the 
ancient  Itihasas,  such  as  the  following  (freely  translated) : — 

Does  it  not  argue  folly  to  expect 

Stability  in  man,  who  is  as  transient 

As  a  mere  bubble  and  fragile  as  a  stalk  ? 

^  It  is  wholly  inconsistent  with  the  true  theory  of  Hindiiism  that  the 
Sraddha  should  deliver  a  man  from  the  consequence  of  his  own  deeds. 
Manu  says,  '  Iniquity  once  practised,  like  a  seed,  fails  not  to  yield  its 
fruit  to  him  that  wrought  it'  (IV.  173) ;  but  Hinduism  bristles  with  such 
inconsistencies. 


288     Deaths  Funeral  Rites,  mtd  Ancestor-worship. 

Why  should  we  utter  wailings  if  a  frame, 

Composed  of  five  material  elements, 

Is  decomposed  by  force  of  its  own  acts, 

And  once  again  resolved  into  its  parts  ? 

The  earth,  the  ocean,  and  the  gods  themselves 

Must  perish,  how  should  not  the  world 

Of  mortals,  light  as  froth,  obey  the  law 

Of  universal  death  and  perish  too  ? 

After  hearing  verses  of  this  kind  they  set  out  homewards, 

the  younger  ones  leading  the  way.     On  reaching  the  house 

they  made  a   solemn  pause  outside   the  door.      Then  they 

all  chewed  leaves  of  the  Nimba-tree  (popularly,  Nim),  rinsed 

their  mouths  with  water,  touched  fire,  water,  cow-dung,  and 

white  mustard-seed,  and  placed  their  feet  on  a  stone ;  then 

they  slowly  re-entered  the  house.     Impurity  caused  by  the 

ceremonies    connected    with    touching    the    corpse    (savam 

asaucam)   lasted  for  either  three  nights  or  ten  nights.      In 

later   times   the    season    of    mourning   and    impurity   lasted 

longer  (see  p.  306,  note  3). 

Turn  we  now  to  the  more  modern  practice. 

Perhaps  the  best  authority  for  the  present  creed  of  the 
Hindias  in  regard  to  the  future  state  of  the  soul,  and  the 
best  guide  to  the  right  performance  of  funeral  and  Sraddha 
ceremonies,  is  the  Garuda-purana.  This  is  a  comparatively 
modern  work — probably  not  older  than  the  seventh  or  eighth 
century,  and  possibly  still  more  modern.  It  is  written,  like 
other  Puranas,  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue  ;  and  is  the  more  in- 
teresting, as  portions  of  it  are  recited  at  funerals  and  Sraddhas 
in  the  present  day.  The  dialogue  is  between  Vishnu  and 
Garuda — the  divine  bird  represented  as  always  attendant  on 
the  god  and  serving  as  his  vehicle  (see  p.  104).  Questioned 
by  Garuda,  Vishnu  reveals  the  secrets  of  the  future  world  and 
the  nature  of  the  punishment  in  store  for  the  wicked.  He  also 
prescribes  the  proper  ceremonies.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  how- 
ever, the  forms  now  observed  do  not  always  agree  with  the 
directions  in  the  Garuda-purana,  or  in  any  other  guide.  They 
vary  according  to  different  localities  and  different  castes. 


Death,  Fune7^al  Rites ^  anei  Ancestor-wo^^ship      289 

To  describe  all  the  variations  within  the  limit  of  a  sino;le 
chapter  would  be  impossible.  I  can  only  advert  to  some 
principal  usages  in  the  case  of  the  death  of  persons  of 
higher  caste.  And  to  make  the  Hindu  theory  of  a  future 
state  clearer — complicated  as  it  is  by  numerous  contra- 
dictory statements  and  inconsistencies — it  will  be  necessary 
to  trace  the  development  of  the  prevalent  ideas  concerning 
the  character  and  functions  of  the  god  of  death,  Yama. 

Probably  the  name  Yama  in  the  Veda  is  to  be  connected 
with  an  obsolete  verb  yam,  meaning  '  to  double  '  (Lat.  gemino). 
At  any  rate,  the  Vedic  meaning  of  the  word  seems  to  have 
been  '  twin,'  and  Yama  himself,  with  his  twin  sister  YamT, 
were  held  to  be  the  first  pair  of  mortals  born  into  the 
world,  being  both  children  of  Vivasvat  the  Sun  (see  p.  11  of 
this  volume,  and  compare  Rig-veda  X.  10).  As  he  was  sup- 
posed to  be  the  first  of  men  who  died,  it  was  only  natural 
that  the  earliest  myths  should  invest  him  with  the  office 
of  conducting  the  spirits  of  other  men  who  die  to  the  spirit- 
world — a  world  which,  according  to  some  later  authorities, 
is  to  be  regarded  as  divided  into  three  regions,  the  upper 
sky,  middle  air,  and  the  atmosphere  just  above  the  earth  ; 
the  ancient  patriarchs  occupying  the  highest  region,  and  the 
more  recently  deceased,  the  lowest. 

The  next  of  the  ancient  ideas  concerning  Yama  was  that 
he  reigned  as  a  kind  of  president  of  the  dead  (Pitri-pati) 
in  the  upper  sky.  There  the  spirits  of  the  just,  invested 
with  celestial  lustre,  wafted  by  gentle  breezes  or  borne  in 
heavenly  cars,  continually  arrived,  and  became  themselves 
gods  to  be  worshipped  under  the  title  of  Pitris.  There 
they  enjoyed  the  society  not  only  of  Yama,  but  of  the  god 
Varuna,  also  supposed  to  dwell  there.  The  road  to  this 
abode  was  guarded  by  two  four-eyed  watch-dogs,  called 
Syama,  '  dark,'  and  Sabala  (or  sometimes  Karbura),  '  spotted ' 
(see  Rig-veda  X.  14.  10-12,  and  pp.  283,  422).  Death,  and 
sometimes  Agni  (fire),  were  regarded  as  Yama's  messengers 

U 


290     Death,  Funeral  Rites,  and  Ancestor-worship . 

charged  with  the  duty  of  conducting  the  spirits  of  the  dead 
heavenward,  while  Yama  himself  was  not  so  much  the  god 
as  the  friend  of  departed  spirits.  He  was  looked  up  to  with 
veneration,  but  not  by  any  means  with  terror,  as  if  he  were 
the  god  of  punishment.     (Compare  p.  16  of  this  volume.) 

Turning  now  to  the  period  of  the  Epic  poems  and  Pura- 
nas,  we  find  Yama  developed  into  a  much  more  terrific 
being.  He  is  now  the  Judge  and  punisher  of  the  dead,  who 
sits  in  judgment  upon  them,  and,  so  to  speak,  holds  the 
keys  of  heaven  and  hell.  Hence  he  is  called  '  the  Restrainer 
or  Punisher'  (Yama,  from  yam,  to  restrain),  or  '  the  King  of 
Justice '  (Dharma-raja),  or  simply  '  Justice '  (Dharma),  or 
'  the  Rod-bearer '  (Danda-dhara),  or  *  Noose-bearer  '  (Pasin). 
Sometimes  he  is  represented  as  acting  in  these  characters 
on  behalf  of  Rudra-Siva,  who  is  the  real  god  of  the  dead. 
Many  descriptions  of  his  appearance  may  be  found  in  the 
Epic  poems  and  Puranas.  There  he  is  usually  depicted  as 
grim  and  awe-imposing  in  aspect,  green  in  colour,  clothed 
in  red,  riding  on  a  buffalo,  and  holding  a  club  in  one  hand 
and  a  noose  in  the  other.  He  is  also  one  of  the  eight 
guardians  of  the  quarters  of  the  sky,  his  own  quarter  being 
the  South,  in  which  direction  in  some  region  of  the  lower 
world  and  somewhere  on  the  confines  of  the  places  of  tor- 
ment, which  are  called  the  '  terrific  provinces '  of  his  kingdom 
(Vishnu-purana  H.  6),  are  his  city  and  palace  called  Yama- 
pura  and  Yama-sadana.  Between  the  earth  and  this  abode 
flows  the  terrible  river  VaitaranI  ^,  which  all  departed  spirits 
must  cross.  In  the  later  Puranas — and  especially  in  the  Garuda 
— Yama  is  generally  regarded  as  a  stern  and  terrible  god 
of  punishment  only.  He  is  a  kind  of  Hindu  Pluto  or  Minos, 
and  nothing  more.  But  there  is  this  inconsistency  in  his 
position,  that  although  he  is  appointed  to  punish  every  man 
according  to  his  works,  he  has,  in  the  creed  of  many  Hindus, 

^  Baitarani  (or  VaitaranI)  is  the  name  of  a  river  in  Orissa  45  miles  N.E. 
of  Kuttack.     On  its  bank  is  a  shrine  called  '  Yama's  abode.' 


Death,  Funeral  Rites ^  and  Ancestor-worship,     291 

no  power  over  those  worshippers  of  Siva,  Vishnu,  Krishna, 
and  Brahma,  who  have  lived  virtuous  lives,  and  who  when 
they  die  are  transported  to  the  heavens  Kailasa,  Vaikuntha, 
Go-loka  and  Brahma-loka  respectively  \  Nor  has  he  power 
over  those  whose  death-beds  are  protected  by  the  due  per- 
formance of  the  requisite  ceremonies  and  by  the  payment  of 
sufficient  fees  to  the  Brahmans  who  superintend  such  cere- 
monies.    Compare  p.  118. 

In  attempting,  therefore,  to  give  some  idea  of  the  present 
creed  of  the  Hindus  in  regard  to  death  and  a  future  state, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  begin  by  describing  the  career  and 
history  of  a  deceased  mortal  who,  from  his  evil  deeds  during 
life  or  from  some  defect  in  the  proper  ceremonies  at  his 
decease,  becomes  subject  to  Yama's  penalties. 

We  are  told  in  the  Garuda-purana  that  when  such  a  man 
dies  his  spirit  takes  a  downw^ard  course  through  the  intes- 
tines and  emerges  in  the  same  manner  as  the  excreta ; 
whereas — as  we  shall  see  in  the  sequel — the  spirit  of  a  good 
man  finds  its  w^ay  through  the  tenth  aperture  of  the  body, 
which  is  a  suture  at  the  top  of  the  skull,  called  the  Brahma- 
randhram,  '  Brahma's  crevice.' 

No  sooner  has  death  occurred  and  cremation  of  the  ter- 
restrial body  taken  place,  than  Yama's  two  messengers 
(Yama-dutau),  who  are  waiting  near  at  hand,  make  them- 
selves visible  to  the  released  spirit,  which  retains  its  subtle 
body  composed  of  the  subtle  elements,  and  is  said  to  be 
of  the  size  of  a  thumb  (arigushtha-matra).  Their  aspect  is 
terrific ;  for  they  have  glaring  eyes,  hair  standing  erect, 
gnashing  teeth,  crow-black  skin,  and  claw-like  nails,  and 
they  hold  in  their  hands  the  awful  rod  and  noose  of  Yama. 
Then,  as  if  their  appearance  in  this  form  were  not  suffici- 
ently alarming,  they  proceed  to  terrify  their  victim  by  terrible 
visions  of  the  torments  (yatana)  in  store  for  him. 

^  '  The  servants  and  ministers  of  Yama  and  his  tortures  are  unavailing 
against  one  who  places  his  reliance  in  Vishnu.'     Vishnu-purana  III.  7. 

U  2 


292     Death,  Funeral  Rites,  and  Ancestor- worship. 

In  a  story  told  in  the  Vana-parva  of  the  Maha-bharata 
(16,754),  Yama  himself  appears  before  a  dying  man.  He  is 
clothed  in  blood-red  garments  with  a  glittering  crown  upon 
his  head,  and,  like  Varuna,  holds  a  noose  in  his  hand,  with 
which  he  binds  the  spirit  and  its  subtle  frame  after  drawing 
it  from  the  sick  man's  body. 

The  usual  theory,  however,  is  that  his  two  messengers 
perform  this  office.  They  then  convey  the  bound  spirit 
along  the  road  to  Yama's  abode.  There  being  led  before 
Yama's  judgment-seat  it  is  confronted  with  his  Registrar  or 
Recorder  named  Citra-gupta  ^.  This  officer  stands  by  Yama's 
side  with  an  open  book  before  him.  It  is  his  business  to 
note  down  all  the  good  and  evil  deeds  of  every  human  being 
committed  during  his  life,  with  the  resulting  merit  (punya) 
and  demerit  (papa),  and  to  produce  a  debtor  and  creditor 
account  made  up  and  balanced  on  the  day  of  his  death,  when 
that  being  is  brought  before  Yama^.  According  to  the 
balance  on  the  side  of  merit  or  demerit  is  judgment  pro- 
nounced. 

Truly  the  prospect  of  so  terrible  an  ordeal  to  a  man  con- 
scious of  his  sins  might  appear  absolutely  unbearable,  were 
it  not  for  his  belief  in  the  doctrine  that  the  ceremonies  per- 
formed on  his  behalf  by  his  relations  after  his  death,  have 
power,  if  properly  carried  out,  to  turn  the  scale  and  perhaps 
place  a  considerable  balance  to  his  credit. 

As  however  a  disembodied  spirit  can  neither  enjoy  heaven 
nor  suffer  the  pains  of  hell  until  reinvested  with  a  physical 
frame,  composed — as  already  pointed  out — of  gross  though 
ethereal  particles,  it  is  instantly  after  its  sentence  hurried 
back  to  the  place  of  cremation  ;  where  it  acquires  a  frame  of 
the  necessary  sensibility  by  feeding  on  the  oblations  of  rice 

Mt  is  remarkable  that  the  enterprising  and  intelHgent  Writer  caste 
(Kayastha)  of  Bengal  claim  to  be  descended  from  a  Brahman,  named 
Citra-gupta  ;  and  secretaries  are  sometimes  called  by  that  name. 

-  Compare  Rev.  xx.  12,  '  And  the  dead  were  judged  out  of  those  things 
which  were  written  in  the  books,  according  to  their  works.' 


Death,  Funeral  Rites,  and  Ancestor-worship.     293 

and  libations  of  water  oftered  for  ten  consecutive  days  after 
the  burning  of  the  terrestrial  body  ^ 

On  the  first  day  the  ball  (Pinda)  of  rice  offered  by  the 
eldest  son,  or  other  near  relative,  nourishes  the  spirit  of  the 
deceased  in  such  a  way  as  to  furnish  it  with  a  head ;  on 
the  second  day  the  offered  Pinda  gives  a  neck  and  shoulders; 
on  the  third,  a  heart  ;  on  the  fourth,  a  back  ;  on  the  fifth, 
a  navel ;  on  the  sixth,  a  groin,  and  the  parts  usually  con- 
cealed ;  on  the  seventh,  thighs  ;  on  the  eighth  and  ninth, 
knees  and  feet.  On  the  tenth  day  the  intermediate  body 
is  sufiiciently  formed  to  produce  the  sensation  of  hunger  and 
thirst.  Other  Pindas  are  therefore  put  before  it,  and  on  the 
eleventh  and  twelfth  day^  the  embodied  spirit  feeds  vora- 
ciously on  the  offerings  thus  supplied,  and  so  gains  strength 
for  its  journey  to  its  future  abode  (Garuda-purana  I.  51,  etc.). 
Then  on  the  thirteenth  day  after  death  it  is  conducted  either 
to  heaven  or  to  one  of  the  hells.  If  to  the  latter,  it  has  need 
of  the  most  nourishing  food  to  enable  it  to  bear  up  against 
the  terrible  ordeal  which  awaits  it. 

The  road  by  which  Yama's  two  officers  force  a  wicked  man 
to  descend  to  one  or  other  of  the  twenty-one  hells  (p.  232)  is 
described  in  the  first  two  chapters  of  the  Garuda-purana.  The 
length  of  the  way  is  said  to  be  86,000  leagues  (yojanas).  The 
condemned  soul,  invested  with  its  sensitive  body  and  made  to 
travel  at  the  rate  of  200  leagues  a  day,  finds  no  shady  trees,  no 
resting-place,  no  food,  no  water.  At  one  time  it  is  scorched 
by  a  burning  heat,  equal  to  that  of  twelve  meridian  suns,  at 
another  it  is  pierced  by  icy  cold  winds  ;  now  its  tender  frame 
is  rent  by  thorns  ;  now  it  is  attacked  by  lions,  tigers,  savage 
dogs,  venomous  serpents,  and  scorpions.     In  one  place  it  has 

^  This  frame  is  sometimes  called  'the  upward-going  body'  (urdhva- 
deha),  whence  the  obsequial  ceremonies  that  produce  it  are  sometimes 
called  Aurdhva-dehikam.  Another  name  for  this  body  is  Adhishthana- 
deha  (see  p.  28). 

^  In  some  parts  of  India  these  are  also  the  days  on  which  the  relations 
who  are  performing  the  funeral  rites  have  their  festive  dinners. 


294     Deaths  Funei^al  Rites,  and  Ancestor-worship. 

to  traverse  a  dense  forest  whose  leaves  are  swords ;  in  another 
it  falls  into  deep  pits ;  in  another  it  is  precipitated  from 
precipices  ;  in  another  it  has  to  walk  on  the  edge  of  razors  ; 
in  another  on  iron  spikes  ;  here  it  stumbles  about  helplessly 
in  profound  darkness ;  there  it  struggles  through  loathsome 
mud  swarming  with  leeches;  here  it  toils  through  burning 
sand  ;  there  its  progress  is  arrested  by  heaps  of  red-hot 
charcoal  and  stifling  smoke.  Compelled  to  pass  through 
every  obstacle,  however  formidable,  it  next  encounters  a 
succession  of  terrific  showers  not  of  rain,  but  of  live  coals, 
stones,  blood,  boiling  water  and  filth.  Then  it  has  to  descend 
into  appalling  fissures,  or  ascend  to  sickening  heights,  or  lose 
itself  in  vast  caves,  or  wade  through  lakes  seething  with  fetid 
ordure.  Then  midway  it  has  to  pass  the  awful  river  VaitaranI, 
one  hundred  leagues  in  breadth,  of  unfathomable  depth ; 
flowing  with  irresistible  impetuosity,  filled  with  blood,  matter, 
hair,  and  bones ;  infested  with  huge  sharks,  crocodiles,  and 
sea-monsters ;  darkened  by  clouds  of  hideous  vultures  and 
obscene  birds  of  prey.  Thousands  of  condemned  spirits 
stand  trembling  on  the  banks,  horrified  by  the  prospect 
before  them.  Consumed  by  a  raging  thirst,  they  drink  the 
blood  which  flows  at  their  feet,  then  tumbling  headlong  into 
the  torrent  they  are  overwhelmed  by  the  rushing  waves. 
Finally,  they  are  hurried  down  to  the  lowest  depths  of  hell, 
and  yet  not  destroyed.  Pursued  by  Yama's  officers  they  are 
dragged  away  and  made  to  undergo  inconceivable  tortures, 
the  detail  of  which  is  given  with  the  utmost  minuteness  in 
the  succeeding  chapters  of  the  Garuda-purana. 

A  description  so  monstrous  would  be  scarcely  worth  re- 
producing in  any  form,  did  it  not  profess  to  represent  an 
important  article  of  the  creed  of  a  vast  majority  of  our 
fellow-subjects  in  regard  to  a  future  state.  It  might  indeed 
be  thought  that  a  belief  in  such  horrors  and  in  the  possibility 
of  undergoing  a  fate  so  awful  would  be  calculated  to  produce 
a   salutary  deterrent   effect   on   wicked   persons,  did  we  not 


Death,  Funeral  Rites,  and  Ancestor-worship.     295 

find  that,  however  intense  is  a  Hindu's  belief  in  the  reality 
of  hell's  most  excruciating  torments,  as  described  in  the 
Garuda  and  other  Puranas,  he  is  equally  ready  to  accept 
the  doctrine  laid  down  in  the  same  works,  that  by  performing 
certain  religious  rites  and  giving  gifts  to  the  Brahmans  all 
the  terrific  penalties  of  sin  may  be  avoided  and  the  god  of 
hell  disappointed  of  his  victims  (compare  p.  291,  first  line). 

What,  then,  is  the  nature  of  the  various  modern  ceremonies 
which  secure  this  immunity  from  future  punishment  and  make 
the  course  of  the  departed  spirit — however  guilty — peaceful 
and  pleasant  ?  We  can  only  give  an  outline  of  some  of  those 
most  usually  practised  in  the  present  day  among  religious 
families  of  the  higher  classes. 

In  the  first  place,  when  a  man  becomes  seriously  ill,  it  is 
common  for  his  relatives  to  assume  rather  prematurely  that 
his  case  is  hopeless.  They  therefore  make  preparations  for 
performing  the  last  offices  of  religion,  in  anticipation  of  his 
decease,  in  a  manner  which  to  us  Europeans  would  appear 
not  unlikely  to  hasten  on  the  crisis.  Perhaps  his  only  chance 
of  warding  off  the  approach  of  death  may  depend  on  perfect 
repose  of  body  and  mind.  Yet  how  can  his  kinsmen  allow 
him  to  run  the  risk  of  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  god  of 
punishment,  when  by  a  little  exertion  they  may  secure  for 
him  the  protection  of  the  sacred  river  which  flows  perhaps 
not  more  than  ten  miles  from  his  abode  ?  Hence,  his  eldest 
son  and  other  near  relatives  lose  no  time  in  placing  him  on 
a  litter  and  conveying  him  to  the  banks  of  the  nearest  holy 
stream.  If  such  a  river  as  the  Ganges  or  Narmada  or  Goda- 
varT  or  Krishna  (Kistna)  happen  to  be  within  reach,  the 
relatives  of  the  dying  man  are  the  more  eager  to  bring  him 
into  close  proximity  to  the  sacred  waters.  At  Calcutta  this 
is  often  done  two  or  three  days  before  death  supervenes. 
According  to  Mr.  S.  C.  Bose,  '  Persons  entrusted  with  the 
care  and  nursing  of  a  dying  man  at  the  burning-ghat  [on 
the  Ganges]  soon  get  tired  of  their  charge,  and  rather  than 


296     Deaths  Funeral  Rites,  and  Ancestor-worship, 

administer  to  his  comfort,  are  known  to  resort  to  artificial 
means,  whereby  death  is  accelerated.  They  unscrupulously 
pour  the  unwholesome,  muddy  water  of  the  river  down  his 
already  choked  throat,  and  in  some  cases  suffocate  him  to 
death  ^.' 

Of  course  the  Ganges  is  of  all  rivers  held  to  be  the  most 
divine  and  the  most  potent  in  its  efficacy.  If  simply  looked 
upon  during  the  death-agony,  the  messengers  of  Yama,  who 
are  eager  to  seize  and  bind  the  soul,  are  powerless  to  harm  it. 

But  neither  the  Ganges  nor  any  other  sacred  stream  is 
always  to  be  reached.  In  such  cases  various  other  preventive 
measures  calculated  to  keep  the  officers  of  Yama  at  bay  or 
force  them  to  retire,  may  be  resorted  to,  according  to  the 
practice  believed  to  be  most  efficacious  in  different  localities. 

For  example,  in  many  families  it  is  thought  enough  to 
scatter  Sesamum  seed  and  Kusa  grass  around  the  sick  man's 
couch  or  to  encircle  it  with  a  kind  of  cordon  of  cow-dung ;  or 
a  Salagrama  stone  (see  p.  69)  is  brought  and  placed  on  a 
stand  close  to  the  dying  man's  side,  while  at  the  same  time 
a  Tulasi  plant  is  deposited  near  him.  Or  again,  a  sprig  of 
that  sacred  plant  is  wound  round  his  head  ;  or  its  leaves  are 
placed  in  his  mouth  ^ ;  or  a  piece  of  gold  ^  is  inserted  between 
the  teeth  ;  or  a  little  mud  from  a  sacred  stream  may  be 
brought  from  a  distance  and  plastered  on  his  forehead  ;  or 
Ganges  water  may  be  poured  down  his  throat. 

Then  again  a  cow  duly  decorated  is  brought  close  to  the 
moribund  man's  bed,  and  he  is  made  to  grasp  its  tail,  under 

^  '  The  Hindoos  as  they  are,'  p.  252. 

^  According  to  the  Garuda-purana  (IX.  7,  8),  'The  house  in  which 
there  is  a  single  sprig  of  the  Tulasi  is  Hke  a  holy  place  of  pilgrimage. 
Yama's  messengers  cannot  enter  it.  Yama  cannot  look  upon  the  man 
who  dies  with  the  Tulasi  in  contact  with  his  body,  even  though  he  may 
have  committed  hundreds  of  crimes.'  In  verse  11  the  same  efficacy  is 
ascribed  to  Kusa  grass,  which  is  said  to  be  pervaded  by  Brahma,  Vishnu, 
and  Siva. 

^  To  secure  the  presence  of  gold  in  the  mouth  at  death,  a  healthy  man 
will  sometimes  have  it  inserted  in  his  teeth. 


Death,  Funeral  Rites,  and  A^icestor-wor ship.      297 

the  notion  that  by  the  sacred  animal's  assistance  he  will  be 
safely  transported  over  the  terrible  river  of  death,  Vaitarani 
(see  also  p.  290).  This,  however,  is  a  precautionary  measure 
which  will  be  quite  ineffectual  unless  the  cow  is  afterwards 
handed  over  as  a  gift  to  the  Brahmans. 

Others  again  who  believe  that  the  passage  of  the  Hindu 
Styx  is  compulsory  on  all,  and  that  it  cannot  be  accomplished 
without  direct  Brahmanical  aid,  take  care  to  send  for  two  or 
three  priests  for  the  performance  of  the  Vaitaranl-rite.  This 
ceremony,  which  is  very  usual  in  Bengal,  consists  mainly  in 
paying  money  to  the  Brahmans,  who  in  return  mutter  a  few- 
texts  and  prayers,  supposed  to  be  efficacious  in  helping  the 
deceased  man  across  the  dreaded  river. 

Of  course  Mantras  or  texts  from  the  Vedas  are  repeated, 
and    hymns   to   Vishnu    and    Siva   are    occasionally  recited. 
Then  at  the  last  moment  the  dying  man  is  made  if  possible 
to  repeat  the  Taraka-mantra  or  '  saving-text,'  according  to   i 
the  sect  to  which  he  beloncrs.     In  most  cases  it  consists  in    1 

o  J 

uttering  one  of  the  names  of  Vishnu,  such  as  Rama,  or  | 
Narayana  (p.  62),  or  Hari,  or  the  eight-syllabled  Mantra,  \ 
'  Blessed  Krishna  is  my  refuge.'  One  common  formula  or  j 
cry  uttered  by  the  attendants  is  '  Hari  bol '  ! 

When  the  moment  of  death  arrives  the  spirit  Is  supposed 
to  escape,  invested  only  with  its  lihga-sarlra  (see  p.  28), 
through  the  top  of  the  head  or  through  one  of  the  upper 
or  lower  apertures  of  the  body  ^,  according  to  the  character 
for  good  or  evil  it  achieved  during  life  (see  p.  291). 

The  corpse  has  now  to  be  transported  to  a  place  where  its 
cremation  may  be  accompHshed  in  due  form  and  according 
to  prescribed  rules,  but  not  until  certain  other  rites  have  been 
performed.  And  first  the  eldest  son  or  his  nearest  repre- 
sentative carefully  shaves  the  body^.     This  he  does  without 


^  The  seven  upper  apertures  are  the  mouth,  the  eyes,  the  nostrils,  and  ears. 
^  This  is  according  to  the  directions  in  the  Garuda-purana.    At  Benares 
the  shaving  process  generally  takes  place  at  the  burning-ghat. 


298     Death,  Funeral  Rites,  a^id  Ancestor-worship. 

removing  the  hair  from  under  the  arms  and  without  clipping  '' 
the  nails.  Next  he  bathes  it  with  water  from  a  sacred 
stream  and  decorates  it  with  sandal-wood  and  garlands  ;  or 
in  place  of  decoration  he  may  plaster  it  with  mud  from  the 
Ganges.  Then  it  is  covered  with  new  vestments  and  placed 
on  the  litter  ;  a  rice-ball  (Pinda)  being  offered  to  the  guardian 
deities  of  the  soil,  who  protect  the  road  to  the  burning- 
ground  from  the  attacks  of  evil  spirits.  At  the  same  time 
the  name  and  family  of  the  deceased  man  are  pronounced 
by  his  son,  while  his  son's  wife  and  the  other  women  of  the 
household  reverently  circumambulate  the  corpse  and  utter 
lamentations.  The  body  is  now  ready  to  be  borne  to  the 
place  of  cremation,  which  ought;  if  possible,  to  be  near  a 
river  ^.  And  here  a  great  difficulty  has  sometimes  to  be 
overcome  in  finding  proper  persons  to  carry  the  dead  body. 
If  the  deceased  happens  to  be  a  Brahman,  four  men  of  his 
own  caste — and,  if  possible,  chosen  from  his  own  relations — 
ought  to  perform  this  office,  walking  behind  the  son,  who 
leads  the  funeral  procession,  holding  in  his  hand  an  earthen 
vessel  containing  fire.  Or,  according  to  the  Garuda-purana 
(X.  12),  the  son  himself  should  help  to  carry  the  corpse  on 
his  shoulder,  the  other  relatives  with  bare  heads  following 
in  the  rear. 

It  may  be  noted  here  that  the  rule  which  prevents  Brah- 
mans  from  touching  the  bodies  of  persons  of  inferior  caste  is 
often  a  cause  of  great  trouble  and  difficulty. 

Not  long  ago  a  very  respectable  man  of  the  Kayastha  caste 
died  in  Khandesh  at  a  place  where  no  male  members  of  his 
own  caste  lived.  The  body  had  to  be  burnt  immediately, 
but  no  one  of  superior  caste  could  be  induced  to  touch  it,  and 
had  any  one  of  a  lower  caste  done  so,  the  family  would  have 
suffered   irretrievable   degradation.     The  difficulty  was  only 

^  If  a  place  near  a  river  is  to  be  found  anywhere  within  ten  or  fifteen 
miles  of  the  dead  man's  residence  the  corpse  is  generally  carried  there, 
unless,  as  we  have  seen,  this  is  done  before  the  breath  leaves  the  body. 


Death,  Funeral  Rites ^  and  Ancestor-worship.     299 

surmounted  by  the  payment  of  an  exorbitant  sum  to  some 
Brahmans  who  at  length  consented  to  bear  the  body  to  the 
burning-ground. 

This  explains  the  unwillingness  of  the  Hindus  to  leave 
their  own  country  and  caste. 

The  burning  of  the  corpse  is  the  next  act  in  the  drama. 

A  proper  spot  for  the  erection  of  the  funeral  pile  must  be 
chosen.  It  must  be  well  purified  by  the  sprinkling  of  holy 
water.  A  kind  of  altar  is  then  made  with  earth,  and  the 
Homa  ceremony  is  performed  by  casting  grain  into  the  sacred 
fire  with  repetition  of  certain  Mantras.  Then  the  pile  ought, 
strictly,  to  be  constructed  with  Tulasi  and  Palasa  and  sandal- 
wood. Five  Pindas  or  balls  of  rice  are  placed  on  the  body, 
which  is  made  to  face  the  north,  and  its  orifices  filled  with 
ghee.  The  eldest  son  or  his  representative  applies  the  fire  to 
the  wood,  reciting  Rig-veda  X.  17.  3  : — 'May  the  guardian 
deity  Piishan  convey  thee  hence  on  thy  distant  road  ;  may 
he  deliver  thee  to  the  Fathers  etc' 

Not  long  ago  (and  even  under  our  rule  till  the  Act  of  1829, 
p.  481),  if  the  dead  man  had  a  faithful  wife  (sati)  she  often 
gave  proof  of  her  devotion  by  allowing  her  living  body  to  be 
burnt  with  her  husband's  corpse ;  and  the  Garuda-purana 
eulogizes  the  devoted  woman  who  thereby  secures  bliss  for 
herself  and  her  husband.  Sometimes  a  widowed  mother 
burnt  herself  with  the  body  of  an  only  son. 

When  the  body  is  half-burnt  the  skull  ought  to  be  cracked 
with  a  blow  from  a  piece  of  sacred  wood.  The  idea  is  that 
the  soul  may  not  have  been  able  to  escape  through  the 
aperture  at  the  top  of  the  head,  and  that  the  cracking  of 
the  skull  may  open  a  crevice  and  facilitate  its  exit. 

In  the  case  of  the  death  of  a  holy  man  whose  body  is 
buried  and  not  burnt,  the  necessary  blow  is  given  with  a 
cocoa-nut  (sri-phala)  or  with  a  sacred  conch-shell  (saiikha). 

A  story  was  told  me  with  great  seriousness  of  a  sorcerer  at 
Lahore  who  made  it  the  business  of  his  life  to  make  a  collec- 


oo     Death,  Funeral  Rites,  and  Ancestor-woi^ship. 


tion  of  the  skulls  of  dead  men,  which  had  not  been  properly 
cracked  in  this  manner  at  death  and  so  retained  the  spirits  of 
the  deceased  inside.  The  peasantry  in  the  neighbourhood 
fully  believed  that  he  was  able  to  make  use  of  these  spirits 
for  magical  purposes,  and  force  them  to  obey  him. 

During  the  process  of  cremation  an  oblation  of  clarified 
butter  ought  to  be  offered  in  the  fire  and  a  Mantra  repeated, 
entreating  the  god  of  fire  to  convey  the  deceased  man  to 
heaven.  When  the  body  has  been  consumed,  all  present  at 
the  funeral  bathe  or  purify  themselves  with  ablutions.  Sesa- 
mum  and  water  are  then  offered,  while  the  name  and  family 
of  the  deceased  are  again  repeated. 

Finally,  a  few  leaves  of  the  Nimba-tree  (Nim)  are  chewed 
by  all  and  the  funeral  procession  returns  home,  the  women 
walking  first  and  the  men  behind.  Meanwhile  the  pyre  and  the 
products  of  combustion  are  left  undisturbed  to  a  future  day. 

The  Garuda-purana  directs  that  if  a  man  dies  in  a  remote 
place,  or  is  killed  by  robbers  in  a  forest  and  his  body  is  not 
found,  his  son  should  make  an  ^^gy  of  the  deceased  with 
Kusa  grass  and  then  burn  it  on  a  pile  with  similar  rites. 

The  Brahmans  who  repeat  Mantras  and  officiate  at  funeral 
ceremonies  are  not  held  in  high  repute.  On  the  fourth  day 
after  cremation  the  relatives  return  to  the  burying-ground, 
and  assembling  at  the  pyre  perform  the  '  bone-gathering ' 
(asthi-saii(^aya)  ceremony.  Three  circumambulations  are  made 
around  the  ashes  and  a  Mantra  from  the  Yajur-veda  (beginning 
Yamaya  tva^  XXXVIII.  9)  is  repeated.  The  calcined  bones 
are  then  placed  in  a  kind  of  urn  or  earthen  vessel ;  a  cavity  is 
dug  in  the  ground  and  the  vessel  deposited  in  it.  Next  a 
Pinda  is  offered  over  the  ashes  for  the  removal  of  the  suffering 
supposed  to  have  been  caused  by  the  act  of  cremation.  Then 
after  a  few  days  the  vessel  is  removed  from  the  cavity  in 
order  that  the  ashes  and  bones  may  be  carried  away  and 
thrown  into  some  sacred  river — if  possible  the  Ganges. 
'  Whatever  sins,'  says  the  Garuda-purana  (X.  84),  '  a  man  may 


Deaths  Ftmeral  Rites,  and  Ancestor-iuorsliip.     301 

have  committed  during  life,  if  his  bones  are  cast  into  the 
Ganges  he  must  certainly  go  to  heaven.' 

In  illustration  of  this  a  story  is  related  in  the  same  Purana 
of  a  certain  hunter,  notorious  for  his  crimes,  who  was  killed 
by  a  tiger  in  an  inaccessible  corner  of  a  forest.  There  his 
body  lay  for  many  years  and  his  disembodied  spirit  became 
a  troublesome  devil  (compare  p.  239).  till  fortunately  the 
bleached  skeleton  was  spied  by  a  crow,  who  picking  up  bone 
after  bone  dropped  it  into  the  Ganges.  Whereupon  the 
demon  was  suddenly  converted  into  a  saint,  and  transported 
in  a  celestial  chariot  to  the  mansions  of  the  blessed.  This 
story  is  narrated  with  all  seriousness  by  the  author  of  the 
Purana  as  if  he  were  recording  an  historical  fact. 

In  connexion  with  the  same  subject  I  may  repeat  an 
anecdote  told  me  by  a  late  member  of  the  Indian  Civil 
Service — once  a  Magistrate  and  Collector  in  North-western 
India.  He  was  once  on  a  tour  of  inspection  through  his 
district  when  he  overtook  a  poor  old  woman  trudging  along 
the  road  with  evident  difficulty.  He  inquired  in  a  kindly 
voice  where  she  was  going.  '  To  the  Ganges  with  my  husband,' 
was  the  prompt  reply.  Involuntarily  the  Magistrate  looked 
back,  expecting  to  see  some  old  man  following  her,  when 
she  calmly  opened  a  handkerchief  which  she  had  been  carrying 
slung  over  her  shoulder,  and  showed  him  all  that  remained 
of  her  defunct  lord  and  master  in  the  shape  of  a  few  half- 
calcined  bones,  an  old  tooth  or  two,  and  a  little  dust  and 
ashes.  These  she  was  transporting  to  the  river  with  the  pious 
object  of  scattering  them  on  the  sacred  waters. 

I  may  also  put  on  record  how  greatly  struck  I  was  with 
the  peaceful  aspect  of  a  spot  of  ground  called  the  Asthi- 
vilaya-tlrtham,  '  sacred  place  for  the  dissolution  of  bones,' 
at  Nasik — the  Benares  of  Western  India.  There  surrounded 
by  trees,  temples,  and  lovely  scenery  is  a  consecrated  pool, 
formed  by  the  waters  of  the  Godavarl,  which  are  here  par- 
tially diverted  from   their   course  and  made  to  flow  into   a 


n 


02     Death,  Ftmeral  Rites,  and  Ancestor-worship. 


receptacle  lined  with  stone  in  a  secluded  bend  of  the  river. 
This  is  the  cemetery  or  '  sleeping-place '  of  myriads  of  human 
beings  whose  ashes  are  brought  at  particular  holy  seasons 
and  scattered  on  the  tranquil  waters. 

I  was  also  much  impressed  by  another  'bone-gathering' 
ceremony  which  I  witnessed  on  the  burning-ground  at 
Bombay  (see  p.  284).  On  the  morning  of  one  of  my  visits  to 
that  place  twenty- four  men  were  gathered  round  the  ashes  of 
a  man  whose  body  had  been  burnt  two  or  three  days  before. 
The  ceremony  commenced  by  one  of  their  number  examining 
the  ashes,  and  carefully  separating  any  portions  of  the  bones 
that  had  not  been  calcined  by  the  flames  on  the  previous 
day.  These  he  collected  in  his  hands  and  carried  outside  the 
burning-ground,  with  the  intention,  I  was  told,  of  throwing 
them  into  the  sea  near  at  hand.  This  being  done,  the  whole 
party  gathered  round  the  ashes  of  the  pyre  in  a  semicircle, 
and  one  of  the  twenty-four  men  sprinkled  them  with  water. 
Then  some  cow-dung  was  carefully  spread  in  the  centre  of 
the  ashes  so  as  to  form  a  flat  circular  cake  of  rather  more 
than  a  foot  in  diameter,  around  which  a  stream  of  cow's  urine 
was  poured  from  a  metal  vessel.  Next,  one  of  the  men 
brought  a  plantain-leaf,  and  laid  it  on  the  circle  of  cow-dung 
so  as  to  form  a  kind  of  dish  or  plate.  Around  the  edge  of 
the  leaf  were  placed  five  round  balls  (Pindas),  probably  of 
rice-flour,  rather  smaller  than  cricket-balls,  mixed  with  some 
brown  substance.  Sprigs  of  the  Tulsi  plant  and  fresh  leaves 
of  the  betel,  with  a  few  flowers,  were  inserted  in  each  ball, 
and  a  coloured  cotton  cord  loosely  suspended  between  them. 
Next,  one  of  the  relations  covered  the  five  Pindas  with  the 
red  powder  called  gulal.  Then  five  flat  wheaten  cakes  were 
placed  on  the  plantain-leaf  inside  the  circle  of  the  five  Pindas, 
and  boiled  rice  was  piled  up  on  the  cakes,  surmounted  by  a 
small  piece  of  ghl  mixed  with  brown  sugar. 

The   ceremony  being  so    far   completed,  the  son  or  next 
nearest  relative  took  an  empty  earthenware  vase,  filled  it  with 


$raddha  Ceremonies  Proper.  30 


water,  and  held  it  on  his  right  shoulder.  Starting  from  the 
north  side  he  commenced  circumambulating  the  five  Pindas 
and  the  five  wheaten  cakes,  keeping  his  left  shoulder  towards 
them,  while  one  of  the  relatives  with  a  sharp  stone  made  a 
hole  in  the  jar,  whence  the  water  spouted  out  in  a  stream  as 
he  walked  round.  On  completing  the  first  circuit  and  coming 
back  to  the  north,  a  second  incision  was  made  with  the  same 
stone,  whence  a  second  stream  poured  out  simultaneously 
with  the  first.  At  the  end  of  the  fifth  round,  when  five 
streams  of  water  had  been  made  to  spout  out  from  five  holes 
round  the  five  Pindas,  the  earthenware  vase  was  dashed  to 
the  ground  on  the  north  side,  and  the  remaining  water  spilt 
over  the  ashes.  Next,  one  of  the  relatives  took  a  small 
metal  vessel  containing  milk,  and,  with  a  betel-leaf  for  a 
ladle,  sprinkled  some  drops  over  the  rice  piled  on  the 
wheaten  cakes.  After  which,  taking  some  water  from  a  small 
lota — or  rather  making  another  relative  pour  it  into  his  hand 
— he  first  sprinkled  it  in  a  circle  round  the  Pindas,  and  then 
over  the  cakes.  Finally,  bending  down  and  raising  his  hands 
to  his  head,  he  performed  a  sort  of  puja  to  the  Pindas,  which 
were  supposed  to  represent  the  deceased  man  and  four  other 
relations.  This  was  repeated  by  all  twenty-four  men  in  turn. 
After  the  completion  of  the  ceremony,  the  balls  and  cakes 
were  left  to  be  eaten  by  animals.  The  men  who  performed  it 
probably  belonged  to  a  low  caste  or  to  some  aboriginal  tribe. 

An  account  of  the  late  Maharani  of  Nuddea's  cremation  and 
of  the  subsequent  ceremonies  is  given  further  on  (Chap.  XXII) 
and  is  well  worthy  of  attention. 

Of  course  the  Sraddha  ceremonies  proper  (as  already  shown 
at  pp.  278-285)  have  many  points  in  common  with  the 
antecedent  funeral  obsequies  (antyeshti),  especially  in  the 
nature  of  the  oblations  offered  and  texts  repeated,  but  the 
balls  of  rice,  etc.  (Pindas)  are  said  to  represent  the  deified 
bodies  of  the  Pitris. 

According  to  the  Nirnaya-sindhu  a  Sraddha  is  a  gift  given 


o 


04  Sraddha  Ceremonies  P^'oper 


to  the  Pitris,  offered  with  faith  (Sraddha)  and  with  some 
auspicious  exclamation  (such  as  svadhd  ^),  and  followed  by 
gifts  to  the  Brahmans  (compare  p.  287). 

A  Sraddha^,  then,  is  a  reverential  offering  to  deceased  ances- 
tors. But  Sraddhas  are  not  only  acts  of  homage,  they  are 
believed  to  minister  to  the  welfare  of  those  deceased  relatives 
who  through  the  previous  funeral  rites  have  obtained  ethereal 
bodies  (divya-deha).  Until  the  Sraddha  is  performed  the 
spirit  is  a  Preta,  after  its  performance  (pp.  307-312)  the  spirit 
takes  its  place  among  the  Pitris  or  divine  Fathers  in  their 
blissful  abodes  called  Pitri-loka.  And  the  Sraddhas  do  this, 
not  so  much  by  supplying  them  with  nutriment  in  the  balls  of 
rice,  cakes  of  meal,  and  daily  water  offered  ^,  as  by  accumu- 
lating merit  (punya)  for  them  and  so  accelerating  their  progress 
through  the  heavens  to  future  births  and  final  union  with  the 
Supreme.  And  this  accumulation  of  merit  is  mainly  accom- 
plished by  feasting  and  feeing  the  Brahmans,  who  are  held  for 
the  time  to  represent  the  Pitris. 

But  a  Sraddha  is  also  performed  on  one's  own  account. 
Propitiation  and  gratification  of  the  Manes  are  acts  fraught 
with  reflex  benefits  to  any  one  who  performs  them  properly, 
and  may  become  a  means  of  storing  up  merit  or  procuring 
some  advantage  for  himself  and  his  family.  Probably  this  is 
the  main  idea  in  the  minds  of  those  who  go  through  some  of 
the  ceremonies  so  earnestly. 

Nor  is  a  Sraddha  by  any  means  necessarily  connected  with 
funerals.  It  may  be  performed  every  day,  and  especially  on 
various  occasions  of  rejoicing.  According  to  the  Vishnu- 
purana  (III.  13) :  'A  householder  should  worship  the  Pitris  at 

^  Requiring  the  dative  case  cf  the  object  to  which  the  oblation  is 
offered.  Other  similar  exclamations  are  svaha,  sraushat,  vaushat. 
Svadha  is  also  a  name  for  the  oblation  or  for  its  personification. 

^  Yet  it  is  true,  as  before  seen,  that  Manu  and  others  make  the  Pitris 
actually  feed  on  the  essence  of  the  offerings.  In  the  same  way  it  is  said 
that  in  Europe  in  ancient  times  asphodels  were  planted  near  groves  to 
supply  the  Manes  of  the  dead  with  nourishment. 


Sraddha  Ceremonies  Proper,  305 

the  marriage  of  a  son  or  daughter,  on  entering  a  new 
dweUing,  on  naming  a  child,  on  performing  tonsure,  on  seeing 
the  face  of  a  son.' 

It  is  on  this  account  that  the  Nirnaya-sindhu  distinguishes 
Sraddhas  under  twelve  heads,  as  follows  : — 

1.  Nitya,  'daily,'  'constant,'  consisting  of  offerings  of  water 
to  ancestors  generally  at  the  daily  Tarpana  ceremony  forming 
part  of  the  Sandhya  (p.  410).  This  cannot  be  performed  vica- 
riously^ but  only  by  every  man  in  his  own  person. 

2.  Naimittika,  'special,'  performed  on  special  occasions  as 
at  funerals,  and  having  reference  to  one  person  (ekoddish- 
tam)  recently  deceased.  An  odd  number  of  Brahmans  (for 
instance,  one,  three,  five,  etc.)  are  to  be  feasted  at  the  close 
of  the  rite.  In  contradistinction  to  Nitya,  Naimittika  cere- 
monies admit  of  being  performed  through  a  deputy  or  repre- 
sentative. 

3.  Kamya, '  voluntary,'  performed  for  the  accomplishment  of 
some  desired  object ;  as,  for  instance,  the  obtaining  of  a  son. 

4.  Vriddhi-Sraddha,  '  for  the  increase  of  prosperity.' 

5.  Sapindana,  '  for  the  benefit  of  all  kinsmen  who  are 
Sapindas,'  that  is,  connected  by  the  offering  of  the  Pinda. 
This  may  be  performed  by  women. 

6.  Parvana,  '  performed  at  the  conjunction  of  sun  and 
moon,'  that  is,  at  new  moon  and  at  other  periods  of  the 
moon's  changes. 

7.  Goshthl-Sraddha,  'performed  at  any  large  assembly  or 
family  gathering.' 

8.  Suddhy-artha,  'for  the  sake  of  purification,'  and  con- 
sisting mainly  in  the  feeding  of  a  certain  number  of  Brahmans, 
as  representatives  of  the  Pitris. 

9.  Karmanga,  '  performed  at  certain  Sanskara  rites.' 

10.  Daivika,  'on  behalf  of  the  gods,'  especially  the  Visve 
devah,  or  '  deities  collectively.' 

11.  Yatrartha,  '  for  success'  on  undertaking  a  journey. 
IS.  Pushty-artha,  '  for  health  and  well-being  of  body.' 

X 


3o6  Srdddha  Ce7^emonies  Proper. 

Other  forms  of  Sraddha  were  described  to  me  while  I  was 
in  India  ;  for  example,  the  one  called  Hiranya-Sraddha,  '  gold 
Sraddha/  is  said  to  be  performed  by  giving  money  to  a 
Brahman,  when  no  Brahman  can  be  found  who  wishes  to  be 
fed  with  cooked  food. 

Again,  Darbha-Sraddha  is  where,  in  the  absence  of 
Brahmans  as  representatives  of  the  Pitris,  an  ^^^y  of  a 
Brahman  is  made  with  Kusa  grass  and  worship  offered  to  it. 

Of  all  these  Sraddhas,  that  performed  for  a  parent  recently 
deceased  (and  therefore  falling  under  the  class  Naimittika 
and  called  Ekoddishta,  '  directed  towards  one  person ')  is  the 
most  interesting,  as  it  is  the  only  one  accompanied  with 
elaborate  ceremonial,  costly  gifts,  and  festivities.  It  must 
not  be  deferred  too  long  after  the  termination  of  the  funeral 
proper,  and  must  in  all  cases  take  place  before  the  end  of 
the  first  month  after  death.  It  ought  to  be  performed  by  a 
son  and  repeated  in  a  simple  form  every  succeeding  month 
for  a  year  ^,  and  again  at  every  anniversary. 

In  Bengal,  according  to  Mr.  S.  C  Bose^,  a  son  from  the 
hour  of  his  father's  death  to  the  conclusion  of  the  funeral 
ceremony  is  religiously  forbidden  to  shave,  wear  shoes,  shirts, 
or  any  garment  other  than  the  piece  of  white  cloth,  his  food 
being  confined  to  a  single  meal  consisting  of  rice,  pulse,  milk, 
ghee,  sugar,  and  a  few  fruits.  A  Brahman  must  continue  this 
course  of  fasting  for  ten  days  ",  a  Kshatriya  longer.  (See  the 
Maharaja  of  Nuddea's  description.  Chap.  XXII.) 

Then  fifteen  or  sixteen  days  after  the  demise  of  his  father 
the  son  makes  preparation  for  the  approaching  Sraddha. 
About  the  twentieth  day  he  walks  barefoot  to  the  house  of 
each  of  his  relations  to  announce  that  the  Sraddha  is  to  take 

^  So  in  Ireland  a  mass  for  the  dead  is  celebrated  one  month  after  death. 

^  See  'The  Hindoos  as  they  are,'  pp.  254-257. 

^  According  to  the  Vishnu-purana,  the  time  of  mourning  and  impurity 
is,  for  a  Brahman,  ten  days  ;  for  a  Kshatriya,  twelve  ;  for  a  Vaisya, 
fourteen  ;  for  a  Sudra,  a  whole  month  or  thirty-one  days.  The  higher 
the  caste  the  less  the  inconvenience  imposed. 


•  

Srdddha  Ceremonies  Proper.  307 

place  on  the  thirty-first  day  after  death.  On  the  thirtieth  day, 
the  son  and  other  near  relatives  shave,  cut  their  nails,  and  put 
on  new  clothes,  giving  the  old  to  the  barber.  Invitations 
are  sent  round  to  the  Brahmans  and  Pandits  requesting  their 
presence  at  the  feast.  On  the  thirty-first  day,  early  in  the 
morning,  the  son,  accompanied  by  the  officiating  priest,  goes 
to  the  river-side,  bathes,  and  performs  certain  preliminary 
rites.  A  quantity  of  silver  and  brass  utensils,  besides  shawls, 
cloth,  and  hard  silver  in  cash  are  required  for  the  ceremony 
and  to  serve  as  gifts  for  the  Brahmans,  Pandits,  and  other 
guests.  From  eight  in  the  morning  to  two  in  the  afternoon 
the  house  is  crammed  to  suffocation.  The  guests  arrive  early, 
and  are  asked  to  take  their  seats  according  to  their  caste. 
About  ten  o'clock  the  son  begins  the  rite ;  the  officiating  priest 
reciting  the  formularies  (which  ought  to  include  Pitri-siaktas 
from  the  Sama-veda),  and  the  son  repeating  them.  Meanwhile 
female  singers  of  questionable  character  entertain  the  guests 
with  their  songs,  while  garlands  and  sandal-paste  are  dis- 
tributed. 

About  one  in  the  afternoon  the  ceremony  is  brought  to  a 
close  by  the  Brahmans  and  Pandits  receiving  their  customary 
gifts.  The  first  in  the  list  gets,  in  ordinary  cases,  about  five 
rupees  in  cash,  and  one  brass  vessel  valued  at  four  or  five 
rupees ;  the  second,  third,  and  others  in  proportion.  The 
Guru  or  religious  teacher  and  the  Purohita  or  officiating 
priest  carry  off  the  lion's  share. 

On  the  following  day,  according  to  Mr.  Bose,  an  entertain- 
ment is  given  to  the  Brahmans,  and  until  this  is  done  no 
Hindu  can  be  released  from  the  restrictions  of  mourning, 
nor  regain  his  former  purity.  About  twelve,  the  guests  begin 
to  assemble,  and  when  the  number  reaches  two  or  three 
hundred,  seats  of  Kusa  grass  in  long  rows  are  arranged  for 
them,  and  each  man  receives  a  plantain  leaf  on  which  are 
placed  fruits  and  sweetmeats,  such  as  'ghee-fried  loochees  ' 
and  other  delicacies,  besides  various  kinds  of  confectionery  in 

X  2 


308  Srdddha  Ceremonies  Proper. 


J 


earthen  plates.  Every  Brahman  before  leaving  the  house  is 
presented  with  a  money  gift  (dakshina)  of  one  or  two  annas. 

The  next  day,  a  similar  entertainment  with  similar  gifts  is 
given  to  Kayasthas  and  members  of  inferior  classes. 

And  here  it  may  be  noted  that  time  and  place  are  im- 
portant factors  in  the  due  performance  of  Sraddhas.  As  to 
time,  the  month  Bhadra — from  the  middle  of  August  to  the 
middle  of  September — and  especially  the  Pitri-paksha  (Pitri 
fortnight)  in  that  month  or  in  the  beginning  of  Asvina,  are 
believed  to  be  the  most  auspicious  seasons  for  Sraddhas. 

As  to  locality,  the  banks  of  sacred  streams  or  pools,  and 
places  consecrated  by  the  footsteps  of  Vishnu,  are  sought  for 
as  the  most  favourable  spots.  Sraddhas  are  also  performed 
in  cow-houses.  No  place  can  surpass  in  suitability  the 
neighbourhood  of  some  of  the  holy  tanks  at  Benares,  except 
it  be  the  temple  built  over  the  footstep  of  Vishnu  at  Gaya, 
which  is  more  frequented  than  any  other  spot  in  India  for 
the  performance  of  particular  Sraddhas. 

At  Benares  on  the  Ghat  near  the  pool  of  Mani-karnika,  on 
the  day  I  visited  it,  a  man  was  performing  a  Sraddha  (perhaps 
the  Kamya,  p.  305)  for  his  mother.  The  officiating  Brahman 
began  by  forming  a  slightly  elevated  piece  of  ground  with 
some  sand.  This  was  supposed  to  constitute  a  small  altar 
(vedi).  It  was  of  an  oblong  form,  but  not  more  than  ten 
inches  long  by  four  or  five  broad.  Across  this  raised  sand  he 
laid  three  stalks  of  Kusa  grass.  Then  taking  a  number  of 
little  earthenware  platters  or  saucers,  he  arranged  them  round 
the  sand,  putting  tila  or  sesamum  seed  in  one,  rice  in  another, 
honey  in  a  third,  areca  or  betel-nut  in  a  fourth,  candana  or 
sandal  in  a  fifth.  Next,  he  took  flour  of  wheat  or  barley  and 
kneaded  it  into  one  largre  Pinda.  rather  smaller  than  a 
cricket-ball,  which  he  carefully  deposited  in  the  centre  of  the 
sand-altar,  scattering  over  it  jasmine  flowers,  khaskhas  grass, 
and  wool,  and  placing  on  one  side  of  it  a  betel-leaf  with 
areca-nut   and   a  single    copper  coin.     Then  having   poured 


Sraddha  Ceremonies  Proper,  309 

water  from  a  lota  into  his  hand,  he  sprinkled  it  over  all  the 
offerings,  arranged  in  the  manner  described.  Other  similar 
operations  followed  : — thus,  for  instance,  an  earthenware 
platter,  containing  a  lighted  wick,  was  placed  near  the 
offerings ;  ten  other  platters  were  filled  with  water,  which 
was  all  poured  over  the  Pinda  ;  another  small  platter  with 
a  lighted  wick  was  added  to  the  first ;  then  some  milk  was 
placed  in  another  platter  and  poured  over  the  Pinda,  which 
was  once  more  sprinkled  with  water.  Finally,  the  Brahman 
joined  his  hands  together  and  did  homage  to  the  Pinda.  The 
ritual  lasted  about  fifteen  minutes,  and  while  it  was  proceed- 
ing, the  man  for  whose  mother  it  was  performed  repeated 
prayers  under  the  direction  of  the  officiating  Brahman,  quite 
regardless  of  my  presence  and  of  much  loud  talking  going  on 
around  him.  The  ceremony  ended  by  the  '  feeding  of  a 
Brahman,'  who  was  made  to  sit  on  the  ground  near  the 
oblations,  and  fed  with  flat  cakes,  ghee,  sweetmeats,  vegetables, 
and  curds  placed  in  a  plate  of  palasa-leaves. 

The  Brahmans  who  assist  at  Sraddhas  are  not  considered 
particularly  respectable. 

With  regard  to  Gaya,  which  I  visited  in  1876,  I  may 
mention  that  the  city  is  most  picturesquely  situated  on 
the  river  Phalgu,  about  sixty  miles  south-west  of  Patna, 
near  some  short  ranges  of  hills  rising  abruptly  out  of  the 
plain.  The  Vishnu-pada  temple,  where  the  principal  Sraddhas 
are  performed,  is  built  of  black  stone,  with  a  lofty  dome  and 
golden  pinnacle.  It  contains  the  alleged  footprint  of  Vishnu 
in  a  large  silver  basin,  under  a  silver  canopy,  inside  an 
octagonal  shrine.  Pindas  and  various  kinds  of  offerings  are 
placed  by  the  pilgrims  inside  the  basin  round  the  footprint, 
and  near  it  are  open  colonnades  for  the  performance  of  the 
Sraddhas. 

Let  no  one  suppose  that  the  process  of  performing 
Sraddhas  at  Gaya  is  either  simple  or  rapid.  To  secure  the 
complete  efficacy  of  such  rites,  a  whole  round  of  them  must 


'•lo  Sraddha  Ceremonies  Proper. 


o 


be  performed  at  about  a  hundred  distinct  places  in  and 
around  Gaya,  as  well  as  at  the  most  holy  spot  of  all — the 
Vishnu-pada  temple — the  time  occupied  in  the  process  being  at 
least  eight  days,  and  sometimes  protracted  to  fifteen,  while  the 
sums  spent  in  fees  to  the  officiating  priests  (who  at  Gaya  are 
called  Gayawals,  abbreviated  into  Gaywals  —  Gaya-palas,  re- 
garded as  an  inferior  order  of  Brahmans)  are  often  enormous. 

The  efficacy  of  Sraddhas  performed  at  Gaya  is  this^  that 
wherever  in  their  progress  onwards  departed  relatives  may 
have  arrived,  the  Sraddhas  take  them  without  further  im- 
pediment or  delay  to  Vishnu's  heaven  (Vaikuntha,  p.  70). 

One  or  two  examples  witnessed  by  me  will  suffice.  A 
party  consisting  of  six  men  and  one  Gaywal  entered  one  of 
the  colonnades  of  the  temple  and  seated  themselves  on  their 
heels  in  a  line,  with  the  officiating  priest  at  their  head. 
Twelve  Pindas  or  balls  of  rice  and  milk,  not  much  larger 
than  the  large  marbles  used  by  boys  (called  '  alleys '),  were 
formed  and  placed  with  sprigs  of  the  sacred  TulasI  plant  in 
small  earthenware  platters.  Then  on  the  top  of  the  Pindas 
were  scattered  Kusa  grass  and  flowers.  I  was  told  that  the 
Pindas  in  the  present  case  were  typical  of  the  bodies  of  the 
twelve  ancestors  for  whom  the  Sraddha  was  celebrated.  The 
men  had  Kusa  grass  twisted  round  their  fingers,  to  purify 
their  hands  for  the  due  performance  of  the  rite.  Next,  water 
was  poured  into  the  palms,  part  of  which  they  sprinked  on 
the  ground,  and  part  on  the  Pindas.  One  or  two  of  the  men 
then  took  threads  off  their  clothes  and  laid  them  on  the 
Pindas.  This  act  is  alleged  to  be  emblematical  of  presenting 
the  bodies  of  their  departed  ancestors  with  garments. 

Meanwhile  texts  and  prayers  were  repeated,  under  the 
direction  of  the  Gaywal,  and  the  hands  were  sometimes  ex- 
tended over  the  Pindas  as  if  to  invoke  blessino^s.  The  whole 
rite  was  concluded  by  the  men  putting  their  heads  to  the 
ground  before  the  officiating  Brahman  and  touching  his  feet. 
The  number  of  Pindas  varies  with  the  number  of  ancestors 


Sraddha  Ceremonies,     Pilgrimages,  3 1 1 

for  whom  the  Sraddhas  are  celebrated,  and  the  size  of  the 
balls  and  the  materials  of  which  they  are  composed  differ 
according  to  the  caste  and  the  country  of  those  who  perform 
the  rite.  I  saw  one  party  in  the  act  of  forming  fourteen 
or  fifteen  Pindas  with  meal,  which  were  of  a  much  larger 
size  than  large  marbles.  This  party  was  said  to  have  come 
from  the  Dekhan.  Sometimes  the  Pindas  were  placed  on 
betel-leaves  with  pieces  of  money,  which  were  afterwards 
appropriated  by  the  priests  ;  and  sometimes  the  water  used 
was  taken  out  of  little  pots  by  dipping  stalks  of  Kusa  grass 
into  the  fluid  and  sprinkling  it  over  the  balls.  At  the  end  of 
all  the  ceremonies  a  prayer  was  said  for  pardon  lest  any 
minute  part  of  the  ceremonial  had  been  unintentionally 
omitted.  Then  finally  all  the  earthen  platters  employed 
were  carried  to  a  particular  stone  in  the  precincts  of  the 
temple  and  dashed  to  pieces  there.  No  platter  is  allowed  to 
be  used  a  second  time.  The  Pindas  are  left  to  be  eaten  by 
birds  and  other  animals,  or  reverently  deposited  in  the  river. 

It  is  remarkable  that  some  of  the  most  enlightened  men  of 
India  are  unable  to  resist  the  impulse  which  takes  every 
Hindi!  on  a  pilgrimage  once  in  his  life,  if  possible,  to  both 
Benares  and  Gaya,  though  they  are  perfectly  aware  that  from 
the  moment  of  their  arrival  within  ten  miles  of  these  sacred 
localities  they  are  certain  to  become  the  prey  of  a  well- 
organized  army  of  rapacious  priests.  Mr.  Deshmukh  gave 
me  a  brief  account  of  his  visit  to  Gaya  in  1876  ^  He  went 
there,  like  others  of  his  fellow-countrymen,  with  the  object  of 
performing  some  of  the  Sraddha  ceremonies. 

He  is  a  Cit-pavan  Brahman  (see  note  i,  p.  271),  and  gene- 
rally opposed  to  all  superstitious  practices,  yet  he  thinks  it 
right  to  maintain  his  influence  by  conforming,  as  far  as 
practicable,   to  old  customs.      Starting  from  Patna,   he  had 

^  I  mean  Mr.  G.  H.  Deshmukh,  who  was  then  judge  at  Nasik  and  has 
been  quoted  before.  The  Government,  in  recognition  of  his  services, 
has  conferred  on  him  the  personal  title  of  Rao  Bahadur. 


312  Sraddha  Ceremonies,     Pilgrimages. 


o 


to  go  through  the  ceremony  of  shaving  (Kshaura)  at  a 
river  called  Punah-punah,  about  ten  miles  distant  on  the 
road.  On  reaching  Gaya  he  was  surrounded  on  all  sides  by 
thousands  of  persons  offering  Pindas,  some  of  whom  were 
persons  of  high  rank — Rajas  and  Maharajas,  on  their  way  to  the 
great  imperial  assemblage  at  Delhi.  Many  went  through  the 
entire  round  of  ritual  observances,  necessitating  the  perform- 
ance of  at  least  a  hundred  Sraddhas  at  different  shrines. 
Mr.  Deshmukh  had  to  tell  the  Gaywal  priests  that  he  was 
expected  in  a  few  days  at  Delhi,  and  had  little  time  to  spare 
for  Gaya.  He  was  therefore  allowed  to  dispense  with  all  but 
three  ceremonies.  These  were — i.  the  Phalgu-Sraddha,  per- 
formed on  the  banks  of  the  river  ;  2.  the  Vishnu-pada-Sraddha, 
at  the  temple  containing  Vishnu's  footprint ;  and  3.  Vata- 
Sraddha,  performed  under  a  Banian  tree.  Two  whole  days 
were  occupied  in  going  through  the  necessary  ritual  of  these 
Sraddhas,  which  was  most  elaborate  and  tedious,  and  the 
fees  were  of  course  proportionately  large.  The  Maharaja  of 
Kashmir,  who  visited  Gaya  in  the  same  year  and  stayed 
rather  longer  than  Mr.  Deshmukh,  is  said  to  have  expended 
at  least  15,000  rupees  on  the  Gaywal  priests  before  their 
demands  were  satisfied. 

I  must  confess  that  I  myself  came  away  from  the  Vishnu- 
pada  temple  profoundly  impressed  by  the  solemnity  and 
earnestness  of  manner  displayed  by  some  of  the  worshippers, 
their  unfaltering  faith  In  the  efficacy  of  the  acts  in  which  they 
were  engaged,  and  their  Intense  anxiety  to  carry  out  every 
tittle  and  iota  of  the  ceremonial  In  obedience  to  the  directions 
of  their  priestly  guides. 

It  waS;,  however,  a  melancholy  spectacle ;  for  it  seemed 
to  make  clear  that,  while  the  acquirement  of  European  know- 
ledge has  acted  like  a  solvent  on  the  faith  of  the  Hindus, 
a  long  period  must  elapse  before  the  Influence  of  Christianity 
can  prevail  to  uproot  the  time-honoured  and  Inveterate  super- 
stitions of  ages. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

Wo7^ship  of  A 1117 J la Is,  Trees,  and  Inanimate  Objects, 

Sir  John  Lubbock  in  his  work  on  the  '  Origin  of  Civiliza- 
tion '  has  some  interesting  remarks  on  the  subject  of  animal- 
worship,  and  shows  that  zoolatry  has  always  prevailed  among 
uncivilized  and  half-civilized  races  in  every  part  of  the  globe. 
Mr.  E.  B.  Tylor  in  the  second  volume  of  his  '  Primitive 
Culture,'  and  Mr.  Fergusson  in  his  '  Tree  and  Serpent  Wor- 
ship,' go  ably  into  the  same  subject. 

It  is  found,  for  example,  that  serpents  either  have  been 
or  still  are  objects  of  worship  in  Egypt -^5  Persia,  Kashmir, 
India,  China,  Tibet,  Ceylon,  Babylonia,  Phoenicia,  Greece, 
Italy,  Lithuania,  and  among  the  Kalmucks  and  other  un- 
cultured tribes.  I  notice,  too,  that  in  the  '  St.  James's  Gazette  ' 
for  June  i,  1891,  there  is  a  curious  account  of  a  'holy  trout,' 
which  is  to  be  seen  in  a  tank  near  Westport  in  Ireland,  and 
is  held  sacred  by  the  peasantry. 

My  remarks  in  the  present  chapter  must  of  course  be 
limited  to  India,  but  a  difficult  question  meets  us  at  the 
very  threshold : — Can  any  satisfactory  account  be  given  of 
the  origin  of  zoolatry  in  that  country? 

I  need  scarcely  point  out  that,  because  animal-worship 
is  common  among  numerous  races  in  other  parts  of  the 
world,   it  does  not   follow  that  it   may  not  have  originated 

^  The  Egyptians,  who  were  the  first  educators  of  the  world,  adored, 
as  every  one  knows,  the  bull  Apis,  the  bird  Ibis,  the  hawk,  the  crocodile, 
and  many  other  animals.  The  mummified  cat  is  a  familiar  object  in  the 
British  Museum. 


o 


14  Worship  of  Animals. 


independently  in  India.  The  human  mind,  like  the  body, 
goes  through  similar  phases  everywhere,  develops  similar  pro- 
clivities, and  is  liable  to  similar  diseases.  It  is  certain  that 
every  form  of  Fetishism  and  Totemism,  of  stone-worship, 
tree-worship,  and  animal-worship,  as  well  as  every  variety 
of  polytheistic  and  pantheistic  superstition,  have  sprung  up 
spontaneously  and  flourished  vigorously  on  Indian  soil. 

The  motives,  too,  which  have  prompted  men  to  worship 
animals  in  India,  are  probably  similar  to  those  which  have 
actuated  them  elsewhere.  It  is  thought  by  some  that  an 
animal  may  receive  adoration  for  any  one  of  three  reasons. 
I.  Because,  like  an  elephant  or  lion,  it  happens  to  possess 
superhuman  strength  and  courage ;  2.  because  it  is  believed 
to  be  an  incarnation  of  the  deity;  3.  because  it  is  regarded 
as  a  totem  or  representative  of  a  tribe  or  family,  the  word 
totem  being  derived  from  an  American  Indian  word  dodaim^ 
which  signifies  the  patron  or  typical  animal  of  a  tribe.  For 
it  is  remarkable  that  in  America  every  member  of  a  tribe 
or  clan  may  be  called  by  the  name  of  some  animal,  as,  for 
example,  a  bear,  or  a  tortoise ;  pictures  of  these  animals 
standing  for  the  whole  clan,  very  much  as  animals  are  used 
typically  in  the  armorial  bearings  of  some  English  families 
in  England,  and  just  as  in  South  Africa  we  hear  of  men  of 
the  fish,  men  of  the  crocodile,  etc.  (Tylor's  '  Primitive  Cul- 
ture,' ii.  235.) 

One  writer  is  inclined  to  lay  great  stress  on  Totemism  as 
a  motive  for  zoolatry.  He  thinks  that  an  individual  or 
family  called  after  a  bear  would  be  inclined  to  worship  the 
bear.  I  cannot  believe  that  such  a  motive  had  much  weight 
in  India.  It  is  true  that  the  word  sinJi  (for  Sanskrit  sinha) 
is  often  appended  to  the  names  of  men  (as  in  Amara-sinha, 
Ran-jit-sinh) ;  and  in  other  parts  of  India  the  expressions 
'  man-lion,'  '  man-tiger,'  '  man-bull,'  etc.  denote  a  man  re- 
markable for  courage  or  strength  ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact 
the  names  of  the  animals   most   worshipped  in  India — with 


Worship  of  Animals.  315 

the  exception,  perhaps,  of  Naga — are  not  generally  applied  to 
human  beings.  It  seems  to  me  more  probable  that  Indian 
animal-worship  is  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  working  of 
one  or  other  of  the  motives,  gratitude,  fear,  or  awe,  operating 
separately,  in  separate  cases. 

For  instance,  a  Hindu  worships  a  cow  because  he  is  pro- 
foundly sensible  of  the  services  it  renders  him  ;  he  worships 
a  serpent  because  he  dreads  its  power  of  destroying  him  by 
the  slightest  puncture ;  and  he  worships  a  monkey  because 
he  stands  in  awe  of  the  marvellous  instinct  it  displays.  In 
short,  his  zoolatry  is  simply  the  expression  of  an  exaggerated 
or  intensified  feeling  of  admiration  for  the  three  qualities, 
utility,  brute  strength,  and  instinct,  manifesting  themselves  in 
animal  nature.  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  too,  that  with  a  Hindu 
all  organic  life  is  sacred.  Even  plant-life  is  to  be  respected, 
and  must  not  wantonly  be  destroyed. 

Without  doubt  this  feeling  is  strengthened  by  the  intense 
hold  which  the  doctrine  of  metempsychosis  has  on  the 
Hindu  mind.  It  is  difficult,  as  we  have  already  seen,  for 
any  believer  in  Hinduism  to  draw  a  line  of  demarcation 
between  gods,  men,  and  animals.  If  men  depend  on  animals, 
so  also  do  the  gods  ;  if  men  are  associated  with  animals,  so 
also  are  the  gods.  Brahma  is  carried  on  a  goose  (haosa); 
Vishnu  on  an  eagle  (Garuda),  which  is  also  half  a  man ; 
Siva  on  a  bull  (Nandi). 

Other  deities  are  associated  with  other  animals  ^.  Nor 
must  we  forget  that  Vishnu's  first  three  incarnations  are 
zoomorphic.  He  infuses  his  essence  into  the  fish,  the  tor- 
toise, and  the  boar  (see  pp.  107-109),  with  the  object  of 
delivering  the  world,  or  aiding  it  in  certain  special  exigencies. 
This  seems  absurd  to   our   ideas,   but  not  to   a   Hindu  who 

^  The  association  of  great  heroes  and  saints  with  animals  is  not 
confined  to  India,  for  we  find  three  of  the  Evangelists  (St.  Mark, 
St.  Luke,  and  St.  John)  associated  with  a  Hon,  ox,  and  eagle,  respec- 
tively. 


y 


316  Worship  of  Animals. 

firmly  believes  that  the  supreme  soul  of  the  universe,  like 
the  soul  of  man,  may  pass  into  any  kind  of  animal  form. 

It  is  said  of  Dr.  Duff — to  whose  labours  in  the  cause  of 
education  India  is  so  deeply  indebted — that  he  was  once 
examining  an  Indian  school,  and  wishing  to  ridicule  this  idea 
of  animal  incarnations,  said  to  the  boys  :  '  Can  any  boy  tell 
me  w^hether  it  is  likely  that  God's  spirit  would  associate  itself 
with  a  snail  ? '  No  one  answered  for  some  time  ;  at  last  an 
intelligent  lad  said  :  '  I  think  He  might  condescend  to  do  so, 
if  any  useful  purpose  were  to  be  served  thereby  for  the  good 
of  His  creatures.'  'Then/  said  Dr.  Duff,  'you  think  as  a 
fool.'  But  did  the  boy  really  think  so  very  foolishly?  and 
had  he  altogether  the  worst  of  the  encounter  in  his  little 
brush  with  the  Scotch  giant  ? 

Again,  it  is  owing  to  a  belief  in  this  same  doctrine  of 
metempsychosis  that  a  Hindu  has  no  difficulty  in  believing 
that  a  beast,  bird,  or  reptile  may  at  any  moment  develop 
human  faculties  and  functions.  According  to  popular  belief 
there  are  eighty-four  lakhs  of  different  species  of  animals 
through  which  a  man  is  liable  to  pass.  Even  a  noxious  insect, 
therefore,  may  enclose  the  soul  of  some  person  who  was  once 
a  sage,  a  saint,  or  an  orator.  It  is  on  this  account  that  the 
excellent  stories  about  talking  animals  and  their  sayings 
and  doings,  everywhere  current  in  India,  are  to  the  generality 
of  unthinking  Hindus  not  mere  fables,  but  true  narratives. 
A  beast  or  bird  may  on  special  occasions  speak  with  a  human 
voice,  engage  in  long  arguments,  acquire  profound  learning, 
and  be  troubled  with  a  sense  of  right  and  wrong,  without 
violating  any  law  of  organized  life,  or  outraging  any  of  the 
usual  ideas  of  probability. 

It  is  on  this  account,  too,  that  no  true  religiously  minded 
Hindu  delights  in  killing  animals,  and  certainly  not  for  sport. 
India  teems  with  animal  life,  and  animals  of  every  description 
appear  to  live  on  terms  of  the  greatest  confidence  with  human 
beings.      Everywhere  they  dispute  possession    of  the  earth 


Worship  of  the  Cow.  317 

with  man.  Birds  build  their  nests  and  lay  their  eggs  in  the 
fields,  untroubled  by  fears  or  misgivings,  before  the  very  eyes 
of  every  passer-by,  and  within  the  reach  of  every  village 
school-boy.  Animals  of  all  kinds  rove  over  the  soil  as  if 
they  were  the  landlords.  It  is  true  that  every  thrifty  farmer 
drives  them  from  his  crops ;  yet  he  would  scarcely  dare  to 
question  their  claim  to  a  portion  of  the  food  he  eats  and  the 
house  he  occupies ;  while  everywhere  in  the  towns  they  are 
admitted,  so  to  speak,  to  the  privileges  of  fellow-citizens. 
Bulls  walk  about  independently  in  the  streets,  and  jostle 
you  on  the  pavements ;  monkeys  domesticate  themselves 
jauntily  on  the  roof  of  your  house  ;  parrots  peer  inquisitively 
from  the  eaves  of  your  bedroom  into  the  mysteries  of  your 
toilet ;  crows  make  themselves  at  home  on  your  window-sill, 
and  carry  off  impudently  any  portable  article  of  jewelry  that 
takes  their  fancy  on  your  dressing-table  ;  sparrows  hop  about 
impertinently,  and  take  the  bread  off  your  table-cloth  ;  a 
solitary  mongoose  emerges  every  morning  from  a  hole  in 
your  verandah,  and  expects  a  share  in  your  breakfast;  swarms 
of  insects  claim  a  portion  of  your  midday  meal,  and  levy 
a  tax  on  the  choicest  delicacies  at  your  dinner  table;  bats 
career  triumphantly  about  your  head  as  you  light  yourself  to 
your  bed-room  ;  and  at  certain  seasons  snakes  domicile  them- 
selves unpleasantly  in  the  folds  of  your  cast-off  garments. 

It  should  be  added,  however,  that  although  in  the  eyes 
of  orthodox  Hindils  every  animal  is  more  or  less  sacred, 
ill-treatment  of  such  useful  animals  as  draught-oxen  is  by  no 
means  uncommon  in  India. 

I  next  proceed  to  note  some  of  the  more  interesting  ex- 
amples of  actual  animal-worship,  turning  first  to  three  classes 
of  animals,  the  adoration  of  which  probably  results  from  the 
operation  of  the  three  motives  I  have  already  suggested. 

In  the  forefront  must  be  placed  the  worship  of  the  cow 
and  the  bull.  The  utility  of  the  cow  as  a  source  of  nourish- 
ment to  a  people  who  never  kill  animals  for  food,  and  of  the 


^iS  Worship  of  the  Cow, 


o 


ox  and  bull  to  agriculturalists  who  have  no  cart-horses  for 
draught,  is  manifest.  The  cow  is  of  all  animals  the  most 
sacred.  Every  part  of  its  body  is  inhabited  by  some  deity  or 
other.  Every  hair  on  its  body  is  inviolable.  All  its  excreta 
are  hallowed.  Not  a  particle  ought  to  be  thrown  away  as 
impure.  On  the  contrary,  tjie  water  it  ejects  ought  to  be  pre- 
served as  the  best  of  all  holy  waters — a  sin-destroying  liquid 
which  sanctifies  everything  it  touches,  while  nothing  purifies 
like  cow-dung.  Any  spot  which  a  cow  has  condescended  to 
honour  with  the  sacred  deposit  of  her  excrement  is  for  ever 
afterwards  consecrated  ground,  and  the  filthiest  place  plastered 
with  it  is  at  once  cleansed  and  freed  from  pollution,  while 
the  ashes  produced  by  burning  this  hallowed  substance  are 
of  such  a  holy  nature,  that  they  not  only  make  clean  all 
material  things,  however  previously  unclean,  but  have  only 
to  be  sprinkled  over  a  sinner  to  convert  him  into  a  saint. 

In  an  underground  passage  of  the  Agra  fort  there  is  an 
image  of  a  man  named  Mukunda.  The  Brahman  who  was 
my  guide  when  I  visited  this  place  gravely  informed  me 
that  it  represented  a  celebrated  saint  who  felt  himself  com- 
pelled to  commit  suicide  by  jumping  into  the  neighbouring 
river  as  a  penalty  for  having  accidentally  swallowed  the 
hair  of  a  cow  by  drinking  milk  without  straining  it.  But 
even  this  was  not  deemed  sufficient  punishment,  for  he  was 
condemned  to  become  a  Muhammadan  in  his  next  birth, 
though  the  sentence  was  mitigated  by  his  being  born  again 
as  the  Emperor  Akbar.  We  cannot  wonder,  therefore,  that 
the  heaven  of  Krishna  is  called  Go-loka,  'cow-world^  (p.  ii8). 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  Hindus  believe  in  the  exist- 
ence of  a  typical  divine  cow  called  Surabhi  or  Kama-dhenu, 
'  the  cow  of  plenty,'  yielding  all  desired  objects,  representa- 
tions of  which  are  to  be  seen  in  temples,  or  are  kept  in 
houses  for  purposes  of  domestic  worship.  This  typical  animal 
was  produced  from  the  ocean  when  it  was  churned  by  the 
gods  and  demons  (see  p.  io8).    Yet  I  nowhere  saw  any  temple 


Worship  of  Serpents,  3 1 9 

dedicated  exclusively  to  Surabhi  or  to  any  other  cow.  It 
is  rather  the  living  animal  which  is  a  perpetual  object  of 
adoration.  As  to  the  bull,  he  is  dedicated  to  Siva,  and 
constantly  associated  with  the  god  as  typical  of  generative 
power.  Images  of  him  are  to  be  found  near  all  Lihga  shrines. 
The  letting  loose  of  a  bull  (vrishotsarga,  brishotsarga) — 
stamped  with  Siva's  trident — in  cities  like  Benares  (p.  436) 
and  Gaya  (p.  309)  is  fraught  with  the  highest  merit.  This 
setting  free  of  a  bull  to  roam  about  at  will  often  takes  place 
at  Sraddhas. 

Passing  on  to  the  second  class  of  animals,  or  those  wor- 
shipped out  of  motives  of  fear,  we  must,  of  course,  place  the 
serpent  at  the  head  of  the  list.  Much  has  been  written  on 
ophiolatry,  and  on  the  vexed  question  of  its  origin.  The 
subject  seems  inexhaustible.  Some  writers  maintain  that 
snake-worship  was  the  earliest  form  of  religion  prevalent 
among  men  in  all  parts  of  the  globe,  its  general  diffusion 
being  partially  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  serpents  are 
indigenous  almost  everywhere,  and  not,  like  monkeys  and 
elephants,  in  certain  localities  only.  All  writers,  however, 
are  agreed  that  the  chief  factor  in  the  universality  of  this 
phase  of  superstition  is  the  dread  inspired  by  a  mysterious 
creeping  creature,  silent  and  stealthy  in  its  movements,  ap- 
parently quite  unprovided  with  the  most  ordinary  means  of 
offence  and  defence,  yet  found  to  have  at  its  command  the 
most  deadly  of  all  known  destructive  weapons,  and  able  to 
cause  almost  instantaneous  death  by  merely  pricking  the 
skin  of  its  adversary. 

In  India,  as  is  well  known,  the  habit  of  walking  barefoot 
exposes  the  half-clad  natives  to  constant  peril  from  this 
source,  so  that,  according  to  some  authorities,  at  least  25,000 
perish  annually  from  snake-bites  (many  deaths  being  un- 
registered). Nevertheless,  the  feeling  of  antipathy  that  leads 
a  man  to  recoil  from  contact  with  a  snake  of  any  kind  does 
not  seem  to  depend  entirely  on  its   power    of   doing  harm. 


"^20  Worship  of  Serpents, 


o 


A  large  majority  of  these  animals  are  quite  innocuous.  Yet 
to  many  persons  their  sinuous  movements,  their  habit  of 
shunning  observation,  their  concealment  of  themselves  in 
holes,  the  cold  fixity  of  their  gaze,  and  the  constant  pro- 
trusion of  their  forked  tongues,  are  in  themselves  typical  of 
subtlety  and  malevolence ;  while  to  others  these  operations 
are  not  merely  types  of  evil  qualities,  but  evidences  of  actual 
demoniacal  possession. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  certain  that  to  some  Indian  minds 
the  beautiful  markings,  spiral  movements,  and  generally 
striking  aspect  of  many  species  of  harmless  snakes,  are  sug- 
gestive of  reverential  ideas.  They  are  typical  of  divine 
beauty  and  beneficence,  while  the  coiling  of  their  bodies  in 
rings  and  circles,  and  their  annual  rejuvenescence  by  the 
renewal  of  their  skins,  symbolize  immortality  and  the  never- 
ending  cycles  of  eternal  time.  When  they  are  accidentally 
killed  they  even  sometimes  receive  funeral  honours  like  human 
beings. 

Hence  serpents  are  either  worshipped  or  propitiated  in 
India  under  the  most  opposite  characters  even  to  the  present 
day.  Nor  does  a  Hindu  appear  to  see  any  inconsistency  in 
regarding  snakes  as  embodiments  of  the  contradictory  ideas 
of  destruction  and  regeneration,  malevolence  and  benevolence, 
demonism  and  divinity,  death  and  immortality. 

No  authority,  however,  for  any  such  diversified  concep- 
tions of  serpent-nature  is  to  be  found  in  the  more  ancient 
sacred  writings  of  India ;  nor  is  there  any  proof  that  the 
early  Aryan  immigrants  were  in  any  sense  serpent-worship- 
pers. On  the  contrary,  their  only  feeling  towards  the  serpent 
was  one  of  dread  and  dislike.     Hence  in  the  Rig-veda  (see 

VI.  20.  2)  the  demon  of  cloud  and  darkness,  called  Vritra, 
is  either  identified  or  associated  with  the  serpent  Ahi  ("0(/)iy) ; 
and  the  god  Soma  is  described  as  delivering  over  all  evil 
speakers  and  slanderers  into  the  power  of  this  serpent  (see 

VII.  104.  9,  and  compare  Vajasaneyi-sanihita  VI.   12).     We 


W 07^ ship  of  Serpents.  321 

know,  too,  that  even  to  this  day  the  sight  of  a  snake  in  the 
early  morning  is  to  a  Brahman  so  bad  an  omen,  that  after 
seeing  it  he  will  desist  for  the  moment  from  the  prosecution 
of  any  work  in  which  he  may  be  engaged  ^.  Yet  so  elastic 
was  the  creed  and  practice  of  Brahmanism,  that,  finding 
serpent-worship,  like  other  aboriginal  cults,  established  on 
Indian  soil,  it  had  no  difficulty  in  adopting  it,  and  ended  by 
incorporating  every  superstitious  idea  connected  with  ophio- 
latry into  the  complex  fabric  of  Hinduism. 

In  fact  the  gradual  intertwining  of  serpent-worship  with 
Saivism,  Vaishnavism,  and  even  Buddhism  and  Jainism,  but 
more  especially  with  Saivism  (see  pp.  80,  105,  and  113),  is 
one  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  this  complex  subject. 
Siva  has  five  heads,  and  a  great  majority  of  serpent  images 
are  five-headed  also.  Then  I  have  often  seen  images  of 
serpents  coiled  round  the  Lihga,  and  five-headed  snakes 
forming  a  canopy  over  it.  A  similar  canopy  is  also  found 
over  idols  of  Krishna  and  Buddha  ;  Vishnu,  too,  is  repre- 
sented as  sleeping  on  the  thousand-headed  serpent  Sesha,  the 
symbol    of  Infinity,   which   also  forms   a   canopy  over   him 

(P-  323)- 

On  the  other  hand,  Garuda,  the  mythical  bird  of  Vishnu, 

half  eagle,  half  man,  destroys  serpents  in  their  character  of 

representatives   of    evil.      Krishna   does   the  same ;    and  the 

Maha-bharata — that   greatest  of    all    repositories   of    Hindu 

belief — opens  with  a  long  account  of  Janamejaya's  sacrifice  for 

the  annihilation  of  the  serpent  or  Naga  race  (I.  1547-2197). 

Buddhism   and   Jainism,   no   doubt,    became   connected   with 

serpent-worship  not  from  any  affinity  with  it,  but  because,  like 

Hindiiism,  they  adapted  themselves  to  pre-existing  cults. 

And  here  it  must  be  observed  that  the  worship  of  serpents 

in  India    is    closely  connected  with  that   of  the   Nagas ;    or 

rather,   is    generally    mixed    up    and    confounded    with    that 

^  Yet  a  snake  (as  oviparous)  is,  like  a  Brahman,  called  Dvi-ja,  'twice- 
born.'     Birds  for  the  same  reason  are  '  twice-born.' 


o 


2  2  WorsJiip  of  Serpents. 


worship.  Indeed  the  Avord  Naga  frequently  denotes  an 
ordinary  serpent,  though  it  properly  signifies  a  being  half 
human,  half  serpentine  in  form  ^,  not  necessarily  evil,  but 
often  beautiful,  wise,  and  good,  and,  although  armed  with 
a  deadly  venom,  possessing  also  the  elixir  of  life  and  im- 
mortality, and  able  to  bestow  it  upon  others  (Maha-bh.  I. 
1500-1505,  5018-5035). 

The  race  of  Nagas  is  fabled  to  have  sprung  from  Kadru, 
one  of  the  wives  of  the  old  patriarch  Kasyapa  (her  sister 
Vinata  being  also  a  wife  of  Kasyapa,  and  mother  of  Garuda). 
Kadru  gave  birth  to  icoo  Nagas,  who  became  the  progenitors 
of  the  serpent-race.  Some  of  their  females  married  human 
heroes  (as  Ulupl  married  Arjuna,  after  carrying  him  off  to 
the  bottom  of  the  Ganges,  p.  233),  and  to  this  day  there 
are  tribes  called  Nagas  ^,  and  ancient  families  who  claim  to 
be  of  Naga  descent.  The  whole  race  of  mythical  Nagas 
is  sometimes  represented  as  dwelling  at  the  bottom  of  the 
ocean,  or  in  the  depths  of  rivers  and  lakes,  but  also  as 
inhabiting  the  regions  under  the  earth  (see  p.  233,  and  my 
'  Buddhism,'  p.  220),  and  more  especially  Patala,  or  that  por- 
tion of  it  called  Naga-loka,  of  which  the  capital  is  Bhogavati. 

The  following  curious  story  is  told  in  the  Maha-bharata 
(I.  50C6)  :— 

The  Pandu  princes  in  their  boyish  sports  excelled  the  sons 
of  Dhrita-rashtra.  This  excited  much  ill-feeling ;  and  Dur- 
}'odhana,  spiteful  even  when  a  boy,  tried  to  destroy  Bhima 

^  According  to  Dr.  K.  M.  Banerjea,  the  theory  of  a  race  of  Nagas,  half 
serpents,  half  men,  confinns  the  Biblical  account  of  the  serpent,  which 
was  originally  perhaps  of  a  species  corresponding  to  the  Nagas,  till  the 
sentence  was  pronounced  by  which  it  became  a  creeping  reptile. 

I  noticed,  when  at  Rome,  that  Michael  Angelo's  fresco  of  Adam  and 
Eve  in  the  roof  of  the  Sistine  chapel,  represents  the  serpent  as  shaped 
h"ke  an  Indian  Naga  ;  that  is— the  lower  part  of  the  body  is  coiled  round 
the  stem  of  the  tree  in  serpent  fashion,  while  the  upper  part  in  human 
form  offers  the  fruit  to  Eve. 

-  For  example,  the  Nagas  of  Manipur,  but  they  are  not  found  to  be 
snake-worshippers. 


Worship  of  Serpents.  323 

by  mixing  poison  in  his  food,  and  then  throwing  him  into 
the  water  when  stupefied  by  its  effects.  Bhlma,  however, 
was  not  drowned,  but  descended  to  the  abode  of  the  Nagas, 
who  freed  him  from  the  poison  (I.  5052),  and  gave  him  an 
elixir  to  drink  which  endued  him  with  the  strength  of  ten 
thousand  Nagas,  and  made  him  a  kind  of  Hercules. 

The  kings  of  the  Nagas  are  Sesha,  Vasuki,  and  Takshaka. 
Of  these,  the  most  conspicuous  is  the  thousand-headed  Sesha, 
also  called  An-anta,  '  the  Infinite,'  sometimes  represented  as 
forming  the  couch  and  canopy  of  Vishnu,  while  sleeping 
during  the  intervals  of  creation  ;  sometimes  as  bearing  the 
world  on  his  thousand  heads  ;  sometimes  as  supporting  Patala ; 
and  sometimes  as  having  become  man  in  the  form  of  Bala- 
rama,  Ramanuja,  etc.  (pp.  112,  119).  According  to  popular 
belief  all  earthquakes  are  caused  by  his  shaking  one  of  his 
tliousand  heads. 

A  particular  day  called  Naga-paficamT,  about  the  end  of 
July  (Sravana).  is  held  sacred  to  the  Nagas,  and  in  the 
districts  of  India  where  serpent-worship  is  especially  rife, 
numbers  flock  to  Naga-shrines  on  that  day.  I  should  state, 
however,  that  temples  dedicated  to  serpents  are  by  no  means 
common  in  Northern  India.  The  only  one  I  visited  was  that 
sacred  to  Vasuki  at  Dara-ganj,  near  Allahabad.  This  is  a 
noted  shrine,  and  pilgrims  resort  to  it  In  large  numbers  on 
the  Naga-paiicami  festival.  I  found  that  the  priest  of  this 
temple  was  not  a  Brahman,  but  a  man  of  low  caste  ^.  On 
my  expressing  a  wish  for  some  memorial  of  the  place,  he 
tore  off  a  rude  drawing  of  a  many-headed  serpent  which  was 
fastened  to  the  door  of  the  shrine,  and  presented  It  to  me. 

Other  shrines  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Nagpur  and  cer- 
tain districts  of  the  central  provinces  (such  as  Chanda-pur, 
Bhandhak,  etc.)  are  much  frequented  at  certain  seasons.     In 

^  This  is,  I   believe,  the  case   in  all    serpent-temples,  and   it  is    one 
evidence  that  Brahmanism  had  originally  no  connexion  with  ophiolatry. 

Y  2 


324  Worship  of  Serpents. 

Southern  India  the  whole  of  Kanara  may  be  regarded  as 
steeped  in  serpent-worship. 

Mr.  Walhoiise  informs  us  that  one  of  the  highest  mountains 
of  the  South  Kanara  Ghats,  named  Su-brahmanya,  has  a 
very  celebrated  serpent-temple.  There  great  numbers  of  the 
*  coiling  folk '  reside  in  holes  and  crevices  made  for  them. 
To  propitiate  these  creatures,  persons  who  have  made  vows 
roll  and  wriggle  round  the  temple  serpent-fashion,  and  some 
will  even  roll  their  bodies  up  to  it  from  the  foot  of  the  hill, 
a  mile  distant.  They  also  take  home  with  them  portions 
of  earth  from  the  sacred  serpent-holes.  This  earth  is  believed 
to  cleanse  from  leprosy  (compare  2  Kings  v.  17),  if  rubbed  on 
the  parts  affected  ;  it  will  moreover  cure  barrenness  in  women, 
if  a  little  be  daily  put  in  the  mouth.  Serpentine  body -wrig- 
gling is  also  practised  further  south,  where  small  snake-temples 
{Ndga-kovil  in  Tamil)  are  common.  Near  one  of  these,  not 
far  from  Madura  on  the  bank  of  the  Vaiga  river,  there  are 
men  who  for  a  few  rupees  will  perform  any  number  of  wrig- 
glings  and  rollings  round  the  shrine,  as  proxies  for  persons 
who  have  vowed  them  ^. 

Indeed  it  seems  to  be  a  fixed  article  of  belief  throughout 
Southern  India,  that  all  who  have  wilfully  or  accidentally 
killed  a  snake,  especially  a  cobra,  will  certainly  be  punished 
either  in  this  life  or  the  next  in  one  of  three  ways  : — either 
by  childlessness,  or  by  leprosy,  or  by  ophthalmia.  It  behoves 
all  persons,  therefore,  who  are  afflicted  with  such  diseases, 
or  feel  that  they  may  have  to  undergo  the  inevitable  penalty 
hereafter,  to  visit  serpent-shrines  and  conciliate  the  serpent- 
gods  by  the  most  abject  homage.  In  connexion  with  these 
ideas,  I  may  mention  that  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Tamra- 
parnl,  near  a  bridge  connecting  Tinnevelly  with  Palamcottah, 
I  noticed  two  or  three  Pipal  trees,  under  which  were  depo- 
sited hundreds  of  stone  images  of  Krishna,  and  of  the  Liiiga 
of   Siva,  each  image  having  a   five-headed    Naga  so  carved 

^  See  '  Indian  Antiquary,'  for  February  1878. 


Worship  of  Serpents.  325 

as  to  form  a  canopy  over  it.  It  is  the  custom  in  the  South 
of  India  for  any  woman  who  is  childless,  and  beHeves  her 
barrenness  to  be  caused  by  having  killed  a  cobra  in  a  former 
life,  to  perform  the  ceremony  called  Naga-pratishtha  ;  that 
is  to  say,  she  sets  up  a  stone  Naga  under  a  tree,  taking  care 
to  have  it  duly  consecrated  by  the  repetition  of  texts  and 
prayers.  On  the  occasion  of  my  visit  to  the  Tamra-parnI, 
several  women  were  assembled  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
largest  Pipal  tree.  Some  performed  reverential  circumambu- 
lation  round  the  images,  and  some  sprinkled  them  with  water 
from  vessels  which  they  held  in  their  hands. 

In  the  same  way  childless  women  are  in  the  habit  of  going 
to  holes  in  the  earth  where  snakes  are  supposed  to  dwell,  and 
depositing  offerings  of  milk  with  invocations  and  prayers. 

I  may  note  here  another  curious  superstition  connected 
with  this  subject.  The  heads  of  all  Nagas  and  of  all  ser- 
pents— especially  cobras — are  believed  to  contain  precious 
stones  and  gems  of  magical  properties.  These,  if  extracted 
and  carried  about  on  the  person,  are  capable  of  working  as 
astounding  miracles  for  their  owners,  as  the  wonderful  lamp 
did  for  Aladdin.  I  met  with  no  one  who  could  show  me  a 
specimen  of  these  so-called  miraculous  snake-stones,  but  they 
are  described  as  dark  and  shining,  and  shaped  like  a  horse- 
bean.  A  similar  superstition  exists  in  some  parts  of  England 
in  regard  to  supposed  stones  in  the  heads  of  toads. 

As  an  example  of  other  superstitious  ideas  about  snakes, 
it  is  related  that  a  certain  village  in  Northern  India  was  not 
long  ago  suddenly  deserted  by  all  its  inhabitants.  No  per- 
suasions would  induce  the  people  to  return,  and  on  inquiry 
it  was  found  that  the  panic  among  the  villagers  was  caused 
by  an  unexpected  visitation  of  snakes,  who  had  established 
themselves  comfortably  in  the  precincts  of  the  village,  and 
that  these  harmless  immigrants  were  believed  to  be  a  colony 
of  malevolent  demons. 

Again,  it  is  said  that  a  man  once  bought  a  piece  of  ground 


^26  Worship  of  Monkeys. 


o 


and  sat  down  to  contemplate  his  purchase  under  a  tree  in 
the  centre  of  his  newly-acquired  property.  Suddenly  he 
heard  the  hissing  of  a  snake  coiled  in  the  branches  above 
his  head.  Panic-struck,  he  ran  off  and  escaped  unharmed, 
but  never  dared  to  show  his  face  on  the  ground  again, 
being  firmly  convinced  that  the  serpent  was  the  indignant 
spirit  of  the  former  proprietor,  whom  he  had  imprudently 
neglected  to  propitiate  before  taking  possession. 

So  much  for  the  complex  and  difficult  subject  of  serpent- 
worship  in  India. 

Probably  the  best  representative  of  the  third  class  of 
animals  whose  worship  originally  arose  from  a  deep  rever- 
ence for  instinct  is  the  monkey.  And  here  a  difficult  question 
presents  itself  as  to  the  precise  meaning  of  the  term  '  instinct.' 
Is  it  possible  to  define  its  exact  nature  and  to  give  any  reason 
for  its  claim  to  adoration.?  Without  pretending  to  mathe- 
matical accuracy  in  attempting  to  solve  insoluble  problems, 
we  may  perhaps  describe  instinct,  in  a  general  way,  as  the 
mysterious  exercise  of  certain  powers  and  faculties  of  mind 
and  body  in  obedience  to  the  laws  of  organized  life  without 
conscious  will.  The  working  of  these  powers  in  the  lower 
animals  may  well  excite  amazement  and  admiration,  if  not 
worship.  What  can  be  more  wonderful  than  the  sight  of  a 
feeble  timid  mother-bird  suddenly  transformed  by  instinct 
into  a  very  tigress,  and  ready  to  fight  hopelessly  in  defence  of 
her  young  against  an  opponent  immeasurably  her  superior? 

To  a  Hindii  such  a  sight  would  be  an  intense  confirmation 
of  his  belief  that  the  divine  soul  may  occupy  animals  as  well 
as  men.  And  if  instinct  in  the  lower  animals  fills  him  with 
so  deep  an  awe,  he  is  the  more  inclined  to  attach  sacredness 
to  a  higher  order  of  animals  in  whom  instinct  almost  impinges 
upon  the  domain  of  reason. 

With  regard  to  the  actual  worship  of  monkeys  little  need 
be  added  to  what  has  already  been  stated  in  relation  to 
Hanuman    (see  p.   22o).       In    Hindu    mythology    apes   and 


Worship  of  Various  Animals.  327 

monkeys  are  as  intimately  connected  with  the  worship  of 
Vishnu,  as  the  bull  is  with  that  of  Siva  ;  though  the  reverence 
for  these  animals  probably  preceded  the  full  development  of 
both  Vaishnavism  and  Saivism  (see  note,  p.  222).  Indeed 
the  idea  of  a  close  interconnexion  between  gods,  demons, 
men,  and  animals  dates  from  the  earliest  times  ;  and  the  hold 
which  such  ideas  have  gained  on  the  Hindu  mind  is  often 
illustrated  in  a  remarkable  manner  by  present  customs. 

In  Ward's  '  Hindoos  "*  an  account  is  given  of  what  to  Euro- 
peans would  appear  an  incredible  occurrence: — A  certain 
Bengal  Raja  spent  ]  00,000  rupees  in  marrying  a  male  and 
female  monkey,  with  all  the  paraphernalia,  pageant,  and 
expense  usual  at  the  weddings  of  high-caste  human  beings. 
The  male  monkey  was  borne  along  in  a  costly  vehicle,  had 
a  crown  fastened  on  his  head,  and  a  whole  array  of  servants 
to  wait  on  him.  The  festivities  lasted  for  twelve  days.  Pro- 
bably, after  all,  this  remarkable  proceeding  was  merely  a 
mode  of  offering  homage  to  Hanuman,  whose  worship,  as 
already  explained  at  p.   220,  is  prevalent  everywhere. 

I  may  note  here  as  a  curious  circumstance  that  there  is  at 
Benares  a  well-known  temple,  commonly  called  the  'monkey- 
temple,'  which  is  not  really  dedicated  to  Hanuman,  but  to 
Durga.  I  witnessed  the  sacrifice  of  a  goat  in  honour  of  the 
goddess  outside  the  door  of  the  shrine,  while  several  intelli- 
gent monkeys,  with  true  simian  and  mock-human  curiosity, 
leaped  from  the  neighbouring  trees,  took  up  a  position  on 
the  vantage-ground  of  the  roof,  and  seemed  to  be  quite  as 
interested  in  the  ceremony  as  I  was.  These  animals  are 
daily  fed  by  pious  persons  who  frequent  the  temple.  To 
feed  one  is  a  highly  meritorious  act ;  to  injure  one  would 
be  the  most  heinous  of  crimes. 

I  can  only  advert  briefly  to  other  animals  usually  held 
sacred  in  India.  A  large  number  are,  as  we  have  seen  (p.  104, 
note  3),  associated  with  gods,  as  their  vehicles,  servants,  or 
companions,  and  worshipped  accordingly. 


^28  Worship  of  Various  Animals. 


J 


Vishnu's  attendant,  the  divine  Garuda  (see  p.  104),  is  re- 
presented by  a  species  of  eagle  or  similar  bird,  common  in 
some  parts  of  India,  and  held  in  great  honour. 

In  some  country  districts,  villagers  are  in  the  habit  of 
invoking  Garuda's  protection  against  snakes  every  night  before 
going  to  sleep.  Again^  in  the  North  Koiikan,  I  heard  of  a 
tribe  called  Warall,  who  worship  Vagho-ba,  the  ^tiger-lord' 
(Sanskrit  Vydghra,  'a  tiger'),  from  similar  motives. 

Then  the  goose  (hansa)  is,  as  we  have  seen,  sacred  to 
Brahma,  the  elephant  to  Indra,  the  tiger  to  Durga,  the  buffalo 
to  Yama,  the  rat  to  Ganesa,  the  ram  to  Agni,  the  peacock 
to  Skanda,  the  parrot  to  Kama-deva  (god  of  love). 

With  regard  to  the  sacredness  of  the  elephant,  it  is  notable 
that  the  earth  is  not  only  supported  on  Sesha  (p.  323),  but 
also  on  the  vast  heads  and  backs  of  eight  male  and  eight 
female  elephants,  who  all  have  names  and  distinct  person- 
alities. They  are  called  the  elephants  of  the  eight  quarters. 
When  any  one  of  these  shakes  its  body  the  whole  earth 
quakes  (see  Ramayana  I.  41).  Sometimes  they  are  described 
as  roaming  about  in  the  neighbourhood  of  their  stations. 

The  fish,  the  tortoise,  and  the  boar  are  worshipped  as 
incarnations  of  Vishnu  (pp.  107-109).  Fish  are  often  fed  as 
a  religious  duty.  At  Mathura  (Muttra)  I  noticed  a  number 
of  sacred  tortoises  and  turtles.  They  swarm  in  the  river  and 
are  daily  fed  by  the  pilgrims.  The  crocodile  or  alligator 
(makara)  is  sometimes  held  sacred  to  Kama-deva.  Children 
were  at  one  time  thrown  into  the  Ganges  as  a  sacrifice  to 
these  animals.  The  wag-tail  (Khaiijana)  is  regarded  as  a 
form  of  Vishnu,  the  mark  on  its  throat  having  some  resem- 
blance to  a  Sala-grama  stone.  The  cat  is  sacred  to  the 
goddess  ShashthI  (p.  229),  who  is  supposed  to  use  it  as  her 
vehicle.  The  dog  is  connected  with  Siva  (p.  266,  note)  in 
his  character  of  a  Kirata  or  mountaineer  (p.  64),  or  rather 
perhaps  with  Rudra,  who  also  presides  over  horses.  Hence 
in  the  Satarudriya  hymn  of  the  Yajur-veda  (p.  j6)  we  have 


Worship  of  Various  Animals.  329 

'  Reverence  to  dogs  and  to  the  lords  of  dogs,'  '  Reverence 
to  horses  and  to  the  lords  of  horses.'  Hence,  too,  the  name 
Krita-jna,  'the  grateful  one,'  is  applied  equally  to  Siva  and 
to  dogs.  In  Western  India  dogs  are  sometimes  fed  as  a 
sacred  duty  once  a  month.  In  the  Bali-harana  (or  Kaka- 
bali)  ceremony  (see  p.  289),  offerings  of  food  are  placed  on 
the  ground  for  Yama's  two  dogs,  crows,  etc.  (see  pp.  289, 
422).  Again,  crows  are  fed  at  the  end  of  the  Sraddha  cere- 
monies (p.  311).  On  the  other  hand,  dogs  are  sometimes 
described  as  unclean  animals,  and  crows  as  birds  of  ill-omen. 
So  also  Sva-paca,  '  dog-cooker,'  and  Tirtha-kaka,  '  crow  at  a 
place  of  pilgrimage,'  Kupa-manduka,  'frog  in  a  well,'  or  Kupa- 
kacchapa,  '  tortoise  in  a  well,'  are  terms  of  reproach  (Panini 
II.  I.  42).  There  is  a  natural  enmity  between  cat  and  mouse, 
dog  and  jackal,  serpent  and  mongoose,  crow  and  owl. 

As  to  horses,  in  some  parts  of  India  at  the  Dasa-hara 
(Dasara)  festival,  they  are  decorated  with  garlands.  The 
mythical  horse,  U(^caih-sravas,  'high-eared'  (p.  108),  supposed 
to  be  the  prototype  of  all  horses,  is  assigned  to  the  god  Indra. 
The  Asva-medha,  '  horse-sacrifice,'  was  a  very  ancient  cere- 
mony (hymns  162  and  163  in  Rig-veda  I.  being  used  at  it). 
It  was  the  chief  animal  sacrifice,  and  a  hundred  horse-sacrifices 
entitled  the  sacrificer  to  displace  Indra  from  heaven.  Indra, 
therefore,  always  tried  to  capture  the  horse  which  was  allowed 
to  roam  about  before  immolation  (see  Ramayana  I.  13,  and 
Maha-bharata  XIV,  Asvamedhika-parvan)  ^. 


^  A  horse  was  selected  by  a  prince  who  aimed  at  supremacy  and  was 
let  loose  to  roam  at  large  for  a  year.  Those  who  disputed  his  claim  tried 
to  capture  the  roving  horse  and  to  hold  it  against  the  original  owner 
and  all  comers.  If  no  one  succeeded  the  horse  was  brought  back  and 
sacrificed  with  long  ceremonies,  and  the  prince  who  held  it  was  acknow- 
ledged as  paramount  sovereign.  Yudhishthira  in  the  Maha-bharata  let 
loose  a  horse  in  this  way,  which  wandered  through  many  countries, 
having  Arjuna  for  its  champion.  Among  the  places  to  which  it  came  in 
its  rovings  was  Manipur,  whose  king  is  described  as  virtuous,  and  who 
gave  his  daughter,  Citraiigada,  to  Arjuna  in  marriage. 


33^  Wo7^ship  of  Trees  and  Plants. 

Worship  of  Trees  and  Plants. 

We  learn  from  the  numerous  examples  adduced  by  Sir 
John  Lubbock,  Mr.  Tylor,  and  Mr.  Fergusson,  that  the 
adoration  of  trees,  shrubs  and  plants,  in  virtue  of  the 
supernatural  qualities  or  divine  essence  supposed  to  be  in- 
herent in  them,  is  almost  as  universallv  diffused  over  the 
globe  as  the  worship  of  animals,  and  that  both  forms  of 
religion  are  of  the  greatest  antiquity.  Every  one  is  familiar 
with  such  instances  as  the  prophetic  oak  of  Dodona,  the 
myrtle  of  Venus,  the  poplar  sacred  to  Hercules,  the  oaks 
of  the  British  Druids,  and  the  sacred  groves  of  Germany 
mentioned  by  Tacitus  ^ ;  but  every  one  does  not  know  that 
there  existed  quite  recently  a  particular  oak-copse  in  the 
island  of  Skye  which  the  inhabitants  held  inviolably  sacred, 
and  that  here  and  there  in  remote  parts  of  Europe  simple- 
minded  peasants  are  to  be  found  who  still  pay  homage  to 
certain  trees,  still  hang  offerings  on  their  branches,  and  still 
believe  in  willows  that  bleed,  and  in  trees  that  speak  when 
about  to  be  cut  down. 

Tree-worship,  we  are  told,  was  once  common  in  Greece, 
France,  Poland,  Assyria,  and  many  other  countries.  It  has 
continually  prevailed  among  uncultivated  tribes  in  Africa, 
America,  and  Polynesia.  In  Persia  travellers  occasionally 
come  across  trees  hung  with  offerings  of  rags  and  garments, 
and  throughout  the  greater  part  of  Asia  a  belief  in  a  kind 
of  divinity  inherent  in  certain  trees  has  always  been  a  re- 
cognized element  of  the  popular  creed. 

In  India,  as  already  observed,  all  life  is  sacred.  It  might 
even  be  affirmed  that  the  Hindus  were  the  first  believers  in 
the  law  of  continuity;  for  in  their  creed  the  life  of  gods 
is  connected  with  that  of  demons,  the  life  of  demons  with 


'   Pliny  asserts  that  the  earliest  form  of  temple  or  church  was  a  tree, 
and  some  think  that  the  word  kirk  is  cognate  with  quercus. 


Worship  of  Trees  and  Plants,  33 j 

that  of  men,  the  hfe  of  men  with  that  of  animals,  the  hfe 
of  animals  with  that  of  plants,  the  life  of  plants  with  a  sup- 
posed life  in  rocks  and  stones,  and  the  divine  soul  is  thought 
to  permeate  all.  In  obedience  to  this  law  there  is  no  break 
of  any  kind  anywhere,  and  plant-worship  follows,  as  a  neces- 
sary consequence,  on  animal-worship.  In  fact,  according  to  , 
the  Hindu  theory  of  metempsychosis  all  trees  and  plants  are 
conscious  beings,  having  as  distinct  personalities  and  souls  of 
their  own  as  gods,  demons,  men,  and  animals  (see  Manu  I.  49). 
But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  although  trees  may  in 
their  turn  become  the  receptacle  of  the  spirits  of  gods,  men, 
and  animals  \  they  are  peculiarly  liable  to  be  occupied  by 
demons.  That  is  to  say,  these  beings  may  not  only  occupy 
a  tree  as  its  spirit  or  soul ;  they  may  often  resort  to  it  as 
guests,  or  take  up  their  abode  in  it  as  tenants,  when  it  is 
already  furnished  with  a  soul  of  its  own.  The  idea  seems  to  be 
that  demons  require  protection  from  the  weather  like  human 
beings,  and  occasionally  betake  themselves  to  trees  as  con- 
venient and  agreeable  places  of  shelter. 

This  explains  the  close  connexion  between  tree-worship, 
serpent-worships,  demon-worship,  and  Siva-worship.  Demons 
are  believed  to  be  fond  of  occupying  both  serpents  and 
trees,  and  Siva  is  lord  of  demons,  of  serpents,  and  of  plants 
(see  p.  77). 

In  relation  to  this  subject,  it  may  be  noted  that  in  India 
a  tree  is  sometimes  planted  and  then  confided  to  the 
guardianship  of  a  demon,  who  from  that  moment  considers 
himself  responsible  for  the  safe-keeping  of  the  tree,  and  if 
any  one  is  rash  enough  to  cut  it  down  or  even  steal  its  fruit, 
punishes  him  by  afflicting  him  with  sickness^. 

■^  The  great  Buddha  is  said  to  have  occupied  trees  forty-three  times  in 
the  course  of  his  transmigrations  (see  my  '  Buddhism,'  p.  112). 

^  The  connexion  of  serpent-worship  with  tree-worship  may  have 
originally  arisen  from  the  fact  that  many  snakes  like  to  establish  them- 
selves in  the  roots  of  trees,  especially  in  those  of  the  sandal-wood  tree. 

^  This  is  mentioned  by  Colonel  Sleeman. 


nio  Wo7'ship  of  Tixes  and  Plmits. 


oj- 


In  Birbhum  the  entire  population  does  homage  once  a  year 
to  a  cluster  of  three  trees  in  the  jungle,  which  are  supposed  to 
be  the  abodes  of  as  many  demons  ^.  In  the  Madura  district 
there  is  a  solitary  Mimosa  tree,  growing  near  a  tank.  This 
tree  always  has  numerous  pieces  of  rag  and  cloth  tied  to  its 
branches.  The  explanation  given  by  the  peasantry  is  that  a 
traveller  was  once  found  dead  near  the  tank  and  that  his  spirit 
has  become  a  malignant  demon  which  resides  in  the  tree  and 
requires  to  be  propitiated  by  offerings  ^. 

Of  course,  however,  adoration  paid  to  the  demons  in  such 
trees  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  worship  of  plants  and 
trees  which  are  themselves  deities,  or  are  in  themselves  per- 
meated by  the  essence  of  certain  deities. 

For  instance,  I  need  scarcely  repeat  that  in  the  Vedic 
period  the  Soma  plant  was  personified,  and  made  an  object 
of  adoration  (see  pp.  12,  13,  368).  It  was  not  merely  the 
abode  of  divinity,  but  itself  a  god. 

Then  just  as  the  divine  cow  Surabhi  (granting  all  desires) 
and  the  typical  horse  Uccaih-sravas  arose  out  of  the  ocean, 
when  churned  for  the  production  of  certain  valuable  objects, 
so  arose  also  a  divine  tree  called  Parijata  (see  p.  108),  which 
afterwards  became  the  property  of  the  god  Indra^,  and  was 
transferred  to  his  heaven.  This  tree  was  called  Kalpa- 
druma,  as  granting  all  desires  to  those  who  did  homage  to  its 
divinity.  So  in  the  Sakuntala  the  trees  of  the  sacred  grove 
are  described  as  yielding  beautiful  robes  and  costly  ornaments 
for  the  adornment  of  the  heroine  (see  my  translation,  p.  99). 

Moreover,  just  as  a  portion  of  the  godhead  or  essence  of 
Vishnu  descended  in  the  fish,  the  tortoise,  and  the  boar,  so 
certain  plants  are  embodiments  of  portions  of  the  essence 
of  particular  deities. 


^  See  Hunter's  *  Annals  of  Rural  Bengal,'  p.  131. 

^  Mr.  Walhouse  states  that  he  saw  this  tree.  So  also  the  tombs  of 
Musalman  saints  are  often  encircled  by  upright  poles,  to  which  are 
fastened  streamers  of  many-coloured  rags. 


Worship  of  the   Tit  last  Shrub.  333 

For  example,  the  TulasT,  or  holy  Basil  (popularly  TulsT, 
botanically  Ocymnin  Sanctum),  is  not  merely  sacred  to  Vishnu 
or  to  his  wife  LakshmT  ;  it  is  pervaded  by  the  essence  of 
these  deities,  and  itself  worshipped  as  a  deity  and  prayed  to 
accordingly.  Many  regard  the  Tulasi  as  a  metamorphosis 
of  Sita,  wife  of  Vishnu's  incarnation  Rama-candra  ;  others 
identify  this  plant  with  Rukmini,  wife  of  Krishna^,  while 
others  hold  it  to  be  an  embodiment  of  all  the  deities  together. 
It  is  certain  that  in  whatever  light  regarded,  the  Tulasi  is  the 
object  of  more  adoration  than  any  other  plant  at  present 
worshipped  in  India,  and  the  following  prayer  is  often  ad- 
dressed to  it  : — '  I  adore  that  Tulasi  in  whose  roots  are  all  the 
sacred  places  of  pilgrimage,  in  whose  centre  are  all  the  deities, 
and  in  whose  upper  branches  are  all  the  Vedas  ^.' 

Possibly  its  sanitary  properties  may  have  been  the  original 
cause  of  the  homage  it  receives.  Its  leaves  are  believed  to  heal 
the  sick,  and  to  be  a  remedy  against  the  poison  of  serpents  ^. 

But  the  great  estimation  in  which  the  Tulasi  is  held  is  best 
indicated  by  the  fact  that  it  is  to  be  found  in  almost  every 
respectable  Hindu  household  throughout  India.  It  is  a  small 
shrub,  not  too  big  to  be  cultivated  in  a  good-sized  flower-pot, 
and  often  placed  in  rooms.  Generally,  however,  it  is  planted  in 
the  court-yard  of  a  well-to-do  man's  house,  with  a  space  round 
it  for  reverential  circumambulation.  In  real  fact  the  Tulasi 
is  par  excellence  a  domestic  divinity,  or  rather,  perhaps,  a 
woman's  divinity.  The  generality  of  Indian  women  are, 
unhappily,  still  shut  out  from  the  chief  avenues  leading  to 
enlightenment.     The  great  majority  are  unable  to  read  and 

^  In  Kalidasa's  celebrated  drama  Vikramorvasi,  the  nymph  UrvasI 
is  metamorphosed  into  a  creeping  plant,  just  as  Daphne  was  into  a 
laurel  and  the  sisters  of  Phaethon  into  poplars. 

^  Yan-mule  sarva-tlrthani  yan-madhye  sarva-devatah  |  yad-agre  sarva- 
vedas-ca  Tulasim  tarn  namamy  aham. 

^  Sir  H.  Yule  (who  sojourned  some  time  in  Sicily)  informed  me  that 
the  Basil  is  venerated  in  Sicily  for  its  sanitary  properties.  The  in- 
habitants keep  it  in  the  windows  of  their  houses. 


334  Worship  of  the   Tulasi  Shrub. 

write  their  own  mother-tongue ;  yet,  like  the  women  in  other 
countries,  they  are  far  more  reHgious  than  the  men,  and  have 
great  influence.  Their  ignorance  and  narrow-mindedness 
make  their  religion  take  the  form  of  unmitigated  superstition. 
The  ancient  law-giver  Manu  affirms  that  women  were  created 
to  be  mothers  and  men  to  be  fathers,  and  that  religious  rites 
ought  to  be  performed  by  husbands  with  their  wives  (IX.  96). 
But  in  the  present  day  women  perform  their  religious  services 
apart  from  their  husbands,  and  as  a  rule,  their  one  daily 
religious  rite  consists  in  walking  round  the  Tulasi  plant — 
considered  as  a  form  of  either  Vishnu's  wife  Lakshml  or  of 
Rama's  faithful  wife  Sita,  or  of  Krishna's  wife  Rukmini — 
in  saying  prayers  to  it,  or  in  placing  offerings  of  flowers  and 
rice  before  it. 

In  a  central  space  in  most  of  the  villages  I  visited  in  India, 
I  noticed  a  small  raised  platform  of  rough  masonry  on  which 
grew  a  Pipal  tree  and  a  Tulasi  shrub,  and  on  particular 
occasions  I  observed  poor  women,  who  were  probably  not 
rich  enough  to  possess  the  Tulasi  plant  in  their  own  houses, 
performing  circumambulation  round  the  village  shrub.  In 
one  village,  especially,  I  watched  a  woman  who  was  in  the 
act  of  walking  108  times  round  the  sacred  plant  with  her 
right  shoulder  always  turned  towards  it^.  Her  simple  object, 
no  doubt,  was  to  propitiate  the  goddess  with  a  view  to 
securing  long  life  for  her  husband  and  gaining  a  large  family 
of  sons  for  herself. 

I  should  note  that  as  animals  are  made  to  go  through 
the  ceremonial  of  marriage  (see  p.  327),  so  also  are  plants. 
The  ceremony  of  marrying  the  Tulasi  shrub  to  the  idol  of 
the  youthful  Krishna  takes  place  annually  in  every  Hindii 
family  in  the  month  Karttika.  In  Western  India  an  idol  of 
the  young  Krishna  is  often  brought  in  procession  from  the 
house  of  one  of  the  Vallabhacarya  Maharajas  (see  p.  136),  to 

^  Hence  this  reverential  circumambulation  is  called  pradakshina.  It 
must  follow  the  course  of  the  sun,  or  a  1  its  efficacy  is  destroyed. 


Woi^ship  of  the  Pippala  or  A'svattlia  Tree.      335 

some  residence  where  the  TulasT  is  kept.  The  idol  is  placed 
in  a  gorgeous  palanquin  and  followed  by  a  long  train  of 
attendants.  Then  the  marriage  festivities  are  celebrated  at 
the  cost  of,  perhaps,  several  thousand  rupees. 

Similarly  in  other  parts  of  India  the  TulasI  is  married  to 
the  black  Sala-grama  pebble  (see  p.  69),  which  even  more 
than  the  idol  represents  the  god  Krishna,  for  the  god  is 
present  in  the  stone,  even  without  consecration. 

Sleeman  describes  a  marriage  of  this  kind.  There  was  a 
procession  of  eight  elephants,  200  camels,  and  400  horses.  The 
pebble-bridegroom  was  placed  on  the  leading  elephant  sump- 
tuously decorated,  and  about  100,000  persons  were  present  at 
the  nuptials.  It  is  usual  to  maintain  the  supposed  matrimonial 
union  between  the  Tulasi  and  Krishna  by  keeping  a  Tulasi 
leaf  always  resting  on  the  Sala-grama  stone. 

The  marriage  of  other  trees — as  of  a  mango  with  a  Nimba 
(or  Nim)  or  of  a  mango  with  a  jasmine  (compare  my  transla- 
tion of  Sakuntala,  p.  17) — is  frequently  celebrated  with  similar 
rejoicings.  In  my  journey  from  Mirzapore  to  V^indhyacal 
I  passed  a  Nim  tree  (p.  339)  and  a  Plpal  growing  together  by 
the  road-side.  This  was  the  result  of  a  marriage  celebrated 
many  years  before. 

The  next  most  noteworthy  example  of  sacred  plant-life  in 
India  is  certainly  the  Pippala  or  Asvattha  tree  (popularly 
Pipal,  botanically  the  Ficus  Religiosa,  or  holy  fig-tree).  This 
also  is  held  to  be  a  most  holy  tree.  It  has  a  divine  personality 
of  its  own.  It  is  occupied  by  the  essence  of  the  god 
Brahma  ^,  and  is  sometimes  invested  with  the  sacred  thread, 
as  if  it  were  a  Brahman,  all  the  ceremonies  of  investiture 
(Upanayana)    being    performed     over     it.     The    mysterious 

^  Others  say  that  the  Pipal  is  pervaded  by  the  three  gods  Brahma, 
Vishnu,  and  Siva,  but  especially  by  the  latter  in  his  Krishna  manifesta- 
tion. In  the  Bhagavad-glta  Krishna  says  :— '  I  am  Asvattha  among  the 
trees.'  It  is  believed  that  spirits  delight  to  sit  in  the  branches  of  this 
tree  and  listen  to  the  rustling  of  the  leaves. 


<? 


T^6  Worship  of  the  Bilva   Tree. 


rustling  of  its  tremulous  leaves,  which  resemble  those  of 
the  poplar,  is  no  doubt  one  cause  of  the  superstitious  awe 
with  which  this  tree  is  regarded.  Its  roots  also  display  a 
kind  of  miraculous  power  of  undermining  thick  walls,  and 
houses  built  of  the  strongest  masonry,  causing  in  this  way 
much  serious  damage  to  property.  Yet  no  native  of  India 
would  venture  to  cut  down  or  in  any  way  injure  or  interfere 
with  the  growth  of  this  tree.  It  is  remarkable,  too,  that  no 
native  would  venture  to  tell  an  untruth  or  deviate  from  the 
strictest  rectitude  of  conduct  while  standing  under  a  Pipal 
tree.  The  following  amusing  circumstance  illustrative  of  this 
point  came  to  my  knowledge  when  I  was  in  India : — 

A  certain  magistrate,  well  known  for  his  energy  and  good 
nature,  knowing  that  all  Hindus  regard  it  as  a  work  of 
immense  religious  merit  to  plant  these  trees,  hit  upon  the 
clever  idea  of  trying  to  conciliate  the  good-will  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  his  district  by  planting  some  Pipal  trees  in  the  market- 
place of  a  large  town  where  a  number  of  traders  were  in 
the  habit  of  transacting  their  business.  This  he  accordingly 
proceeded  to  do,  fully  expecting  to  entitle  himself  to  their 
gratitude,  but  imagine  his  surprise  when  a  deputation  of 
these  traders  made  its  appearance  one  day  and  entreated 
him  to  desist,  urging  with  the  most  naive  candour  that  their 
business  could  not  be  carried  on  without  a  certain  amount 
of  deception,  and  that  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Pipal  trees 
would  paralyze  all  their  negotiations  ^. 

The  third  most  sacred  tree  in  India  is  the  Bilva  or  Vilva 
(popularly  called  Bel,  botanically  ^gle  Mannclos,  or  wood- 
apple).  Its  leaf  is  of  a  triple  form — with  three  leaflets — and 
probably  on  that  account  consecrated  to  Siva  with  his  triple 

^  In  the  same  way,  although  the  telling-  of  untruths  for  the  good  of 
one's  caste  or  village  is  justifiable  under  certain  circumstances — as,  for 
example,  the  saving  of  life — no  native  would  venture  to  tell  a  falsehood 
with  a  piece  of  gold  in  his  mouth.  (Compare  Manu  VIII.  103,  104.)  In 
all  countries  a  loose  code  of  morality  prevails  in  regard  to  shielding  caste- 
fellows  and  companions  by  untruthful  statements. 


Worship  of  the  Bilva  and  Ba7iyan   Trees.      -^^il 

functions.      Offerings  of  these    leaves   are  constantly  placed 
on  the  Liriga  and  on  the  Bull  (see  last  line  of  p.  90). 

Of  other  holy  trees  and  plants,  the  Vata  or  Banyan 
(popularly  Var  for  Vad,  botanically  Ficiis  Indica)  is  sacred  to 
Kala  or  Time.  This  and  the  Pipal  tree  already  described  are 
supposed  to  enjoy  a  kind  of  immortality.  When  a  man 
plants  either  of  these  trees  he  repeats  a  prayer  to  the 
following  effect: — 'May  I  abide  in  heaven  as  many  years 
as  this  tree  continues  growing  on  the  earth.'  The  method 
by  which  the  Banyan  tree  propagates  itself  is  too  well 
known  to  require  description.  A  tree  of  this  kind  called 
the  Kablr-Var,  on  the  banks  of  the  Narbada  near  Broach, 
continued  multiplying  itself  every  year  by  sending  down  roots 
from  its  branches  till  it  became  a  forest  capable  of  sheltering 
an  army  of  7000  men.  This  tree,  though  gradually  decaying^, 
is  still  at  particular  seasons  a  great  resort  of  pilgrims. 

Again,  in  the  underground  passage  of  the  Allahabad  fort 
there  is  the  stump  of  a  tree  called  the  Akshaya-vata,  or 
*  undecaying  Banyan,'  which  once  overhung  the  river  and 
is  said  to  be  the  same  as  that  mentioned  by  the  Chinese 
traveller  Hiouen  Thsang.  Whether  this  be  the  real  tree 
or  not,  it  is  still  an  attractive  rendezvous  for  pilgrims,  and 
was  formerly  a  favourite  place  for  committing  suicide.  Hun- 
dreds have  at  different  times  thrown  themselves  from  that 
overhanging  stem  into  the  river.  When  I  visited  the  place 
I  could  detect  no  life  in  what  appeared  to  me  a  mere  decaying 
stump.  I  was  gravely  informed  by  the  priest  who  accompanied 
me  that  a  further  underground  passage  conducts  from  the  tree 
to  Laksha-griha  (Lacha-gir),  the  '  lac-house,'  twenty  miles 
distant  on  the  Ganges,  and  again  another  thence  to  Benares. 

^  At  any  rate  it  had  lost  its  forest  character  when  I  visited  Broach  in 
1876.  It  was  not  the  pilgrimage  season,  and  only  one  solitary  devotee 
then  occupied  a  hut  under  one  of  the  branches.  The  tree  is  believed  to 
have  grown  from  a  twig  which  the  sage  Kablr  used  as  a  tooth-brush  and 
then  threw  away  as  impure.  The  largest  Banyan  trees  seen  by  me  were 
in  the  South  of  India. 


338  Worship  of  Flowers  and  Plants. 

With  reference  to  the  long  Hfe  of  the  Pipal  tree,  I  may 
mention  that  when  I  visited  Bodh-Gaya  (six  miles  from  the 
city  of  Gaya),  in  1876,  I  saw  growing  there  on  a  terrace 
behind  the  celebrated  tower-like  Buddhist  monument  said  to 
be  more  than  2,000  years  old,  a  very  old  Pipal  which  was 
alleged  to  be  the  identical  Bo-tree  (Bodhi-druma)  under  which 
Gautama  Buddha  attained  supreme  knowledge  in  the  fifth 
century  B.C.  No  doubt  a  succession  of  trees  was  secured  by 
planting  new  shoots  inside  the  old  decaying  stem  (see  my 
'  Buddhism,'  pp.  392,  393).  An  off-shoot  from  the  tree 
was  conveyed  in  the  time  of  Asoka  (nearly  three  hundred 
years  B.C.)  to  Anuradha-pura  in  Ceylon,  and  its  descendant 
is  said  to  be  still  growing  there. 

Of  the  other  trees,  the  Asoka  (botanically  Jonesia  Asoka) 
is  sacred  to  Siva,  the  Arka  or  sun-plant  to  the  Sun  (Surya), 
while  the  SamI  or  Acacia  is  a  goddess  on  her  own  account 
and  is  supposed  to  contain  fire^. 

The  Durva  grass  (popularly  Panic  grass,  botanically 
Panictnn  Daciyloii)  is  sacred  to  Ganesa. 

But  of  all  the  grasses  the  Kusa  or  Darbha  (Poa  Cyno- 
stiroides)  is  the  holiest.  It  is  used  at  all  religious  ceremonies 
and  strewn  on  the  ground  before  all  sacrificial  rites  ;  it  sanctifies 
the  soil,  forms  the  most  sacred  of  all  seats,  cleanses  everything 
it  touches,  purifies  the  impure,  and  when  wound  around  the 
fingers  makes  them  fit  to  engage  in  the  most  sacred  acts. 

The  lotus  (padma),  which  is  a  species  of  water-lily,  is  con- 
stantly alluded  to  in  Indian  poetry  ^.  It  is  not  directly 
worshipped,  but  is  perhaps  more  sacred,  as  a  symbol,  than 
any  other  flower.      The  Creator — Brahma  himself — was  born 

^  The  following  prayer  is  addressed  to  the  Sami  tree : — SamI  sama- 
yate  paparn  Sami  satru-vinasini,  'the  SamI  removes  guilt,  the  SamI  is  the 
destroyer  of  enemies.' 

^  It  is  curious  that  the  rose  is  scarcely  ever  mentioned  in  Indian 
literature,  though  it  is  the  favourite  flower  of  Persia.  In  point  of  fact 
the  rose  is  not  indigenous  in  India,  though  found  in  the  Himalaya 
mountains. 


Worship  of  Material  and  Natural  Objects.     339 

in  the  lotus  which  sprang  from  the  navel  of  Vishnu,  and  the 
goddess  Lakshmi  arose  out  of  the  ocean  holding  a  lotus  in  her 
hand.  She  is  connected  with  the  lotus  in  other  legends,  and 
appeared  at  the  creation  floating  over  the  water  on  the 
expanded  petals  of  a  lotus-flower.  In  short,  the  lotus  is 
typical  of  perfection  (see  my  '  Buddhism/  p.  522). 

The  Amra  or  Mango,  the  Nimba  or  Nim,  the  Bakula 
[Mimusops  Elengi),  and  the  Amalaki  {Emblic  Myrobalaii) 
are  also  sacred  trees.  Some  Pandits  assert  that  the  Amra 
is  an  incarnation  of  the  god  of  love. 

Of  all  fruits  the  cocoa-nut  (narikela)  is  perhaps  the  most 
sacred.  It  is  called  the  fruit  of  the  goddess  of  prosperity 
(SrI-phala).    The  custard  apple  is  the  fruit  of  Sita  (Sita-phala). 

Worship  of  Material  and  Natural  Objects. 

The  worship  of  inanimate  natural  objects  opens  out  a  wide 
field  of  inquiry.  I  can  only  direct  attention  to  some  of  the 
most  interesting  and  important  phases  of  the  subject. 

We  must  bear  in  mind  that  objects  which  are  inanimate  to 
us  are  animate  to  the  Hindus.  According  to  their  belief  every 
material  or  natural  object  is  pervaded  by  a  spirit.  In  fact  the 
same  doctrine  of  metempsychosis,  which  has  continually  forced 
itself  upon  our  notice  throughout  our  investigations,  meets 
us  again  here.  The  spirit  of  a  man  in  whom  the  dark 
quality  (tamas,  see  p.  36)  dominates  is  liable  to  pass  into 
inert  (jada)  motionless  matter  (see  Manu  XII.  9,  42),  and  to 
occupy  a  rock,  a  stone,  a  post,  or  any  similar  material  form. 
Even  the  divine  Spirit  may  infuse  itself  into  images  and  objects 
of  stone,  metal,  and  wood,  into  idols  such  as  those  of  Krishna, 
Rama  and  Durga,  into  symbols  like  the  Liriga  and  Yoni,  or 
I  into  pebbles  like  the  Sala-grama  (sometimes  written  Sali- 
grama)  and  Bana-linga  (see  p.  69).  And  it  does  this  not 
merely  in  its  character  of  a  universal  Spirit  pervading  all  matter. 
It  is  present  in  a  special  manner  in  all  such  material  forms. 
But  it  is  to  be  observed  that  material  objects  which  are  thus, 

Z  2 


340      Worship  of  Matei'iaL  and  Nahtral  Objects. 

as  it  were,  animated  and  endowed  with  personal  souls,  do  not 
necessarily,  when  worshipped,  become  mere  fetishes.  Fetishism 
may  be  described  as  the  expression  of  the  spiritual  instinct  of 
a  child  and  of  a  savage.  A  doll,  or  a  ball,  or  any  plaything 
is  made  a  kind  of  fetish  when  it  is  endowed  with  personality 
and  addressed  as  if  it  were  alive.  A  savage  makes  a  fetish  of 
a  lucifer  match  when,  believing  it  to  be  occupied  by  a  spirit, 
he  stands  in  awe  of  it  or  tries  to  control  it  for  his  own  benefit. 
In  the  same  way  he  may  make  fetishes  of  his  tools  or  weapons 
— of  his  axe,  his  knife,  or  his  bow — or  of  any  particular  idol. 

But  a  fetish,  as  Sir  John  Lubbock  has  pointed  out,  is  not 
necessarily  an  object  of  worship.  It  is  only  worshipped  if  it 
answers  prayers  or  confers  benefits.  If  it  appears  to  neglect 
the  interests  of  its  possessor,  it  is  itself  neglected,  and  if 
misfortunes  occur  it  is  abused  or  ill-treated.  In  short,  it  is 
essential  to  the  idea  of  a  fetish  that,  consisting  in  the  first 
instance  of  some  peculiar  form  of  material  object  with  a 
distinct  individuality  and  special  character  of  its  own,  it 
should  be  occupied  by  a  spirit  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the 
person  possessing  it,  and  pledged,  like  the  genius  of  Aladdin's 
lamp,  to  execute  his  behestSc  Hence,  any  stone  idol  which, 
in  common  with  a  number  of  other  idols,  represents  a  deity 
invariably  held  in  honour,  is  not  a  fetish  in  the  proper  sense 
of  the  term. 

It  is  difficult,  however,  to  draw  any  hard  and  fast  line 
between  Animism  and  Fetishism,  or  to  say  where  one  ends 
and  the  other  begins.  It  is  certain  that  much  true  Fetishism 
and  much  of  a  kind  of  half-fetishism  co-exist  with  higher 
religious  ideas  in  most  of  the  religions  of  the  world. 

I  believe  that  in  India  some  images  (such  as  those  of 
Khando-ba)  are  exposed  to  actual  ill-treatment,  when  any 
calamity  occurs  which  is  attributed  to  the  neglect  of  the  god, 
but  I  have  never  verified  this  by  personal  observation. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  what  may  be  called  Animistic 
and  Fetish  ideas  run  through  the  whole  of  Hinduism.     For 


Worship  of  the  Sun,  341 

instance,  in  Atharva-vcda  (XVIII.  4.  5)  the  sacrificial  ladles, 
the  oblation,  the  sacrificial  grass  (IV.  '^^.  3-6  ;  XIX.  32.  9), 
and  even  the  remains  of  the  sacrifice  are  described  as  animated 
and  as  possessing  divine  powers.  We  know,  too,  that  on  par- 
ticular holy  days,  the  merchant  worships  his  books,  the  writer 
his  inkstand,  the  husbandman  his  plough,  the  weaver  his 
loom,  the  carpenter  his  axe,  chisel,  and  tools,  and  the  fisher- 
man his  net.  Every  object  that  benefits  its  possessor  and 
helps  to  provide  him  with  a  livelihood  becomes  for  the  time- 
being  his  fetish.  Nevertheless,  I  doubt  whether  the  religion 
of  the  Aryan  Hindias  has  ever  shown  any  great  tendency  to 
lapse  into  the  worst  forms  of  fetish-worship,  such  as  those 
which  undoubtedly  prevailed  among  the  aboriginal  inhabitants, 
and  are  common  everywhere  among  uncultivated  races.  Placed 
in  the  midst  of  striking  physical  phenomena  and  feeling  them- 
selves surrounded  by  mighty  material  forces,  the  Aryans  on 
their  arrival  in  India  were  simple  nature-worshippers,  and 
those  natural  objects  and  natural  forces  which  had  motion 
appeared  to  them  more  especially  instinct  with  divinity. 
Hence  the  Sun,  the  Moon,  Fire,  Wind,  and  the  Waters  were 
the  chief  deities  in  Vedic  times  (pp.  9;  16). 

Worship  of  the  Sun, 

Without  doubt  the  great  luminary  to  which  the  world  owes 
light,  heat,  and  vegetation,  has  always  been  one  of  the  earliest 
objects  of  the  world's  adoration.  In  the  Rig-veda  (X.  88.  11) 
the  Sun  is  said  to  be  a  son  of  Aditi,  and  has  two  chief 
names — Surya  ("HAtoj)  and  Savitri  (p.  16) — both  significant 
of  his  generative  power.  Probably  his  more  ancient  title 
was  Praja-pati,  4ord  of  creatures.'  He  is  represented  as  a 
golden  deity  borne  along  in  a  chariot  drawn  by  seven  ruddy 
horses  or  mares,  and  his  charioteer  is  the  Dawn.  By  his 
wife  Samjna  he  had  twin  children,  the  Asvins  (p.  9),  who  arc 
called  heavenly  physicians.     The  Sun  himself  is  also  described 


342  Worship  of  the  Sun, 

as  a  healer  of  diseases.  In  the  Epic  poems  he  is  '  the  eye  of 
the  world  '  and  '  the  soul  of  all.' 

Passing  on  to  medieval  times,  it  is  clear  that  in  the  days  of 
Sankara  there  were  distinct  sects  of  Sauras  or  Sun-worshippers 
(see  p.  59) ;  that  is,  a  large  number  of  persons  adored  the 
Sun  as  their  exclusive  divinity.  They  were  divided,  as  we 
learn  from  the  Sankara-vijaya  (chap.  13),  into  six  sub-sects  as 
follow : — I.  Worshippers  of  the  rising  Sun  as  identified  with 
Brahma.  2.  Worshippers  of  the  meridian  Sun  as  identified 
with  Siva.  3.  Worshippers  of  the  setting  Sun  as  identified 
with  Vishnu.  4.  Worshippers  of  the  Sun  in  all  three  of  the 
above  phases  as  identified  with  the  Tri-murti  (p.  45).  5.  Wor- 
shippers of  the  Sun  regarded  as  a  material  being  in  the  form 
of  a  man  with  a  golden  beard  and  golden  hair  \  Zealous 
members  of  this  sect  refused  to  eat  anything  in  the  morning 
till  they  had  seen  the  Sun  rise.  6.  Worshippers  of  an  image 
of  the  Sun  formed  in  the  mind.  These  spent  all  their  time  in 
meditating  on  the  Sun.  They  were  in  the  habit  of  branding 
circular  representations  of  his  disk  on  their  foreheads,  arms, 
and  breasts. 

Coming  now  to  modern  times,  we  find  that,  although  the 
sect  of  Sun-worshippers  has  apparently  died  out  and  although 
the  Sun-god  has  few  temples  like  those  of  Siva  or  Vishnu,  he 
still  continues  to  be  the  object  of  universal  adoration.  Every 
Hindu — be  he  Saiva  or  Vaishnava,  or  to  whatever  sect  he  may 
belong — does  homage  to  the  rising  Sun  every  morning  by 
repeating  the  Gayatri  (Rig-veda  III.  62.  10),  a  prayer  addressed 
to  the  Sun's  vivifying  essence  (see  pp.  19,  403  ;  406).  Then 
at  the  midday  service  he  ought  to  repeat  the  Surya-sukta  or 
Saura-sukta  (Rig-veda  I.  50,  partly  translated  at  p.  16). 

It  certainly   surprised   me   that   I  saw  so  few  temples  or 


^  It  is  remarkable  that  the  Hindus  talk  of  the  god  in  the  Sun  (called 
by  them  Surya-Narayana)  rather  than  of  the  man  in  the  Moon.  The 
spots  in  the  Sun  are  supposed  to  give  the  idea  of  a  man's  face,  while 
those  in  the  Moon  are  compared  to  the  markings  on  a  rabbit. 


Worship  of  the  Moon,  34 


o 


shrines  dedicated  to  the  Sun  in  any  part  of  India.  His  most 
celebrated  temple  was  at  Konarak  (for  Konarka,  'corner- sun  ') 
in  Orissa.  It  is  said  that  a  sum  equal  to  twelve  years' 
revenues  of  Orissa  was  spent  on  this  temple.  Yet  it  is  now 
deserted  and  in  ruins.  I  visited  a  well-known  sacred  temple 
of  the  Sun  at  Gaya  near  to  a  tank  consecrated  to  the  same 
luminary.  No  one  appeared  to  be  worshipping  in  the  shrine, 
but  rude  images  of  the  disk  of  the  Sun  made  of  red  cotton 
were  affixed  by  women  to  the  walls  above  the  door-way. 

The  hymn  to  the  Sun  called  Surya-siakta  (Rig-veda  X.  85) 
is  still  in  common  use  at  marriage-ceremonies  (p.  363  note). 

Woi^ship  of  the  Moon, 

Passing  from  the  Sun  to  the  Moon,  we  find  that  the  latter 
seems  never  to  have  had  any  exclusive  adorers  in  India.  Yet, 
like  the  Sun,  the  Moon  is  often  regarded  as  one  of  the  nine 
planets,  and  is  treated  as  a  male  deity.  In  the  Puranas  he  is 
said  to  be  borne  along  in  a  chariot  with  three  wheels  drawn 
by  ten  horses.  Poets  are  never  tired  of  alluding  to  the 
Moon's  beauty,  its  brilliancy  being  far  greater  in  India  than 
in  Europe  ;  but  the  only  worship  it  receives  in  the  present 
day  is  in  conjunction  with  the  Sun  and  the  other  planets. 

The  sphere  of  the  Moon  is  sometimes  regarded  as  the 
abode  of  the  spirits  of  deceased  ancestors  (Pitris)  ;  and  its 
orb  is  usually  held  to  consist  of  sixteen  digits  (Kalas),  which 
are  composed  of  nectar  (amrita)  supplied  to  it  from  the  Sun 
for  the  support  of  the  gods.  In  Rig-veda  X.  85.  5  there  is  an 
allusion  to  the  gods  drinking  up  the  nectar  and  so  causing  the 
Moon  to  wane. 

The  name  Soma,  which  first  belonged  to  the  plant  only, 
came  to  be  applied  to  the  Moon  in  post-vedic  mythology, 
traces  of  this  application  being  also  observable  in  Rig-veda 
X.  85,  in  Atharva-veda  XI.  6,  7,  and  in  several  passages  of 
the    Satapatha-Brahmana.      In    the    later    mythology    (see 


344  Worship  of  the  Planets, 

Vishnu-purana  I.  22)  Brahma  is  said  to  have  appointed  Soma 
or  the  Moon  to  be  the  '  monarch  of  planets,  of  plants,  of 
sacrifices,  and  penances,'  and  one  of  the  names  of  the  Moon 
is  Oshadhi-pati  or  OshadhTsa, '  lord  of  plants  and  herbs,'  which 
he  is  supposed  to  nourish  with  his  light.  Again,  at  the 
churning  of  the  ocean,  as  described  in  the  Puranas,  after  all 
sorts  of  medicinal  plants  and  healing  herbs  had  been  thrown 
into  the  waters,  three  of  the  precious  things  produced  were 
the  Moon  (Soma),  nectar  (amrita),  and  spirituous  liquor  (sura), 
though  in  other  legends  this  nectar  is  said  to  be  preserved  in 
the  body  of  the  Moon,  or  even  to  constitute  its  substance. 
In  Manu  V.  96  Soma  is  called  one  of  the  eight  Loka-palas  or 
guardians  of  the  world. 

Worship  of  the  Planets. 

The  Sun  and  Moon,  Mercury  (Budha),  Venus  (Sukra), 
Mars  (Mangala  or  Aiigaraka),  Jupiter  (Vrihaspati),  Saturn 
(Sani),  Rahu  and  Ketu  ^ — the  former  being  fabled  as  a  planet 
with  a  head  and  no  body,  the  latter  as  a  planet  with  a  body 
and  no  head — together  form  the  group  of  what  is  called  the 
Nava-graha,  nine  planets,  the  first  seven  giving  names  to  the 
days  of  the  week  ^.  In  the  Puranas  they  are  all  represented 
as  deities  borne  in  cars.  Thus  the  car  of  Mars  is  of  gold 
drawn  by  eight  red  horses,  that  of  Jupiter  is  drawn  by  eight 
pale  horses,  that  of  Saturn  is  a  slow-going  car  drawn  by  pie- 
bald horses,  those  of  Rahu  and  Ketu  are  drawn  by  eight  dark 
horses.  Rahu  is  thought  to  have  a  spite  against  the  Sun  and 
Moon,  and  occasionally  displays  his  enmity  by  swallowing 
them  for  a  time  and  so  causing  eclipses,  while  Ketu  gives 
birth  to  an  awful  progeny  of  comets  and  fiery  meteors. 

^  These  are  sometimes  identified  with  the  Moon's  ascending  and 
descending  nodes. 

^  The  planets,  however,  are  variously  mentioned  as  five,  seven,  and 
nine  in  number. 


Worship  of  the  Planets,  345 

The  whole  array  of  nine  luminaries  constitutes  in  the  eyes 
of  every  Hindu  a  most  formidable  group  of  deities,  whose 
power  over  every  living  person's  career  from  the  first  moment 
of  his  coming  into  the  world,  and  over  the  whole  course  of 
mundane  events,  no  one  for  an  instant  thinks  of  doubting. 

The  influences  of  Saturn,  Rahu  and  Ketu  are  supposed  to 
be  sinister,  and  these  planets  are  therefore  most  propitiated. 
If  they  are  in  the  ascendant  when  a  man  is  born  they  are  sure 
to  shorten  his  life  or  cause  him  trouble  of  some  kind.  Their 
anger,  therefore,  must  be  deprecated,  and  counteracting  in- 
fluences must  be  sought  for  by  astrologers  in  drawing  up  horo- 
scopes.    They  cause  diseases,  such  as  influenza,  fevers,  etc. 

On  the  other  hand,  Jupiter,  Venus,  Mercury,  Mars,  and  the 
Sun  exert  favourable  influences  only,  and  the  first  three  arc 
thought  to  be  special  sources  of  knowledge  and  wisdom. 
The  favour  of  all  must  be  conciliated  before  marriages  and 
other  auspicious  events  can  be  successfully  accomplished. 

I  saw  a  celebrated  temple  dedicated  to  the  nine  planets  at 
Benares,  and  another  sacred  to  Saturn  and  to  the  bodiless 
Rahu.  Numbers  of  people  as  they  passed  these  temples  cast 
flowers  and  ofl"erings  before  the  images,  but  did  not  stop  to 
worship. 

The  Nakshatras,  or  twenty-seven  constellations  through 
which  the  Moon  passes^,  and  which  separate  his  path  into 
twenty-seven  divisions — as  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac  do  that 
of  the  Sun  into  twelve — are,  like  the  planets,  regarded  in  the 
present  day  as  deities  who  exert  a  vast  influence  on  the 
destiny  of  men,  not  only  at  the  moment  of  their  entrance 
into  the  world,  but  during  their  whole  passage  through  it. 
These  formidable  constellations  are  consulted  at  births,  mar- 
riages, and  on  all  occasions  of  family  rejoicing,  distress,  or 

^  In  the  Rig-veda  the  word  Nakshatra  has  the  general  sense  of  a 
constellation.  In  the  Yajur  and  Atharva-veda  the  Nakshatras  are  dis- 
tinctly connected  with  the  path  of  the  Moon,  and  in  the  latter  (XIX.  8.  i) 
their  number  is  given  as  twenty-eight. 


n 


46  Wors/z7/>  of  Fire  and  Water. 


calamity.  No  one  undertakes  a  journey  or  any  important 
matter  except  on  days  which  the  aspect  of  the  Nakshatras 
renders  lucky  and  auspicious.  If  any  constellation  is  un- 
favourable, its  anger  must  by  all  means  be  appeased  by  a 
ceremony  called  Santi,  '  propitiation.' 

Worship  of  Fii^e. 

The  worship  of  Fire,  like  that  of  the  Sun,  was,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  one  of  the  earliest  cults  of  India  (see  p.  9),  and 
Fire  is  still  a  general  object  of  homage  ^.  Further  allusions 
to  this  homage  will  be  made  subsequently.  I  will  only  here 
draw  attention  to  the  remarkable  idea  prevalent  in  India  that 
fire  is  produced  from  water.  In  the  Veda  fire  is  called 
Apam-napat,  '  son  of  the  waters/  and  this  name  is  also  once 
applied  to  the  Sun  (I.  22.  6) 2.  Doubtless  the  idea  arose 
from  the  apparent  production  of  lightning  from  rain-clouds. 

Worship  of  Water  and  Rivers. 

Passing  on  to  the  worship  of  Water,  especially  running 
water,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  river-water  is  throughout  India 
held  to  be  instinct  with  divinity^.  It  is  not  merely  holy,  it  is 
pervaded  by  the  divine  essence.  We  must,  however,  be  care- 
ful to  distinguish  between  the  mere  sacredness  of  either  fire 
or  water  and  their  worship  as  personal  deities. 

In  Rig-veda  X.  30,  X.  9,  VII.  47,  and  other  passages  of 
the  Veda,  the  Waters  are  personified,  deified,  and  honoured 
as    goddesses,    and    called    the    Mothers   of  the   earth.      In 

^  As  the  medium  of  bearing  the  sacrifice  to  heaven  it  is  always  sacred, 
even  when  not  worshipped  as  a  personal  god.  The  adoration  of  fire  in 
Assyria,  Phoenicia,  Persia,  etc.,  is  well  known.  No  doubt  the  difficulty  of 
generating  fire  led  to  its  adoration  among  uncivilized  tribes. 

^  Some  see  a  connexion  between  Apam-napat  and  Neptunus. 

^  The  worship  of  water  is  by  no  means  confined  to  India,  as  the  number 
of  holy  wells  in  our  own  country  proves. 


Worship  of  Water  and  Rivers,  347 

X.  17.  10  their  purifying  power,  and  in  VI.  50.  7  their  healing 
power,  is  celebrated.  They  cleanse  their  worshippers  from 
sin  and  untruthfulness  (I.  23.  22) ;  and,  as  noted  above,  they 
give  birth  to  Fire  (X.  2.  7,  X.  91.  6). 

Of  course  some  rivers  are  more  sacred  than  others,  and  as 
the  Ganges,  which  issues  from  Vishnu's  foot  and  falls  on 
Siva's  head  (p.  80),  is  the  most  majestic,  so  it  is  the  holiest  of 
all  rivers.  No  sin  is  too  heinous  to  be  removed,  no  character 
too  black  to  be  washed  clean  by  its  waters.  Hence  the 
countless  temples  with  flights  of  steps  lining  its  banks  ;  hence 
the  array  of  priests,  called  '  Sons  of  the  Ganges,'  sitting  on  the 
edge  of  its  streams,  ready  to  aid  the  ablutions  of  conscience- 
stricken  bathers,  and  stamp  them  as  white-washed  when  they 
emerge  from  its  waters.  Hence  also  the  constant  traffic 
carried  on  in  transporting  Ganges  water  in  small  bottles  to 
all  parts  of  the  country.  The  river  Sarasvati — called  '  the 
purifier'  in  Rig-veda  I.  3.  10 — was  to  the  earlier  Hindus  what 
the  Ganges  was  to  the  later  ;  she  was  instinct  with  divinity, 
and  her  influence  permeated  the  writers  of  the  Vedic  hymns. 
Sometimes  she  is  identified  with  the  Vedic  goddess  Vac, 
*  speech,'  and  invoked  as  the  patroness  of  science. 

The  river  Indus  (Sindhu)  is  also  celebrated  very  early  in 
the  Rig-veda  (see  X.  75.  4). 

But  the  confluence  of  the  Ganges  with  the  Jumna  (Yamuna) 
and  Sarasvati  (supposed  to  flow  underground)  at  Allahabad 
(Prayaga)  is  perhaps  one  of  the  most  hallowed  spots  in  all 
India.  These  three  sacred  streams  form  a  sort  of  Tri-murti, 
or  triad  of  rivers,  often  personified  as  goddesses,  and  called 
'  Mothers.'  Then  other  celebrated  rivers — such  as  the  Godavari 
(also  called  Goda  and  Vriddha-ganga,  '  the  ancient  Ganges '), 
Narbada  (properly  Narma-da,  '  bliss-giver/  also  called  Reva), 
TaptI  (properly  TapatT,  also  called  Tapi),  SabarmatT  (possibly 
for  Subhramati),  Gandaki,  Kistna  (properly  Krishna),  Vena, 
Sarayu,  Tunga-bhadra  (called  '  the  Ganges  of  the  South  '),  and 
Kaveri — became  rivals  of  this  original  sacred  triad. 


34^  Worship  of  Water  and  Rivers. 

The  Narbada  has  its  special  admirers,  who  exalt  it  even 
above  the  Ganges.  It  is  said  to  have  sprung  from  the  per- 
spiration of  the  god  Rudra  (p.  J^^.  '  One  day's  ablution,' 
they  say,  '  in  the  Ganges  frees  from  sin,  but  the  mere  sight 
of  the  Narbada  purifies  from  guilt.'  The  sanctity  of  the 
Ganges  will,  it  is  predicted,  cease  in  1895.  The  Narbada 
will  then  supersede  it  and  become  the  most  sacred  river  of 
India.  Moreover,  all  water  thirty  miles  from  the  Narbada's 
bank  northward  and  eighteen  miles  southward  is  sanctified  by 
it.  Furthermore,  either  bank  may  be  used  for  burning  the 
dead,  whereas  only  the  northern  bank  of  the  Ganges  is  effectual 
for  that  purpose. 

At  Mahabalesvar  I  visited  the  source  of  the  Krishna 
(Kistna)  which  flows  into  a  sacred  tank  after  issuing  from 
a  Go-mukha  (representation  of  a  cow's  mouth).  Both  are 
under  the  cover  of  a  temple,  and  while  I  was  there  a  pilgrim 
who  had  walked  all  the  way  from  Benares,  entered  the  build- 
ing and  taking  off  his  dust-soiled  garments  began  repeating 
his  Mantras  before  performing  his  ablutions. 

Chapters  called  Mahatmyas,  assigning  special  sacredness 
to  particular  rivers  and  waters,  have  been  at  various  times 
introduced  into  the  Puranas. 

At  Kumbha-konam  is  a  sacred  pool  which  cleanses  from 
guilt  all  those  who  are  able  to  crowd  into  it  at  a  particular 
moment  once  in  twelve  years.  On  the  other  hand,  a  river 
called  Karma-nasa, '  destroyer  of  good  works,'  which  falls  into 
the  Ganges  not  far  from  Benares,  is  an  unholy  and  accursed 
stream,  and  if  a  man  touches  its  water  he  loses  all  his  store  of 
religious  merit  accumulated  for  years. 

And  here  we  may  note  that  the  whole  length  of  the  banks 
of  all  the  chief  rivers  of  India,  from  their  source  to  the  sea, 
is  regarded  as  holy  ground.  To  follow  their  course  on  foot 
is  considered  a  highly  meritorious  act.  A  pilgrim,  for  ex- 
ample, sets  out  from  the  source  of  the  Ganges,  at  Gangotrl  in 
the  Himalayas,  and  walks  by  the  left  bank  of  the  river  to  its 


Worship  of  Mountains,  Rocks,  and  Stones.     349 

mouth  at  Ganga-siigara  ;  then,  turning  round,  he  proceeds  by 
the  right  side  back  to  Gangotri,  whence  he  departed.  This 
is  called  Pradakshina,  or  Parikrama  of  the  river,  and  takes 
six  years  to  accomplish.  In  the  same  way  a  pilgrim  starts 
from  the  source  of  the  Narbada,  at  Amara-kantaka, — a  peak 
of  the  Vindhya  chain  in  Gondwana, — and  walks  to  the  mouth, 
near  Broach,  and  back.  This  pilgrimage  takes  nearly  three 
years.  The  rivers  Godavarl  and  Krishna  require  only  two 
years  for  the  same  process.  As  these  rivers  often  pass  through 
wild  country,  the  pilgrims  who  perform  such  tasks  are  exposed 
to  many  hardships.  Of  course,  the  merit  accumulated  is  in 
proportion  to  the  length  and  difficulty  of  the  pilgrimage 
(yatra)  and  the  ground  traversed. 

The  sea  is  also  held  sacred,  and  on  special  occasions  pro- 
pitiated. When  any  one  is  compelled  to  take  a  voyage,  it 
is  not  uncommon  for  his  nearest  relatives  to  throw  milk  into 
the  sea  as  an  offering  to  the  waves. 

Worship  of  Mountains,  Rocks,  and  Stones. 

With  regard  to  the  worship  of  immovable  objects,  many 
mountains  and  hills  are  holy  ground.  Of  course  the  Hima- 
laya range  takes  the  lead.  It  is  personified  and  extolled  as 
a  god.  (Compare  the  first  verses  of  Kalidasa's  Kumara- 
sambhava.)  There  are  temples  (especially  of  Siva)  among 
its  eternal  snows,  and  pilgrims  often  perish  in  their  efforts  to 
reach  the  loftiest  heights.  Among  other  hills  regarded  as 
specially  sacred  are  Citra-kuta  (commonly  called  Chateerkot) 
in  the  Banda  district,  the  Pulney  hills,  Parasnath,  Mount  Abu, 
and  Girnar  in  Kathiawar\  In  short,  nearly  every  hill  in 
India  is  consecrated  by  temples  and  shrines. 

There  are  some  sand-hills  in  the  Satpura  range  dedicated 

^  Citra-kuta  was  the  first  residence  of  Rama-candra  after  his  banish- 
ment. Abu  (corrupted  from  Sanskrit  arbuda),  Parasnath,  and  Girnar  are 
hills  more  particularly  celebrated  for  their  Jaina  temples. 


350       Worship  of  Mottntains,  Rocks,  a7id  Stones. 

to  Mahadeva,  supposed,  as  Mahakala,  to  preside  over  destruc- 
tion. From  a  rock  on  these  hills  many  youths  have  pre- 
cipitated themselves,  because  their  mothers,  when  childless, 
dedicated  their  first-born  sons  to  the  god.  This  mode  of 
suicide  is  called  Bhrigu-pata,  'throwing  one's  self  from  a 
precipice.'  It  was  once  equally  common  at  the  rock  of 
Girnar,  and  has  only  recently  been  prohibited. 

Particular  rocks  all  over  India  are  treated  as  divine.  They 
are  not  only  pervaded  by  the  divine  soul  of  the  Universe 
which  permeates  all  nature,  God  is  specially  present  in  them, 
just  as  he  is  in  the  Sala-grama  pebble  found  in  the  Gandakl 
river,  and  in  the  Bana-liriga  found  in  the  Narbada  (see  pp.  69, 
412).  A  great  deal  of  fraud  is  practised  in  selling  these 
stones.  If  they  come  from  other  rivers  they  enjoy  no  special 
presence  of  the  deity. 

A  simple  Bilva-leaf  offered  on  a  true  Bana-linga  brought 
from  the  Narbada  is  an  act  of  enormous  merit  (punya),  but  if 
offered  on  a  spurious  pebble  is  inefficacious. 

I  might  continue  the  enumeration  of  sacred  objects  almost 
indefinitely,  but  enough  has  been  said  to  make  it  clear  that 
there  is  not  an  object  in  heaven  or  earth  which  a  Hindu  is 
not  prepared  to  worship — sun,  moon,  and  stars  ;  rocks,  stocks, 
and  stones ;  trees,  shrubs,  and  grass ;  sea,  pools,  and  rivers ; 
his  own  implements  of  trade ;  the  animals  he  finds  most 
useful,  the  noxious  reptiles  he  fears ;  men  remarkable  for  any 
extraordinary  qualities — for  great  valour,  sanctity,  virtue,  or 
even  vice ;  good  and  evil  demons,  ghosts  and  goblins ;  the 
spirits  of  departed  ancestors ;  an  infinite  number  of  semi- 
human  and  semi-divine  existences  ;  inhabitants  of  the  seven 
upper  and  the  seven  lower  worlds — each  and  all  come  in 
for  a  share  of  divine  honour  or  a  tribute  of  more  or  less 
adoration. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

The  Hindu  Religion  in  Ancient  Family-life. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  common  life  is  the  proper  field 
for  the  exercise  of  Christianity;  or,  in  other  words,  that  true 
religion  is  not  to  be  separated  from  every-day  actions. 

Turning  to  India  we  find  a  similar  doctrine  taught, 
although  of  course  a  different  meaning  is  attached  to  the 
word  '  religion.' 

Without  doubt  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  actual  life 
of  a  large  number  of  Hindus  is  not  so  complete  a  falling  away 
from  the  moral  standard  set  up  in  their  sacred  books  (see 
pp.  ^'^^1,  ^'^'^^  as  some  have  represented.  At  the  same 
time  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  religion  of  a  modern  Hindu 
mainly  consists  in  domestic  rites,  ceremonies  and  usages,  all 
of  which  are  superintended  or  carried  out  by  the  Brahmans, 
although  no  central  ecclesiastical  government  exists  which  has 
any  power  to  impose  or  enforce  any  particular  observances. 

In  fairness,  too,  it  must  be  admitted  that  a  genuine  Hindu 
does  not  lead  two  lives.  His  religion,  such  as  it  is,  may  be 
described  as  bound  up  in  the  bundle  of  his  every-day  exist- 
ence. The  religion  of  a  Hindu  is  his  constant  companion. 
Nor  does  he  think  it  necessary,  as  a  Christian  docs,  to  satisfy 
the  claims  of  a  corporate  as  well  as  of  a  personal  and  domestic 
religion.  Any  idea  of  congregational  religious  duties  has  no 
place  in  his  mind.  A  Hindu  never  enters  a  place  of  worship 
with  the  object  of  offering  up  common  prayer  in  company 
with  his  fellow-men.     He  has  no  conception  of  performing 


352     The  HindiL  Religion  in  Ancient  Family -life. 

the  kind  of  religious  act  which  a  Christian  performs  when  he 
'  goes  to  church/  Occasionally,  it  is  true,  and  on  stated  days, 
he  visits  idol  shrines.  But  he  does  not  go  there  with  any  idea 
of  praying  with  others.  He  goes  to  the  temple  to  perform 
what  is  called  Darsana ;  that  is,  to  look  at  the  idol,  the  sight 
of  which,  when  duly  dressed  and  decorated  by  the  priest,  is 
supposed  to  confer  merit.  After  viewing  the  image  he  may 
endeavour  to  propitiate  the  favour  or  avert  the  anger  of  the 
god  it  represents,  by  prostrations  of  the  body,  repetitions 
of  its  name,  or  presentation  of  offerings.  But  this  is  not  an 
essential  duty.  His  real  religion  is  an  af^'"-^  of  famiL  ^aj^ 
domestic  ritual,  and  private  observance,  '"r  .nat  his  domest 
worship  is  free  from  priestly  interferat  i  Sacerdotalism; 
uncontrolled  by  any  cent/al  authority,  e^  >s  a^strong  power 
over  personal  and  family  religion  in  Indi  ^id  all  the  stronger 
from  the  absence  of  congregational  religio4. 

Nevertheless  it  is  immemorial  usage  rather  than  ecclesi- 
astical law  which  governs  every  operation  in  Indian  home  life. 
Each  man  finds  him.self  cribbed  and  confined  in  all  his  move- 
ments, bound  and  fettered  in  all  he  does  by  minute  traditional 
regulations.  He  sleeps  and  wakes,  dresses  and  undresses,  sits 
down  and  stands  up,  goes  out  and  comes  in,  eats  and  drinks, 
speaks  and  is  silent,  acts  and  refrains  from  acting,  according 
to  ancient  rule.  And  by  the  same  rule  the  intervention  of  the 
priestly  caste  begins  with  his  first  unconscious  existence  as  a 
living  organism.  From  that  moment  to  dea^h,  and  even  long 
after  death,  every  Hindu  is  held  to  be  th^  .,.A^ful  property  of 
the  priests,  who  exact  fees  for  innumerable  offices  performed 
on  his  behalf. 

It  is  on  this  account  that  nearly  every  village  has  first 
its  religious  teacher  (Guru),  who  teaches  the  Vedic  GayatrT  or 
the  initiatory  prayer  (p.  6\)  to  those  whose  caste  or  sect  re- 
quires them  to  repeat  it,  and  secondly  its  ceremonial  priest, 
who  serves  as  a  domestic  chaplain  (Purohita)  to  all  the  families 
of  the  village.     Not  a  single  religious  rite  can  be  performed 


Twelve  Pttiaficatory  Rites.  ;^53 

without  this  latter  functionary,  and  though  other  priests  may 
be  asked  to  be  present  and  assist  at  some  of  the  ceremonies 
(such  as  marriage  and  initiation),  the  regular  village  priest 
must  always  take  the  lead  and  have  his  appointed  duties  and 
customary  fees.  In  fact  in  no  country  of  the  world  are 
domestic  religion  and  sacerdotalism  so  curiously  associated 
together  and  carried  to  such  extremes  as  in  India.  There  a 
complicated  religious  code  has  always  been  as  necessary  to 
the  priest  as  an  intricate  civil  code  to  the  lawyer.  It  has  sup- 
niied  him  with  his  meat,  drink,  and  whole  means  of  livelihood, 
ust,  how  f,  be  careful  not  to  speak  of  Brahmanism 
.:d  Sacerdotali^  •  India  as  if  these  expressions  were  con- 
vertible terms.  y  Brahman  is  not  a  priest,  though  every 
priest  is  a  Brf  hmr  The  Brahmans  are  simply  an  order  of 
men  divided  into  \y  and  laity,  and  in  ancient  times  a  lay- 
man did  many  religious  acts  now  performed  by  priests  only. 

To  begin,  then,  with  ancient  times. 

Twelve  purificatory  rites,  called  Sanskaras,  were  prescribed 
in  the  ancient  collections  of  domestic  rules  (Grihya-siatras)  and 
in  the  code  of  Manu,  for  the  purification  of  the  three  higher 
castes — Brahmans,  Kshatriyas,  and  Vaisyas — from  the  taint 
transmitted  through  the  womb  of  the  mother.  They  were,  i .  Im- 
pregnation (Garbhadhana  or  Garbha-lambhana) ;  i.  Male-pro- 
duction (Purnsavana) ;  3.  Hair-parting  (Simantonnayana) ; 
4.  Birth-ceremony  (Jata-karman)  ;  5.  Name-giving  (Nama- 
karana) ;  6.  Carrying  out  (Nishkramana) ;  7.  Food-giving 
(Anna-prasanaj ,  ^  and  9.  Tonsure  or  shaving  and  cutting  off 
the  hair  (Caula  or  Kshaura  and  Kesanta)  ^  ;  10.  Initiation 
(Upanayana) ;  11.  Return  from  the  house  of  the  preceptor 
(Samavartana) ;  12.  Marriage  (Vivaha).   See  Manu  II.  27,  etc. 

Some  account  of  these  twelve  ceremonies — supposed  to 
purify  from  original  or  rather  natal  sin  —  ought  to  precede 
a  description  of  the  householder's  daily  observances ;  for  no 

^  Manu  places  Caula  8th  and  Kesanta  loth,  with  Upanayana  between, 
but  the  first  two  may  be  taken  together  as  kindred  ceremonies. 

A  a 


354    MarjHage.    Garbhadhana  or  Inipregnatioii-rite, 

one  whose  body  (tainted  by  its  abode  in  the  womb)  has  not 
been  purified  by  these  rites  is  held  quaHfied  to  perform  the 
ordinary  rehgious  duties  of  domestic  life. 

Turning  then  to  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  San- 
skaras — marriage — we  find  that  it  stands  last.  It  will  be 
necessary,  however,  to  begin  by  supposing  the  recent  union  of 
a  young  couple  in  wedlock,  so  that  every  one  of  the  Sanskaras 
— beginning  with  that  which  is  beHeved  to  be  essential  to  the 
purification  of  the  human  embryo  from  its  earliest  origin  in  the 
womb — may  be  successively  described.  It  must  also  be  taken 
for  granted  that  the  newly-married  pair  in  ancient  times  were 
of  good  family,  that  they  were  bent  on  acting  up  to  the  pre- 
cepts of  their  religion,  and  that  they  brought  with  them  to 
their  own  home  a  portion  of  the  sacred  fire  which  witnessed 
their  union  (see  p.  '>^6^  and  which,  when  once  kindled  on  their 
own  family  hearth,  had  to  be  maintained  ever  afterwards 
for  use  in  all  domestic  ceremonies  and  sacrifices,  including 
the  last  sacrifice  of  all,  the  final  burning  of  their  own  bodies 
at  death. 

The  first  Sanskara,  which  as  a  matter  of  course  followed 
immediately  on  every  matrimonial  union,  was  called  the  '  Im- 
pregnation-rite '  (Garbhadhana).  In  ancient  times  no  bride- 
groom approached  the  bride  till  the  fourth  night  after  the 
completion  of  the  marriage  ceremony  ^.  Hence  the  consumma- 
tion-rite was  sometimes  called  Caturthi-karma.  During  the 
previous  day  the  young  married  woman  was  made  to  look 
towards  the  sun,  or  in  some  way  exposed  to  its  rays.  In  the 
evening  she  was  required  to  bathe.     Her  husband  also  per- 

^  This  interval  is  prescribed  by  Gobhila.  The  present  interval  of  two, 
three,  or  four  years  in  the  case  of  child-marriages  is  quite  unsupported  by 
the  authority  of  ancient  lawgivers.  Dhanvantari  (in  the  Susruta)  declares 
that  the  Garbhadhana  should  not  take  place  till  a  girl  is  sixteen.  Dr. 
Biihler  has  shown  (from  the  Vivaha-mantras)  that  in  olden  times  girls 
were  married  long  after  they  had  reached  the  age  of  puberty,  and  infant- 
marriages  were  unknown  ;  moreover,  that  the  human  husband  is  the  4th 
husband,  the  three  gods.  Soma,  Visva-vasu,  and  Agni,  being  the  first  three 
at  the  period  of  a  girl's  becoming  marriageable. 


Af ale-production  Ceremony.  355 

formed  his  ablutions  and  went  through  other  prescribed  forms. 
Before  approaching  his  wife  he  was  careful  to  secure  the 
solemn  imprimatur  of  religion  on  an  act  which  might  lead  to 
the  introduction  of  another  human  being  into  the  world.  He 
therefore  repeated  two  Mantras  or  texts  of  Rig-veda  X.  184, 
the  first  of  which  may  be  thus  translated  : — '  Let  (all-pervad- 
ing) Vishnu  prepare  her  womb  ;  let  the  Creator  shape  its 
forms;  let  Prajapati  be  the  Impregnator ;  let  the  Creator 
give  the  embryo.' 

The  Impregnation-rite  was  followed  after  an  interval  of 
three  months  by  that  called  '  Male-production '  (Purnsavana). 
This  is  not  unusual  even  in  the  present  day.  We  Euro- 
peans can  scarcely  understand  the  craving  of  Asiatic  parents 
for  the  birth  of  a  male  child.  The  very  word  for  a  son 
(put-tra)  is  fancifully  said  to  mean  one  who  delivers  a  parent 
from  a  hell  called  Put.  Whether  any  intelligent  Hindu 
married  man  in  modern  times  seriously  looks  forward  to 
punishment  in  a  place  of  torment  hereafter  as  the  penalty  for 
not  having  sons  or  for  having  only  daughters  may  be  doubtful. 
We  have  seen,  however,  that  the  well-being  of  the  parent's 
soul  after  death  is  believed  to  depend  on  the  proper  perform- 
ance of  the  Sraddha  ceremonies  by  a  son,  and  that  the  parti- 
tion of  the  family  inheritance  is  by  law  made  dependent  on 
that  performance.     Hence  the  craving  for  sons. 

In  short,  a  son  is  to  every  pious  Hindu  the  first  and  last  of 
all  necessary  things.  Through  a  son  he  pays  his  own  father 
the  debt  he  owes  him  for  his  own  life,  and  secures  similar 
payment  for  the  gift  of  life  bestowed  by  himself 

What  says  the  Aitareya-Brahmana  of  the  Rig-veda  (VII. 
3.  13)?  '  When  a  father  sees  the  face  of  a  living  son  he  pays 
a  debt  in  him,  and  gains  immortality.  The  pleasure  which  a 
father  has  in  his  son  exceeds  all  other  enjoyments.  His  wife 
is  a  friend,  his  daughter  an  object  of  compassion,  his  son 
shines  as  his  light  in  the  highest  world.'  What  says  Manu? 
'  A  man  is  perfect  when  he  consists  of  three — himself,  his  wife, 

A  a  2 


1 


56  Male-production  Ceremony. 


and  his  son'  (VII.  3).  What  says  Yajiiavalkya?  '  Immortality 
in  future  worlds  and  heavenly  bliss  are  obtained  by  means  of 
sons,  grandsons,  and  great-grandsons.' 

A  story  is  told  in  some  Brahmana  of  a  certain  pious  man  of 
ascetical  temperament  who  determined  to  shirk  the  religious 
duty  of  taking  a  wife.  Quietly  skipping  over  the  second  pre- 
scribed period  of  life,  during  which  he  ought  to  have  become 
a  householder  (grihastha),  he  entered  at  once  upon  the  third 
period  —  that  is  to  say,  he  became  an  ascetic,  abjured  all 
female  society,  and  retired  to  the  woods.  Wandering  about 
one  day,  absorbed  in  meditation,  he  was  startled  by  an 
extraordinary  spectacle.  He  saw  before  him  a  deep  and 
apparently  bottomless  pit.  Around  its  edge  some  unhappy 
men  were  hanging  suspended  by  ropes  of  grass,  at  which  here 
and  there  a  rat  was  nibbling.  On  asking  their  history,  he 
discovered  to  his  horror  that  they  were  his  own  ancestors 
compelled  to  hang  in  this  unpleasant  manner,  and  doomed 
eventually  to  fall  into  the  abyss,  unless  he  went  back  into  the 
world,  did  his  duty  like  a  man,  married  a  suitable  wife,  and 
had  a  son,  who  would  be  able  to  release  them  from  their 
critical  predicament. 

It  is  not,  therefore,  difficult  to  understand  the  object  of  the 
'  Male-production  '  ceremony  (Punisavana).  It  was  performed 
in  the  third  month  of  gestation  and  before  the  period  of 
quickening.  According  to  Asvalayana  the  wife  was  to  keep 
a  solemn  fast.  She  was  then  fed  by  her  husband  with  two 
beans  and  a  grain  of  barley-^  mixed  with  a  handful  of  curds, 
and  made  to  pray  three  times  for  the  production  of  male- 
offspring. 

A  further  supplementary  rite  for  the  prevention  of  mis- 
carriage was  customary  in  some  localities.  It  was  performed 
by  sprinkling  the  juice  of  a  stalk  of  fresh  Durba  grass  in  the 
wife's  right  nostril,  with  the  repetition  of  certain  Mantras. 
This  ceremony  was  called  Anavalopana  (or  Anavalobhana). 

^  Symbolical  of  the  Liiiga. 


Hair-parting,     Birth-ceremony.  357 

The  next  purificatory  rite  was  called 'Hair-parting'  (Slman- 
tonnayana). 

First  an  oblation  was  made  in  fire,  with  repetition  of  the 
Vedic  texts  from  Atharva-veda  VII.  17.  i,  Rig-veda  III. 
59.  I,  V.  25.  2,  II.  32.  4-5.  Then  the  woman  performed  her 
ablutions  in  pure  water;  fragrant  oil  was  poured  on  her  head, 
and  a  line  or  parting  (sTmanta)  was  drawn  three  times  through 
her  hair  from  the  forehead  upwards  with  three  stalks  of  Kusa 
grass  bound  together — the  three  sacred  words  called  Vya- 
hritis  (Bhur,  Bhuvar,  Svar)  and  the  hallowed  syllable  Om 
being  uttered  during  each  operation  (pp.  402,  403).  Certain 
medicinal  substances  supposed  to  have  a  purifying  efficacy 
were  also  given,  and  a  particular  regimen  prescribed  for 
the  remaining  period  of  gestation.  Musical  performances 
also  took  place  during  the  ceremony,  the  promotion  of  cheer- 
fulness in  the  mind  of  the  mother  being  thought  essential  to 
the  proper  development  of  the  unborn  child. 

This  rite  was  only  performed  at  a  woman's  first  pregnancy, 
and  though,  like  the  preceding,  it  purified  the  whole  person  of 
the  wife,  it  also  had  reference  to  the  well-being  of  the  unborn 
child.  The  idea  was  that  the  body  of  the  mother  should  be 
consecrated  and  protected  from  evil  influences  at  the  most 
critical  period  of  gestation,  the  proper  time  for  the  ceremony 
being  the  fourth  month,  though  it  might  be  deferred  until  the 
sixth  or  eighth. 

Immediately  after  the  birth  of  the  infant  and  before 
the  severing  of  the  umbilical  cord  the  father  performed  the 
next  Sanskara,  called  the  '  Birth-ceremony  '  (Jata-karman). 
Honey  and  clarified  butter  were  mixed  together  and  stirred — 
if  possible,  with  a  golden  rod  or  spoon — to  symbolize  good- 
fortune.  Then  a  small  portion  of  the  mixture  was  introduced 
into  the  mouth  of  the  new-born  infant  and  certain  texts  were 
repeated  (Rig-veda  II.  21.  6,  III.  36.  10,  Kaus.-Up.  II.  11), 
with  the  following  prayer :  '  O  long-lived  one,  mayst  thou  live 
a  hundred  years  in  this  world,  protected  by  the  gods  ! '     Both 


358     Name-giving,     Carrying  out.     Food-giving, 

the  ears  of  the  infant  were  then  touched  with  the  golden  rod, 
and  another  prayer  repeated  :  '  May  Savitri,  may  SarasvatI, 
may  the  Asvins  grant  thee  wisdom.'  Lastly,  the  shoulders 
were  rubbed  and  these  words  uttered  :  '  Become  firm  as 
a  rock,  sharp  as  an  axe,  pure  as  gold  ;  thou  art  the  Veda 
called  a  son,  live  thou  a  hundred  years.  May  Indra  bestow- 
on  thee  his  best  treasures.' 

The  next  Sanskara,  called  '  Name-giving '  (Nama-karana), 
took  place  on  the  tenth  day  after  the  birth  of  the  child. 

The  Hindus  regard  the  giving  of  a  name  as  a  solemn 
religious  act  fraught  with  important  consequences  in  its 
bearing  on  the  future  prospects  of  the  child.  The  sound  and 
meaning  of  the  name  must  be  auspicious.  Asvalayana  laid 
down  the  rule  that  a  boy's  name  should  either  consist  of  two 
or  of  four  syllables,  not  of  an  odd  number,  and  have  a  soft 
consonant  for  its  first  letter  and  a  semi-vowel  in  the  middle 
(for  example,  Bhadra,  Deva,  Bhava,  Naga-deva,  Bhadra-datta, 
Deva-datta,  Yajiia-datta).  Lawgivers  prescribed  that  the  word 
Sarman,  '  prosperity,'  should  form  part  of  a  Brahman's  name  ; 
Varman,  '  armour/  of  a  Kshatriya's  ;  Gupta,  '  protected,'  of 
a  Vaisya's ;  and  Dasa,  'slave,'  of  a  Sudra's  (compare  Manu 
IL  32).  The  names  of  women  were  required  to  be  agreeable, 
soft,  clear,  captivating,  auspicious,  and  ending  in  long  vowels. 

The  next  ceremony,  called  '  Carrying  out '  (Nishkramana), 
was  of  less  importance.  In  the  fourth  month  after  birth  the 
child  was  carried  out  into  the  open  air  to  look  at  the  rising 
sun,  while  the  following  prayers  were  said  :  '  That  eye-like 
luminary,  the  cause  of  blessings  to  the  gods  (or  placed  in 
the  sky  by  the  gods),  rises  in  the  east  ;  may  we  behold  it 
for  a  hundred  years.'  '  May  we  hear,  may  we  speak,  may  we 
be  free  from  poverty  for  a  hundred  years  and  more '  (Rig- 
veda  VIL  66,  16  ;  Vaj.-Sanihita  XXXVL  24). 

The  sixth  Sanskara,  called  'Food-giving'  (Anna-prasana), 
performed  in  the  sixth  month  after  birth,  was  of  more  im- 
portance.    The  child  was  carried  in  the  arms  of  its  father  and 


Tonsure  and  Shaving.  359 

placed  in  the  midst  of  a  party  of  friends,  including  the  family 
priest,  who  offered  prayers  for  its  welfare  and  presented  it 
with  gifts.  A  little  solid  food  (generally  rice)  was  then  for  the 
first  time  put  into  its  mouth,  and  various  qualities  were  sup- 
posed to  be  imparted,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  food  given, 
whether  rice,  butter,  honey,  milk,  or  the  flesh  of  partridges  or 
goats  (see  Asvalayana  Grihya-s.  I.  17).  At  the  same  time  a 
verse  from  the  White  Yajur-veda  (II.  83)  was  recited. 

After  this  sixth  ceremony  there  was  a  pause,  and  the  child 
was  allowed  to  develop  in  peace  for  two  or  three  years. 

The  next  important  Sanskaras  were  those  of  '  Tonsure,' 
'Shaving,'  and  'Cutting  off  the  hair'  (Caula,  Cuda-karma,  Ke- 
santa,  Kshaura).  These  were  kindred  operations,  and  may  be 
explained  together  ^.  When  performed  for  the  first  time  they 
were  held  to  have  a  purificatory  effect  on  the  whole  character. 
In  the  case  of  a  Brahman  the  ceremony  of  tonsure  was  per- 
formed in  the  third  year,  but  was  often  delayed,  and  sometimes 
did  not  take  place  till  the  seventh  or  eighth  year.  According 
to  Asvalayana  the  child  was  to  be  placed  on  the  lap  of  its 
mother  to  the  west  of  the  sacred  fire.  The  father  was  to 
take  up  his  station  to  the  south  of  the  mother,  holding  in  his 
hand  twenty-one  stalks  of  Kusa  grass.  He  was  to  sprinkle  the 
head  of  the  child  three  times  with  a  mixture  of  warm  water, 
butter  and  curds.  He  was  to  insert  three  stalks  of  Kusa 
grass  seven  times  into  the  child's  hair  on  the  right  side, 
saying:  '  O  divine  grass,  protect  him!'  Then  he  was  to  cut  ofT 
a  portion  of  the  hair  and  give  it  to  the  mother,  with  recitation 
of  various  texts,  leaving  one  lock  [sik/id  or  cudd)  on  the  top  of 
the  head,  or  occasionally  three  or  five  locks,  according  to  the 
custom  of  the  family.     The  operation  of  shaving  was  some- 


^  Manu  makes  Kesanta,  '  cutting  off  the  hair,'  a  later  Sanskara  than 
Caula  or  Kshaura,  '  shaving  ; '  see  note,  p.  353.  In  the  Roman  CathoHc 
Church  the  ceremony  of  tonsure  is  the  first  ceremony  for  devoting  a 
young  man  to  the  service  of  God.  In  England  this  is  done  by  cutting  off 
a  single  lock  ;  actual  shaving  is  dispensed  with. 


"Go  Ear-boring.     Initiation. 


o 


times  regarded  as  a  different  ceremony  from  that  of  cutting. 
It  had  to  be  continued  after  the  age  of  puberty  at  regular 
intervals  throughout  Hfe. 

Another  ceremony  followed,  called  '  Ear-boring '  (Karna- 
vedha).  This  was  treated  by  some  as  a  distinct  religious  rite, 
and  had  to  take  place  after  tonsure  at  three  or  five  years  of 
age.  Paraskara  made  it  a  Sanskara,  but  not  so  Asvalayana 
or  Gobhila.  The  boy  was  fed  with  honey  or  something  sweet, 
and  made  to  sit  down  with  his  face  towards  the  east.  Then 
two  perforations  were  made  in  his  right  ear,  and  a  particular 
Mantra  from  the  last  hymn  of  the  Sama-veda  was  recited. 
Its  first  words  may  be  thus  translated  :  '  Let  us  hear  what  is 
good  with  the  ears,  let  us  see  what  is  good  with  the  eyes.' 
A  similar  operation  was  performed  on  the  left  ear,  except  that 
three  perforations  were  made  and  a  different  Mantra  from  the 
Rig-veda  (VI.  75.  3)  recited.  The  text  maybe  thus  translated  : 
'  This  bowstring  drawn  tight  upon  the  bow  and  leading  to  suc- 
cess in  battle,  repeatedly  approaches  tJie  ear  ^,  as  if  embracing 
its  friend,  and  wishing  to  say  something  agreeable,  just  as  a 
woman  makes  a  murmuring  sound  (in  her  husband's  ear).' 

The  next  Sanskara  was  'Initiation'  (Upanayana).  Brahmans 
underwent  this  at  eight  years  of  age,  Kshatriyas  at  eleven, 
Vaisyas  at  twelve,  though  it  might  be  delayed  to  16,  21,  and 
24  respectively.  This  and  marriage  were  perhaps  the  most 
important  of  all  the  Sanskaras.  The  nature  of  initiation 
could  scarcely  be  inferred  from  its  name,  Upanayana,  which 
simply  means  '  leading  or  bringing  a  boy  to  his  Guru  or 
spiritual  preceptor.'  But  in  real  fact,  until  the  boy  was  so 
brought,  he  could  not  be  invested  with  the  sacred  thread,  and 
until  he  was  so  invested  he  could  not  be  reckoned  among  the 
'  twice-born,'  and  until  he  was  spiritually  regenerated  by  the 
act  of  investiture  he  could  not  be  permitted  to  use  a  single 


■^  The  only  apparent  reason  for  reciting  this  Mantra  at  the  Karna-vedha 
Sanskara  is  that  the  word  Kama  occurs  in  it. 


The  Sac7xd  Thread  or  Cord,  361 

prayer,  or  repeat  the  Veda,  or  engage  in  any  single  religious 
service  or  sacrificial  rite.  Nor  was  any  ceremonial  observance 
effectual  unless  the  thread  was  worn.  Indeed  even  in  the 
present  day  a  Brahman  before  initiation  has  no  right  to  any 
other  name  than  Vipra.  It  is  only  when  he  has  been  invested 
with  the  sacred  thread  that  he  has  a  right  to  the  title  Dvi-ja, 
'  twice-born.'  Nor  ought  the  name  Brahman  to  be  applied  to 
him  until  the  assumption  of  the  thread  has  qualified  him  to 
learn  the  Veda  (Brahma)  by  heart. 

If  we  inquire  a  little  closely  into  the  nature  of  the  sacred 
symbol  supposed  to  be  capable  of  effecting  so  vast  a  trans- 
formation in  a  human  being's  condition,  we  find  that  now,  as 
formerly,  it  consists  of  three  slender  cotton  threads — white  in 
colour  to  typify  purity,  and  tied  together  in  one  spot  by  a 
sacred  knot  of  peculiar  construction  (called  brahvia-grantJii)^ 
each  of  the  three  threads  also  consisting  of  three  finer  threads 
tightly  twisted  into  one.      The  construction  of  this  cord  is  no 
doubt  simple,  but  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  thread  when 
formed  is  of  no  use  unless  blessed  by  Brahmans  and  consecrated 
by  the  recitation  of  Vedic  texts.     The  texts  usually  repeated 
during  the  process  of  arranging  the  threads  are  the  Gayatri 
and  certain  other  texts  from  the  Black  Yajur-veda.      At  the 
same    time  holy  water   is  repeatedly  sprinkled  on   the  cord 
by   means  of  Kusa  grass.     So  soon   as  the  Hindu  boy  had 
been  made  regenerate  by  the  solemn  putting  on  of  this  mystic 
symbol  his  religious  education  and  spiritual  life  really  began. 
And    now  for  the   first   time   he  was   taught   to   repeat  that 
remarkable  Vedic  prayer  for  illumination    called    SavitrT,  or 
Gayatri  (from  Rig-veda  III.  62.   10),  thus  translatable:  'Let 
us  meditate  on  that  excellent  glory  of  the  divine  Vivifier,  may 
he    illumine  our   understandings,' — that    most  ancient  of  all 
Aryan    prayers,    which    was    first    uttered    more   than    three 
thousand    years    ago,    and    which    still    rises    day    by    day 
towards    heaven,  incessantly  ejaculated    by    millions    of    our 
;  Indian  fellow-subjects.      Then,  again,  every  initiated  boy  was 


362  Fottr  Stages  of  a  Brahman  s  Life. 

admitted  to  the  privilege  of  reading  and  reciting  other  por- 
tions of  the  Veda.  He  was  taught  to  pronounce  the  sacred 
syllable  Om,  the  names  of  the  seven  worlds  (Bhur,  Bhuvar, 
Svar,  etc.),  and  other  Vedic  texts.  He  was  furthermore  re- 
quired to  learn  by  heart  certain  moral  precepts  taken  from 
Manu  or  other  Sanskrit  law-books,  enjoining  abstinence 
from  injury  to  others,  unselfishness,  truth,  honesty,  chastity, 
and  self-control  (see  Chap.  XXI).  The  whole  process  of 
teaching  him  these  various  formularies  was  by  some  re- 
garded as  a  separate  Sanskara  called  Vedarambha-sanskara, 
or  sometimes  Valdika  upadesa  or  Gayatri  upadesa.  When 
he  had  been  thus  Initiated  he  was  for  the  first  time  permitted 
to  perform  other  religious  acts,  such  as  the  worship  of 
gods,  saints,  spirits  and  ancestors,  but  these  were  generally 
deferred  until,  as  a  married  man,  he  had  a  house  of  his  own 
and  was  able  to  undertake  a  householder's  duties. 

According  to  Manu  a  Brahman's  life  was  properly  to  be 
divided  into  the  four  states  or  stages  (called  Asramas)  of 
'  unmarried  religious  student '  (brahma-cari),  '  married  house- 
holder' (grihastha),  'anchorite'  (vanaprastha), '  religious  mendi- 
cant' (bhikshu)  or '  abandoner  of  all  worldly  concerns '  (sannyasi). 
Hence  on  investiture  with  the  sacred  thread  (p.  360)  he  had  to 
leave  his  father  and  reside  with  a  religious  preceptor  for 
several  years  as  an  unmarried  student,  till  he  had  acquired  a 
knowledge  of  the  Veda,  unless  he  took  the  vow  of  perpetual 
[naishthika]  celibacy  or  of  a  life-long  brahma-cari.  On  leaving 
his  preceptor  he  performed  the  Sanskara  called  '  Return ' 
(Samavartana).  This  was  formerly  a  solemn  religious  ob- 
servance in  which  prayers  were  recited,  ablutions  performed, 
and  gifts  given  to  his  spiritual  teacher.  After  its  celebration 
the  youthful  Brahman  returned  to  his  father's  house,  and  not 
till  then  was  he  supposed  to  take  a  wife  and  commence  life  as 
a  householder.  This  proves  that  early  marriages  were  not 
the  rule  in  ancient  times  (compare  p.  379).  In  real  fact  the 
next  Sanskara,  or  Marriage  (VIvaha),  was  not  performed  till  a 


J 


Ancient  Fo7i7i  of  Marriage  Ceremony.        363 

man  and  woman  were  able  to  live  in  a  house  of  their  own. 
According  to  Manu  (IX.  90.  91),  Gautama,  Bodhayana,  and 
others,  the  postponement  of  marriage  till  three  years  after 
puberty  is  not  sinful.  The  whole  detail  of  the  ancient 
marriage  rite  is  given  in  the  domestic  rules  (Grihya-sutras)  of 
Asvalayana,  Gobhila,  Paraskara,  and  others.  A  wife  was  to 
be  selected  after  proper  inquiry  as  to  family  and  condition. 
Before  the  marriage  ceremony  an  oblation  of  clarified  butter 
was  to  be  offered  in  fire,  with  repetition  of  a  Vedic  text  (Rig- 
veda  V.  3.  2).  The  following  are  some  particulars  of  the 
wedding  ceremonial  taken  from  Asvalayana  (I.  7). 

West  of  the  sacred  fire  was  placed  a  stone  (for  grinding 
corn  and  condiments  such  as  is  used  by  women  in  all  house- 
holds), and  north-east  a  water-jar.  The  bridegroom  oft"ered 
an  oblation,  standing  towards  the  west,  and  taking  hold  of 
the  bride's  hands,  while  she  sat  down  and  looked  towards  the 
east.  If  he  wished  only  for  sons  he  clasped  her  thumbs,  and 
if  for  daughters  the  fingers  alone.  Then,  whilst  he  led  her 
towards  the  right  three  times  round  the  fire  and  round  the 
water-jar,  he  said  in  a  low  tone  :  '  I  am  male,  thou  art  female  ; 
come ;  let  us  marry,  let  us  possess  offspring ;  united  in 
affection,  illustrious,  well-disposed  towards  each  other,  let  us 
live  for  a  hundred  years.'  Every  time  he  led  her  round  he 
made  her  ascend  the  mill-stone,  and  said  :  '  Ascend  thou  this 
stone,  be  thou  firm  as  a  rock.'  Then  the  bride's  brother, 
after  spreading  melted  butter  on  the  joined  palms  of  her 
hands,  scattered  parched  grains  of  rice  on  them  twice.  Then, 
after  pouring  the  oblation  of  butter  on  the  fire,  Vedic  texts 
w^ere  recited   (especially  from  Rig-veda  X.  85  ^).     Then  the 


1  This  is  the  Surya-sukta,  or  well-known  Marriage-hymn  of  the  Rig- 
veda,  translated  by  Prof.  A.  Weber  in  Ind.  Studien,  v.  177,  etc.,  and 
discussed  in  full  by  Dr.  Haas.  In  that  hymn  we  have  a  description 
of  the  marriage  of  Surya  daughter  of  the  Sun  to  Soma  (here  probably 
personified  as  the  Moon),  whereas  in  Rig-veda  IV.  43.  6  the  two  Asvins 
are  said  to  be  Surya's  husbands  (compare  p.  271).  The  Atharva-veda 
has  also  many  marriage-hymns  and  texts  (see  I.  14,  and  many  in 
Book  XIV). 


^ 


64  Ancient  Fire-wo^^ship. 


bridegroom  unloosed  the  two  braided  tresses  of  hair,  one  on 
each  side  of  the  top  of  the  bride's  head,  repeating  the  Vedic 
text :  '  I  loose  thee  from  the  fetters  of  Varuna  with  which  the 
very  auspicious  Savitri  has  bound  thee '  (Rig-veda  X.  85.  24). 
Then  he  caused  her  to  step  seven  steps  towards  the  north- 
east quarter,  saying  to  her  :  '  Take  thou  one  step  for  the 
acquirement  of  force  ;  take  thou  two  steps  for  strength  ;  take 
thou  three  steps  for  the  increase  of  wealth  ;  take  thou  four 
steps  for  well-being  ;  take  thou  five  steps  for  offspring  ;  take 
thou  six  steps  for  the  seasons  ;  take  thou  seven  steps  as  a 
friend  ;  be  faithfully  devoted  to  me  ;  may  we  obtain  many 
sons  ;  may  they  attain  to  a  good  old  age.'  Then  bringing 
both  their  heads  into  close  juxtaposition,  some  one  sprinkled 
them  with  water  from  the  jar. 

The  fire  used  in  the  ceremonial  was  kindled  by  the  friction 
of  two  pieces  of  sacred  wood  called  Aran!  (Rig-veda  VII.  i.  i), 
and  this  same  fire  which  witnessed  the  union  of  the  young 
couple  was  brought  by  them  to  their  own  home.  There  a 
room  on  the  ground-floor  was  consecrated  as  a  sanctuary  for 
its  reception  and  perpetual  maintenance.  Great  reverence 
was  shown  to  the  fire  so  kindled.  It  was  never  blown 
upon  with  the  mouth.  Nothing  impure  was  ever  thrown 
into  it,  nor  was   it   ever   used    for  warming  the  feet  (Manu 

IV.  si)- 

For  what  was  the  pious  Brahman's  idea  of  fire?  Two 
texts  of  the  Rig-veda  assert  that  the  Supreme  Being  deve- 
loped the  whole  order  of  existing  entities  [ritavi-ca  satyani- 
cd)  through  the  operation  of  heat.  Another  verse  of  the 
Rig-veda  says  :  'All  gods  are  comprehended  in  fire  '  (V.  3.  i) ; 
'  He  surrounds  them  all  as  the  circumference  of  a  wheel  does 
the  spokes'  (V.  13.  6).  In  fact,  fire  was  to  a  Hindu  a  visible 
embodiment  not  only  of  heat  but  of  all  the  other  forces  of 
nature.  It  had  three  forms,  as  fire  on  earth,  as  lightning — 
associated  with  rain  and  water — in  the  air,  as  the  sun  in  the 
heavens.      And    yet   these  three  forms   were   often  regarded 


Ancient  Fire-worship.  365 

as  comprehended  in  the  one  form  of  earthly  fire  (see  p,  16). 
Hence  fire  was  not  merely  a  symbol  of  the  Supreme  Being's 
presence  among  men.  It  was  an  emblem  of  His  creative, 
fostering,  and  disintegrating  energies,  a  type  of  His  three 
eternal  attributes,  Life,  Thought,  and  Joy. 

The  Sun,  too,  as  fire  in  the  Heaven,  had  a  triune  aspect. 
It  was  called  the  '  three-stepped '  (tri-vikrama).  It  differed  in 
its  attributes  and  qualities  as  the  morning,  the  mid-day,  and 
the  evening  sun  (see  p.  342).  It  was  adored  every  day  in  the 
oft-repeated  GayatrT  prayer,  which  was  in  three  measures, 
though  all  three  measures  were  connected  in  sense.  And 
yet  there  were  not  three  Suns  worshipped,  but  only  three 
forms  of  one  Sun. 

The  Sun,  however,  was  inaccessible  and  not  always  visible. 
Fire  could  always  be  maintained,  or,  if  extinguished,  could  be 
rekindled  whenever  religious  rites  were  performed.  As  a 
general  rule  the  householder  was  content  with  kindling  the 
sacred  fire  in  a  single  hearth  or  circular  clay  receptacle.  This 
was  called  the  Grihyagni,  '  household  fire,'  and  was  sufficient 
for  all  domestic  ceremonies  (smarta-karman).  Those  how- 
ever who  were  more  pious,  or  who  wished  to  engage  in  Vedic 
sacrificial  rites  (srauta-karman)  which  were  of  a  more  com- 
plicated character,  took  care  to  construct  a  more  elaborate 
Homa-sala,  or  room  for  fire-sacrifices,  on  the  ground-floor. 
In  that  sanctuary  fire  was  kindled  in  three  differently-shaped 
receptacles,  the  fire  in  each  having  a  different  name  [Aha- 
vamya,  GdrJiapatya,  and  Dahshina).  When  the  sacred  fire 
was  thus  lighted  it  was  regarded  as  a  symbol  of  God  present 
in  the  house, — as  the  '  brilliant  guest '  who  lived  in  the  midst 
of  the  family  (Rig-veda  X.  91.  2),  the  divine  mediator  who 
bore  the  savour  of  daily  offerings  towards  heaven,  the  golden 
link  of  union  between  men  on  earth  and  the  celestial  denizens 
of  air  and  sky. 

Every  morning  and  evening  the  head  of  the  family,  with 
his  wife  and  children,  went  together  into  the  room  dedicated 


366  Ancient  Fire-zuo7^ship. 

to  worship  ^    There  they  seated  themselves  around  the  sacred 

hearth,  saying  :  '  We  approach  thee,  O  fire,  daily  both  morning 

and    evening,    with    reverential    adoration    in    our   thoughts.' 

Then    they  fed  the  sacred  fire  ^   with  pieces  of   consecrated 

wood  (samidh),  generally  taken   from    the    Palasa   tree,  and 

with  offerings   of  rice    and    butter,    eating   portions   of   this 

offering  themselves.     The  oblation  thus  cast  into  the  flame 

was  supposed  to  ascend  to  the  Sun.     '  From  the  Sun,'  says 

Manu,  '  it  falls  again  in  rain,  from  rain  comes  food,  and  from 

food    animals   subsist'   (III.   76).      Then  while  they  fed  the 

fire   they   chanted   hymns ;   they   sang   the   glories    of  their 

divine  guest,  calling  him  Father,  King,  Protector,  Illuminator 

of  truth.     They  spoke  of  his  subtle  essence,  of  his  universal 

presence  in  all   nature,  in  water,  in  plants,  in  the  bodies  of 

men  and  animals.     They  prayed  for  forgiveness,  saying  : — 

Deliver,  mighty  lord,  thy  worshippers. 
Purge  us  from  taint  of  sin,  and  when  we  die, 
Deal  mercifully  with  us  on  the  pyre, 
Burning  our  bodies  with  their  load  of  guilt, 
But  bearing  our  eternal  part  on  high 
To  luminous  abodes  and  realms  of  bliss, 
For  ever  there  to  dwell  with  righteous  men. 

They  prayed  also  for  prosperity  in  their  worldly  affairs,  and, 
if  they  were  soldiers,  for  warlike  sons  and  success  in  battle, 
saying  :  '  Be  ever  present  with  us,  O  God  of  fire,  for  our  good'"^.' 

And  here  observe  that  as  every  religious  idea  was  exag- 
gerated by  Brahmanism,  so  it  was  not  enough  for  a  pious 
Hindu  to  be  born  twice  during  his  earthly  career.  Even 
when  regenerated   by  the  sacred  thread,  he  was  held   to  be 

^  In  Manu  IX.  96  we  read  that  religious  rites  are  ordained  in  the  Veda 
to  be  performed  by  the  husband  together  with  the  wife. 

^  This  was  called  the  Homa  Sacrifice.  In  the  intervals  of  feeding  the 
flame  the  fire  was  allowed  to  smoulder. 

^  Mr.  M.  M.  Kunte  has  given  a  good  account  of  ancient  family  fire- 
worship  in  his  Shad-darsana-dintanika,  and  many  of  my  statements  in 
this  chapter  are  based  on  his  authority.  For  the  Vedic  texts  used  in  the 
worship  of  Fire  and  here  paraphrased,  see  Muir's  Texts,  v.  197-220, 
303-305,  and  my  Indian  Wisdom,  p.  18. 


Ancient  Sacrificial  Rites.  367 

again  regenerated  by  his  performance  of  the  Homa  or  daily- 
sacrifice  to  fire.  Manu  says  :  '  The  first  birth  is  from  the 
natural  mother,  the  second  from  the  sacred  thread,  the  third 
from  due  performance  of  the  sacrifice'  (II.  169). 

Of  course,  it  was  most  important  to  keep  the  smouldering 
embers  of  the  sacred  element  perpetually  burning.  If  through 
any  accident  the  flame  was  extinguished,  the  whole  house- 
hold fell  into  confusion.  Everything  went  wrong  until  an 
expiatory  ceremony  (prayascitta) — sometimes  consisting  of  a 
solemn  fast  observed  by  both  husband  and  wife — had  been 
performed,  and  the  fire  was  rekindled. 

And  this  daily  service  was  not  all.  Every  fourteenth  day 
was  to  every  pious  and  orthodox  Hindu  a  high  and  holy 
day.  It  was  set  apart  for  special  religious  observances. 
Every  new-moon  day  (darsa)  and  every  full-moon  day 
(paurnamasa)  the  head  of  the  family — whatever  his  rank 
or  occupation — laid  them  both  aside.  Clad  in  humble  attire 
and  accompanied  by  his  wife,  he  went  into  the  woods.  There 
he  collected  fuel  (samidh)  and  sacred  sacrificial  grass,  placed 
them  on  his  head,  carried  them  home,  and  made  preparation 
for  the  solemn  fortnightly  ceremonial.  First  he  consecrated 
the  fuel,  constructed  seats  and  a  kind  of  broom  out  of  the 
grass,  spread  deer-skins,  and  arranged  the  sacrificial  instru- 
ments, made  of  a  particular  kind  of  wood  (kJiadh-a  or  saini\ 
on  the  domestic  altar.  Then,  with  the  assistance  of  his  wife, 
he  prepared  the  sacrificial  cake.  Having  consecrated  a  cer- 
tain quantity  of  rice — called  nirvdpa — and  pounded  it  in  a 
mortar  with  a  proper  pestle,  he  kneaded  the  flour  with  his 
own  hands  into  a  ball.  This  was  laid  on  eight  fragments 
of  brick  {kapdla),  taken  up  in  a  particular  order,  and  placed 
in  a  circle  on  the  fire.  The  ball  of  flour  was  then  shaped 
into  a  rounded  sacrificial  cake  (pitro-ddsa)  resembling  the 
back  of  a  tortoise,  and,  when  baked,  taken  off  the  fire. 
Clarified  butter  was  next  poured  by  means  of  wooden  ladles 
five    times    into    the    fire — such    oblations   being    called    the 


368  Ancient  Somas acrifices, 

paiica-praydga — and  other  oblations  of  butter — called  Ajya — 
were  made  to  various  gods.  The  consecrated  cake  was  then 
cut  up,  and  the  pieces  {avaddna)  were  sprinkled  with  butter 
and  thrown  into  the  flames  in  the  name  of  various  deities, 
including  the  god  of  fire  himself.  Other  portions  were  also 
reverently  eaten  by  the  assembled  family,  hymns  were 
chanted,  the  sins  of  the  past  fortnight  confessed,  repent- 
ance expressed,  and  forgiveness  asked.  The  whole  cere- 
monial was  not  always  performed  by  husband  and  wife  alone. 
If  they  were  rich  they  sent  for  regularly  ordained  priests — 
generally  four  in  number — who  kindled  fire  from  two  pieces 
of  sacred  wood  (arani)  by  friction,  and  carried  out  the  detail  of 
the  ritual  with  great  elaboration  and  with  all  the  sacrificial  im- 
plements— including  a  sacred  sword  for  keeping  off  demons — 
and,  of  course,  with  greater  merit  to  the  householder. 

Then  every  four  months  another  ceremony,  called  the  Ca- 
turmasya  sacrifice,  was  performed  at  the  beginning  of  the 
three  seasons.  Probably  this  was  solemnized,  like  a  harvest- 
thanksgiving,  in  gratitude  for  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  gathered 
in  at  the  end  of  the  three  seasons  of  summer,  autumn,  and 
winter.  It  was  conducted  with  as  much  solemnity  as  the 
fortnightly  rite,  and  in  much  the  same  manner.  Another 
special  sacrificial  ceremony  on  a  grander  scale,  with  the 
addition  of  animal  sacrifice  (Manu  IV.  26,  VI.  10),  was  usually 
performed  half-yearly  at  the  summer  and  winter  solstice 
[tcttardyaiia,  dak  shindy  an  a). 

Finally,  every  householder  instituted  once  a  year  a  Soma- 
sacrifice(Jyotishtoma),  when  the  first  hymns,  called  Pavamana, 
from  Mandala  IX.  of  the  Rig-veda  (beginning  Svadishthaya 
Madlshthaya)  were  recited.  This  was  a  ceremony  requiring 
at  least  sixteen  different  priests,  who  were  well  paid  for  its 
effective  celebration.  The  simplest  annual  Soma-sacrifice, 
called  Agnishtoma,  lasted  for  five  days.  Others  were  protracted 
for  weeks  and  months,  and  there  were  even  sacrificial  sessions 
[sattra)  which  lasted  for  years.     And  In  these  public  rites — 


Soma-sacrijices.     Funeral  Ceremo7iies.        369 

usually  called  Sratita-karman,  to  distinguish  them  from 
Smdrta-karinaiiy  or  domestic  rites — two  entirely  new  elements 
were  introduced  ;  first  the  flesh  of  slaughtered  animals,  and 
secondly  the  juice  of  the  Soma  plant  mentioned  before  (pp. 
12;  13;  22;  '^'^1).  At  one  time  all  kinds  of  animals  were 
sacrificed,  as,  for  example,  horses  (see  p.  329),  but  in  the  end 
a  goat  w^as  usually  selected.  Parts  of  the  flesh  were  burned 
as  offerings  to  the  gods,  and  parts  were  eaten  by  the  priests. 

But  the  great  central  act  of  the  whole  ceremony  was  the 
presentation  of  the  exhilarating  Soma-juice  to  the  gods,  some 
of  it  being  poured  out  for  the  deities  and  some  being  drunk 
by  the  performers  and  institutors  of  the  sacrifice.  This  was 
done  on  the  fifth  day  at  the  morning,  midday,  and  evening 
libations  (savana).  In  fact  the  animal  sacrifice,  though  it 
preceded  the  Soma-libation,  was  really  subordinate  to  it. 
The  idea  seems  to  have  been  that  the  sacrificer  killed  the 
animal  instead  of  sacrificing  himself;  and  as  the  body  of  the 
animal  when  sacrificed  in  the  fire  was  borne  upwards  to 
the  gods,  so  did  the  sacrificer — represented  by  the  animal — 
ascend  to  the  skies.  It  was  only  after  he  had  been  thus 
admitted  to  the  society  of  the  gods  in  heaven  that  he  be- 
came fit  to  quaff  the  divine  beverage,  and  to  become  one 
with  the  heavenly  king  Soma  himself. 

Indeed  this  purifying  and  invigorating  juice,  supposed 
to  confer  physical  strength  and  to  make  the  heart  of  men 
and  gods  glad,  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  water  of  life — 
the  nectar  which  purified  body  and  soul  and  conferred 
immortality.  It  was  then  itself  personified  and  deified.  The 
eod  Soma  was  the  Bacchus  of  India,  and  the  fermented 
juice  of  the  Soma  plant  was  in  ancient  times  to  the  Indian 
community  very  much  what  the  juice  of  the  grape  was  to 
the  Greeks  and  Romans  (compare  p.  12).  Happily  for 
Indian  households,  the  drinking  of  stimulating  liquor  has 
never  been  permitted  except  at  special  religious  ceremonials. 


Bb 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

The  Hindu  Religion  in  Modeini  Family-life . 

Turn  we  now  to  the  daily  life  of  the  modern  householder. 
And  what  I  shall  have  to  say  will  refer  mainly  to  the  castes 
corresponding  to  Brahmans,  Kshatriyas,  and  Vaisyas  ^  who 
alone  have  a  right  to  the  title  '  twice-born,'  and  to  go  through 
the  Sanskaras  supposed  to  purify  the  child  from  the  taint  con- 
tracted in  the  womb.  It  will  be  seen  that  Hinduism  is  still 
an  affair  of  minute  ceremonial  and  elaborate  purificatory  rites, 
yet  without  any  central  ecclesiastical  authority  having  power 
to  enforce  or  regulate  their  application. 

Of  the  twelve  Sanskaras  only  a  few  remain  in  force.  Passing 
over  the  first  four,  which  have  now  fallen  into  desuetude, 
we  come  to  the  Name-giving  ceremony  (Nama-karana),  per- 
formed about  the  tenth  or  twelfth  day  after  birth. 

It  is  worth  while  to  take  note  here  of  a  superstitious  idea 
which  prevails  very  generally  throughout  India,  that  on  the 
sixth  day  after  birth  the  Creator  writes  the  child's  future 
destiny  on  its  forehead.  Yet  I  know  of  no  special  ceremony 
instituted  to  mark  this  particular  day,  or  to  propitiate  the 
deity  on  so  momentous  an  occasion. 

With  regard  to  the  present  custom  of  Name-giving,  the 
ceremony  is  performed  in  some  parts  of  India  on  the  day 
when  the  'child  is  first  fed  with  a  little  rice.  Then  to 
secure  good  fortune  a  boy  is  usually  called  after  some 
favourite  god  (ishta-devata)  ^  ;  for  example,  Krishna,  Gopala, 

■^  These  are  Manu's  three  chief  castes.  The  Brahmans  claim  to  be  the 
only  pure  one  left.     See  pp.  53,  452  of  this  volume. 

^  But  not  so  usually  in  former  days.  Witness  such  names  as  Panini, 
Patanjali,  Saunaka,  Asvalayana,  etc. 


Modern  Name-giving.  371 

(Gopal),  Rama,  Rama-candra,  Narayana,  Siva,  Sankara^, 
Ganesa  ;  or  the  name  may  indicate  that  he  is  to  be  the  god's 
servant,  as,  for  instance,  Rama-dasa  (Ram-das),  Krishna-dasa, 
Narayana-dasa  (Narayan-das),  Lakshmi-dasa.  Often  the  ho- 
norific affix  Jl  (probably  thought  to  be  auspicious  as  derived 
from  either  the  root  jiv,  'to  Hve,'  or  ji,  'to  conquer')  is  added 
to  the  name,  as  in  Rama-ji  (Ram-ji),  Siva-jT,  Deva-jl.  Candra, 
the  moon — corrupted  into  Candar  and  Cand — is  believed  to 
bring  good  luck  when  used  in  a  name  (Moti-cand,  etc.). 

Again,  in  the  present  day  as  in  ancient  times,  the  names  of 
girls,  like  those  of  boys,  are  often  taken  from  those  of  god- 
desses, such  as  Lakshml,  Durga,  Sita,  Radha ;  or  from  cele- 
brated women,  such  as  Savitrl,  Yasoda,  Subhadra,  Sumangala  ; 
or  from  rivers,  such  as  Gaiiga,  Yamuna,  Bhagirathi,  Godavari, 
Narmada,  Krishna ;  or  from  jewels,  such  as  Manak  (for  San- 
skrit Manikya),  a  ruby ;  Moti  (Sanskrit  Mukta),  a  pearl  ; 
Rattan  (Sanskrit  ratna),  a  precious  stone ;  Mani,  a  gem  ;  or 
from  flowers,  such  as  Padma,  a  lily ;  Phulli,  a  blossom  ;  or 
from  words  like  Sundarl,  beautiful ;  Prema.  love,  etc. 

It  is  often  considered  unlucky,  and  not  unlikely  to  bring 
down  a  judgment  on  a  child,  if  the  name  it  receives  is  in- 
dicative of  any  good  quality  it  may  happen  to  possess  at 
birth.  Therefore  it  is  not  uncommon  for  a  fair  child  to  be 
called  '  Black '  (Krishna).  Moreover,  a  parent  will  sometimes 
give  an  infant  an  ugly  or  inauspicious  name  from  a  super- 
stitious fear  that  the  child's  beauty  may  excite  the  envious 
glances  or  '  evil  eye'  of  malicious  persons  ;  for  it  is  remarkable 
that  when  a  family  has  suffered  early  bereavements  by  death 
these  are  attributed  to  evil  influences  exerted  through  the 
instrumentality  of  the  human  eye  (see  p.  253). 

As  a  general  rule,  the  name  given  on  the  tenth  day  is  only 
that  by  which  the  child  is  commonly  known  and  addressed 


^  Narmada-sankar    is    the    name    of    a    celebrated    living    GujaratI 
poet. 

B  b  2 


372  Birth-reco7^d  and  Horoscope, 

in  conversation.  But  the  infant  often  receives  a  second  or 
private  name,  which  is  considered  to  be  its  real  name,  and  is 
whispered  inaudibly  by  its  parent  or  the  family  preceptor 
(guru),  and  not  revealed  to  others.  The  idea  is  that  a  man's 
name  is  in  some  mysterious  manner  connected  with  his  per- 
sonality, and  the  object  of  concealing  it  is  to  protect  him 
from  the  power  of  sorcerers,  who  are  unable  to  injure  him  by 
their  enchantments  unless  they  know  and  can  pronounce  his 
real  name-^. 

I  ought  to  mention,  too,  that  besides  the  common  name 
and  the  secret  name,  another  is  generally  added  which  may 
be  called  the  astrological  name,  because  it  contains  a  letter 
from  the  name  of  the  constellation  (nakshatra)  under  which 
the  child  was  born.  It  is  well  known  that  nothing  of  im- 
portance is  done  by  a  true  Hindu  without  consulting  the 
stars.  Therefore  soon  after  the  Name-giving  ceremony  has 
been  performed  the  family  Astrologer  (Jyotisha,  corrupted 
into  Jyoshi  or  Joshi)  is  sent  for  and  commissioned  to  draw  j 
up  a  horoscope  of  the  exact  time  of  the  child's  nativity,  the 
constellation  under  which  it  was  born,  with  a  prophecy  of 
the  duration  of  its  life,  and  the  circumstances,  good  or  evil, 
of  its  probable  career.  This  is  called  the  birth-record  (Janma- 
patra).  It  is  always  written  in  Sanskrit,  and,  if  the  parents 
are  rich,  sometimes  on  a  roll  sixty  yards  long,  takes  three  or 
four  months  to  prepare,  and  costs  a  large  sum  of  money. 
The  name  given  in  the  horoscope  is  the  Nakshatra  name, 
and  not  the  one  given  at  the  Name-giving  ceremony.  For 
example,  if  the  child's  common  name  is  Yadava  Candra 
Ghosh,  this  name  is  not  mentioned  in  the  horoscope,  but  a 
different  name  is  given,  such,  for  example,  as  Raghu-natha, 


^  It  is  well  known  that  no  wife  in  India  likes  to  utter  her  husband's 
name.  According  to  Sir  J.  Lubbock  a  Sumatran  scrupulously  abstains 
from  pronouncing  his  own  name,  and  a  similar  superstition  prevails  among 
the  Negroes,  Abyssinians,  and  Australians. 


Translation  of  Ho7'oscope,  '^'j'}^ 

or  Harl-hara  ^.     I  subjoin  a  translation  of  part  of  a  genuine 
Janma-patra  or  horoscope^:  — 

Adoration  to  the  Sun.  May  the  Sun  and  all  other  planets  and  stars 
and  constellations  prolong  the  life  of  him  for  whom  this  horoscope  is 
prepared.  Let  that  scries  of  characters  which  is  written  by  the  Dis- 
poser of  all  things  on  the  forehead  of  the  child,  and  which  is  another 
name  for  Astrology,  be  seen  clearly  by  eyes  purified  by  the  same  science. 
May  good  fortune  smile  on  the  instant  which  came  to  pass  after  1784 
years,  7  months,  26  days,  22  dandas,  and  27  palas  of  the  era  styled  the 
Sakabda  had  passed  away,  or  after  1269  years,  7  months,  26  days,  22 
dandas,  and  27  palas  of  the  era  styled  the  Sana  had  passed  away. 

First,  the  measure  of  the  day  of  birth  is  26  dandas,  35  palas,  o  vipala, 
and  of  the  night  is  33  dandas,  25  palas,  o  vipala;  of  half  the  day,  13 
dandas,  17  palas,  30  vipalas,  and  of  half  the  night  16  dandas,  42  palas, 
30  vipalas  ;  of  a  fourth  part  of  the  day,  6  dandas,  38  palas,  45  vipalas  ; 
and  of  a  fourth  part  of  the  night  8  dandas,  12  palas,  15  vipalas  ;  of  an 
eighth  part  of  the  day,  3  dandas,  19  palas,  22  vipalas  ;  and  of  an  eighth 
part  of  the  night  4  dandas,  10  palas,  y]  vipalas. 

The  moment  of  his  birth  being  next  after  the  27th  pala,  after  the  22nd 
danda  of  the  day,  the  child  was  born  in  that  eighth  part  of  the  day  which 
was  presided  over  by  the  planet  Sukra  (Venus),  and  in  that  danda  of  the 
day  which  was  presided  over  by  Rahu,  and  consequently  the  aspect  of 
Rahu  was  then  not  such  that  it  could  have  had  its  position  in  the  same 
degree  with  the  constellation  of  the  child's  birth  or  with  any  of  the  co- 
ordinate constellations  (compare  p.  345). 

At  the  instant  following  the  27th  pala,  after  22  dandas  of  the  27th  day 
of  the  solar  month  of  Agrahayana,  being  a  Thursday  and  the  5th  day  of 
the  fortnight  succeeding  the  full  moon,  in  that  lagna  or  period  during 
which  the  constellation  Aries  was  visible  in  the  sky,  and  which  was  ruled 
over  by  Mars,  in  that  half  of  the  lagna  which  was  guarded  by  the  Moon, 
and  in  that  3rd  part  of  the  lagna  which  was  governed  by  Jupiter,  etc., 
the  second  son  of  *  *  *  *  *  was  born  under  the  star  Aslesha,  and  when 
the  moon  had  revolved  to  the  constellation  Cancer. 

The  child,  who  will  live  a  long  life  and  be  capable  of  attaining  to  great 
prosperity,  belongs  to  the  Devari-gana  or  demon  class,  and  to  the  Vipra- 
varnaor  Brahman  caste,  and  his  astrological  name  is  Harihara  Devasarma. 
To  him  doth  this  horoscope  of  happy  results  belong. 

As  the  deity  presiding  over  his  birth-lagna  is  propitious,  the  child  will 

^  The  Rev.  Nehemiah  Goreh  (a  converted  Brahman)  told  me  that  each 
Nakshatra  or  constellation  has  four  divisions,  and  that  he  was  born  under 
the  third,  in  which  the  letter  r  occurs.  Hence  his  Nakshatra  name  was 
Raghu-natha.  It  might  just  as  well  have  been  Rama  or  any  name  in 
which  the  letter  R  occurs. 

^  The  late  Mr.  Woodrow,  Inspector  of  Schools,  is  my  authority  here. 


374  Modern  Shaving. 

turn  out  to  be  a  person  of  a  good  disposition  and  a  favourite  of  fortune, 
he  shall  beget  many  sons,  and  have  ample  dwelling-places,  enjoy  plea- 
sures, and  possess  gems  of  various  descriptions. 

Now  are  to  be  described  the  planetary  periods  according  to  the  birth- 
star  of  the  child.  He  was  born  under  the  star  of  Aslesha,  and  hence 
2  years  4  months  and  18  days  of  the  lunar  period  were  passed,  and 
I  year  4  months  and  12  days  of  the  same  remained,  at  the  date  of 
the  child's  birth.  The  result  of  this  shall  be  the  gain  of  clothes  by 
the  boy.  The  age  of  the  boy  will  be  i  year  4  months  12  days  at  the 
expiration  of  the  period  of  the  Moon  ;  9  years  4  months  12  days  at 
the  expiration  of  the  period  of  Mars,  which  is  8  years  ;  26  years  4  months 
12  days  at  the  expiration  of  the  period  of  Mercury,  which  is  17  years; 
36  years  4  months  12  days  at  the  expiration  of  the  period  of  Saturn, 
which  is  10  years  ;  55  years  4  months  12  days  at  the  expiration  of 
the  period  of  Jupiter,  which  is  19  years  ;  6']  years  4  months  12  days  at 
the  expiration  of  the  period  of  the  Earth's  shadow,  which  is  12  years  ; 
88  years  4  months  12  days  at  the  expiration  of  the  period  of  Venus,  which 
is  21  years. 

With  regard  to  the  right  of  tonsure  or  shaving  described  at 
p.  359,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  in  modern  times  rich  people 
are  shaved  every  day,  ordinary  people  once  a  week,  poor  people 
once  a  fortnight.  No  one,  as  a  general  rule,  shaves  himself, 
or  even  cuts  his  own  nails.  Both  these  necessary  acts  are 
performed  by  a  caste  of  barbers  (napita),  and  ought  not  to  be 
carried  on  in  a  room,  for  the  simple  reason  that  fragments 
of  hair  and  nail-parings  are  supposed  to  cause  pollution. 
The  operation  is  usually  conducted  under  a  shed  or  tree,  or 
in  an  open  verandah  or  street.  Numbers  of  barbers  may  be 
seen  plying  their  occupation  every  morning  outside  the  houses 
of  a  native  town. 

In  former  days,  as  we  have  seen,  a  Brahman  had  to  part 
with  all  his  hair  except  a  tuft  at  the  top  of  his  head,  this 
top-knot  (sikha)  and  the  sacred  thread  being  the  two  chief 
badges  of  Brahmanhood.  Only  when  he  became  a  SannyasT 
(see  p.  '>fi'l)  was  he  allowed  to  dispense  with  these  two  badges. 

In  the  present  day  few  persons,  except  Brahmans  of  the 
strictest  orthodoxy,  allow  themselves  to  be  reduced  to  a 
single  tuft  on  the  top  of  their  heads  ;  but  every  respectable 
Hindia  who  has  reached  puberty  gets  rid  of  the  hair  on  his 


J 


Modern   Tonsii7^e. 


375 


face  ^  (except  his  mustaches),  unless  he  is  an  ascetic  ^,  or  has 
taken  some  other  reh'gious  vow,  or  belongs  to  the  very  lowest 
castes.  It  should  also  be  noted  that  special  religious  shavings 
are  performed  at  sacred  places  of  pilgrimage  on  the  banks  of 
rivers,  and  are  held  to  be  very  efficacious  in  purifying  soul 
and  body  from  pollution.  Persons  who  have  committed  great 
crimes  or  are  troubled  by  uneasy  consciences,  travel  hun- 
dreds of  miles  to  Prayaga  (Allahabad),  Mathura  (Muttra),  or 
other  holy  places  for  the  sole  purpose  of  submitting  them- 
selves to  the  tonsorial  skill  of  the  professional  barbers  who 
frequent  such  localities.  There  they  may  be  released  from 
every  sin  by  first  being  relieved  of  every  hair  and  then  plung- 
ing into  the  sacred  stream.  Forthwith  they  emerge  new  crea- 
tures, with  all  the  accumulated  guilt  of  a  long  life  effaced. 

Women,  on  the  other  hand,  are  most  careful  to  preserve 
their  hair  intact.  They  pride  themselves  on  its  length  and 
weight.  For  a  woman  to  have  to  part  with  her  hair  is  one 
of  the  greatest  of  degradations,  and  the  most  terrible  of  all 
trials.  It  is  the  mark  of  widowhood.  Yet  in  some  sacred 
places,  especially  at  the  confluence  of  rivers,  the  cutting  off 
and  offering  of  a  few  locks  of  hair  (Veni-danam)  by  a  vir- 
tuous wife  is  considered  a  highly  meritorious  act. 

A  Brahman  gentleman  of  high  rank  in  India  once  described 
to  me  how  he  had  taken  his  wife  for  the  performance  of  this 
ceremonial  to  Prayaga,  which,  as  the  point  of  meeting  of  the 
Ganges  and  Jumna,  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  holiest  places  of 
pilgrimage  in  India.  She  was  escorted  to  the  banks  of  the 
river  by  a  troop  of  priests — there  called  Prayagwal — carrying 
cocoa-nuts,  areca-nuts,  flowers,  kunkuma,  etc.  At  the  conflu- 
ence she  was  made  to  sit  down  and  offer  worship  (puja)  to  the 


^  This,  in  most  parts  of  India,  is  one  point  of  distinction  between 
Hindus  and  Muhammadans,  whose  former  hatred  of  each  other  made 
them  adopt  opposite  practices  out  of  mere  antagonism. 

-  Some  Sannyasis  allow  all  their  hair  to  grow,  some  shave  it  all  off, 
including  the  Sikha.    These  latter  are  the  most  orthodox. 


376  Teeth-cleaning,     Ear-boring. 

Ganges.  Then  one  of  the  priests  recited  certain  texts  and 
prayers  from  the  Veda,  and  holding  a  pair  of  golden  scissors 
in  his  hand  cut  off  about  two  inches  of  her  long  hair.  The 
locks  thus  severed  were  deposited  as  a  precious  offering  in 
a  costly  metal  vessel,  but  not  without  the  addition  of  five 
rupees  to  make  the  gift  more  acceptable.  Then  the  husband, 
in  ratification  of  the  ceremony,  poured  water  into  the  hand 
of  the  priest,  who  thereupon  took  the  money  for  himself  and 
cast  the  locks  of  hair  into  the  river.  The  shorn  woman  re- 
garded this  presentation  of  her  precious  locks  to  the  river- 
goddess  as  a  great  privilege,  for  it  can  only  be  performed  by 
a  devoted  wife  who  is  living  virtuously  with  her  husband,  and 
only  in  his  presence. 

I  may  observe  here  that  if  a  really  orthodox  Hindu  woman 
ever  loses  her  hair  or  becomes  partially  bald  from  sickness 
or  any  other  cause  she  never  resorts  to  the  artifice  of  using 
false  hair.  She  would  consider  herself  eternally  defiled  and 
condemned  to  prolonged  suffering  in  a  future  state  of  existence 
by  such  an  act. 

It  may  be  mentioned  in  connection  with  the  religious  duty 
of  shaving  that  daily  teeth-cleaning  is  also  regarded  as  a  re- 
ligious act  partaking  of  the  nature  of  a  ceremonial  observance. 
It  is  performed,  like  shaving,  in  the  open  air.  Any  one  who 
passes  through  a  native  village  in  the  early  morning  may  see 
a  large  proportion  of  its  population  engaged  in  the  serious 
duty  of  cleansing  their  teeth.  The  instrument  used  is  a  twig 
or  small  stick.  After  its  application  to  the  teeth  the  twig 
serves  the  purpose  of  cleaning  the  tongue — another  important 
duty.  It  is  never  used  a  second  time,  but  always  thrown 
away.  No  words  can  express  the  abhorrence  with  which  a 
strict  Hindu  regards  the  European  practice  of  using  a  tooth- 
brush a  second  time.  Saliva  is  of  all  things  the  most  utterly 
polluting. 

Ear-boring  is  also  a  religious  ceremony.  Girls  have  their 
ears  bored  about  the  same  age  as  boys  (see  p.  360),  but  often 


Betrothal.     Initiation.  377 

have  three  perforations  made  in  each  ear,  besides  one  in  the 
left  nostril.  Nose-rings  are  universal  among  women  in  all 
parts  of  India.  Even  boys  in  some  places  have  one  nostril 
bored,  but  this  is  an  exceptional  circumstance. 

The  ceremony  of  betrothal  (vag-dana)  generally  succeeds 
tonsure  and  ear-boring,  but  is  not  reckoned  among  the 
Sanskaras.  In  India  a  parent's  first  thought  for  its  child 
is  not  for  its  health — not  for  its  wealth — not  for  its  physical, 
moral  or  mental  well-being — but  for  its  betrothal  and  mar- 
riage. To  look  out  for  a  child's  future  wife,  to  lay  by  money 
for  the  cost  of  the  nuptial  festivities,  to  fee  and  conciliate  the 
priests  who  promote  the  match — these  are  far  more  important 
duties  than  to  make  arrangements  for  a  boy's  proper  educa- 
tion. When  a  boy  attains  the  age  of  five  his  father  deputes  a 
professional  match-maker  (Ghataka)  to  negotiate  a  promise  of 
marriage  with  the  daughter  of  a  man  of  at  least  equal  caste. 
It  must  be  admitted  that  caste-equality  in  India  is  regarded 
as  a  more  important  requisite  than  riches.  Money  is  quite  a 
secondary  consideration.  Nor  is  character  so  important.  In 
some  parts  of  Northern  India  the  match-maker  for  some 
castes  is  the  family  barber  ;  but  for  the  higher  castes  he  is 
more  generally  a  Brahman,  who  goes  about  from  one  house 
to  another  till  he  discovers  a  baby-girl  of  suitable  rank. 
Forthwith  he  reports  to  one  of  the  parents  that  the  young 
lady  has  all  her  members  complete — the  full  number  of  eyes, 
teeth,  fingers  and  toes — and  to  the  other  that  the  young 
gentleman  is  equally  perfect  in  every  particular.  Next,  he 
brings  the  two  parents  together.  Genealogies  are  investi- 
gated, and  pedigrees  certified.  Then  the  boy  and  girl  are 
solemnly  betrothed.  This  is  called  in  Sanskrit  vdg-ddna, 
and  in  Hindustani  nisbat. 

The  important  Sanskara  of  initiation  (upanayana)  into 
the  Brahmanical  religion  by  investiture  with  the  sacred 
thread  is  restricted  to  the  castes  corresponding  to  Brahmans, 
Kshatriyas,  and  Vaisyas  (p.  360).     Once   invested   with  this 


^7^  hiitiation. 


c 


hallowed  symbol  of  second  birth,  the  twice-born  man  never 
parts  with  it.  In  this  respect  he  has  an  advantage  over  his 
Christian  brother.  For  the  latter  is  admitted  into  the  Church 
by  a  single  ceremony  performed  in  his  infancy,  and  brought 
to  his  recollection  by  one  other  ceremony  only;  whereas  the 
Indian  twice-born  man  has  a  sacred  symbol  always  in  contact 
with  his  person,  which  must  always  be  worn  and  its  position 
changed  during  the  performance  of  his  daily  religious  services, 
constantly  reminding  him  of  his  regenerate  condition,  and 
with  its  three  white  threads,  united  by  a  sacred  knot,  per- 
petually setting  before  him  a  typical  representation  of  what 
may  be  called  the  triads  of  the  Hindu  religion.  For  ex- 
ample, it  is  probable  that  the  triple  form  of  the  sacred  thread 
symbolizes  that  the  Supreme  Being  is  Existence,  Thought, 
and  Joy  (p.  34) ;  that  He  has  been  manifested  in  three  forms  as 
Creator,  Preserver,  and  Disintegrator  of  all  material  things ; 
that  He  pervades  the  three  worlds.  Earth,  Air,  and  Heaven ; 
that  He  has  revealed  His  will  in  three  principal  books  called 
the  Rig,  Yajur,  and  Sama  Vedas,  with  other  similar  dogmas  of 
the  Hindu  system  in  which  the  sacred  number  three  con- 
stantly recurs.  I  have  heard  a  Brahman  described  as  the 
greatest  of  all  ritualists.  This  is  true  in  regard  to  the  multi- 
plicity of  rites  which  he  ought  to  perform.  But  his  ritualism 
in  the  present  day  is  confined  to  private  worship  and  domestic 
ceremonies,  and  his  ritualistic  vestments  are  restricted  to  the 
sacred  coil  of  cotton  thread,  the  name  of  which  (yajiiopavlta) 
denotes  that  it  is  put  on  (upavlta)  during  the  performance  of 
devotional  rites  (yajiia).  And  just  as  a  Roman  Catholic  priest 
changes  his  ecclesiastical  vestments  according  to  variations  in 
his  own  ceremonial,  so  the  Brahman  alters  the  position  of  his 
thread.  For  example,  when  he  worships  the  gods  he  puts  it 
over  his  left  shoulder  and  under  his  right,  being  then  called 
Upaviti ;  when  he  worships  his  departed  ancestors  he  sus- 
pends it  over  his  right  shoulder  and  under  his  left,  being  then 
called  Pradinavlti ;  and  when  he  worships  the  saints  he  hangs 


Marriage  Ceremonies.  379 

it  round  his  neck  like  a  long  necklace,  being  then  called 
NivTtT.  It  would  be  premature  to  pursue  the  subject  of 
domestic  worship  until  we  have  given  some  account  of 

Marriage  Ceremonies. 

We  have  seen  (p.  362)  that  in  ancient  times  the  young 
Brahman,  after  his  initiation,  left  his  father's  house  and  resided 
for  several  years  as  an  unmarried  student  with  a  religious 
preceptor.  At  present  a  boy's  initiation  is  followed  im- 
mediately afterwards  by  a  mere  formal  performance  of  the 
rite  called  '  Return '  (Samavartana,  p.  '^62),  and  generally,  after 
a  day  or  two's  interval,  by  the  ceremony  of  marriage.  That 
is,  he  is  made,  while  still  a  boy  at  the  age  of  about  nine  or 
ten  and  before  he  is  really  marriageable,  to  go  through  the 
second  matrimonial  act  with  a  girl  of  about  seven,  his  previous 
betrothal  having  constituted  the  first,  and  cohabitation  at  the 
age  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  with  his  child-wife  at  the  age  of  twelve 
(but  see  note,  p.  387)  constituting  the  third.  In  fact,  a  Hindu 
marriage  is  a  kind  of  drama  in  three  acts.  But  the  second  is 
the  religious  and  legal  ceremony,  and  is  a  most  tedious 
process,  involving  large  fees  to  the  priests  and  festivities 
prolonged  for  many  days,  at  a  cost,  in  the  case  of  rich 
people,  of  perhaps  100,000  rupees.  Often  the  savings  of 
a  whole  lifetime  are  so  spent.  This  is  one  of  the  greatest 
evils  of  Indian  society.  Every  well-to-do  parent  is  compelled 
to  squander  large  sums  on  mere  idlers  and  pleasure-seekers, 
instead  of  giving  the  money  as  a  grant  in  aid  to  the  newly- 
married  pair  on  first  starting  in  life.  He  knows,  in  fact,  that 
if  he  were  to  allow  the  wedding  to  be  conducted  with  an  eye 
to  economy  he  would  sink  irretrievably  in  the  estimation  of 
his  friends  and  caste-fellows.  He  would  never  be  able  to 
hold  up  his  head  again  in  his  own  social  circle.  Nor  must 
it  be  supposed  that  he  spends  his  money  unwillingly.  On  the 
contrary,  the  more  lavishly  he   spends  the  more  pride  and 


380  Marriage  Ceremoities, 

satisfaction  he  afterwards  feels  in  looking  back  on  what  he 
regards  as  the  most  meritorious  act  of  his  life  ^. 

As  to  the  two  persons  chiefly  concerned  in  a  wedding,  their 
wishes  are  never  consulted  about  any  of  the  arrangements. 
Yet  it  is  thought  highly  important  to  consult  the  stars.  A 
wedding  ought  never  to  take  place  except  in  a  fortunate 
month  and  during  fortunate  days.  The  most  favourable  time 
is  believed  to  be  in  spring — that  is  in  the  three  or  four  months 
from  February  to  April  and  May.  The  months  generally  chosen 
are  Magha,  Phalguna,  and  Vaisakha^.  It  is  out  of  the  power 
of  any  European,  to  whom  the  inner  apartments  of  Indian 
households  are  forbidden  ground,  to  give  a  complete  descrip- 
tion of  the  entire  marriage  ceremonial.  The  more  ancient 
form  has  already  been  described  at  p.  ^60,.  The  modern 
ceremonies — which  last  for  many  days — are  marked  by  many 
similar  acts,  and  especially  by  the  following  essential  features  : 
the  night  procession  of  the  bridegroom  to  the  house  of  the 
bride,  tying  the  vestments  of  bride  and  bridegroom  together 
with  a  piece  of  consecrated  cloth  under  which  their  hands  are 
joined,  winding  a  cord  round  their  necks,  marking  their  faces 
with  paint,  making  them  walk  three  times  round  the  sacred  fire, 
each  time  in  seven  steps  ^,  with  repetition  of  prayers  and 
Vedic  texts.  Noisy  music  during  some  part  of  the  ceremony 
is  held  to  be  essential.  In  fact  no  one  in  India  would  believe 
in  the  validity  of  a  marriage  ceremony  conducted  without 
loud  and  often  uproarious  festivities.  For  it  is  a  common  idea, 
which  no  contact  with  European  habits  of  thought  has  yet 
eradicated,  that  the  efficacy  of  religious  services  is  greatly 
enhanced  by  noise. 

Every  sort  of  deafening  musical  instrument  is  brought  into 

^  In  one  way  the  expense  of  marriages  acts  beneficially;  for  although 
it  is  lawful  for  a  Hindu  to  have  more  than  one  wife,  scarcely  any  one  can 
afford  to  do  so. 

^  In  some  parts  of  India  Caitra  is  avoided. 

^  This  part  of  the  ceremony  is  called  the  Sapta-padT,  and  generally 
comes  last  (see  p.  364). 


Marriage  Ceremonies.  381 

requisition.  Players  on  trumpets,  horns,  pipes,  and  drums 
are  eagerly  sought  for,  and  every  performer  seems  intent  on 
overpowering  the  sounds  produced  by  his  fellow  performers, 
as  if  his  nmsical  reputation  depended  on  his  being  heard 
above  the  general  din. 

In  the  higher  circles  of  Indian  society  the  wedding  enter- 
tainments, often  repeated  for  several  days,  are  on  a  magnificent 
scale,  and  when  Europeans  are  invited  every  kind  of  expensive 
luxury  is  provided  for  them. 

Soon  after  my  arrival  at  Bombay  in  1875  I  was  invited  to 
be  present  at  the  wedding  of  Sir  Marigaldas  Nathoobhai's 
two  sons.  The  festivities  and  religious  ceremonies  lasted  for 
eight  days,  and  were  on  a  scale  of  unusual  magnificence. 
Such  a  wedding  is  rarely  witnessed  even  in  India.  The 
residence  of  Sir  Marigaldas  was  called  Girgaum  House — a 
magnificent  mansion  in  the  middle  of  a  large  garden.  When 
we  arrived  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  the  first  day  of 
the  ceremonies,  both  house  and  garden  were  brilliantly  illu- 
minated— all  the  trees  festooned  with  Chinese  lanterns,  all 
the  lines  of  the  architecture  sparkling  with  light,  and  every 
bed  and  fountain  in  the  garden  encircled  with  thousands  of 
coloured  lamps.  A  splendid  drawing-room  blazing  with  light 
was  thronged  with  native  gentlemen  and  Rajas,  most  of  whom 
sat  round  in  a  double  row,  intently  gazing  at  the  movements 
and  listening  to  the  songs  of  two  jewel-bedecked  Nach 
girls.  These  girls  wore  bright-coloured  silk  trousers  and 
were  decorously  enveloped  in  voluminous  folds  of  drapery. 
They  did  not  really  dance,  but  merely  sang  in  a  mono- 
tonous minor  key  with  continuous  trills  and  turns  of  the 
voice,  while  they  waved  their  arms  gracefully  to  and  fro, 
occasionally  lifting  one  hand  to  the  ear,  and  frequently  ad- 
vancing a  few  steps  up  the  room  and  then  retiring  again, 
closely  followed  from  behind  by  two  or  three  musicians  who 
played  accompaniments  on  instruments  called  Sararigl  and 
Tabla  (tom-toms).     The  loves,  quarrels,    and   reconciliations 


^82  Marriage  Ceremonies. 


o 


of  Krishna  and  his  wives,  especially  his  wife  Radha,  formed 
the  subject  of  their  songs,  which  were  kept  up  incessantly  for 
hours,  no  native  spectators  appearing  to  find  them  tedious. 
I  was  told  that  a  fee  of  looo  rupees  is  sometimes  paid  to  a 
first-rate  Nach  girl  for  one  night's  performance. 

The  European  guests  congregated  in  the  balcony.  From- 
that  vantage  ground  we  looked  down  on  a  sea  of  turbaned 
heads  and  coloured  dresses,  brilliantly  lighted  up  and  set  off 
by  a  glorious  background  of  cocoa-nut  palms,  tropical  plants, 
and  trees  in  full  foliage.  It  was  like  a  fairy  scene  on  enchanted 
ground,  and  our  host,  with  his  high  hat  and  spotless  white 
dress,  might  have  been  taken  for  the  magician  by  whose  art 
the  marvellous  spectacle  had  been  conjured  up  before  us. 

A  more  human  exhibition  of  his  power  followed,  when, 
after  garlanding  us  himself  with  jasmine  wreaths,  he  beckoned 
to  his  servants,  who  feasted  us  with  iced  champagne,  and  pre- 
sented every  European  visitor  with  bouquets  of  roses  sprinkled 
with  rose-water.  Then  we  were  all  formally  introduced  to  the 
two  bridegrooms,  whose  ages  were  about  twenty  and  eighteen 
— for  our  host  was  too  enlightened  a  man  to  allow  his  sons  to 
marry  when  mere  children  —  the  brides,  respectively  aged 
fourteen  and  twelve,  being  carefully  kept  out  of  sight. 

On  the  fourth  evening,  when  we  were  again  invited,  there 
was  a  still  greater  assemblage  of  people.  On  our  arrival  a 
vast  multitude  were  preparing  to  accompany  the  night-pro- 
cession to  the  houses  of  the  brides.  Again  the  whole  garden 
was  illuminated.  Again  it  was  crowded  with  visitors,  or 
rather  on  this  occasion  literally  alive  and  resonant  with  an 
excited  throng  of  about  5000  people,  who  surged  like  a 
roaring  ocean,  while  four  bands  of  music  struck  up  difterent 
tunes  in  different  parts  of  the  grounds,  and  the  same  Nach 
girls  entertained  the  guests  in  the  drawing-room. 

Then  the  procession  gradually  formed  to  conduct  the  bride- 
grooms to  the  houses  of  the  brides.  The  two  bridegrooms  in 
superb  dresses  of  gold  tissue,  with  high  jewelled  hats — each  of 


Marriage  Ceremonies.  383 

which  was  said  to  be  worth  two  or  three  thousand  pounds — 
and  necklaces  of  emeralds  and  diamonds,  were  placed  on  richly 
caparisoned  horses  covered  with  white  flowers.  Crimson  um- 
brellas were  held  over  their  heads,  and  silver  fans  waved 
near  them.  About  3000  native  gentlemen  and  1000  ladies — 
Hindij  and  Pars! — in  brilliant  coloured  dresses,  closely  packed 
and  all  talking  and  singing  together,  formed  themselves  into  a 
procession,  while  the  bands  led  the  way.  The  men  went  first, 
then  came  the  mounted  bridegrooms,  then  two  ladies  carrying 
lanterns,  and  then  the  whole  crowd  of  ladies  followed. 

We  European  guests  wound  up  the  procession  in  car- 
riages. At  length  we  alighted  and  threaded  our  way  through 
a  lane  made  for  us  into  a  large  tent,  where  we  found  all  the 
ladies,  gorgeously  arrayed,  and  squatting,  in  what  to  us  ap- 
peared rather  unladylike  positions,  on  the  ground  around  the 
youngest  of  the  bridegrooms,  who  was  also  squatting  in  their 
midst.  The  crushing,  jostling,  and  heat  were  intense,  and 
the  talking,  joking,  and  excitement  quite  bewildering.  Mean- 
while one  of  the  brides  was  brought  in  and  made  to  sit  down 
on  the  ground  in  front  of  the  bridegroom.  She  was  carried 
in  the  arms  of  her  uncle,  her  head  and  face  closely  veiled, 
and  covered  with  a  deep  red  and  yellow  silk  shawl  of  great 
value. 

Leaving  this  curious  scene  before  it  was  concluded,  we  were 
taken  through  the  crush  of  people  to  the  top  of  a  gallery, 
whence  we  viewed  another  stage  of  the  marriage  ceremony. 
This  took  place  under  another  canopy  equally  crammed  with 
people.  The  crowd  here  was  in  a  fever  of  excitement  waiting 
for  the  appearance  of  the  elder  bridegroom,  who  ought  to 
have  been  received  by  his  mother-in-law.  This  however  was 
impossible,  as  she  was  a  widow.  Another  lady,  therefore, 
came  forward  on  his  entrance  and  made  a  red  mark  on  his 
forehead.  Next  a  number  of  Brahmans,  after  placing  the 
bridegroom  on  a  stool,  proceeded  to  worship  the  god  Ganesa 
— the  god  who,  as  we  have  seen  (p.  216),  defends  every  under- 


n 


84  Marriage  Ceremonies. 


taking  from  the  lets  and  hindrances  caused  by  evil  demons. 
Sacred  texts  were  also  repeated,  or  rather  muttered  in  an 
inaudible  tone.  Then  preparations  were  made  for  receiving 
the  bride,  who  was  brought  in  by  her  maternal  uncle  and 
placed  on  a  stool  opposite  the  bridegroom.  Her  face  was 
of  course  completely  veiled,  and  her  body  kept  bent,  in  token, 
I  presume,  of  maidenly  modesty  and  feminine  humility. 

At  the  same  time  two  officiating  priests  squatted  down  on 
one  side  of  the  pair,  and  the  acting  mother  and  father-in-law 
on  the  other  side. 

The  principal  religious  ceremony  now  began.  First  of  all, 
one  of  the  Brahmans  took  a  piece  of  consecrated  cloth  and 
fastened  one  end  of  it  to  the  bridegroom's  dress  and  the  other 
to  that  of  the  bride.  Next  the  hands  of  the  bridegroom  and 
bride  were  joined  together  and  crossed  under  this  cloth,  and 
two  ladies  made  marks  with  red  paint  on  their  faces  and  threw 
garlands  of  flowers  round  their  shoulders.  After  this,  one  of 
the  priests  took  a  sacred  cord  and  wound  it  round  the  necks 
of  bride  and  bridegroom,  joining  them  thus  together  while  mut- 
tering prayers  and  Vedic  texts  (see  p.  '^(i'>^^  note).  Then  the 
bridegroom's  hands  were  placed  in  milk.  Sundry  sprinklings 
pf  red  powder,  rice  grains,  cocoa-nut  milk,  and  water  followed. 

The  remainder  of  the  ceremony  was  very  complicated  and 
tedious,  and  we  were  not  allowed  to  witness  it  all. 

The  bridegroom  and  bride  were,  I  believe,  taken  to  another 
room,  where  more  red  marks  were  applied  and  money  pre- 
sented by  the  bridegroom.  Then  they  were  brought  back  to 
the  tent,  where  earthen  pots  were  placed  at  the  four  corners 
and  a  consecrated  fire  lighted.  Afterwards  the  bride  and 
bridegroom  walked  four  times  round  the  tent  hand  in  hand. 
Then  the  bridegroom  put  his  arm  round  the  bride's  neck,  and 
threw  barley,  betel-nuts,  and  oil-seeds  into  the  consecrated 
fire,  the  Brahmans  at  the  same  time  throwing  in  ghee,  while 
the  pair  walked  three  times  round  the  sacred  flames,  each 
time  in  seven  steps  as  in  the  ancient  ceremony  (see  p.  364). 


Marriage  Ceremonies,  385 

It  is  easy  from  all  this  to  see  that  some  portions  of  the 
ceremonial  are  little  changed  since  the  time  of  Asvalayana 
(see  p.  '^^'^,  whose  collection  of  rules  (sutras)  was  probably 
composed  about  2500  years  ago. 

About  midnight,  when  the  whole  day's  ritual  was  brought 
to  a  close,  the  bride  and  bridegroom  played  together  at  a 
kind  of  game  like  that  known  among  schoolboys  as  odd  and 
even,  money  being  used  instead  of  marbles.  More  cere- 
monies followed  on  the  succeeding  days,  till  on  the  eighth 
day  the  bride  and  bridegroom  went  together  to  the  temple 
of  Lakshmi  (Maha-lakshmi),  near  Bombay,  and  worshipped 
the  goddess  of  Prosperity  there.  This  was  the  grand  finale. 
The  two  brides  then  followed  their  husbands,  and  took  up 
their  abode  in  the  house  of  their  father-in-law.  The  sums 
spent  on  the  festivities  must  have  been  enormous. 

This  remarkable  marriage  of  two  young  men  of  high  rank 
at  the  respective  ages  of  18  and  20  was  quite  an  exceptional 
occurrence.  The  legal  ceremony  is  generally  performed  eight 
or  ten  years  earlier.  It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that, 
when  a  boy  is  thus  married  in  childhood,  he  therefore  begins 
life  early  as  a  householder  on  his  own  account.  His  first 
lessons  in  reading  and  writing  probably  commenced  at  the 
time  of  his  betrothal.  When  he  has  been  made  at  the  age 
of  9  or  10,  or  a  little  later,  to  undergo  the  ceremony  of 
marriage,  he  is  old  enough  to  understand  that  he  must  com- 
mence learning  in  earnest.  His  boyish  education  is  there- 
fore carried  on  till  he  and  his  wife  have  attained  puberty 
(generally  at  the  age  of  15  or  16  in  the  case  of  the  boy  and 
1 1  or  1 2  in  the  case  of  the  girl).  Then  comes  the  third  and 
concluding  matrimonial  act,  when  he  lives  with  his  wife  as  her 
actual  husband  (see  note,  p.  '^"^l)- 

Even  then  his  education  is  by  no  means  ended.  He  is  still 
a  mere  schoolboy  or  collegian  residing  at  home  with  his 
parents,  and  continuing  to  do  so  long  after  he  has  children 
of  his   own.     I  have   not  unfrequently  examined  the  senior 

c  c 


386  Choice  of  a  Profession, 

classes  at  Indian  High  Schools  and  Colleges  in  which  most 
of  the  boys  have  been  fathers. 

And  here  it  should  be  mentioned  that  in  Brahman  families 
of  the  present  day  a  boy's  parents  may  choose  for  him  either 
a  religious  or  secular  career.  Brahmans,  we  know,  are  not 
necessarily  priests,  but  simply  a  class  of  men  divided,  like  our- 
selves, into  two  great  divisions  of  clergy  (sometimes  designated 
by  the  general  term  Bhikshukas)  and  laity  (Grihasthas  •^). 
The  clergy  may  be  family  priests  (purohita)  who  perform  the 
Sanskara  ceremonies,  but  are  often  very  ignorant,  or  they 
may  be  spiritual  teachers  (Gurus)  who  teach  the  mantras 
and  prayers,  or  they  may  be  men  trained  in  sacred  learning. 
These  become  either  Vaidik  priests  and  are  sent  to  special 
schools  where  they  are  trained  in  Vedic  lore  and  ritual  by 
Vaidik  and  Yajfiika  priests,  or  they  may  be  sent  to  native 
schools  of  another  sort,  where  they  learn  either  grammar 
(vyakarana)  or  philosophy,  and  become  Sastris  or  Pandits. 
Those  who  are  taught  grammar  also  read  the  poems  (kavyas). 
Those  who  are  trained  in  philosophy  usually  confine  them- 
selves to  the  Vedanta  and  Nyaya  systems.  These  and  the 
Vaidik  Brahmans  ^  generally  become  bigoted  members  of  the 
clerical  order. 

As  to  the  laity,  or  Grihasthas,  they  either  go  to  native 
institutions  for  secular  education,  or  to  some  of  the  numerous 
schools,  high  schools,  and  colleges  established  by  us.  Here 
they  learn  English,  study  Shakspeare,  Milton,  Tennyson,  etc. 
instead  of  their  own  literatures,  and  aspire  to  become  them- 
selves writers  of  English,  and  even  of  English  poetry. 

^  The  term  Grihastha  ought  properly  to  be  restricted  to  '  a  married 
man  and  householder,'  but  is  now  applied  generally  to  those  Brahmans 
who  do  not  live  by  priestly  work,  but  by  some  worldly  business,  such  as 
that  of  a  clerk,  etc. 

^  With  regard  to  the  Vaidik  Brahmans,  it  should  be  noted  that  they   i 
have  really  little  to  do  with  Vedic  sacrificial  rites  (yajna,  srauta-karman), 
which  are  now  out  of  fashion.    Their  chief  work  is  connected  with  smarta- 
karma  or  domestic  ritual. 


Stattis  of  Women.  387 

In  regard  to  women,  the  general  feeling  is  that  they  are  the 
necessary  machines  for  producing  children  (Manu  IX.  96); 
and  without  children  there  could  be  no  due  performance  of  the 
funeral  rites  essential  to  the  peace  of  a  man's  soul  after  death. 
This  is  secured  by  early  marriages.  If  the  law  required  the 
consent  of  boys  and  girls  before  the  marriage  ceremony^  they 
might  decline  to  give  it.  Hence  girls  are  betrothed  at  three 
or  four  years  of  age,  and  go  through  the  ceremony  of  marriage 
at  seven  to  boys  of  whom  they  know  nothing,  and  if  these 
boy-husbands  die  they  remain  virgin-widows  all  their  lives. 
They  may  be  taken  to  their  boy-husbands'  homes  at  the  age 
of  10  and  may  even  become  mothers  before  11  ^.  Be  it 
observed,  however,  that  the  wives  of  India,  unless  they  belong 
to  the  upper  classes,  have  complete  freedom  and  are  allowed 
to  go  anywhere.  It  is  noteworthy,  too,  that  wives  do  not 
adopt  their  husband's  name,  as  European  wives  do.  It  is 
only  theoretically  that  they  merge  their  individuality  in  his. 
Note,  too,  that  they  are  generally  loved,  and  that  cruel  treat- 
ment by  brutal  husbands  is  unknown.  Nay,  Indian  wives 
often  possess  greater  influence  than  the  wives  of  Europe,  and 
one  old  grandmother  will  sometimes  rule  a  w^hole  household 
with  a  rod  of  iron.  It  is  true  that,  theoretically,  they  are 
ignored  as  separate  units  in  society.  It  is  true  that  they 
abstain  from  pronouncing  their  husband's  name,  calling  him 
simply  'lord,'  or  'master,'  or  *the  chosen'  (vara);  and  they 
themselves  are  never  directly  alluded  to  by  their  husbands 
in  conversation.  It  is  true  that  for  a  male  friend  to  mention 
their  names  or  even  enquire  after  their  health  would  be  a 
breach  of  etiquette.  It  is  true,  too,  that  their  life  is  spent 
in  petty  household  duties,  in  superintending  the  family  cuisine, 


^  When  the  previous  edition  of  this  work  was  published  the  earliest  age 
for  cohabitation  was  lo,  but  the  raising  of  the  age  to  12  became  law  on 
March  19,  1891.  It  remains  to  be  seen  whether  this  law  will  become 
almost  a  dead  letter  like  the  Act  of  1856  for  legalizing  the  marriage  of 
widows  (but  see  p.  500). 

C  C  2 


88     Status  of  Women.     Hottse holders  duties. 


in  a  wearisome  round  of  trivial  acts.  It  is  even  true  that  in  re- 
ligion they  are  theoretically  placed  on  the  same  level  as  Sudras. 
They  are  allowed  no  formal  initiation  into  the  Hindu  faith,  no 
investiture  with  the  sacred  thread,  no  spiritual  second  birth. 
Marriage  is  to  them  the  end  and  aim  of  life,  and  the  only 
medium  of  regeneration.  No  other  purificatory  rite  is  per- 
mitted to  them.  They  never  read,  repeat,  nor  listen  to  the 
Veda.  Yet,  for  all  that,  the  women  of  India  are  the  main-stay 
of  Hinduism.  They  are  its  principal  stronghold  and  fortress. 
Without  their  support  both  Brahmanism  and  Hinduism  would 
rapidly  collapse. 

Of  course  those  women  of  the  upper  classes  who  are 
cooped  up  behind  Pardahs  in  secluded  apartments  vegetate 
in  profound  ignorance  of  the  world  around  them,  while  the 
duty  of  training  and  forming  the  character  of  their  children  is, 
I  fear,  neglected  by  all. 

Still  the  women  of  India  are  generally  satisfied  with  their 
position  and  desire  no  change. 

Moreover  it  must  be  noted  that  the  seclusion  and  ignorance 
of  women,  which  was  once  mainly  due  to  the  fear  of  the 
Muhammadan  conquerors,  do  not  exist  to  the  same  degree  in 
provinces  unaffected  by  the  influence  of  those  conquerors. 

Nor  are  child-widows,  though  generally  condemned  to  per- 
petual mourning  and  to  a  life  of  domestic  drudgery,  treated 
with  equal  harshness  in  all  parts  of  India. 

And  before  concluding  I  may  direct  attention  to  some 
of  the  rules  laid  down  by  the  ancient  Hindu  sage  Vatsyayana 
(author  of  the  Kama-sutra  ^)  in  regard  to  Indian  domestic  life. 

In  the  first  place  he  recommends  parents  to  allow  their 
children  complete  freedom  and  indulgence  till  they  are  five 
years  of  age.  Then  from  five  to  sixteen  they  are  to  learn 
some  of  the  fourteen  sciences  and  the  sixty-four  arts.    Among 

^  An  ancient  but  impure  work  quite  as  old  as  the  first  century  of  our 
era.  A  book  called  '  Early  Ideas,'  by  Anaryan,  gives  a  summary  of 
Vatsyayana's  rules,  which  I  have  found  useful  here. 


•      The  Model  Wife,  389 

the  sciences  are  comprised  the  Vedas,  Puranas,  law,  medicine, 
astronomy,  arithmetic,  grammar,  etc.  Among  the  arts  are 
singing,  instrumental  music,  dancing,  painting,  composing 
poems,  chemistry,  mineralogy,  architecture,  gymnastics,  etc. 

After  education  a  man  is  to  become  a  householder.  He  is 
to  win  a  suitable  wife  for  himself  by  his  own  efforts,  and  not  to 
allow  others  to  choose  for  him.  The  sage  then  expatiates  on 
the  most  approved  methods  of  making  love,  and  declares  that 
no  fair  maiden  can  ever  be  won  without  a  good  deal  of  talking. 
The  house  in  which  the  husband  and  wife'  are  to  live  should 
be  in  the  neighbourhood  of  good  men. 

The  wife  is  to  keep  her  husband's  secrets,  never  to  reveal 
the  amount  of  his  wealth,  to  excel  other  women  in  attention 
to  her  husband,  in  cookery,  in  ruling  her  servants  wisely,  in 
hospitality,  in  thrift,  in  adapting  expenditure  to  income,  and 
in  superintending  every  minute  circumstance  of  her  family's 
daily  life.  Finally,  she  is  to  co-operate  with  her  husband 
in  pursuing  the  three  great  objects  of  life — religious  merit, 
wealth,  and  enjoyment  (kama) ;  and  to  neglect  the  third  is 
as  sinful  as  to  neglect  the  other  two. 

This  kind  of  perfect  woman  is  called  a  Padmini,  or  lotus- 
like woman.  Three  other  kinds  are  specified :  the  Citrini,  or 
woman  of  varied  accomplishments;  the  Saiikhinl,  or  conch- 
like woman ;  and  the  HastinI,  or  elephant-like  woman. 

In  ancient  and  medieval  times  women  were  not  unfre- 
quently  Sanskrit  scholars. 

Here  is  a  nearly  literal  version  of  the  definition  of  a  wife 
given  in  Maha-bharata  I.  302cS,  etc. : — 

A  wife  is  half  the  man,  his  truest  friend  ; 

A  loving  wife  is  a  perpetual  spring 

Of  virtue,  pleasure,  wealth  ;    a  faithful  wife 

Is  his  best  aid  in  seeking  heavenly  bliss ; 

A  sweetly-speaking  wife  is  a  companion 

In  solitude,  a  father  in  advice, 

A  mother  in  all  seasons  of  distress, 

A  rest  in  passing  through  life's  wilderness. 


CHAPTER    XV. 


Religious  Life  of  the  0i4hodox  H incite  Householder. 

Let  me  next  direct  attention  to  the  daily  religious  duties 
of  the  orthodox  married  man  who  has  attained  to  the  position 
of  possessing  a  separate  house  of  his  own. 

I  pass  over  the  home-life  of  the  anglicized  Brahman  of 
advanced  ideas,  who  has  been  educated  under  the  auspices 
of  the  British  Government,  but  has  not  on  that  account  been 
able  to  avert  the  calamity  of  marriage  with  an  uneducated 
and  bigoted  wife  of  his  own  rank,  or  rid  himself  of  all  the 
troublesome  fetters  of  custom  and  caste.  Such  a  life  com- 
bines social  conditions  which  are  incompatible.  The  result 
is  unpleasing.  A  combination  is  produced  which  is  not 
unlike  the  unwholesome  product  of  a  forced  chemical  union 
between  elements  which  naturally  repel  each  other.  What 
I  desire  rather  to  describe  in  this  chapter  is  the  religious  life 
of  the  husband  and  wife  who  strive  to  perform  their  daily 
duties  according  to  the  orthodox  Brahmanical  usage  of 
more  modern  times. 

And  here  it  may  be  well  to  introduce  the  subject  of  the 
householder's  life  by  glancing  at  the  arrangements  of  the 
material  house  which  forms  his  abode. 

Of  course  the  houses  of  the  poor  in  villages  or  in  the 
native  quarters  of  even  large  cities  need  no  description. 
They  are  mere  mud  erections  with  bamboo  roofs  and  thatch, 
Those  of  the  grade  next  above  the  poorest  are  little  better. 


Arrange7nent  of  a  Modern  House,  391 

They  may  be  occasionally  built  of  brick  and  may  be  one 
story  high,  but  have  seldom  more  than  two  or  three  rooms. 
Those  of  the  richer  classes,  on  the  other  hand,  are  always 
constructed  of  brick  or  some  durable  material,  and,  like  the 
houses  of  Pompeii,  usually  have  an  interior  court  or  quad- 
rangle. A  door  from  the  street,  and  sometimes  a  handsome 
archway,  opens  into  this  quadrangle,  which  is  surrounded  on 
all  sides  by  high  walls.  Over  the  archway  or  entrance  is 
a  large  room,  which  serves  as  a  meeting-place  for  the  men 
of  the  family  and  their  male  visitors.  A  similar  large  and 
airy  apartment  occupies  the  whole  front  of  the  house  in 
every  story. 

It  is  a  melancholy  fact  that,  as  a  general  rule,  all  the 
well -lighted  rooms  with  windows  and  verandahs  looking 
into  the  street  are  appropriated  by  the  male  members  of 
the  household.  On  each  floor  a  gallery  running  round  the 
entire  court-yard  leads  to  small  chambers  scarcely  worthy 
of  the  name  of  rooms,  where  the  female  members  of  the 
family  are  to  be  found  by  those  who  have  the  right  of 
entree.  When  there  is  no  court-yard  the  women  occupy 
the  upper  floor,  to  reach  which  there  is  usually  in  one  corner 
a  steep  wooden  staircase.  The  women's  apartments  either 
look  into  the  quadrangle  below — where  the  family  cows 
or  goats  are  often  the  chief  objects  of  interest — or  on  a 
dead  wall,  never  on  a  street.  There  is  little  or  no  furniture 
anywhere  in  the  house,  but  in  one  room  is  a  strong  box  con- 
taining the  family  jewelry.  The  ground  floor  has  a  kitchen, 
which  is  usually  also  the  dining-room.  There  are  also  the 
store-rooms  for  grain  and  fuel,  and  even  stalls  for  cattle.  In 
one  of  the  lower  apartments,  or  in  an  adjacent  enclosure, 
there  is  usually  a  well  or  reservoir  for  water.  Here  there  are 
numerous  shelves  with  a  store  of  well-burnished  brass  water- 
vessels  in  constant  readiness. 

Another  room  on  the  ground  floor  is  dedicated  to  daily 
worship. 


392  Religious  Services. 

Here  there  is  a  small  wooden  temple  (Mandira)  or  some 
sacred  receptacle  for  the  household  gods — the  Indian  Lares 
and  Penates — which  in  orthodox  Brahman  families — more 
especially  among  the  Maratha  people — are  generally  five 
consecrated  symbols  representing  the  five  principal  Hindu 
gods ;  to  wit,  the  two  stones  (Sala-grama  and  Bana-linga), 
described  at  p.  69  j  a  metallic  stone  representing  the  female 
energy  in  nature  (Sakti) ;  a  crystal  representing  the  Sun 
(Surya) ;  and  a  red  stone  representing  Ganesa  (Gana-pati), 
the  remover  of  obstacles  (p.  211).  Here  domestic  worship 
is  commonly  performed  every  day  by  each  member  of  every 
respectable  Hindu  family.  Here,  too,  or  in  an  adjacent 
court,  there  is  generally  a  sacred  Tulasi  plant  (see  p.  '^'^Z)^ 
to  which  the  women  of  the  family  offer  adoration. 

Finally,  in  this  part  of  the  house  the  few  remaining  orthodox 
(Smarta)  Brahmans  in  different  parts  of  India  sometimes 
maintain  a  sacred  fire.  For  it  must  be  noted  here  that, 
although  the  ancient  fire-worship  and  sacrificial  ritual  have 
almost  disappeared,  yet  at  Benares  and  other  strongholds  of 
Brahmanism  a  certain  number  of  Brahmans  of  the  old  school 
still  offer  daily  oblations  in  a  sacred  fire  which  they  main- 
tain in  their  own  houses,  while  they  conform  also  to  the  more 
recent  practices  enjoined  in  the  Puranas.  Even  the  old  Vedic 
Soma-sacrifices  are  sometimes  performed  by  such  men  on 
great  public  occasions. 

For  example,  a  Soma-sacrifice  was  instituted  not  long  ago 
at  Poona,  and  at  Wai  near  Mahabalesvar.  Again,  eight  or 
nine  years  ago  a  rich  man,  named  Dhundhiraj  Vinayak  Sudas, 
had  three  Agnishtomas,  one  Vajapeya,  and  one  Aptoryama 
sacrifice  (all  of  them  parts  of  the  Jyotishtoma  Soma-sacrifice) 
performed  at  Alibag  in  the  Konkan.  He  employed  a  vast 
number  of  Pandits,  Yajfiikas,  Srotriyas,  and  Agnihotrls,  and 
spent  at  least  20,000  rupees.  In  the  course  of  the  cere- 
monies forty-two  goats  were  killed.  They  were  cooked  on 
the  fire  called  Samitragni,  and  partly  eaten  by  the  priests, 


Religious  Services.  393 

partly  offered  in  the  sacrificial  fire.  At  the  end  of  each  cere- 
mony a  supplementary  sacrifice  (called  Avabhrita)  was  insti- 
tuted with  the  sole  object  of  atoning  for  mistakes,  defects,  or 
omissions  in  carrying  out  the  detail  of  the  preceding  ritual. 
The  supposed  aim  of  all  these  elaborate  and  expensive  cere- 
monies was  to  secure  the  sacrificers'  admission  into  heaven 
(svarga)  after  death. 

But  such  Vedic  sacrifices  are  everywhere  either  obsolete 
or  obsolescent,  and  animals  are  now  seldom  killed  in  India, 
except  as  offerings  to  the  bloody  goddess  Kali — a  goddess 
unknown  in  Vedic  times — who  is  supposed,  as  we  have 
already  seen  (p.  190),  to  delight  in  drinking  blood,  and,  if 
not  satiated  with  the  blood  of  animals,  will  take  that  of  men  ; 
this  kind  of  sacrifice  (bali)  being  quite  distinct  from  the  old 
Vedic  Yajiia,  Homa,  and  Soma  sacrificial  rites. 

But  although  the  daily  ritual  acts  of  a  modern  Brahman 
are  founded  on  the  teaching  of  the  later  sacred  works,  called 
Puranas  and  Tantras,  yet  it  is  remarkable  that  the  repetition 
of  Vedic  texts  (mantras)  is  still  retained  and  is  still  essential 
to  the  due  performance  of  every  modern  religious  service. 

And  let  no  one  suppose  that  a  pious  Brahman's  daily 
services  in  the  present  day  are  less  irksome  or  tedious 
than  they  were  in  olden  times.  If  he  was  then  fettered,  he 
is  now  enchained.  A  modern  Brahman  of  the  orthodox 
school  will  sometimes  devote  four  or  five  hours  a  day  to  a 
laborious  routine  of  religious  forms.  Every  faculty  and 
function  of  his  nature  is  bound  by  an  iron  chain  of  traditional 
observance.  For  example,  his  daily  duties  now  comprise — 
1.  Religious  bathing ;  2.  Worship  of  the  Supreme  Being 
by  meditation  and  repetition  of  prayers  etc.  at  the  three 
Sandhyas,  or  morning,  midday,  and  evening  services  (p.  401); 
3.  Brahma-yajna,  or  worship  of  the  Supreme  Being  by  a 
formal  repetition  of  the  first  words  of  every  sacred  book 
(regarded  also  as  an  act  of  homage  to  all  those  saints  and 
sages  to  whom  the  Veda  was  revealed);   4.  Tarpana,  or  the 


394  Religious  Services, 

threefold  daily  oblation  of  water  to  the  secondary  gods,  to  the 
sages,  and  to  the  Pitris  ;  5.  Homa,  or  sacrifice  to  fire  by  fuel, 
rice,  clarified  butter,  etc.  (described  at  p.  '^(i6)  ;  6.  Deva-puja, 
or  the  daily  worship  of  the  gods  in  the  domestic  sanctuary  or 
in  temples  ;  but,  as  before  stated  (p.  352),  Hinduism  enjoins 
no  assembling  together  for  congregational  worship. 

There  is,  moreover,  the  Vaisvadeva  ^  service  before  the  mid- 
day meal,  with  offerings  of  food  (called  bali-harana)  to  all 
beings  (bhuta),  including  animals.  There  is  the  daily  homage 
to  men  by  the  offering  of  food,  etc.  to  guests  and  beggars. 
There  is  the  solitary  visit  to  the  neighbouring  temple,  not 
necessarily  for  prayer  or  praise,  but  simply  for  bowing  before 
the  idol  or  for  merely  looking  at  it  (darsana)  after  its  decora- 
tion by  the  idol-priest.  There  is  the  observance  of  solemn 
fasts  twice  a  month,  and  on  other  special  days.  There  is  the 
reading  of  passages  from  some  of  the  Puranas^,  held  to  be 
a  highly  meritorious  act.  There  is  the  performance,  if  circum- 
stances permit,  of  a  pilgrimage  to  some  holy  shrine.  Finally, 
there  is  the  last  great  Sanskara  performed  at  death,  called  the 
last  sacrifice  (antyeshti),  when  the  body  ought  to  be  burnt  by 
the  sam.e  sacred  fire  which  was  originally  kindled  by  husband 
and  wife  on  the  domestic  hearth.  This  is  an  outline  of  an 
orthodox  Brahman  householder's  life  in  modern  times. 

I  now  proceed  to  fill  in  the  details  of  some  parts  of  the 
picture  more  fully. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  the  orthodox  Brahman  must  rise  from 
his  bed  before  sunrise.  And  be  it  observed  that  his  wife  must 
be  up  and  stirring  long  before  him.     She  may  have  to  light  a 


^  Parasara  does  not  include  the  Vaisvadeva  in  his  account  of  the  daily 
duties.  According  to  him  there  are  only  '  shat  karmani,'  six  acts  which 
are  nitya  or  ahnika  acts,  to  be  performed  every  day.  These  are — i.  Snana, 
2.  Sandhya-japa,  3.  Svadhyaya,  4.  Pitri-tarpana,  5.  Homa,  6.  Devata- 
pujana.  A  Brahman's  six  duties  as  enjoined  by  Manu  (X.  75)  are 
different.  They  are— i.  repeating  the  Veda,  2.  teaching  it,  3.  sacrificing, 
4.  conducting  sacrifices  for  others,  5.  giving,  6.  receiving  gifts. 

^  Especially  the  Durga-mahatmya  of  the  Markandeya-purana. 


.  Ordinary  Dress,  395 

lamp,  give  the  children  a  few  sweetmeats,  sweep  out  the  rooms, 
sprinkle  them  with  water,  and  occasionally  smear  the  floor 
with  a  mixture  of  moist  earth  and  the  supposed  purifying 
excreta  of  a  cow.  If  she  lives  in  a  village  and  is  poor — and  a 
high-caste  family  may  often  be  poor — she  will  probably  stick 
cakes  of  this  last  substance  on  the  outer  walls  of  the  house  to 
dry  for  fuel.  Then  perhaps  her  next  act  may  be  to  spin  a 
little  cotton,  or  to  examine  the  state  of  the  family  garments. 

And  here  a  few  particulars  about  the  dress  of  the  house- 
hold may  be  suitably  introduced. 

The  poorer  classes  in  India  are  never  oppressed  by  a  super- 
fluity of  clothing.  A  shred  of  cloth  round  the  loins  satisfies  a 
poor  working  man's  ideas  of  propriety.  Great  ascetics  and 
pretenders  to  extraordinary  sanctity  were  once  in  the  habit  of 
going  about  perfectly  nude,  until  British  law  interposed  to 
prevent  the  continuance  of  the  nuisance.  Even  respectable 
Hindus  are  satisfied  with  two  garments  made  of  white  cotton 
cloth,  one  called  the  Dhoti,  or  waist-cloth,  tucked  round  the 
waist  and  reaching  to  the  feet ;  the  other,  called  the  Uttariya, 
a  shawl-like  upper  garment  without  seam  from  top  to  bottom, 
which  is  thrown  gracefully  round  the  shoulders  like  a  Roman 
toga.  Often,  however,  an  under-jacket,  or  close  coat,  cut  into 
form  and  called  an  Ahgaraksha  or  Arigarakha  (body-protector), 
is  worn  under  this  upper  garment.  Sometimes  also  a  piece 
of  cloth  is  carried  over  the  arm  to  be  used  as  a  scarf  in  cold 
weather. 

It  has  been  said  by  some  writer  of  homely  truths  in  England 
that  a  good  wife  ought  never  to  have  '  a  soul  above  buttons.' 
Happily  for  a  Hindu  wife's  peace  of  mind  her  husband's  two 
garments  are  gloriously  independent  of  all  fastenings.  Nor 
need  she  trouble  herself  to  learn  needle-work.  Yet  in  some 
parts  of  India  she  considers  it  a  high  honour  to  be  permitted 
to  wash  any  article  of  clothing  which  has  covered  the  sacred 
person  of  her  lord  and  master. 

In  regard  to  head-coverings,  the  greater  number  of  people, 


o 


96  Dress  and  Jewelry, 


including  the  poorer  Brahmans,  in  Bengal,  the  Dekhan,  and 
Southern  India  never  wear  anything,  though  in  cold  weather 
they  like  to  muffle  up  their  heads  and  faces  in  their  upper 
garments.  In  other  places  the  better  classes  wear  turbans 
(Sanskrit  Ushnisha^),  which  in  Western  and  Northern  India 
are  often  made  of  a  piece  of  fine  cloth  from  twenty  to  fifty 
yards  long,  folded  according  to  the  caste,  and  called  Phenta^. 

As  to  shoes,  at  least  three-fourths  of  the  inhabitants  of 
India  never  use  them  at  all,  and  even  the  rich — except  those 
who  are  thoroughly  Europeanized — dispense  with  stockings. 
Those  who  wear  leather  shoes  like  to  get  rid  of  them  when- 
ever they  can,  not  from  any  idea  of  the  inconvenience  of 
leather,  but  from  its  supposed  impurity.  It  is  common  for  the 
most  dignified  and  refined  gentlemen  to  come  into  one's  pre- 
sence with  naked  feet,  leaving  their  shoes  outside  the  room. 

A  woman^s  dress,  like  a  man's,  also  consists  of  two  pieces, 
namely,  a  kind  of  bodice,  and  a  long  garment  called  a  sari  (sati) 
— sometimes  ten  or  even  fifteen  yards  long — which  is  first 
tucked  round  the  waist  with  many  folds  in  front,  and  then 
brought  gracefully  over  the  shoulder,  and  frequently  over 
the  head.  A  third  garment  is  now  occasionally  worn  under- 
neath, and  some  adopt  the  Muhammadan  fashion  of  wearing 
a  kind  of  drawers.  Happily  for  economical  husbands,  no 
such  thing  as  fashion  in  women's  dress  exists  in  the  East. 
Indeed  it  may  be  safely  affirmed  that  there  has  been  little 
change  in  the  character  of  woman's  apparel  for  3000  years. 

But  what  the  householder  gains  by  his  wife's  moderation 
in  dress  he  loses  by  her  taste  for  expensive  jewelry  and 
ornaments.  No  woman  would  dare  to  hold  up  her  head 
among  her  female  companions  unless  well  provided  with 
a  sufficient  assortment  of  ornaments  of  eight  principal  kinds 
— nose-rings,  ear-rings,  necklaces,  bracelets  (commonly  called 

^  In  Bombay  the  Baniyahs  wear  high  hats  slanting  backwards,  and  the 
Parsis  do  the  same. 
^  When  made  up  into  a  head-dress  it  is  called  Pagrl. 


Omens,  397 

bangles),  armlets,  finger-rings,  anklets  and  toe-rings,  and  some 
of  these,  notably  the  nose-rings,  often  contain  costly  gems. 

As  to  children's  attire,  the  children  of  the  rich  are  for  the 
most  part  innocent  of  all  clothing  till  about  the  third  year, 
while  those  of  the  poor  run  about  as  they  came  into  the  world 
up  to  six  or  seven  years  of  age,  without  a  single  encumbrance, 
except  possibly  a  waistband  and  a  few  wrist-ornaments. 

To  return  to  the  duties  of  the  householder's  wife  (grihini). 
One  of  her  earliest  acts,  if  she  is  poor,  will  be  to  bruise  the 
rice,  cleanse  it  from  husk,  or  grind  some  kind  of  grain.  Then, 
whether  rich  or  poor,  she  must  above  all  things  attend  to  her 
kitchen  ;  and  make  it  a  model  of  absolute  cleanliness — nay 
more,  a  sacred  inviolable  spot  which  nothing  impure  must 
ever  enter  (see  p.  128). 

With  regard  to  the  actual  culinary  operations,  the  whole 
comfort  of  the  family  depends  of  course  on  the  wife's  super- 
intendence and  skill.  In  this  respect  very  few  mothers  of 
families  In  India  ever  fall  short  of  the  highest  standard. 

Omens, 

Then  one  of  a  wife's  duties  should  be  to  keep  all  bad 
omens  out  of  her  husband's  way,  or  manage  to  make  him 
look  at  something  lucky  in  the  early  morning.  I  may  here 
point  out  that  a  knowledge  of  omens  (nimitta-jnana)  is  in- 
cluded among  the  sixty-four  arts  enumerated  by  Vatsyayana, 
and  is  not  the  least  important  of  them.  Different  lists  of  in- 
auspicious objects  are  given  which,  if  looked  upon  In  the  early 
morning,  might  cause  disaster.  Thus  some  believe  that  if  a 
householder's  first  act  should  be  to  cast  his  eyes  on  a  crow  on 
his  left  hand,  a  kite  on  his  right,  a  snake,  cat,  jackal,  or  hare, 
an  empty  vessel,  smoky  fire,  a  bundle  of  sticks,  a  widow,  a 
man  with  one  eye,  or  even  with  a  big  nose,  confusion  might 
be  introduced  into  the  household  for  the  rest  of  the  day.  Nay, 
grievous  calamities  might  befall  the  family  ;    and  if  the  good- 


1 


98         Onie7is.     Daily  Religious  Ceremonies, 


man  of  the  house  had  any  intention  of  undertaking  a  journey, 
he  must,  after  any  such  sights,  by  all  means  desist  from  the 
project.  On  the  other  hand,  should  the  householder's  first 
glance  rest  on  a  cow,  horse,  elephant,  parrot,  a  lizard  on 
an  east  wall,  a  clear  fire,  a  virgin,  or  two  Brahmans,  all  will 
go  right.  Again,  if  he  should  happen  to  sneeze  once,  it 
would  be  a  sure  forerunner  of  good  luck  for  the  day  ;  but 
if  twice,  it  would  portend  some  serious  mishap.  Finally, 
if  he  should  unfortunately  yawn,  it  might  lead  to  no  less  a 
catastrophe  than  the  entrance  of  an  evil  demon  into  his  body. 

The  Adbhuta-Brahmana  (forming  the  sixth  chapter  of  the 
Shadvinsa-Brahmana)  treats  of  portents  and  omens  ^.  It  is 
to  be  noted,  too,  that  both  the  Rig-veda  and  Atharva-veda 
contain  texts  which  prove  that  in  Vedic  times  birds  of  ill-omen 
were  greatly  dreaded  and  their  evil  influences  deprecated  ^. 

Let  us  imagine  then  all  risks  arising  from  inauspicious 
sights  well  avoided,  and  the  householder  started  on  his 
tedious  round  of  daily  religious  duties.  And  here  be  it  ob- 
served that  one  change  has  passed  over  every  Indian  house- 
hold. Manu,  we  know,  asserts  that,  according  to  a  Vedic 
ordinance,  the  husband  and  wife  ought  to  perform  religious 
rites  together  (IX.  96),  but  the  wife  has  now  no  religious 
life  in  common  with  her  husband. 

I  once  asked  a  well-educated  Brahman  why  he  acquiesced 
in  a  different  rule  of  religion  for  himself  and  his  wife.  *  Oh,' 
he  replied,  '  we  are  now  in  the  Kali-yuga,  or  age  of  universal 
degeneracy.  Our  lawgivers  have  promulgated  quite  a  new 
code  for  these  times ;  oxen  cannot  be  killed  for  sacrifices, 
and  women  in  all  religious  matters  are  practically  degraded 
to  the  position  of  Sudras.  They  are  not  allowed  to  repeat 
the  Veda,  or  to  go  through  the  morning  and  evening 
Sandhya  services.     They  never  accompany  their  husbands  to 

■^  This  has  been  published  with  translation  and  notes,  together  with 
another  text  on  the  same  subject,  by  Professor  A.  Weber  of  Berhn. 
^  See  Rig-veda  II.  42,  43,  X.  165  ;  Atharva-veda  VI.  29,  VII.  64. 


Teeth-cleaning.     Bathing,  399 

any  places  of  worship,  and  if  they  wish  to  visit  the  temples 
they  must  go  alone.  They  cannot  be  regenerated  by  in- 
vestiture with  the  sacred  thread.  Their  only  sacrament  is 
marriage.'  Such  was  his  explanation  of  an  Indian  Avife's 
inferior  religious  status.  Had  he  attributed  her  degradation 
and  seclusion  to  Muhammadan  influences  he  would  probably 
have  been  more  correct. 

Alone  then,  and  unassisted  by  his  wife,  must  the  Brahman 
commence  his  diurnal  course  of  ceremonial  observances.  His 
first  important  act  after  rising  is  to  clean  his  teeth.  A 
Brahman  ought  to  do  this  according  to  strict  rule,  on  pain 
of  forfeiting  the  whole  merit  of  the  day's  religious  acts.  He 
ought  properly  to  use  a  twig  of  the  sacred  fig-tree  (Vata),  but 
other  kinds  of  wood  are  also  allowed  ^.     Compare  p.  376. 

Teeth-cleaning,  however,  is  only  preliminary  to  the  next  im- 
portant religious  act  of  the  day — bathing  (snana).  This  should 
be  performed  in  some  sacred  stream,  but  in  default  of  a  river, 
the  householder  may  use  a  pool  or  tank,  or  even,  in  case 
of  dire  necessity,  a  bath  in  his  own  house.  Before  entering 
the  water  the  bather  ought  to  say  :  '  I  am  about  to  perform 
morning  ablution  in  this  sacred  stream  (the  Ganges  or  any 
other,  as  the  case  may  be)  in  the  presence  of  the  gods  and 
Brahmans  with  a  view  to  the  removal  of  guilt  resulting  from 
act,  speech,  thought — from  what  has  been  touched  and  un- 
touched, known  and  unknown,  eaten  and  not  eaten,  drunk  and 
not  drunk.'  During  the  process  of  bathing,  a  hymn  to  the  per- 
sonified Ganges,  consisting  of  eight  verses  (called  Gangashtaka), 
is  often  recited.    Its  opening  words  may  be  thus  translated  : — 

Daughter  of  Vishnu,  thou  didst  issue  forth 
From  Vishnu's  foot,  by  him  thou  art  beloved. 
Therefore  remove  from  us  the  stain  of  sin — 
From  birth  to  death  protecting  us  thy  servants. 


^  The  most  common  wood  employed  in  some  parts  of  India  is  that 
of  a  thorny  tree  called  Baval  (commonly  Babul).  Sometimes  the  Nimba 
(Nim)  is  used. 


400  Daily  Religious  Ceremonies. 

After  bathing  comes  the  ceremony  of  Bhasma-dharana,  or 
application  of  ashes.  This  is  done  by  rubbing  ashes  taken  from 
the  sacred  domestic  hearth  on  the  head  and  other  parts  of  the 
body,  with  the  repetition  of  a  prayer  to  Siva  (from  the  Tait- 
tiriya  Aranyaka  X.  43) : — '  I  offer  homage  to  Siva  (Sadyo- 
jata).  May  he  preserve  me  in  every  birth.  Homage  to  the 
source  of  all  birth.' 

At  this  time,  also,  every  pious  Hindu  marks  his  forehead 
with  the  sacred  mark  (called  pundra  or  tilaka)  of  his  own 
peculiar  faith  or  religious  views.  When  a  man  is  a  Siva- 
worshipper,  he  does  this  with  ashes,  in  which  case  it  is  merely 
a  part  of  the  Bhasma-dharana  rite  just  described  ^.  Some- 
times a  curved  perpendicular  mark,  sometimes  a  circular  one, 
sometimes  three  horizontal  lines  (tri-pundra)  are  made  with 
white  earth  or  pigment^.  Of  these  markings  the  upright 
(urdhva,  p.  67)  denotes  the  impress  of  the  god  Vishnu's  feet^, 
and  the  three  horizontal  the  three  functions  of  Siva  (p.  80). 

I  once  said  to  a  Brahman  who  seemed  proud  of  his  curved 
perpendicular  mark  :  '  What's  the  difference  between  you  and 
your  friend  there  with  his  three  horizontal  marks  ? '  '  Oh,'  he 
replied,  '  we  are  as  different  in  opinions  as  the  horizon  from 
the  zenith.  He  does  his  religion  horizontally,  I  do  mine  per- 
pendicularly.    But  we  are  very  good  friends  notwithstanding.' 

The  next  act  is  Sikha-bandhana,  or  the  tying  up  of  the 
locks  on  the  crown  of  the  head  (p.  374),  lest  any  hair,  thought 
to  convey  impurity,  should  fall  on  the  ground  or  in  the  water. 

^  I  am  told  that  on  Ash-Wednesday  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
members  of  the  congregation  go  up  to  the  altar  and  are  marked  with 
the  sign  of  the  cross.  This,  I  believe,  is  sometimes  done  with  the  ashes 
of  palms  such  as  are  used  on  Palm-Sunday.  I  am  told,  too,  that  the 
priest  as  he  marks  each  person  says  :  'Dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust 
thou  shalt  return.' 

^  The  worshippers  of  Vishnu  generally  use  Gopl-dandana,  a  kind  of 
white  earth  brought  from  Dvarika. 

"^  It  usually  consists  of  two  upright  lines  joined  by  a  curve  at  the 
bottom.  The  Ramanuja  Vaishnavas,  as  we  have  seen,  dispute  over 
the  form  of  this  mark  (see  p.  126). 


The  Morning  Sandhya  Service,  401 

All  preliminary  acts  and  purifications  being  now  completed, 
the  pious  Hindu  proceeds  to  the  regular  Morning  Service, 
called  Pratah-Sandhya,  performed  at  the  junction^  of  night 
and  day.  Every  one  chooses,  if  possible,  the  side  of  a  sacred 
river  or  tank  for  this  purpose,  and  every  one  conducts  the 
entire  service  by  himself.  Often  in  the  early  mornings  or 
late  in  the  evenings  I  have  watched  numerous  worshippers 
seated  at  the  water's  edge  and  going  through  the  Sandhya 
ceremonial  with  mechanical  precision — each  one  separately, 
and  each  perhaps  with  slight  variations,  omissions,  or  additions 
according  to  the  usage  of  his  own  locality  or  his  own  school 
of  the  Veda.  Indeed  we  are  so  accustomed  to  give  all  our 
attention  to  the  Veda  for  purely  literary  or  philological 
objects  that  we  are  apt  to  forget  that  directly  or  indirectly, 
for  good  or  for  evil,  these  ancient  books — the  oldest  in  the 
world,  except,  perhaps,  portions  of  the  Christian  Bible — have 
for  three  thousand  years  moulded  the  faith,  inspired  the 
prayers,  animated  the  aspirations,  influenced  the  conduct, 
shaped  the  lives  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  great  Aryan  race 
to  which  we  ourselves  belong.  And  to  this  very  day  the 
remarkable  spectacle  may  be  seen  of  millions  of  Indo- Aryans, 
comprising  countless  tribes  of  various  origin,  scattered  over  a 
vast  area  from  the  Panjab  to  Cape  Comorin,  from  Bombay  to 
Assam,  living  distinct  from  each  other  in  separate  castes  and 
communities,  yet  all  united  by  the  common  bond  of  this 
Veda,  which  they  still  use  as  their  daily  prayer-book.  The 
detail  of  these  ceremonies,  practised  as  they  still  are  by 
millions  who  acknowledge  our  rule,  are  fraught  with  the 
deepest  interest  to  every  Englishman. 

The  first  act  of  the  Morning  Sandhya  Service  ^,  and,  as  stated 

^  Some  derive  Sandhya  from  San-dhCi^  'to  join  together'  (see  my 
Sanskrit-English  Dictionary)  ;  others,  with  more  reason,  from  San-dhyai, 
*  to  meditate  in  prayer.'     Compare  the  Gayatrl  prayer,  p.  403. 

^  I  follow  a  manual  called  Brahma-karma-pustaka,  printed  at  Alibag 
in  the  Kohkan,  and  given  to  me,  as  the  best  authority  for  the  ceremonies 

Dd 


402  The  Mo7^ning  Sandhya  Service, 

before,  the  usual  preliminary  to  all  Hindu  religious  rites,  is 
sipping  water  (acamana)  ;  two  or  three  mouthfuls  being 
swallowed  for  internal  ablution.  The  water  is  taken  up  in 
the  hollowed  palm  of  the  right  hand  or  poured  from  a  spoon 
into  the  palm,  and  is  supposed  to  cleanse  body  and  soul  in  its 
downward  course.  This  is  done  two  or  three  times  at  the 
commencement  of  the  Morning  Sandhya  ^.  During  the  pro- 
cess of  sipping,  the  twenty-four  principal  names  of  the  god 
Vishnu  are  invoked,  thus  :  '  Glory  to  Kesava,  to  Narayana,  to 
Madhava,  to  Govinda,  to  Vishnu,'  etc. 

The  second  act  is  called  the  Pranayama,  *  exercise  or  regu- 
lation of  the  breath.'     This  includes  three  distinct  acts  : — 

I.  Recak;a:  pressing  in  the  right  nostril  with  the  thumb 
and  expelling  the  breath  through  the  left,  and  then  pressing 
in  the  left  nostril  and  expelling  the  breath  through  the  right. 
1.  Puraka :  pressing  in  the  right  nostril  with  the  fore- finger 
and  drawing  in  the  breath  through  the  left,  and  then  pressing 
in  the  left  nostril  and  drawing  in  the  breath  through  the  right. 
3.  Kumbhaka  :  pressing  in  both  nostrils  with  the  finger  and 
thumb,  and  holding  in  the  breath  for  as  long  as  possible. 

These  preliminary  acts,  which  ought  to  be  concluded  before 
the  rising  of  the  sun,  are  thought  to  be  useful  in  fixing  the 
mind,  concentrating  the  thoughts,  and  bringing  the  worshipper 
into  a  proper  attitude  of  attention.  He  is  now  in  a  position 
to  begin  the  recitation  of  his  prayers.  But  first  comes  the 
utterance  of  the  monosyllable  Om  (called  Pranava),  the  sound 
being  prolated  to  the  length  of  three  vowels. 

This  most  sacred  of  all  Hindu  utterances,  made  up  of  the 

of  the  Rig-vedi-Brahmans  of  the  Maratha  country,  by  Mr.  Deshmukh. 
It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  variations  occur  in  different  places  ;  and 
that  the  number  of  Brahmans  who  go  through  all  these  Sandhya  cere- 
monies is  constantly  decreasing.  At  Kshetras  on  the  banks  of  sacred 
rivers,  a  few  continue  to  practise  the  whole,  and  all  good  Brahmans  go 
through  them  in  an  abbreviated  form. 

^  One   manual   says   dvir  dca?nya,   but    Manu   (II.  60)  enjoins  three 
sippings.     It  is  a  mistake  to  translate  acamana  by  'rinsing  the  mouth.' 


The  Morning  Sandhya  Service,  403 

three  letters  A,  U,  M,  and  symbolical  of  the  triple  manifes- 
tation of  the  Supreme  Being  in  the  Tri-murti  or  Triad  of  gods, 
Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva,  is  constantly  repeated  (pp.  44,  45, 
with  note).  It  is  as  sacred  as  the  name  Jehovah  with  the 
Jews,  but  not  too  sacred  for  utterance. 

Manu  describes  it  as  a  monosyllable,  imperishable  and 
eternal  as  the  Supreme  Being  himself.  After  Om  comes  the 
utterance  of  the  names  of  the  three  worlds.  Earth  (Bhur), 
Atmosphere  (Bhuvah),  Heaven  (Svar),  to  which  are  often 
added  the  four  higher  heavens,  Mahah,  Janah,Tapah,  and  Satya. 

The  utterance  of  these  seven  names — called  the  seven 
Vyahritis — preceded  in  each  case  by  the  syllable  Om,  is  an 
act  of  homage  to  all  the  beings  inhabiting  the  seven  worlds 
(p.  102,  i).  It  is  supposed  to  induce  purity  of  thought  and  to 
prepare  the  worshipper  for  offering  up  his  first  prayer. 

Turning  towards  the  Eastern  sky  he  repeats  the  Gayatri  or 
Savitri  (from  Rig-veda  III.  6%.  10):  'Let  us  meditate  on  that 
excellent  glory  of  the  divine  Vivifying  Sun,  may  he  enlighten 
our  understandings'  (see  p.  19). 

This  prayer  is,  as  we  have  seen,  the  most  sacred  of  all  Vedic 
utterances,  and  like  the  Lord's  Prayer  among  Christians,  or 
like  the  Fatihah  or  opening  chapter  of  the  Kuran  among 
Muhammadans,  must  always  among  Hindus  take  precedence 
of  all  other  forms  of  supplication. 

The  next  division  of  the  ceremonial  is  called  Marjana, 
'sprinkling.'  It  is  a  kind  of  self-baptism  performed  by  the 
worshipper  himself  by  sprinkling  water  on  the  head  while  the 
first  three  verses  of  Rig-veda  X.  9  are  recited.  These  may  be 
thus  paraphrased  : — 

O  Waters,  give  us  health,  bestow  on  us 
Vigour  and  strength,  so  shall  I  see  enjoyment. 
Rain  down  your  dewy  treasures  o'er  our  path. 
Like  loving  mothers,  pour  on  us  your  blessing, 
Make  us  partakers  of  your  sacred  essence. 
We  come  to  you  for  cleansing  from  all  guilt, 
Cause  us  to  be  productive,  make  us  prosper 

D  d  ii 


404  The  Morning  Sandhya  Service, 

This  IS  followed  by  another  remarkable  prayer  from  the 
Taittirlya  Aranyaka  (X.  25) : — 

May  Sun  and  Anger  \  may  the  lords  of  anger 
Preserve  me  from  my  sins  of  pride  and  passion. 
Whate'er  the  nightly  sins  of  thought,  word,  deed. 
Wrought  by  my  mind,  my  speech,  my  hands,  my  feet. 
Wrought  through  my  appetite  and  sensual  organs. 
May  the  departing  Night  remove  them  all! 
In  thy  immortal  light,  O  radiant  Sun, 
I  offer  up  myself  and  this  my  guilt. 

Then  follows  a  second  performance  of  Marj ana. or  'sprinkling,' 
and  a  repetition  of  all  the  nine  verses  of  the  Rig-veda  hymn 
of  which  the  first  three  verses  had  been  previously  recited. 

The  next  act  is  the  repetition  of  a  well-known  hymn  of  the 
Rig-veda  (X.  190)  called  Agha-marshana,  'sin-annihilating,' 
supposed  to  have  an  all-powerful  effect  in  removing  sin. 
This  hymn  contains  a  curious  summary  of  the  supposed 
process  of  creation,  which  may  be  thus  paraphrased  : — 

From  glowing  heat  sprang  all  existing  things, 
Yea,  all  the  order  of  this  universe  (Rita). 
Thence  also  Night  and  heaving  Ocean  sprang  ; 
And  next  to  heaving  Ocean  rose  the  Year, 
Dividing  day  from  night.     All  mortal  men 
Who  close  the  eyelid  are  his  subjects,  he 
The  great  Disposer  made  in  due  succession 
Sun,  moon,  and  sky,  earth,  middle  air,  and  heaven. 

Manu  (XL  259)  affirms  that  this  short  hymn  thrice  repeated 
releases  from  the  most  heinous  sins. 

All  the  ceremonial  up  to  this  point  is  supposed  to  precede 
the  actual  appearance  of  the  Sun  above  the  horizon.  The 
worshipper  now  prepares  to  render  homage  to  the  rising 
luminary  by  what  is  called  Arghya  or  Arghya-dana.  At 
other  times  this  is  the  general  name  for  a  respectful  offering 
of  water  in  a  boat-shaped  vessel,  called  Argha,  to  a  Brahman 
or  guest  of  any  kind.     In  the  Sandhya  it  is  an  act  of  homage 

•^  Anger  personified  =  Manyu  (Say.  =  KrodhabhimanI  devah) ;  the  god 
or  gods  who  help  a  man  to  restrain  his  anger. 


The  Morning  Sandhya  Service,  405 

to  the  Sun,  by  offering  water,  or  throwing  it  into  the  air, 
sometimes  from  a  hollow  vessel,  but  oftener  from  the  two 
open  hands  hollowed  and  joined  together^.  The  offerer, 
standing  in  the  water,  throws  a  handful  of  it  upwards  towards 
the  Sun  three  times,  each  time  reciting  the  Gayatrl  prayer. 
The  more  he  scatters  the  water  in  throwing  it  the  better. 

The  next  division  of  the  service  is  called  Kara-nyasa,  or 
'imposition  of  fingers.'  Its  peculiar  ritual  is  taught  in  the 
more  modern  religious  works  called  Tantras. 

Some  orthodox  Brahmans  omit  every  kind  of  Tantrik 
ceremonial  as  not  sanctioned  by  the  Veda,  but  with  the 
majority  of  Hindus  it  is  all  important.  To  understand  the 
Kara-nyasa  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  five  fingers  and 
the  palm  of  the  hand  are  consecrated  to  various  forms  of 
Vishnu,  and  that  different  gods  are  supposed  to  reside  in 
different  parts  of  the  body,  the  Supreme  Being  occupying 
the  top  of  the  head  ^.  Hence  the  act  of  placing  the  fingers 
or  hand  reverentially  on  the  several  organs  is  supposed 
to  gratify  and  do  honour  to  the  deities  whose  essences 
pei-vade  these  organs,  and  to  be  completely  efiicacious  in 
removing  sin. 

The  tip  of  the  thumb  is  held  to  be  occupied  by  Govinda, 
the  forefinger  by  Mahidhara,  the  middle  finger  by  Hrishikesa, 
the  next  finger  (called  the  nameless  finger)  by  Tri-vikrama,the 
little  finger  by  Vishnu,  the  palm  of  the  hand  by  Madhava — 
all  being  different  forms  of  the  same  god  Vishnu. 

The  worshipper  then  commences  the  Nyasa  ceremonial 
by  saying  :  '  Homage  to  the  two  thumbs,  to  the  two  fore- 
fingers, to  the  two  middle  fingers,  to  the  two  nameless  fingers 

^  The  sacred  thread  (yajnopavTta),  always  worn  as  a  type  of  regener- 
ation, and  necessary  to  the  validity  of  every  religious  act  (p.  361),  is  often 
at  the  same  time  put  round  the  two  thumbs. 

^  The  right  ear  is  a  peculiarly  sacred  spot  with  Tantrikas.  Fire, 
water,  sun,  and  moon  all  reside  in  the  right  ear.  Some  think  it  is  for  this 
reason  that  the  sacred  thread,  which  is  supposed  to  be  polluted  by  the 
functions  of  nature,  is  hung,  when  they  are  performed,  over  the  right  ear. 


4o6  The  Morning  Sandkya  Service. 

(i.  e.  the  ring-fingers),  to  the  two  Httle  fingers,  to  the  two  palms 
and  the  two  backs  of  the  hands.' 

Then  follows  another  division  of  the  Nyasa  ceremonial 
called  Indriya-sparsa,  or  the  act  of  touching  different  parts  of 
the  body,  such  as  the  breast,  eyes,  ears,  navel,  throat,  and 
head,  with  the  fingers.     (Compare  Manu  II.  60.) 

Next  comes  the  regular  Gayatri-japa,  or  repeated  muttering 
of  the  Gayatri-prayer  to  the  Sun  (see  p.  19). 

Before  beginning  this  repetition,  those  who  follow  the 
Tantrik  system  go  through  the  process  of  making  various 
mystical  figures  called  Mudras,  twenty-four  in  number,  by 
twisting,  interlacing,  or  intertwining  the  fingers  and  hands 
together.  Each  of  these  figures,  according  to  its  name,  bears 
some  fanciful  resemblance  to  animals  or  objects  of  various 
kinds,  as,  for  example,  to  a  fish,  tortoise,  boar,  lion  (these 
being  forms  in  which  the  god  Vishnu  became  incarnate), 
or  to  a  cart,  noose,  knot,  garland  ;  the  efficacy  attributed 
to  these  peculiar  intertwinings  and  twistings  of  the  hands 
and  fingers  being  enormous. 

The  correct  number  of  repetitions  is  108,  and  to  insure 
accuracy  of  enumeration  a  rosary  of  108  beads  made  of  TulasI 
wood  is  generally  used,  the  hand  being  carefully  concealed  in 
a  red  bag  (called  Go-mukhi)  or  under  a  cloth. 

The  next  division  of  the  service  is  called  Upasthana  (or 
Mitropasthana),  because  the  worshipper  abandons  his  sitting 
posture,  stands  erect  with  his  face  towards  the  rising  Sun,  and 
invokes  that  luminary  under  the  name  of  Mitra.  The  prayer 
he  now  repeats  is  Rig-veda  III.  59,  of  which  the  first  verse  is 
to  the  following  effect  : — 

Mitra,  raising  his  voice,  calls  men  to  activity. 
Mitra  sustains  the  earth  and  the  sky. 
Mitra  with  unwinking  eye  beholds  all  creatures. 
Offer  to  Mitra  the  oblation  of  butter. 

The  use  of  this  hymn  in  the  morning  service  of  every 
Hindia  is  an  interesting  fact  in  its  connection  with  the  identifi- 


The  .Morning  Sandhya  Service.  407 

cation  of  the  Indian  Mitra  with  the  Zoroastrian  god  Mithra, 
mentioned  by  Herodotus,  and  with  the  same  Mithra  of  the 
Avesta.  At  the  end  the  worshipper  invokes  the  personified 
Dawns  in  the  words  of  Rig-veda  IV.  51.  11  :  'Hail  brilliant 
Dawns,  daughters  of  Heaven,  I  invoke  you,  bearing  (or 
having)  the  oblation  as  a  sign  (of  my  devotion).  May  we  be 
honoured  among  men,  may  heaven  and  the  divine  earth  effect 
that  (for  us).' 

The  last  act  but  one  is  a  recitation  of  the  family  pedigree 
(gotroccara) ;  for  with  every  high-caste  man  the  recitation  of 
his  own  genealogy  forms  an  important  part  of  the  daily 
Sandhya.     For  example  : — 

'I  belong  to  a  particular  Gotra  (or  tribe  of  Brahmans);  I 
have  three  ancestors — Aiigirasa,  Sainya,  and  Gargya  ;  I  am  a 
student  of  the  Asvalayana  Sutra,  and  follow  the  Sakala-sakha 
of  the  Rig-veda.'     See  also  p.  425. 

The  ceremonial  concludes  with  an  acknowledgement  that 
the  one  Supreme  Being  is  the  real  object  of  adoration 
throughout  the  whole  service  :  '  Glory  to  the  world  of  Brahma, 
to  the  world  of  Rudra,  to  the  world  of  Vishnu.  May  the  One 
Supreme  Lord  of  the  Universe  be  pleased  with  this  my 
morning  service.' 

The  last  act,  like  the  first,  is  an  internal  purification  of  the 
body  by  acamana,  or  sipping  of  water. 

In  the  midday  Sandhya  (madhyahna-sandhya,  now  seldom 
performed),  a  different  text  of  the  Taittiriya  Aranyaka  (X.  23) 
is  substituted  for  that  used  before  (pp.  400,  404),  and  at  the 
Arghya-dana  (p.  404)  two  different  Rig-veda  texts  are  sub- 
stituted (viz.  I.  0^^.  2  and  the  Hansavati  Rid  IV.  40.  5),  and  at 
the  Upasthana  the  Surya-sukta  (I.  50,  sec  p.  16). 

The  evening  Sandhya  service  (Sayam-sandhya)  is  like  the 
morning,  except  that  at  the  Arghya-dana  the  offering  is  made 
to  Varuna  and  at  the  Upasthana  ten  verses  of  Rig-veda  I.  25 
are  recited — freely  rendered  thus  : — 

I.  As  often  as,  O  Varuna,  we  infringe  thy  law,  like  other  men,  every 


4o8  '     Brahna-yajha  Service, 

day,  2.  So  often  deliver  us  not  over  to  death,  nor  to  the  blows  of  the 
angry,  nor  to  the  wrath  of  the  enraged.     3.  As  a  charioteer  his  tethered 
steed,  so  do  we  set  free  thy  thoughts  by  our  hymns,  O  Varuna,  to  turn 
towards  us  graciously.      4.  My  wishes  fly  forth  towards  thee,  as  birds 
to  their  nest,  that  I  may  receive  thy  blessing  (vasyas  may  mean  '  excel- 
lent wealth').     5-  When  shall  we  induce  the  far-seeing  ruler  (or  leader) 
Varuna,  glorious  in  his  sovereignty,  to  be  propitious  to  us?     6.  Partake 
together  (O  Mitra  and  Varuna)  of  the  very  same  oblation,  being  both 
of  you  propitious  to  us  ;    depart  not  from  those  who  present  offerings 
and  remain  true  to  their  vows.     7.  He   (Varuna)  who  knows  the  path 
of  the  birds  flying  through  the  air,  he  abiding  in  the  ocean  knows  also 
the  ships.     8.  He  the  maintainer  of  law  (and  order)  knows  the  twelve 
months  with  their  offspring  ;    he  knows  also  the  month  which  is  born 
afterwards  (i.  e.  the  thirteenth  or  additional  month  of  the  Hindi!  year). 
9.  He  knows  the  path  of  the  wind,  the  far-reaching,  lofty,  mighty  (wind), 
and   those    (Maruts)    who   are    enthroned   above    it.       10.    Varuna,    the 
maintainer   of  law  (and  order),  sits  in  his  palace  to  exercise  universal 
sovereignty,  doing  good  acts,  the  almighty  one. 

We  must  now  advert  to  the  supplementary  ceremonial 
observances  which  are  necessary  to  the  completion  of  the 
morning  Sandhya. 

The  first  act  is  Brahma-yajna,  or  worship  of  the  Supreme 
Being  as  represented  in  the  sacred  Veda  or  canon  of  inspired 
knowledge.  And  here  mark  that  the  Sandhya  service  is 
itself  regarded  as  a  part  of  Brahma-yajna.  Every  portion  of 
it  is  held  to  be  for  the  sake  of  pleasing  the  Supreme  Being 
(Brahma),  but  the  use  of  the  term  Brahma-yajiia  is  more 
usually  restricted  to  the  Brahma-yajna  par  excellence  ;  that  is, 
to  the  special  worship  of  Brahma  as  identified  with  the  Veda. 

How  then  is  this  special  Brahma-yajna  to  be  performed  ? 
We  must  remember  that  in  Hinduism  every  religious  idea, 
including  that  of  revelation,  is  exaggerated. 

Instead  of  sixty-six  Books  to  which  our  own  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures extend,  the  Hindu  so-called  revelation  consists  of  a  far 
larger  number  of  works,  all  of  which  are  accepted  as  either 
directly  revealed  or  inspired.  Even  works  on  pronunciation, 
etymology,  and  grammar  are  included  in  the  list  as  part  and 
parcel  of  the  sacred  canon. 

How,  then,  is  this  mass  of  sacred  inspiration  to  be  dealt 


Tarpaiia  Ceremony.  409 

with  by  those  reh'gious  Brahmans  who  wish  to  fulfil  the  duty 
of  repeating  portions  of  it  daily  ? 

It  cannot  be  affirmed  of  any  Hindu,  however  pious,  that  he 
reads  his  own  Bible,  as  a  Christian  does  his,  much  less  studies 
it.  The  Veda  is  not  meant  to  be  either  read  or  studied.  We 
have  seen  how  portions  of  the  first  three  Vedas  are  repeated 
at  the  daily  Sandhya  prayers.  Portions  also  of  the  Maha- 
bharata  (e.  g.  the  Bhagavad-gita)  and  of  the  Puranas  (e.  g.  the 
Bhagavata  and  Markandeya)  are  occasionally  recited.  But 
the  duty  of  paying  homage  to  Brahma  by  repeating  the  words 
of  divine  revelation  is  held  to  be  sufficiently  fulfilled  by  the 
daily  exercise  of  repeating  the  first  few  words  of  all  the  prin- 
cipal books,  except  the  first  hymn  of  the  Rig-veda,  which  is 
recited  throughout.  Then  comes  the  first  verse  of  the  second 
hymn.  These  Vedic  texts  may  be  recited  according  to  any 
one  or  more  of  the  five  different  Pathas,  or  modes  of  recitation, 
called  Sanihita,  Pada,  Krama,  Jata,  and  Ghana — wonderful 
devices  for  securing  the  accuracy  of  the  Vedic  text.  Then 
come  the  first  words  of  the  Aitareya  Brahmana  (Agnir  vai 
devanam  avamo)  and  of  each  of  the  five  books  of  the  Aita- 
reya Aranyaka.  Then  the  first  words  of  the  Yajur-veda ;  of 
the  Sama-veda  ;  of  the  Atharva-veda  ;  of  the  Nirukta  ;  of  the 
Lhandas  (Prosody)  ;  of  the  Nighantu  ;  of  the  Jyotisha  ;  of  the 
Siksha  ;  of  Panini's  grammar.  Then  certain  passages  from  the 
Atharva-veda  ;  then  the  first  words  of  Yajiiavalkya's  law-book, 
of  the  Maha-bharata,  and  of  the  philosophical  Sutras,  etc. 

The  Brahma-yajna  service  is  followed  by  the  Tarpana  cere- 
mony, which  is  properly  a  triple  act,  consisting  in  offerings  of 
water  for  refreshment  (tarpana)  to  the  gods,  inspired  sages, 
and  fathers.     It  is  accordingly  divided  into  three  parts. 

In  the  first  part,  called  Deva-tarpana, '  refreshing  of  the  gods,' 
the  sacred  thread  is  worn  over  the  left  shoulder  and  under  the 
right  arm,  the  worshipper  being  then  called  Upavltl. 

Water  is  taken  up  in  the  right  hand  and  poured  out  over 
the  straightened  fingers. 


4IO  Pancayatana  Ceremony. 

In  the  second  part  of  the  Tarpana  service,  called  Rishl- 
tarpana,  'refreshing  of  the  inspired  sages,'  the  sacred  thread 
is  worn  round  the  neck  like  a  necklace,  the  worshipper  being 
then  called  Niviti. 

The  water  is  then  offered  so  as  to  flow  over  the  side  of  the 
palm  between  the  root  of  the  thumb  and  fore-finger,  the  finger 
being  bent  inwards  -^. 

The  worshipper  now  changes  the  position  of  his  sacred 
thread,  and  placing  it  over  his  right  shoulder  and  under  his 
left  arm  (being  then  called  Praclnavlti)  makes  offerings  of 
water  to  the  Acaryas,  or  inspired  religious  teachers.  This 
is  called  Acarya-tarpana,  and  is  regarded  as  supplementary 
to  the  Rishi-tarpana  and  not  as  a  distinct  division  of  the 
service. 

The  third  division  of  the  Tarpana  ceremony  is  called  Pitri- 
tarpana, '  refreshing  of  deceased  fathers  or  departed  ancestors.' 

The  thread  is  worn  over  the  right  shoulder  as  in  Acarya- 
tarpana,  but  the  water  is  poured  out  over  the  side  of  the  palm 
opposite  to  the  root  of  the  thumb.  The  words  uttered  are, 
'  Let  the  fathers  be  refreshed  ;  let  this  water  containing  tila 
(sesamum  seeds)  be  intended  for  all  who  inhabit  the  seven 
worlds  as  far  as  the  abode  of  Brahma  (the  seventh  world), 
though  they  exceed  many  millions  of  families.  Let  the  water 
consecrated  by  my  sacred  thread  be  accepted  by  those  mem- 
bers of  our  family  who  have  died  without  any  sons.' 

This  concludes  the  series  of  Sandhya,  Brahma-yajfia,  and 
Tarpana  services. 


Pancayata7ia  Ceremo7ty. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  Tarpana  ceremony  the  worshipper 
ought  to  re-enter  his  house  and  perform  the  Homa,  or  offering 


The  part  of  the  hand  between  the  thumb  and  fore-finger  is  called 
pitrya,  and  is  sacred  to  the  Pitris.     (Compare  Manu  II.  51.) 


1 


Pancayatana  Cere^itony,  411 

of  oblations  to  the  gods  through  fire,  described  in  a  previous 
chapter  (p.  '^66). 

In  Manu's  time  the  worship  of  the  gods  (deva  or  dcvata) 
through  the  Homa  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  five  Maha- 
yajiias,  or  chief  devotional  acts,  the  other  four  being  (i) 
homage  to  the  Supreme  Spirit  and  to  that  Spirit  present  in 
the  Veda,  performed  by  the  Brahma-yajiia  service  ;  (2)  homage 
to  the  Pitris,  or  deceased  progenitors,  performed  by  the 
Tarpana  and  Sraddha  ceremonies ;  (3)  homage  to  all  beings 
(bhuta),  including  animals,  performed  by  offerings  of  food 
called  ball ;  (4)  homage  to  men,  performed  by  hospitality  to 
guests  and  almsgiving  to  beggars.  Of  these  five  acts  the  wor- 
ship of  the  gods — deva-yajha  or  deva-puja — was  formerly  the 
simplest.  It  was  generally  sufficiently  performed  by  putting 
oblations  of  rice  or  clarified  butter  in  fire.  In  the  present 
day,  as  already  stated,  no  one,  except  the  most  orthodox 
Brahmans,  thinks  it  necessary  to  maintain  a  sacred  fire,  and 
the  old  fire  ritual  is  gradually  dying  out. 

Other  forms  of  worshipping  the  gods  are,  however,  sub- 
stituted. In  nearly  every  modern  house  there  is  a  room 
containing  a  sanctuary,  called  Mandira.  Here  the  religious 
service  called  Deva-puja  is  generally  performed  by  pious 
householders,  or  by  some  member  of  the  family  deputed  to 
represent  the  others  every  morning. 

It  is,  we  know,  an  essential  part  of  the  theory  of  Brahman- 
ism  (p.  50)  that  all  gods  like  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva,  who 
are  manifestations  of  the  invisible  and  formless  Brahma,  should 
be  worshipped  through  visible  forms.  In  the  Deva-puja, 
therefore,  homage  is  paid  to  these  deities  through  images,  or 
more  commonly,  in  Central  and  Southern  India  and  the 
Maratha  country,  through  the  worship  of  five  stones  or 
symbols  which  are  believed  to  be  permeated  by  the  essences 
of  the  five  chief  deities. 

The  room  dedicated  to  their  worship  need  not  be  on  the 
ground-floor,  like  the  Homa-sala.    The  five  stones  (as  pointed 


412  Pancayatana  Ceremony, 

out,  pp.  69, 392)  are — i.  the  black  stone  ^,  representing  Vishnu  ; 
■z.  the  white  stone ^,  representing  Siva's  essence;  3.  the  red 
stone,  representing  Ganesa  (Gana-pati)  ;  4.  the  small  piece 
of  metallic  ore,  representing  the  wife  of  Siva  ;  5.  the  piece  of 
crystal,  representing  the  Sun.  The  first  two  stones — Sala- 
grama  and  Bana-linga — are  regarded  as  far  more  sacred  than 
manufactured  idols,  for  such  idols  must  be  consecrated, 
whereas  these  stones  are  occupied  by  Vishnu  and  Siva 
without  any  consecration  whatever. 

All  five  symbols  are  placed  on  a  round  open  metal  dish, 
called  Paiicayatana,  and  are  arranged  in  five  different  methods, 
according  to  the  preference  given  to  any  one  of  the  five  deities 
at  the  time  of  worship.     These  five  methods  are  : — 

I.  Vishnu  in  the  middle;  Siva  N.  E.  (i.e.  towards  the  north-east 
quarter) ;  Ganesa  S.  E. ;  Surya  S.W. ;  Devi  N.W.  2.  Siva  in  the  mid- 
dle ;  Vishnu  N.W.  ;  Surya  S.E.;  Ganesa  S.W  ;  Devi  N.W.  3.  Surya 
in  the  middle;  Siva  N.E. ;  Ganesa  S.E. ;  Vishnu  S.W. ;  Devi  N.W. 
4.  Devi  in  the  middle;  Vishnu  N.E  ;  Siva  S.E. ;  Ganesa  S.W. ;  Siirya 
N.W.  5.  Ganesa  in  the  middle;  Vishnu  N.E.;  Siva  S.E. ;  Surya  S.W.; 
Devi  N.W. 

Then,  again,  on  one  side  of  the  Pancayatana  is  a  small  bell, 
and  on  the  other  side  a  conch-shell  ^,  and  near  at  hand  is  a 
water-vessel  called  Kalasa  or  Abhisheka-patra,  with  a  small 
hole  in  the  bottom  of  it,  through  which  the  water  used  for 
sprinkling  the  stones  passes.  These  three  objects  are  also 
held  sacred  and  receive  their  share  of  worship. 

I  should  state  that  near  the  metal  receptacle  containing  the 
five  sacred  stones  is  placed  another  metal  plate  on  which  are 


^  Near  the  black  Sala-grama  stone  there  is  often  placed  a  kind  of  fossil 
with  circular  markings,  also  sacred  to  Vishnu  and  symbolising  his  cakra. 
The  Muhammadans  also  worship  a  kind  of  black  stone  fixed  in  the  Ka'ba. 
This  stone-worship  is  doubtless  a  remnant  of  fetishism  which  has  pre- 
vailed in  all  countries. 

^  It  is  curious  that  Vishnu  should  be  represented  as  of  a  black  colour 
and  Siva  as  white,  when  the  former  is  held  to  be  connected  with  the 
Sattva-guna  and  the  latter  with  the  Tamo-guna  (see  p.  45). 

^  The  conch-shell  is  specially  sacred  to  Vishnu  (see  p.  103). 


Pancayatana  Ceremony,  41 


'> 


arranged  the  TulasT  leaves  for  Vishnu  and  the  Bilva  leaves  for 
Siva,  besides  offerings  of  flowers,  perfumes,  etc. 

The  worship  of  the  five  deities  thus  represented  is  per- 
formed by  sixteen  acts  of  homage  (upacara),  one  for  each  of 
the  sixteen  verses  of  the  Purusha-sukta,  or  ninetieth  hymn  of 
the  tenth  Mandala  of  the  Rig-veda,  and  the  ceremony  is  some- 
times called  Paiicayatana-puja,  from  the  receptacle  (ayatana) 
in  which  the  five  symbols  are  placed. 

Before  commencing  the  service  the  worshipper  goes  through 
the  usual  sippings  of  water  (acamana)  and  suppressions  of  the 
breath  before  described  (p.  402).  Then  after  repeating  certain 
preliminary  prayers  he  invokes  the  god  Ganesa,  employing  a 
well-known  text  from  the  Rig-veda  (II.  23) :  '  Om.  We 
invoke  thee  who  art  lord  of  the  hosts  of  hosts  (Ganapatim 
gananam),  the  sage  of  sages,  of  most  exalted  fame,  the  most 
excellent  king  of  Vedic  mantras,  O  Lord  of  prayer  \  hear  us 
with  favour,  and  enter  our  dwelling  to  aid  us  (against  the 
demons  of  obstruction).' 

This  invocation  is  followed  by  Nyasa,  or  the  reverential 
touching  of  various  parts  of  the  body,  in  connection  with 
the  recitation  of  a  few  words  at  the  beginning  and  middle 
of  each  of  the  last  six  verses  of  the  Purusha-sukta  (X.  90) 
of  the  Ricr-veda. 

The  next  act  is  adoration  of  the  water-vessel  (kalasa), 
thus : — 

'  In  the  mouth  of  the  water-vessel  abideth  Vishnu,  in  its 
neck  is  Rudra,  in  its  lower  part  is  Brahma,  while  the  whole 
company  of  the  Mothers  (matris)  are  congregated  in  its 
middle  part.  O  Ganges,  Yamuna,  Godavarl,  Sarasvatl,  Nar- 
mada,  Sindhu,  and  Kaverl,  be  present  in  this  water.' 

Next  succeeds  the  worship  of  the  conch-shell,  thus  : — 

^  Brahman  is  here  used  for  the  hymns,  or  rather  mantras,  of  the  Veda 
which  in  later  times  were  used  as  spells  to  counteract  the  malice  of 
demons.  Ganesa  in  his  power  over  the  troops  of  demons  is  thus  identified 
with  the  Vedic  Brahmanas-pati,  or  lord  of  prayer. 


414  Pancayatana  Ceremony, 

*  O  conch-shell  (Pancajanya,  see  p.  103),  thou  wast  produced 
in  the  sea,  and  art  held  by  Vishnu  in  his  hand  ;  thou  art 
worshipped  by  all  the  gods.     Receive  my  homage.' 

Then  follows  adoration  of  the  bell,  thus : — 

'  O  bell,  make  a  sound  for  the  approach  of  the  gods,  and 
for  the  departure  of  the  demons.  Homage  to  the  goddess 
Ghanta  (bell).  I  offer  perfumes,  grains  of  rice,  and  flow^ers, 
in  token  of  rendering  all  due  homage  to  the  bell.' 

Then  after  intertwining  his  fingers  so  as  to  make  the 
mystical  figure  called  Ghanta-mudra,  the  worshipper  must 
ring  the  bell.  Next,  after  fixing  his  thoughts,  he  says  a 
prayer  to  Vishnu,  Siva,  the  son  of  Siva  (Gana-pati),  the 
Supreme  Being  (Narayana)  in  the  centre  of  the  Sun's  orb, 
and  the  goddess  Devi.  The  worshipper  now  commences 
the  sixteen  acts  of  homage  or  offerings  (upacara),  each  ac- 
companied with  the  uttering  of  one  of  the  sixteen  verses  of 
the  Purusha  hymn  of  the  Rig-veda  (X.  90),  a  literal  transla- 
tion of  which  I  here  subjoin  (see  also  pp.  17,  '>)'i) '- — 

I.  Purusha  has  thousands  of  heads  (thousands  of  arms,  A.V.),  thousands 
of  eyes,  and  thousands  of  feet.  On  every  side  enveloping  the  earth,  he 
transcended  this  mere  space  of  ten  fingers  ^.  2.  Purusha  himself  is  this 
whole  (universe),  whatever  has  been,  and  whatever  shall  be.  He  is  also 
the  lord  of  immortality,  since  through  food  he  expands.  3.  Such  is  his 
greatness ;  and  Purusha  is  superior  to  this.  All  existing  things  are  a 
quarter  of  him,  and  that  which  is  immortal  in  the  sky  is  three  quarters  of 
him.  4.  With  three  quarters  Purusha  mounted  upwards.  A  quarter  of 
him  again  was  produced  here  below.  He  then  became  diffused  every- 
where among  things  animate  and  inanimate.  5.  From  him  Viraj  was 
born,  and  from  Viraj,  Purusha.  As  soon  as  born  he  extended  beyond 
the  earth,  both  behind  and  before.  6.  When  the  gods  offered  up  Purusha 
as  a  sacrifice,  the  spring  was  its  clarified  butter,  summer  its  fuel,  and 
autumn  the  (accompanying)  oblation.  7.  This  victim,  Purusha  born  in 
the  beginning,  they  consecrated  on  the  sacrificial  grass  ;  with  him  as 
their  offering,  the  gods,  Sadhyas,  and  Rishis  sacrificed.  8.  From  that 
universal  oblation  were  produced  curds  and  clarified  butter.  He  (Purusha) 
formed  the  animals  which  are  subject  to  the  power  of  the  air  (vayavya), 

^  The  world  is  called  Dasangula,  a  mere  span  of  ten  fingers  compared 
with  God's  infinite  essence.  I  have  chiefly  followed  Dr.  John  Muir's  trans- 
lation, but  not  throughout  (see  Texts,  p.  368).    A.V.  is  for  Atharva-veda. 


Pahlayatana  Ceremo7ty.  415 

both  wild  and  tame.  9.  From  that  universal  sacrifice  sprang  the  hymns 
called  Ric^  and  Saman,  the  metres,  and  the  Yajush.  lo.  From  it  were 
produced  horses,  and  all  animals  with  two  rows  of  teeth,  cows,  goats,  and 
sheep,  II.  When  they  divided  Purusha,  into  how  many  parts  did  they 
distribute  him  ?  What  was  his  mouth  ?  What  were  his  arms  ?  What 
were  called  his  thighs  and  feet?  12.  The  Brahman  was  his  mouth  ;  the 
Rajanya  became  his  arms  ;  the  Vaisya  was  his  thighs  ;  the  Sudra  sprang 
from  his  feet.  13.  The  moon  was  produced  from  his  soul ;  the  sun  from 
his  eye ;  Indra  and  Agni  from  his  mouth  ;  the  Vayu  from  his  breath. 
14.  From  his  navel  came  the  atmosphere  ;  from  his  head  arose  the  sky ; 
from  his  feet  came  the  earth ;  from  his  ear  the  four  quarters ;  so  they 
formed  the  worlds.  15.  When  the  gods,  in  performing  their  sacrifice, 
bound  Purusha  as  a  victim,  there  were  seven  pieces  of  wood  laid  for  him 
round  the  fire,  and  thrice  seven  pieces  of  fuel  employed.  16.  With  sacri- 
fice the  gods  worshipped  the  Sacrifice.  These  were  the  primeval  rites. 
These  great  beings  attained  to  the  heaven  where  the  gods,  the  ancient 
Sadhyas,  reside. 

The  sixteen  acts  of  homage  or  offerings  are — 

I.  Invocation  (avahana)  ;  2.  a  seat  for  sitting  down  (asana)  formed  of 
TulasT  leaves ;  3.  foot  water  (padya) ;  4.  respectful  oblation  (arghya)  of 
rice,  etc. ;  5.  water  for  sipping  (acamanlya) ;  6.  ablution  or  lustration 
(snana)  with  milk  and  clarified  butter,  honey  and  sugar  ;  7.  clothing 
(vastra)  formed  of  Tulasi  leaves ;  8.  upper  clothing  or  ornaments  (upa- 
vastra)  formed  of  more  TulasT  leaves ;  9.  perfumes  and  sandal  (gandha, 
candana)  ;  10.  flowers  (pushpa) ;  11.  incense  (dhupa)  ;  12.  illumination 
(dipa)  ;  13.  oblation  of  food  (naivedya) ;  14.  reverential  circumambula- 
tion  (pradakshina) ;  15.  flowers  with  recitation  of  texts  (mantra-pushpa)  ; 
16.  final  act  of  adoration  (namaskara). 

With  each  act  of  homage  one  of  the  sixteen  verses  of  the 

Purusha  hymn  above  translated  is  recited.     The  final  act  of 

adoration  is  as  follows  : — 

Veneration  to  the  infinite  and  eternal  Male  (Purusha),  who  has  thou- 
sands of  names,  thousands  of  forms,  thousands  of  feet,  thousands  of  eyes, 
thousands  of  heads,  thousands  of  thighs,  thousands  of  arms,  and  who  lives 
for  ten  millions  of  ages. 

O  great  god,  pardon  my  want  of  knowledge  of  the  right  way  of  wor- 
shipping thee.  Sin,  misery,  and  poverty  are  removed ;  happiness  and 
purity  are  obtained  by  thy  presence.  O  great  god,  I  commit  thousands 
of  faults  every  day  and  night ;  forgive  me,  as  I  am  thy  servant.  There  is 
no  other  protection  but  from  thee  ;  thou  only  art  my  refuge  ;  guard  me, 
therefore,  and  defend  me  by  thy  mercy  ;  pardon  my  mistakes  and  defects 

^  According  to  Sayana's  introduction  to  the  Rig-veda,  this  mention  of 
the  Ri(^  first  proves  the  priority  of  the  Rig-veda. 


4t6  Vaisvadeva  Ceremony. 

in  syllables,  words,  and  measure  ;  O  mighty  lord,  be  propitiated.  I  offer 
flowers  with  prayers.  Let  the  five  gods,  of  whom  great  Vishnu  is  the 
first,  be  pleased  with  the  worship  I  have  made.  Let  all  this  be  offered  to 
the  Supreme  Being.  I  offer  thee  with  my  mouth,  O  Vishnu,  the  sacred 
salutation  Vashat.  Be  pleased,  O  Sipivishta  \  with  my  oblation  ;  let  my 
songs  of  praise  exalt  thee  ;  protect  us  ever  with  thy  blessings  (Rig-veda 
VII.  99.  7>  loo-  7)- 

Then  sipping  water  the  worshipper  says  : — 

*  I  take  into  my  body  the  holy  water  which  comes  from 
the  feet  of  Vishnu,  preventing  untimely  death  and  destroying 
all  diseases.' 

This  concludes  the  Pancayatana  ceremony  as  performed  by 
Brahmans  in  the  Maratha  country.  Doubtless  here  and  there 
local  variations  may  occur. 

In  some  districts  where  Siva  is  worshipped  a  form  of  service 
called  Siva-pQja  is  substituted  for  the  Paficayatana-puja,  and 
two  hymns  called  the  Rudra  hymns,  from  the  Yajur-veda 
(Vajasaneyi-Sarnhita  XVI ;  XVIII),  are  recited.  These  two 
hymns  are  still  used  by  strict  Brahmans,  and  familiarly  called 
Namak  and  Camak,  because  Namas  te  is  constantly  repeated 
in  one  and  Ca  me  in  the  other. 

Vaisvadeva  Ceremony. 

An  orthodox  Brahman's  craving  for  religious  ceremonial 
is  not  by  any  means  satiated  by  the  tedious  round  of  forms 
he  has  gone  through  in  the  early  morning.  A  pause  of  an 
hour  or  two  brings  him  to  the  time  when  preparations  for 
another  solemn  rite  have  to  be  made.  This  is  the  ceremony 
which  ought  to  precede  the  midday  meal. 

It  should  be  stated  that  an  Indian  household  is  satisfied 
with  two  principal  daily  meals — one  about  midday,  artother 
in  the  evening — but  no  pious  householder  of  high  caste  will 
sit    down   to    the    former  without   first    performing   what    is 

^  This  epithet  of  Vishnu  is  only  applicable  to  him  as  a  form  of  the  Sun 
displaying  his  rays  in  all  directions. 


Vaisvadeva  Ceremony.  417 

called  the  Vaisvadeva  ceremony,  or  offering  to  all  the  gods 
(visve  devah)  ^.  Nor  is  this  held  to  be  completed  without  the 
addition  of  another  rite,  called  Bali-harana,  which  is  practically 
nothing  more  than  the  concluding  act  of  the  Vaisvadeva  ^. 

The  gods  worshipped  in  the  Vaisvadeva  are  Vedic,  and  the 
ceremony  is  therefore  from  its  antiquity  far  more  interesting 
than  the  Pahcayatana-puja,  or  any  other  modern  form  of  the 
Deva-puja.  It  is  described  in  its  most  ancient  form  in  Manu 
III.  84-93.  Tl"ie  idea  involved  in  the  entire  service  seems  to 
be,  that  before  a  man  begins  eating  he  ought  to  consecrate  and 
purify  his  food  by  making  offerings  of  small  portions  of  cooked 
rice  and  other  food  to  all  the  deities  through  whose  favour  he 
is  himself  fed,  and  more  especially  to  Fire,  who  is  the  bearer  of 
the  offering  to  heaven.  In  point  of  fact  the  whole  ceremony 
resolves  itself  into  a  form  of  homage  offered  to  the  gods  who 
give  the  food,  and  to  the  god  of  fire  without  whose  aid  this  food 
could  not  be  prepared  for  eating.  There  is  also  a  notion  that, 
in  preparing  the  food  by  cooking,  animals  may  have  been 
accidentally  destroyed,  for  which  expiation  should  be  made. 

It  should  be  observed  that  the  Vaisvadeva  is  not,  like  the 
Sandhya,  incumbent  on  every  individual  separately.  It  may 
be  performed  vicariously,  like  the  Deva-puja,  through  one 
member  of  the  family  (generally  a  junior  member)  acting 
for  the  others.  In  performing  it  a  small  portable  fire- 
receptacle,  called  a  Kunda,  is  brought  into  the  room  where 

^  In  reality  only  certain  classes  of  deities  are  intended.  It  is  curious 
that  the  number  of  the  gods  is  sometimes  asserted  in  the  Rig-veda  to  be 
33,  while  elsewhere  (X.  6.  3)  the  number  3306  is  given,  and  elsewhere 
(III.  9.  9)  3339.  They  are  now  popularly  said  to  amount  to  330  millions, 
but  any  limitation  as  to  number  is  opposed  to  the  Brahmanical  theory  of 
infinite  evolution.  Moreover  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  no  god  in 
the  Hindu  Pantheon  is  eternal,  except  the  one  Brahma— the  one  self- 
existent  Spirit — out  of  which  all  the  gods  are  evolved  and  into  which 
they  will  all  be  re-absorbed. 

^  Some  manuals  speak  of  the  two  in  the  dual,  as  Vaisvadeva-balikar- 
manl.  They  are  described  by  Colebrooke  in  his  '  Religious  Ceremonies 
of  the  Hindus/  but  in  a  confused  and  imperfect  manner. 

E  e 


41 8  Vaisvadeva  Cereino7ty. 

the  eatables  are  collected.  Consecrated  fire — fed  with  con- 
secrated fuel — is  placed  in  it,  sacred  grass  is  spread  around, 
and  offerings  of  rice,  etc.  are  cast  into  the  flames  for  all  the 
deities,  with  repetition  of  Vedic  texts. 

The  Bali-harana  which  follows  requires  for  its  proper  per- 
formance an  elaborate  arrangement  of  portions  of  food  in 
a  circle  ^,  each  portion  being  allotted  to  a  particular  deity, 
or  class  of  superhuman  beings,  with  the  utterance  of  prescribed 
formularies. 

The  detail  of  both  Vaisvadeva  and  Bali-harana  as  p"iven  in 

o 

the  most  trustworthy  manuals  is  as  follows : — 

The  worshipper  begins  by  the  usual  sippings  of  water 
(acamana)  and  breath  exercises  (p.  402),  and  by  declaring  his 
intention  (sankalpa)  of  performing  the  ceremony,  thus  : — 

'  I  will  to-day  perform  the  morning  and  evening^  Vaisva- 
deva with  the  cooked  food  (siddhanna)  cast  into  the  fire, 
for  the  purification  of  that  food  and  for  my  own  purification, 
and  to  make  expiation  for  the  five  destructive  domestic  im- 
plements^ (Pailca-suna),  and  to  obtain  the  reward  prescribed 
by  the  Sruti,  Smriti,  and  Puranas.' 

Then  after  bringing  in  a  small  movable  fire-receptacle,  the 
service  commences  with  an  invocation  (avahana)  of  the  god 
of  fire  from  the  Rig-veda  (V.  4.  5  ;  I.  72.  6),  which  may  be 
thus  translated  : — 

'  O  all-wise  god  Agni,  come  to  this  our  sacrifice  as  a  loved  domestic 
friend  and  household  guest.  Destroy  all  our  enemies,  and  procure  for  us, 
O  Agni,  the  food  (and  other  possessions)  of  those  who  bear  us  enmity.' 

'  Come,  Agni,  hither  and  sit  down  here  as  our  priest,  and  be  to  us  a 

•^  A  diagram  of  the  circle  is  given  in  most  of  the  Directories,  with  the 
order  in  which  the  portions  of  food  are  to  be  arranged. 

^  The  evening  Vaisvadeva  is  never,  so  far  as  I  was  able  to  ascertain, 
performed  in  the  present  day. 

^  The  five  places,  or  domestic  implements,  through  the  use  of  which 
animals  may  be  accidentally  destroyed  in  the  process  of  preparing  food, 
are — i.  the  fire-place  ;  2.  the  slab  for  grinding  grain  and  condiments  ; 
3.  the  pots  and  pans  ;  4.  the  pestle  and  mortar  ;  and  5.  the  water-pot. 
See  Manu  III.  68. 


Vaisvadeva  Ceremony.  419 

trustworthy  guide.     May  all-pervading  heaven  and  earth  defend  thee  ! 
Bear  our  oblations  to  the  gods  for  their  complete  satisfaction.' 

After  these  invocations  a  covered  dish  of  uncooked  rice  is 
brought  in  and  the  cover  removed.  Then  sacred  fire  is  placed 
in  the  receptacle,  with  these  words  :  Om  Bhiir  bhuvah  svah, 
'  I  deposit  the  fire  called  Rukmaka  ^  (bright  as  gold).'  Con- 
secrated fuel  is  next  put  on  and  the  fire  fanned,  while  the 
following  well-known  and  remarkable  text  from  Rig-veda  IV. 
58.  3  is  recited  :  '  Four  are  his  horns,  three  are  his  feet,  two 
are  his  heads,  seven  are  his  hands.  He  the  triply-bound  bull 
roars.     The  mighty  deity  enters  mortals^.' 

Next  comes  a  text  from  the  Svetasvatara  Upanishad  II.  16  : 
'  This  god  (of  fire)  pervades  all  the  quarters  of  the  sky  ;  he 
was  the  first-born  of  all  things  ;  he  is  within  the  womb  ;  he 
was  born  and  is  to  be  born ;  he  dwells  in  all  men,  and  has  his 
countenance  in  all  directions.' 

The  collecting  together  and  spreading  of  the  consecrated 
fuel  and  sacred  Kusa  grass  employed  in  the  ceremony  are 
then  made  ;  and  w^ater  is  sprinkled  round  in  a  circle. 

Next,  the  rice  about  to  be  eaten  is  consecrated  by  the 
sprinkling  of  water  and  placed  on  the  fire.  It  is  then  taken 
off  and  deposited  between  the  worshipper  and  the  fire. 

^  Fire  is  of  various  kinds  and  has  various  names,  and  it  is  requisite  to 
name  the  particular  fire  intended  to  be  prepared. 

^  Prof.  H.  H.  Wilson  gives  a  note  in  his  translation,  showing  that 
Sayana  identifies  Agni  here  with  either  Sacrifice  or  the  Sun.  The  four 
horns  are  the  Veda  or  the  Cardinal  points,  the  three  feet  are  the  three 
daily  Sandhyas,  or  morning,  noon,  and  evening  ;  the  heads  are  either  two 
particular  ceremonies,  or  day  and  night ;  the  seven  hands  are  the  seven 
metres  or  seven  solar  rays.  The  bull  is  sacrifice,  or  the  Sun  as  the  pourer 
down  of  benefits  ;  the  triple  bond  is  Mantra,  Kalpa,  and  Brahmana,  and 
the  roaring  sound  is  the  recitation  of  the  Veda.  Pataiijali  in  the  Maha- 
bhashya  (I.  I.  i)  explains  the  four  horns  to  mean  the  four  kinds  of 
words — nouns,  verbs,  prepositions  and  particles ;  the  three  feet  the  three 
tenses — past,  present  and  future  ;  the  two  heads  the  eternal  and  tem- 
porary (produced)  words;  the  seven  hands  the  seven  case  affixes;  the 
triple  bond  is  composed  of  the  chest,  the  throat,  and  the  head.  The 
mighty  deity  is  speech.     (Compare  St.  John's  Gospel,  i.  i.) 

E  e  2 


420  Vaisvadeva  Ceremony. 

The  next  act  is  called  Upasthana.  A  prayer  from  the 
Rig-veda  (V.  4.  9)  is  addressed  to  the  god  of  fire  under  his 
name  Jata-vedas  ^,  thus  : — 

'  Carry  us,  O  omniscient  god  (Jata-vedas),  through  all  our 
troubles  and  difficulties,  as  if  thou  wert  conveying  us  over 
a  river  by  means  of  a  boat.  O  Fire,  thou  art  glorified  by  us 
with  as  great  honour  as  (was  once  offered  thee)  by  Atri,  be 
thou  willing  (be  thou  awake  or  active)  to  become  the  protector 
of  our  persons.' 

After  this  prayer  offerings  are  made  with  the  usual  reve- 
rential ejaculations,  thus  :  '  Homage  to  Fire  (Agni).  I  offer 
fragrant  sandal  for  unguent  (vilepana),  I  offer  flowers  for 
worship.  I  offer  uncooked  grains  of  rice  (akshatah)  for  every 
kind  of  offering  ^.' 

Next,  the  Avorshipper,  after  purifying  his  person  and  wash- 
ing his  hands,  makes  offerings  to  all  the  gods,  throwing 
portions  of  cooked  rice — each  portion  about  equal  to  a 
mouthful — into  the  fire,  with  the  following  words : — 

'  Om.  Homage  to  the  Sun  (Suryaya-svaha).  This  is  offered  for  the  Sun, 
and  not  for  my  own  use  ;  homage  to  Prajapati,  to  Agni,  to  Soma  Vanas- 
pati,  to  Agni  and  Soma  together,  to  Indra  and  Agni  together,  to  Heaven 
and  Earth,  to  Dhanvantari,  to  Indra  alone,  to  all  the  gods  (Visvebhyo 
devebhyah),  to  Brahma,  to  Bhur  and  Agni,  to  Bhuvar  and  Vayu,  to  Svar 
and  Surya  ^,'  etc. 

The  next  act  is  the  taking  up  of  ashes  (vibhuti-grahana) 
from  the  fire  in  a  deep-bowled  spoon  called  Darvi,  and  the 
application  of  a  small  quantity  with  the  finger  to  different 
parts  of  the  body,  with  the  following  prayer  to  Rudra  (Siva) : 
'  O  Rudra,  inflict  not  harm  on  our  sons  and   grandsons,  on 

^  Jata-vedas  probably  means  '  having  knowledge  of  all  that  is  born  or 
created.'  The  loth  and  nth  verses  of  this  hymn  are  also  recited  after  the  9th. 

^  That  is  as  a  substitute  for  all  other  oblations.  Practically  neither 
sandal,  perfumes,  nor  flowers  are  offered  on  ordinary  occasions,  but  only 
cooked  rice  is  put  into  the  fire  in  place  of  other  offerings. 

^  The  manuals  give  a  diagram  of  the  circle,  and  the  names  of  all  the 
gods  to  whom  portions  of  food  are  offered  on  the  ground  in  the  conclud- 
ing Bali-harana  ceremony.  The  cooked  food  appears  to  be  offered  in  fire 
to  these  same  gods  in  the  same  order. 


The  Bali-harana  Service.  421 

our  living  men;  on  our  cows  and  horses  ;  destroy  not  our 
brave  men  in  thy  anger  ;  we  invoke  thee  continually,  bringing 
thee  oblations.'     (Rig-veda  I.  114.  8.) 

Then,  with  the  prayer:  — 'May  I  enjoy  the  triple  life  (try- 
ayusham)  of  Jamadagni  \  of  Kasyapa,  of  Agastya,  of  the 
gods ;  may  I  altogether  live  for  a  hundred  years ' — ashes  are 
applied  to  the  forehead,  the  neck,  the  navel,  the  right  shoulder, 
the  left  shoulder,  and  the  head  respectively. 

Another  prayer  to  the  god  of  fire  concludes  the  Vaisvadeva 
portion  of  the  service,  thus  : — 

'  O  bearer  of  the  oblations,  give  me  happiness,  faith,  understanding, 
fame,  wisdom,  learning,  intellect,  wealth,  strength,  long  life,  dignity,  and 
health.  I  salute  him  whose  name,  when  remembered  and  mentioned, 
makes  incomplete  religious  services  complete  '^.  Let  the  deity  who  par- 
takes of  the  sacrifice  and  has  the  form  of  Agni-narayana  be  pleased  with 
this  ceremony.  Let  it  be  regarded  as  offered  to  the  true  essence  of 
the  Supreme  Being  (Brahma).' 

The  Bali-hm^ana  Service. 

But  the  Vaisvadeva  ceremony  is  not  complete  without  the 
Bali-harana,  or  offering  of  food  to  all  gods  and  all  creatures, 
including  all  kinds  of  animals  and  spirits.  This  act  is  identical 
with  Manu's  Bhuta-yajha,  or  homage  to  all  creatures  (Manu 
III.  70.  81-IV.  21).  The  offering  to  all  animals  is  sometimes 
called  Kaka-bali,  because  crows  are  practically  the  chief 
devourers  of  the  offerings.  In  fact,  the  Vaisvadeva  and  Bali- 
harana  are  complementary  of  each  other,  and  are  generally 
regarded  as  one  ceremony. 

The  worshipper  begins  by  placing  small  mouthfuls  of  cooked 
rice  in  a  circle  on  the  ground  between  himself  and  the  fire- 
receptacle,  allotting  separate  portions  to  all  the  gods  to  whom 
offerings  have  already  been  made  in  the  fire,  as  well  as  to 
other  beings  outside  the  circle,  in  regular  order,  saying  : — 

^  Compare  White  Yajur-veda  (Vajasaneyi-S.)  II L  62. 

^  According  to  the  manual  I  have  followed,  a  Sruti  enjoins  that  if  any 
part  of  the  ceremony  has  been  carelessly  omitted,  it  is  held  to  be  com- 
pleted by  remembering  and  repeating  the  name  of  Vishnu. 


42  2  The  Bali-harana  Service, 

'Homage  (i)  to  Surya,  (2)  to  Prajapati,  (3)  to  Agni,  (4)  to  Prajapati, 
(5)  to  Soma  with  Vanaspati,  (6)  to  Agni  and  Soma,  (7)  to  Indra  with 
Agni,  (8)  to  Heaven  and  Earth,  (9)  to  Dhanvantari ',  (10)  to  Indra,  (11)  to 
all  the  gods,  (12)  to  Brahma,  (13)  to  the  waters,  (14)  to  the  plants  and 
trees,  (15)  to  the  house,  (16)  to  the  household  deities,  (17)  to  the  gods  of 
the  foundation  of  the  house.' 

Then  portions  are  placed  on  the  ground  just  outside  the 

circle  for  other  gods  and  beings  in  the  order  of  the  quarters 

of  the  compass,  beginning  with  the  East,  saying  : — 

'  Homage  (18)  to  Indra,  (19)  to  Indra's  attendants,  (20)  to  Yama, 
(21)  to  Yama's  attendants,  (22)  to  Varuna,  (23)  to  Varuna's  attendants, 
(24)  to  Soma,  (25)  to  Soma's  attendants,  (26)  to  Brahma,  (27)  to  Brahma's 
attendants,  (28)  to  all  the  Gods,  (29)  to  all  the  Bhutas  or  Spirits,  (30)  to 
all  the  Spirits  who  move  about  by  day,  (31)  to  all  the  Spirits  who  move 
about  by  night,  (32)  to  all  Rakshasas  and  evil  spirits,  (33)  to  the 
Pitris — the  worshipper  hanging  his  sacred  thread  over  the  right  shoulder 
(see  p.  410)  and  becoming  Praclnaviti,  (34)  to  the  dog  Syama,  (35)  to  the 
dog  Sabala,  (36)  to  Sanaka^  and  the  other  Rishis  (the  worshipper  hang- 
ing his  thread  round  his  neck  like  a  necklace  and  becoming  Nivlti,  see 
p.  410).'     With  regard  to  34  and  35,  see  p.  289. 

While  making  offerings  of  food  to  the  spirits  and  animals 

he  says : — 

'  I  who  am  myself  desirous  of  being  fed,  offer  oblations  of  food  to 
those  spirits  that  move  about  day  and  night  and  delight  in  doing  mis- 
chief. Let  the  lord  of  food  grant  me  also  to  be  nourished  by  the  food 
I  am  about  to  eat.' 

While  offering  portions  of  food  outside  the  door  of  the 
house  he  says  : — 

'  Let  the  crows  that  come  from  all  the  four  quarters  of  the  sky  (presided 
over  by  Indra,  Varuna,  Vayu,  Yama,  and  Nirriti)  take  the  portions  of  rice 
placed  by  me  on  the  ground.  I  present  a  portion  to  the  two  dogs,  called 
Syama  and  Sabala  (see  p.  289),  belonging  to  the  family  of  Vaivasvata, 
that  they  may  protect  me  always  in  my  path  (through  this  world  and  the 
next).  I  place  portions  on  the  ground  for  dogs,  for  low-born  persons 
(dandalas)  and  outcasts,  for  all  animals  and  for  crows  (Sva-candala- 
patita-vayasebhyah  -^j.' 

^  Dhanvantari  is  not  the  physician  of  the  gods  produced  at  the  churn- 
ing of  the  ocean,  but  an  ancient  deity. 

^  Sanaka  was  one  of  the  four  sons  of  Brahma. 

^  The  Rev.  Nehemiah  Goreh  (a  converted  Brahman)  informed  me 
that  he  used  to  repeat  these  words  every  day  when  he  performed  the 
Vaisvadeva  and  Bali-harana  for  his  family. 


The  Ceremony  of  Dining.  423 

The  householder  then  waits  at  the  door  for  a  short  interval, 
watching  for  some  guest  (atithi)  who  may  be  passing,  or  for 
some  beggar  to  whom  he  may  give  a  portion  of  food  as  alms  ^. 

He  then  washes  his  hands  and  feet,  sips  water,  and  re-enters 
the  house,  saying  : — 

'  Let  earth,  atmosphere,  and  sky  be  favourable  to  us  and  make  us  free 
from  fear  of  danger.  Let  all  the  quarters  of  the  sky,  the  waters,  and 
the  lightnings  protect  us  from  all  harm  !  Peace,  peace,  peace  !  homage 
to  Vishnu,  homage  to  Vishnu,  homage  to  Vishnu.' 

The  Ceremony  of  Dining. 

After  the  due  performance  of  the  Vaisvadeva  and  Bali- 
harana  ceremonies  the  cooked  food  is  considered  fit  to  be 
consumed,  and  it  might  be  thought  that  after  so  long  a 
religious  service  the  members  of  the  householder's  family 
would  have  nothing  further  to  do  but  to  eat  their  dinner 
without  further  ceremony.  But  not  so.  The  process  of 
dining  is  itself  regarded  as  a  religious  rite,  and  must  be 
conducted  according  to  prescribed  forms. 

Most  of  the  manuals  in  my  possession  give  directions  for 
what  is  called  Bhojana-vidhi,  '  the  ceremony  of  dining.'  In 
practice,  what  generally  happens  in  the  families  of  orthodox 
Brahmans  and  other  high-caste  natives  ^  is  nearly  as  follows  : — 

The  males  of  the  family  sit  down  in  a  row  on  the  ground 
with  their  legs  folded  under  them  in  the  usual  manner. 
They  are  waited  on  by  the  wives,  daughters  ^,  and  widows  of 
the  family  ;  for  no  woman  in  any  Indian  household  will 
venture  to  eat  till  the  men  have  finished.  Boiled  rice  and 
other  kinds  of  grain  or  pulse   cooked  with  condiments  and 


1  The  object  of  waiting  at  the  door  is  that  the  worshipper  may  feel  he 
has  done  his  best  to  discharge  the  duty  of  performing  the  Manushya- 
yajna  or  Atithi-pujana,  '  homage  to  men  or  guests,'  enjoined  by  Manu 
(in  Book  IIL  70). 

2  Of  course  great  variations  occur  even  among  Brahman  families, 
especially  in  large  cities  where  anti-brahmanic  influences  are  at  work. 

^  Daughters,  however,  are  often  privileged  to  eat  with  their  fathers. 


424  Grace  before  Dinner. 

sometimes  various  kinds  of  sweetmeats  are  served  up  on 
plates  made  of  leaves  ^  (often  of  the  palasa  tree  or  the  plan- 
tain) and  placed  before  each  person  ;  but  no  one  begins 
eating  till  certain  religious  forms  have  been  gone  through. 
In  the  first  place,  there  is  the  usual  acamana  or  sipping  of 
water  for  internal  purification  (p.  402).  Each  person  pours 
water  with  a  spoon  into  the  palm  of  the  hand,  then  some 
one  leads  the  others,  and  all  sip  together.  Next,  water  is 
sprinkled  in  a  circle  round  each  plate,  and  some  one  of  the 
company  repeats  a  grace  or  prayer  before  eating.  The  most 
common  prayer  is  from  two  passages  in  the  Taittirlya  Brah- 
mana  ^  as  follows  : — 

'  Let  rivers  continue  to  flow,  let  clouds  rain,  let  plants  produce 
good  fruit  (for  the  support  of  the  world),  may  I  be  the  lord  of  lands 
(grama  Com.)  that  produce  food,  rice,  and  curds.' 

'  They  extol  food  (saying) :  that  which  is  food  is  certainly  a  great  divine 
power,  since  it  leads  a  man  (him)  to  supreme  prosperity.' 

The  first  clause  of  this  curious  prayer  seems  to  be  a  bene- 
diction spoken  for  the  benefit  of  the  world  at  large  ;  the  second 
is  for  the  good  of  the  speaker  ;  the  third  is  a  glorification  of 
the  food  which  the  speaker  is  about  to  eat.  Sometimes  the 
following  text  from  the  Rig-veda  (X.  121.  10)  precedes  the 
prayer : — 

'  O  Lord  of  all  creatures,  no  one  else  but  thou  keepest 
all  these  living  beings  encircled  by  thy  care  ;  with  whatever 
desires  we  sacrifice  to  thee,  let  the  fruit  of  that  be  to  us  ; 
may  we  become  possessors  of  wealth  ^' 

^  In  large  towns  plates  of  metal  are  generally  used. 

^  Taittirlya  Brahmana  II.  7.  16.  4,  and  I.  7.  10.  6.  The  following  is  the 
Sanskrit  text  :  Yantu  nadayo  varshantu  parjanyah  supippala  oshadhayo 
bhavantu,  annavatam  odanavatam  amikshavatam  esharn  raja  bhuyasam. 

Odanam  udbruvate,  parameshthi  va  eshah,  yad  odanah  paramam  evai- 
nam  sriyam  gamayati. 

^  Prajapate  na  tvad  etany  anyo  visva  jatani  pari  ta  babhuva,  yat-kamas 
te  juhumas  tan  no  astu,  vayam  syama  patayo  raylnam.  In  Kulluka's  Com- 
mentary to  Manu  (II.  54)  a  much  simpler  form  of  grace  before  meat  is  given. 
The  eater  is  told  that  he  is  always  to  honour  his  food  and  never  despise 
it,  and  to  pray  that  he  may  always  obtain  it  (nityam  asmakam  etad  astu). 


Offerings  at  Dinner,    Funeral  Ceremonies.      425 

After  the  recitation  of  this  grace  the  actual  business  of 
eating  may  begin,  but  each  person  first  places  either  four  or 
five  small  mouthfuls  (grasa)  of  food  on  the  ground  on  the 
right  side  of  his  leaf-plate.  These  arc  called  simply  fduiti, 
'  offerings^,'  or  sometimes  (Jitrahuti,  ^  offerings  to  Citra,'  or  to 
Citra-gupta,  whose  power  in  the  intermediate  state  after  death 
is  especially  dreaded  (see  p.  292).  While  placing  the  mouth- 
fuls he  ought  to  say:  '  Homage  to  Citra ^,  to  (iitra-gupta  ^5  to 
Yama,  to  Yama-dharma,  to  Bhur  bhuvah  svar.' 

After  the  dinner  is  over  these  mouthfuls  are  left  to  be  eaten 
by  cats  (if  there  are  any  in  the  house),  or  together  with  the 
leaf-plates  and  whatever  is  left  upon  them,  they  are  thrown  to 
the  cows,  or  simply  thrown  out  of  the  house  to  be  eaten  by 
dogs  or  animals  of  any  kind.  The  evening  family  meal  is 
a  less  formal  ceremony. 

With  reference  to  the  form  of  salutation  used  at  the  end 

of  the  morning  Sandhya  service  (see  p.  407),  I  may  mention 

that  I  was  told  by  the  Brahman,  Mr.  Nehemiah  Goreh,  that 

before    he    became    a    Christian    his    daily    form    of    words 

addressed  to  his  father  (Guru)  were  : — 

Bhargava  -  cyavanapnavanaurva  -  jamadagnyeti  -  panca-pravaranvita  - 
jamadagnyavatsa-gotrotpanno  'ham  Rig-vedantargata-sakala-sakhadh- 
yayl  Raghunatha-sarma  'ham  bho  Guro  tvam  abhivadayami.  '  O  Father, 
I  Raghunatha-sarma,  a  student  of  the  Sakala  branch  of  the  Rig-veda, 
born  in  the  family  of  the  children  of  Jamadagni,  possessing  five  lines  of 
progenitors — Bhargava,  Cyavana,  Apnavana,  Aurva,  and  Jamadagnya — 
salute  thee.' 

It  might  be  thought  that  every  complete  account  of  Hindu 

domestic   rites  would   require   to    end  with   a   description  of 

funeral  and  Sraddha  ceremonies,  but  for  these  see  p.  274. 

^  In  the  same  way,  whenever  a  Roman  family  sat  down  to  meals,  a 
portion  of  the  food  was  presented  to  the  Lares,  regarded  as  departed 
spirits. 

^  Citraya  namah,  etc.,  or  svaha,  may  be  substituted  for  namah. 

^  Citra-gupta  is  the  recorder  who  records  the  sins  and  merits  of  man- 
kind in  Yama's  world. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

Hindu  Fasts,  Festivals,  a^id  Holy  Days. 

Although  Hinduism  has  no  ecclesiastical  organization 
under  any  central  authority  it  has  a  longer  list  of  festivals 
(utsava),  and  seasons  of  rejoicing,  qualified  by  fasts  (upavasa, 
vrata),  vigils  (jagarana),  and  seasons  of  mortification,  than 
any  other  religion.  Most  of  these  take  place  on  certain  lunar 
days  (tithi),  each  lunation  of  rather  more  than  twenty-seven 
solar  days  being  divided  into  thirty  lunar  days,  fifteen  of  which 
during  the  moon's  increase  constitute  the  light  half  of  the 
month,  and  the  other  fifteen  the  dark  half.  Some  festivals 
are  regulated  by  the  supposed  motions  of  the  sun.  To  de- 
scribe all  the  fasts  and  festivals  would  require  a  volume. 
I  can  only  indicate  some  of  the  most  common. 

And  first,  with  regard  to  the  custom  of  fasting,  it  may 
be  worth  while  to  point  out  that  no  Christian  man — be  he 
Roman  Catholic  or  Anglican — not  even  the  most  austere 
stickler  for  the  most  strict  observance  of  every  appointed 
period  of  humiliation  and  abstinence,  can  for  a  moment  hope 
to  compete  with  any  religious  native  of  India — Hindu  or 
Muhammadan — who  may  have  entered  on  a  course  of  fasting, 
abstinence,  and  bodily  maceration. 

In  point  of  fact,  the  constant  action  of  a  tropical  climate, 
and  the  peculiar  social  habits  of  the  sons  of  the  soil  in 
Eastern  countries  continued  for  centuries,  have  induced  a 
condition  of  body  which  enables  them  to  practise  the  most 
severe  and  protracted  abstinence  with  impunity,  and  even 
with  benefit ;  while  European  Christians,  who,  with  a  view 
of  increasing  their  influence,  endeavour  to  set  an  example 
of  self-mortification,  find  themselves  quite  outdone  and   left 


Hindii  Fasts,  Festivals^  and  Holy  Days.      427 

hopelessly  in  the  rear  by  a  thousand  devotees  in  every  sacred 
city  of  India  ^. 

It  must  of  course  be  borne  in  mind  that  fasting  is  practised 
by  Indian  devotees,  not  as  a  penitential  exercise,  but  as  a 
means  of  accumulating  religious  merit.  Moreover,  severe  self- 
mortification  is  always  connected  with  the  fancied  attainment 
of  extraordinary  sanctity  or  superhuman  powers.  Amongst 
other  objects  aimed  at  is  the  acquirement  of  a  kind  of  preter- 
natural or  ethereal  lightness  of  body.  By  long  fasting  a  man 
is  believed  to  achieve  what  is  called  Laghima,  '  lightness ' ; 
that  is  to  say,  his  frame  becomes  so  buoyant  and  sublimated 
by  abstinence,  that  the  force  of  gravitation  loses  its  power  of 
binding'  him  to  the  earth,  and  he  is  able  to  sit  or  float  in  the 
air.  It  may  seem  the  very  height  of  credulity  to  give  cre- 
dence to  an  emaciated  Hindu  claiming  to  triumph  in  this 
way  over  the  laws  of  matter  ;  yet  cool-headed  and  sceptical 
Englishmen  of  unimpeachable  sincerity  have  been  invited  to 
witness  the  achievements  of  these  so-called  Yogis,  and  have 
come  away  convinced  of  their  genuineness  and  ready  to  testify 
to  the  absence  of  all  fraud. 

Nevertheless,  it  must  be  noted  that  the  rules  of  fasting,  as 
practised  by  natives  of  India  in  the  present  day,  are  by  no 
means  so  stringent  as  they  were  in  ancient  times.  Several 
severe  forms  of  abstinence  are  specified  by  Manu.  For  ex- 
ample, the  fast  called  '  very  painful '  (ati-kridchra)  consisted 
in  eating  only  a  single  mouthful  every  day  for  nine  days,  and 
then  abstaining  from  all  food  for  the  three  following  days 
(Manu  XI.  213). 

Another  notable  fast  was  that  called  '  the  lunar  vow^ '  (can- 

^  The  truth  is  that  any  breach  of  the  Creator's  physical  laws  and  laws 
of  adaptation  is  sure  to  be  followed  by  a  Nemesis,  and  those  devoted 
Englishmen  who  practise  protracted  abstinence  from  food  in  an  ex- 
hausting Indian  atmosphere  cannot  expect  to  be  exempt  from  the 
operation  of  these  laws.  We  have  recently  had  examples  of  useful 
careers  arrested  through  neglecting  to  study  the  account  of  the  second 
or  '  pinnacle  temptation '  of  Christ  (St.  Matthew  iv.  6j. 


428     Hindti  Fasts,  Festivals,  and  Holy  Days. 

drayana-vrata).  It  consisted  in  diminishing  the  consumption 
of  food  every  day  by  one  mouthful  for  the  waning  half  of  the 
lunar  month,  beginning  with  fifteen  mouthfuls  at  the  full  moon 
until  the  quantity  was  reduced  to  nil  at  the  new  moon,  and 
then  increasing  it  in  like  manner  during  the  fortnight  of  the 
moon's  increase  (Manu  VI.  20,  XI.  216). 

In  the  present  day  every  religious  Hindu  fasts  twice  in 
every  lunar  month — that  is  on  the  eleventh  day  (ekadasi)  in 
each  fortnight.  These  fasts  are  usually  kept  in  honour  of 
Vishnu,  but  are  not  very  strictly  observed,  as  fruit  and  milk 
are  allowed.  The  Saivas  usually  fast  on  the  thirteenth  or 
fourteenth  day  of  the  dark  half  of  every  month,  on  the  day 
and  night  called  Siva-ratri,  '  Siva's  night,'  in  anticipation  of 
the  great  fast  on  the  night  of  Siva,  kept  once  a  year  (p.  430). 
The  evening  before  is  called  Pradosha.  Some,  again,  fast 
in  honour  of  Ganesa  on  the  fourth  lunar  day  (caturthi)  once 
a  month,  in  anticipation  of  the  chief  Ganesa  fast  once  a  year 

(P-  431)- 

An  Indian  friend  of  mine  told  me  that,  when  a  little  boy, 

he  accidentally  crushed  a  sparrow  ;    whereupon  his   mother 

made  him  keep  an  eleventh-day  fast,  the  m.erit  (punya)  of 

which  was  credited  to  the  spirit  of  the  dead  sparrow. 

Other  chief  festivals  and  fasts  beginning  with  Magha — 
corresponding  to  our  January-February — are  as  follow  : — 

Makara-sarikranti  (popularly  Sankrant),  in  celebration  of 
the  commencement  of  the  sun's  northern  course  (uttarayana) 
in  the  heavens.  To  mark  this,  a  kind  of  New  Year's  festival 
is  observed  towards  the  end  of  Pausha  or  beginning  of  Magha 
(about  January  12).  The  sun  has  then  reached  the  most 
southern  point  of  the  ecliptic.  It  is  a  period  of  rejoicing 
everywhere,  especially  as  marking  the  termination  of  the  in- 
auspicious month  Pausha  (December-January) ;  but  it  is  not 
really  the  beginning  of  a  new  year,  which  varies  in  different 
parts  of  India.  In  Bengal  it  may  be  called  the  '  Festival  of 
good  cheer.'     Practically,  at  least,  it  is  kept  by  free  indulg- 


Hindji  Fasts,  Festivals,  a7id  Holy  Days.      429 

ence  In  the  eating  of  cakes,  sweetmeats,  and  other  good  things. 
At  one  of  the  most  sacred  places  in  India,  Prayaga  (Allahabad), 
where  the  Jumna  and  Ganges  meet,  a  celebrated  religious  fair 
(Mela)  takes  place  during  this  season. 

The  same  festival  in  the  South  of  India  is  commonly  called 
Pongal  (or  Pungal).  It  marks  the  commencement  of  the 
Tamil  year,  and  is  the  day  for  congratulatory  visits.  People 
purchase  new  cooking-pots  and  boil  fresh  rice  in  milk.  Then 
they  salute  each  other  with  the  question — '  Has  the  milk 
boiled  ? '  to  which  the  answer  is  given  that  '  the  boiling 
(pongal)  is  over.'  In  reality  the  South  Indian  festival  seems 
to  be  dedicated  to  the  glorification  of  agriculture.  Cattle  are 
decorated  with  garlands,  their  horns  coloured,  and  mango 
leaves  hung  round  their  necks.  Then  they  are  led  about  in 
procession,  exempted  from  all  labour,  and  virtually,  if  not 
actually,  worshipped. 

Vasanta-paiicami,  on  the  5th  of  the  light  half  of  Magha 
(January-February).  This  is  a  spring  festival.  In  Bengal 
SarasvatI  (also,  like  Lakshmi,  called  Sri),  goddess  of  arts  and 
learning,  is  worshipped  at  this  season.  The  day  is  a  holiday 
in  all  public  and  mercantile  offices.  Reading  and  writing  are 
honoured  by  being  suspended,  but  people  worship  an  image  of 
the  goddess,  or  ink-stands,  pens,  paper,  and  other  writing  im- 
plements taken  to  represent  the  image.  Sometimes  an  offici- 
ating priest  is  called  in  who  reads  the  prescribed  formulae,  and 
presents  rice,  fruits,  sweetmeats,  flowers,  etc.,  while  the  lay- 
worshippers  stand  before  the  images  or  symbols  with  flowers 
in  their  hands,  beseeching  the  goddess  to  grant  them  the 
blessings  of  learning,  wealth,  and  fame. 

Moreover,  on  this  day,  according  to  Mr.  S.  C.  Bose,  every 
Pandit  in  Bengal  who  keeps  a  school  sets  up  an  image  of 
SarasvatI  and  invites  his  patrons  and  friends  to  call  upon  him 
and  do  honour  to  the  goddess.  This  they  do  by  making 
offerings  of  rupees,  which  really  form  an  important  part  of 
the    Pandit's   annual   income.      It  is  a  significant  fact   that 


43 o     Hindti  Fasts,  Festivals,  and  Holy  Days. 

females  are  not  allowed  to  take  part  in  the  worship  of  this 
goddess,  though  she  be  of  their  own  sex. 

Maha-Siva-ratri,  or  'great  Siva-night,'  is  held  on  the  14th  of 
the  dark  half  of  Magha  (about  the  middle  or  end  of  February). 
A  fast  is  observed  during  the  day,  and  a  vigil  kept  at  night, 
when  the  Linga  is  worshipped  (see  p.  go).  At  this  season 
many  pilgrims  flock  to  the  places  dedicated  to  Siva. 

Holi  or  Hutasani  festival — identified  with  the  Dola-yatra, 
or  rocking  of  the  image  of  Krishna  ^ — is  celebrated,  especially 
in  the  upper  provinces,  as  a  kind  of  Hindu  Saturnalia  or 
Carnival,  and  is  therefore  very  popular.  It  begins  about 
ten  days  before  the  full  moon  of  Phalguna  (February-March), 
but  is  usually  only  observed  for  the  last  three  or  four  days, 
ending  with  the  full  moon.  Boys  dance  about  in  the  streets, 
and  inhabitants  of  houses  sprinkle  the  passers-by  with  red  or 
yellow  powder,  use  squirts  and  play  practical  jokes.  It  is 
marked  by  rough  sports,  loud  music,  merriment,  mid-night 
orgies,  obscene  songs,  excesses  and  abominations.  Towards 
the  close  of  the  festival,  about  the  night  of  full  moon,  a  bonfire 
is  lighted  and  games — representing  the  frolics  of  the  young 
Krishna — take  place  around  the  expiring  embers. 

Rama-navami — the  birthday  of  Rama-candra — is  observed 
on  the  9th  of  the  light  half  of  the  month  Caitra  (March- 
April),  and  is  kept  by  some  as  a  strict  fast.  The  temples 
of  Rama  are  illuminated,  and  his  image  adorned  with  costly 
ornaments.  The  Ramayana  is  read  in  the  temples,  and  dances 
(Nautches)  are  kept  up  during  the  night. 

Naga-pahcaml  is  held  on  the  5th  day  of  the  light  half  of 
Sravana,  in  honour  of  the  Nagas. 

Two  days  later  comes  the  Sltala-saptami,  in  honour  of  the 
Small-pox  goddess  (p.  228),  when  only  cold  food  is  eaten. 

Krishna-janmashtami,   the  birthday  of  Krishna — kept   on 

^  The  meaning  of  Holl  is  doubtful.  It  may  be  merely  an  imitation  of 
the  sounds  and  cries  made  by  the  revellers.  By  some  the  festival  is  said 
to  be  in  commemoration  of  the  killing  of  the  demon  Madhu  by  Krishna. 


Hindti  Fasts,  Festivals,  and  Holy  Days.      431 

the  8th  of  the  dark  half  of  the  month  Bhadra  or  (in  Bombay 
and  the  South)  of  Sravana  (July-August) — is  one  of  the 
greatest  of  all  Hindu  holidays  (see  p.   113). 

The  variation  in  time  in  this  and  other  festivals  is  caused 
by  the  circumstance  that  the  months  of  the  Northern  and 
Southern  Brahmans  differ  in  the  dark  fortnight. 

Ganesa-caturthi — the  birthday  of  Ganesa — is  observed  on 
the  4th  of  the  light  half  of  the  month  Bhadra  (August- 
September).  Clay  figures  of  the  deity  are  made,  and  after 
being  worshipped  for  a  few  days,  thrown  into  the  water. 

Sixteen  consecutive  lunar  days  are  devoted  to  the  per- 
formance of  Sraddhas  in  the  dark  half  of  Bhadra,  which  is 
therefore  called  the  Pitri-paksha  (see  p.  308). 

Durga-puja,  or  Nava-ratra,  '  nine  nights,'  beginning  on  the 
ist  and  ending  on  the  loth  day  of  the  light  half  of  Asvina 
(September-October),  are  celebrated  in  many  places  as  a 
great  holiday,  especially  in  Bengal,  and  connected  with  the 
autumnal  equinox.  Nominally  they  commemorate  the  victory 
of  Durga,  wife  of  Siva,  over  a  buffalo-headed  demon  (Mahi- 
shasur).  The  form  under  which  she  is  adored  is  that  of  an 
image  with  ten  arms  and  a  weapon  in  each  hand,  her  right 
leg  resting  on  a  lion  and  her  left  on  the  buffalo  demon.  This 
image  is  worshipped  for  nine  days — following  on  the  sixteen 
Sraddhas  of  the  Pitri-paksha — and  then  cast  into  the  water. 

The  tenth  day  is  called  Vijaya-dasamI,  or  Dasa-hara. 

Kali-pijja  is  a  kindred  festival  in  Bengal,  lasting  only  for 
one  night,  and  that  the  darkest  night  of  the  dark  fortnight  of 
the  month  Karttika.  The  image  worshipped  is  that  of  Kfdl, 
the  dark  and  terrible  form  of  Siva's  wife  described  at  p.  1 89. 
The  well-known  temple  at  KfilT  Ghat  near  Calcutta  and  other 
shrines  of  the  goddess  are  during  this  night  drenched  with  the 
blood  of  goats,  sheep  and  buffaloes,  sacrificed  in  honour  of  the 
sanguinary  goddess. 

Rama-lila, 'Rama-play,' is  celebrated  in  some  parts  of  India 
on  the  day  when  the  Bengalis  commit  their  images  of  Durga 


432     Hindu  Fasts,  Festivals,  and  Holy  Days. 

to  the  waters.    It  is  a  dramatic  representation  of  the  abduction 
of  Sita  by  Ravana,  concluding  with  the  death  of  Ravana. 

DivaU  (properly  Dipali  or  Dipavali),  '  the  feast  of  lamps,'  is 
observed  twenty  days  after  the  Nava-ratra  on  the  last  two 
days  of  the  dark  half  of  Asvina.  and  on  the  new  moon  and 
four  following  days  of  Karttika,  in  honour  of  Vishnu's  wife 
Lakshmi  or  of  Siva's  wife  BhavanT  (Parvati).  It  is  marked  by 
beautiful  illuminations,  in  the  preparation  of  which  Indians 
far  excel  Europeans. 

In  some  parts  of  India  the  Sarasvatl-puja  (described  p.  429) 
is  kept  at  this  season,  on  the  8th  of  the  light  half  of  Asvina. 

The  Divali  should  be  seen  at  Benares.  There  its  maenifi- 
cence  is  heightened  by  the  situation  of  the  city  on  the  bank  of 
the  river  and  the  unique  grouping  and  somewhat  bizarre  out- 
line of  the  buildings.  At  the  approach  of  night  small  earthen 
lamps,  fed  with  oil,  are  prepared  in  millions,  and  placed  close 
together  so  as  to  mark  out  the  architectural  form  of  mansion, 
palace,  temple,  minaret,  and  dome  in  lines  of  fire.  All  the  boats 
on  the  river  are  lighted  up,  and  the  city,  under  the  serene  sky 
of  an  Indian  autumn,  is  a  blaze  of  calm  effulgence.  Viewed 
from  the  water  it  presents  a  dazzling  spectacle — a  scene  of  fairy- 
like splendour,  which  cannot  be  matched  in  any  other  city  of 
the  world.  Indeed  similar  spectacles  in  the  great  European 
capitals  appear  absolutely  paltry  by  comparison.  Perhaps  the 
illuminations  which  took  place  on  the  occasion  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales'*  visit  to  India  in  1876  reached  the  climax  of  perfection, 
and  will  never  be  equalled  for  beauty  and  magnificence. 

Karttika-purnima  is  a  festival  kept  on  the  full  moon  of  the 
month  Karttika  (October-November),  in  honour  of  Siva's 
victory  over  the  demon  called  Tripurasura. 

It  must  be  noted  that  the  months  are  lunar  and  that  the 
calendar  varies  in  different  parts  of  India.  Every  month,  such 
as  Sravana,  Vaisakha,  and  the  intercalary  or  thirteenth  month  ^ 

^  There  is  an  allusion  to  this  thirteenth  month  in  Rig-veda  I.  25.  8,  and 
in  Atharva-veda  V.  6.  4,  XIII.  3.  8. 


Hindu  Fasts,  Festivals,  and  Holy  Days.      433 

(Adhika-masa),  has  its  Mahatmya  or  special  excellence. 
When  the  intercalary  month  comes  round  every  third  year, 
preachers  make  the  most  of  their  opportunity,  and  recite 
its  Mahatmya,  hoping  thereby  to  stimulate  the  generosity 
of  the  people.  Then,  again,  if  a  conjunction  of  the  moon 
(or  in  some  places  a  full  moon)  fall  on  a  Monday,  this  is 
an  astronomical  coincidence  that  must  be  turned  to  the 
best  account.  It  is  a  conjuncture  peculiarly  favourable  to 
charitable  acts.  The  same  may  be  said  of  eclipses.  A  single 
rupee  given  at  such  seasons  is  worth  a  thousand  rupees  at 
other  times. 

Moreover,  every  day  of  the  week  has  its  sacred  character. 
Monday  is  especially  sacred  to  Siva  (Maha-deva).  Pious 
persons  often  fast  on  this  day  and  worship  the  Lihga  in 
the  evening.  Saturday  is  Hanuman's  day,  and  offerings  are 
especially  made  to  him  on  that  day.  Then  the  eighth  day 
in  every  lunar  fortnight  is  sacred  to  Durga.  This  is  a  day 
when  no  study  is  allowed,  and  therefore  called  An-adhyaya. 
Indeed  holy  days  or  non-reading  days  may  be  multiplied  in- 
definitely. Thus  a  pupil  will  stop  reading  and  go  home  if  it 
happens  to  thunder,  if  any  person  or  animal  chances  to  pass 
between  himself  and  his  teacher,  if  a  guest  arrives,  and  often 
during  the  greater  part  of  the  rainy  season. 

No  less  than  four  eras  are  commonly  current  among  the 
Hindus  in  India  : — i.  Sarnvat  (of  King  Vikramaditya),  rec- 
koned from  57  B.C.  ;  3.  Saka  (of  King  Salivahana),  reckoned 
from  78  A.D. ;  3.  San,  current  in  Bengal,  reckoned  from  593 
A.D. ;  4.  The  era  of  Parasu-rama,  current  in  Malabar,  reckoned 
from  1 1 76  B.C.  In  almanacks  it  is  usual  to  state  how  many 
years  of  the  present  age  of  the  world  or  Kali-yuga  (p.  398) 
have  elapsed  ;  thus  at  present  4984  out  of  432,000  years  have 
gone  by.  The  three  previous  ages  are  the  Krita  or  Satya, 
Treta,  or  Dvapara.  Almanacks  which  follow  the  Saka  era 
begin  the  year  with  the  light  half  of  the  month  Caitra,  but 
the  Samvat  year  usually  commences  with  Karttika. 

Ff 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

Te^nples  and  Sacred  Places  of  Pilgrimage. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  principal  seat  and  great  centre 
of  the  cultus  of  Siva  is  Benares  (Varanasi)^ — a  city  whose 
world-wide  celebrity  has  earned  for  it  the  title  of  KasI,  '  the 
resplendent.'  In  the  KasT-khanda  of  the  Skanda-purana  it  is 
recorded  how  the  god  himself  chose  that  city  for  his  special 
abode,  and  how  after  having  undergone  severe  austerities  in 
the  neighbourhood  he  made  it  sacred  to  himself  and  to  his 
sons  Ganesa  and  Skanda  (p.  211). 

Elsewhere  Benares  is  described  as  a  special  creation  of  the 
Creator,  who  formed  it  of  pure  unpolluted  earth,  separated  it 
from  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  caused  it  to  rest  on  one  of  the 
points  of  Siva's  trident. 

No  doubt  Benares  was  one  of  the  first  cities  to  acquire  a 
reputation  for  sanctity,  and  is  still  regarded  as  the  most 
sacred  spot  in  all  India.  It  is  the  Hindu's  Jerusalem  and 
Mecca.  Here,  temples,  shrines,  and  idols  are  multiplied 
beyond  all  calculation.  Here  every  inch  of  ground,  every 
clod  of  earth  is  hallowed,  and  the  very  air  is  holy. 

No  wonder,  then,  that  every  pious  Hindu  is  ambitious  of 
accomplishing  at  least  one  pilgrimage  to  what  he  regards  as  a 
portion  of  heaven  let  down  upon  earth,  and  if  he  can  happily 
manage  to  die  within  the  magic  circle  of  what  is  called  the 
Paficakosi — that  is  to  say,  within  a  circuit  of  ten  miles  round 
the    centre    of  the    holy    city — nay,    if    the    most    desperate 

^  The  popular  name  is  more  properly  written  Banaras.  The  name 
VaranasT,  of  which  it  is  a  corruption,  is  said  to  be  derived  from  two 
small  rivers  outside  the  city,  the  Varana  or  Varna  and  the  Asl. 


Temples.    Places  of  Pilgrimage.    Benares,       435 

criminal  from  any  part  of  the  world — be  he  of  any  religious 
denomination,  Christian,  Buddhist,  or  Muhammadan — die 
there,  no  amount  of  the  most  heinous  guilt,  not  even  the 
deadly  sin  of  eating  beef,  can  prevent  his  immediate  trans- 
portation to  the  heaven  of  Siva.  Yet  Benares  is  by  no  means 
exclusively  dedicated  to  Siva  ;  nor  are  its  inhabitants  exclu- 
sively devoted  to  the  worship  of  any  one  favourite  deity 
(ishta-devata).  Nor  is  it  the  seat  of  any  ecclesiastical  organi- 
zation or  of  any  council  or  central  sacerdotal  government, 
which  indeed  exist  nowhere  in  India.  Still  Benares  is  the 
citadel  of  Brahmanism — the  stronghold  of  Hinduism.  It  is 
the  focus  from  which  all  the  lines  of  the  most  complicated 
religious  system  in  the  world  diverge,  and  to  which  they 
converge.  Here  priestcraft  reigns  supreme  in  all  its  pleni- 
tude and  power.  Nay  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  here 
a  population  of  about  200^000  persons  and  a  countless  number 
of  pilgrims  deliver  themselves  up  to  be  deluded,  defrauded, 
and  kept  in  religious  slavery  by  25,000  arrogant  Brahmans. 

Picturesquely  situated  on  the  Ganges  and  stretching  for 
three  or  four  miles  along  this  most  sacred  of  all  rivers,  with 
magnificent  Ghats  or  flights  of  steps  conducting  pilgrims  by 
thousands  into  the  very  midst  of  its  hallowed  waters,  Benares 
is  the  home  of  every  form  of  Hindii  religious  earnestness  and 
enthusiasm,  combined  with  every  conceivable  variety  of  hideous 
superstition  and  fanaticism. 

No  description  indeed  can  give  the  slightest  idea  of  the 
reality  of  the  sight  presented  to  the  eye  by  this  unique  city. 
The  traveller  bent  on  investigating  its  inner  mysteries,  and 
eager  to  solve  for  himself  the  riddle  of  the  grosser  forms  of 
its  superstition  and  fanaticism,  finds  that  his  only  hope  of 
traversing  its  tortuous  streets,  or  penetrating  the  living  tide 
which  daily  ebbs  and  flows  in  its  leading  thoroughfares,  is  by 
trusting  to  his  personal  powers  as  a  pedestrian.  Pushing  his 
way  through  the  seething  throng  he  beholds  everywhere,  as 
he  advances,  the  most  striking  contrasts  and  curious  incon- 

F  f  2 


43 6        Temples.    Places  of  Pilgrimage.    Benares. 

gruities — princely  mansions  and  mean  tenements,  handsome 
edifices  and  fantastic  freaks  of  architecture,  crowded  shrines 
and  empty  sanctuaries,  bright  new  temples  and  dilapidated 
fanes,  freshly  gilded  domes  and  mildewed  pinnacles,  graceful 
minarets  and  unsightly  cupolas,  open  streets  and  impassable 
lanes,  dirty  squares  and  well-kept  quadrangles — everywhere 
and  from  every  point  of  view  a  strange  intermingling  of  the 
beautiful  and  the  grotesque,  the  tasteful  and  the  bizarre,  the 
simple  and  the  extravagant. 

The  living  objects  which  meet  his  eye  as  he  proceeds  are 
not  less  interesting,  odd,  and  incongruous.  Now  he  is  jostled 
by  sacred  bulls  which  wander  everywhere  free  and  uncon- 
trolled ;  now  a  number  of  impudent  monkeys  bound  over  his 
head  or  spring  from  roof  to  roof;  now  a  dozen  sacred  pigeons 
fly  fearlessly  almost  into  his  face,  or  a  flight  of  parrots  circle 
noisily  around  his  head.  In  one  part  of  the  city  he  is  hemmed 
in  before  some  sacred  pool  or  noted  temple  by  a  motley  throng 
of  pilgrims,  some  pressing  forward  to  perform  their  ablutions, 
some  carrying  Ganges  water  for  use  at  the  idol-shrines,  some 
vociferating  the  name  of  their  favourite  gods.  In  another 
quarter  he  is  surrounded  by  groups  of  half-naked  mendi- 
cants and  dirty  devotees,  many  of  whom  parade  their  bodily 
austerities  in  a  manner  highly  repulsive  to  European  eyes. 
Here  he  struggles  with  difliculty  through  streets  of  copper- 
smiths and  workers  in  brass.  There  his  path  is  obstructed 
by  the  stalls  of  vendors  of  coarse  sweetmeats,  sellers  of  flower- 
garlands,  or  money-changers  sitting  behind  heaps  of  cowries 
and  piles  of  gold  and  silver  coins.  Everywhere  temples, 
shrines,  mosques,  images  and  symbols,  holy  wells,  pools,  and 
sacred  trees  present  themselves  in  bewildering  confusion. 

The  number  of  principal  temples  is  at  least  two  thousand. 
Smaller  shrines  are,  of  course,  innumerable.  Of  Muham- 
madan  mosques  the  total  is  said  to  amount  to  three  hundred. 
The  tale  of  idols  is  computed  at  about  half  a  million.  The 
chief  temple  called  the  '  golden  temple,'  dedicated  to  Siva  or 


Temples.    Places  of  Pilgi'image.    Benares.       437 

Maha-deva  (see  p.  78),  is  disappointing  to  any  one  who  has 
seen  the  south  Indian  temples  ;  for  although  Siva  is  specially 
worshipped  and  propitiated  at  Benares  he  has  nowhere  so 
many  earnest  votaries  as  in  the  South,  and  the  Benares  temple 
in  respect  of  size,  external  appearance  and  importance  is  to 
the  great  temples  of  Tanjore,  Madura  and  Tinnevelly,  what  a 
small  village  church  is  to  St.  Paul's  Cathedral. 

The  fact  is  that  the  waves  of  Muhammadan  invasion  which 
swept  over  the  North-west  and  Central  provinces  of  India, 
and  seemed  at  one  time  likely  to  obliterate  Brahmanism 
altogether,  were  either  arrested  in  their  onward  course  or  else 
spent  themselves  before  reaching  the  South.  This  is  remark- 
ably illustrated  at  Benares,  where  the  most  conspicuous  build- 
ing is  the  great  mosque  of  Aurangzib  with  its  lofty  minarets 
on  the  Ganges.  Even  the  old  original  Saiva  temple  of  Visve- 
svara  does  not  exist.  It  was  pulled  down  by  the  ruthless 
Aurangzib  and  a  mosque  built  on  its  foundations  ^.  Another 
temple,  however,  speedily  arose  close  at  hand  and  rivalled  the 
old  one  in  picturesque  beauty,  if  not  in  size.  It  stands  at  a 
distance  of  two  or  three  hundred  yards  from  its  predecessor. 

Between  them  is  the  Jnana-vapl,  or  holy  well  of  knowledge 
— a  spot  greatly  frequented  and  held  in  high  veneration 
by  pilgrims  from  all  parts  of  the  country — a  legend  being 
universally  current  that,  when  Aurangzib  destroyed  the  Hindii 
temple,  its  idol  took  refuge  of  its  own  accord  at  the  bottom  of 
this  holy  well.  Thither  therefore  a  constant  throng  of  wor- 
shippers continually  resort,  bringing  with  them  offerings  of 
flowers,  rice,  and  other  grain,  which  they  throw  into  the  water 
thirty  or  forty  feet  below  the  ground.  A  Brahman  is  per- 
petually employed  in  drawing  up  the  putrid  liquid,  the  smell 
or  rather  stench  of  which,  from  incessant  admixture  of  de- 
caying flowers  and  vegetable  matter,  makes  the  neighbourhood 

^  According  to  Mr,  Sherring— whose  book  on  Benares  is  well  worthy 
of  perusal — there  was  a  still  earlier  temple  on  a  site  not  far  distant. 


43^        Temples.    Places  of  Pilgrh7iage.    Benares. 

almost  unbearable.  This  he  pours  with  a  ladle  into  the  hands 
of  expectant  crowds,  who  either  drink  it  with  avidity  or 
sprinkle  it  reverentially  over  their  persons. 

Another  sacred  well,  called  Mani-karnika,  situated  on  one 
of  the  chief  Ghats  on  the  Ganges,  owes  its  origin,  in  popular 
belief,  to  the  fortunate  circumstance  that  one  of  Siva's  ear- 
rings happened  to  fall  on  the  spot. 

This  well  is  near  the  surface  and  quite  exposed  to  view. 
It  forms  a  small  quadrangular  pool  not  more  than  three  feet 
deep.  Four  flights  of  steps  on  the  four  sides  lead  to  the 
water,  the  disgusting  foulness  of  which  vastly  enhances — in  the 
estimation  of  countless  pilgrims — its  efficacy  for  the  removal 
of  sin.  The  most  abandoned  criminals  journey  from  distant 
parts  of  India  to  the  margin  of  this  sacred  pool.  There  they 
pay  large  fees  to  secure  the  services  of  the  Brahman  officials, 
and  descending  with  them  into  the  water  are  made  to  mutter 
certain  texts  and  mystic  formulae,  the  meaning  of  which  they 
are  w^holly  unable  to  understand.  Then  while  in  the  act 
of  repeating  the  words  put  into  their  mouths  they  eagerly 
immerse  their  entire  persons  beneath  the  offensive  liquid. 
The  longed-for  dip  over,  a  miraculous  transformation  is  the 
result  ;  for  the  foul  water  has  cleansed  the  still  fouler  soul. 
Few  orthodox  Hindus  venture  to  doubt  that  the  most  depraved 
sinner  in  existence  may  thus  be  converted  into  an  immaculate 
saint,  worthy  of  being  translated  at  once  to  the  highest  heaven 
of  the  god  of  Benares. 

But  to  return  to  the  temple  of  Visvesvara.  I  found,  when  I 
visited  it,  a  constant  stream  of  worshippers  passing  in  and  out. 
In  fact,  Siva  in  his  character  of  lord  of  the  universe  (see  p.  78) 
is  the  supreme  deity  of  Benares.  Not  that  the  pilgrims 
are  prohibited  from  worshipping  at  the  shrines  of  other 
gods,  but  that  Siva  is  here  paramount  and  claims  the 
first  homage.  Yet  this  supreme  god  has  no  image ;  he 
is  represented  by  a  plain  conical  stone — to  wit,  the  Liiiga 
or    symbol    of    male    generative   power.      The    method    of 


Te^nples.    Places  of  Pilgrimage,    Tanjore,       439 

performing  worship  in  this  great  central  and  typical  temple 
of  Hinduism  appeared  to  me  very  remarkable  in  its  contrast 
with  all  Christian  ideas  as  to  the  true  nature  of  worship. 
All  that  each  worshipper  did  was  to  bring  Ganges  water 
in  a  small  metal  vessel  and  pour  the  water  over  the  stone 
Liiiga,  at  the  same  time  ringing  one  of  the  bells  hanging  from 
the  roof  to  attract  the  god's  attention  towards  himself,  bowing 
low  in  obeisance,  and  muttering  a  few  texts  with  repetition  of 
the  god's  name.  In  this  way  the  god's  symbol  was  kept 
deluged  with  water  (see  p.  68),  while  the  crowds  who  passed  in 
and  out  lingered  for  a  time  close  to  the  shrine,  talking  to  each 
other  in  loud  tones.  Nor  did  any  idea  of  irreverence  seem  to 
be  attached  to  noisy  vociferation  in  the  interior  of  the  sanctuary 
itself.  Nor  was  any  objection  made  to  an  unbeliever  like 
myself  approaching  and  looking  inside  ;  whereas  in  the  South 
of  India  I  was  strictly  excluded  from  all  the  avenues  to  the 
inner  Linga-sanctuaries  (see  p.  447).  In  the  courts  adjacent 
to  the  Lihga  were  other  shrines  dedicated  to  various  deities, 
and  in  a  kind  of  cloister  or  gallery  which  encircled  the  temple 
were  thousands  of  stone  Lihgas  crowded  together  carelessly 
and  apparently  only  intended  as  votive-offerings.  I  noticed 
the  coil  of  a  serpent  carved  round  one  or  two  of  the  most 
conspicuous  symbols  of  male  generative  energy,  and  the  com- 
bination appeared  to  me  very  significant. 

The  goddess  Anna-piirna  has  a  temple  close  at  hand.  She 
is  thought  to  be  charged  by  the  god  Siva  with  the  duty  of 
keeping  the  inhabitants  of  Benares  supplied  with  abundance 
of  food.  I  found  the  quadrangle  which  surrounds  this  shrine 
crowded  with  bulls,  cows,  priests,  and  mendicants,  who  are 
daily  fed  by  the  offerings  of  the  rich.  The  effluvium  emitted 
by  the  filth  and  dirt  was  insufferable.  It  was  here  that  I  met 
with  an  Urdhva-bahu  ascetic  (described  at  p.  88). 

Among  Southern  Saiva  temples  the  finest  is  at  Tanjore. 

It  is  contained  within  a  vast  quadrangle,  the  floor  of  which 
is  paved  with  bricks  and  kept  scrupulously  clean.     Two  lofty 


440       Temples.   Places  of  Pilgr image.    Tanjore, 

Gopuras  or  gateways  surmounted  by  high  pyramidal  towers  ^ 
lead  into  this  square,  and  a  sort  of  double  cloister  or  arcade 
surrounds  it.  Then  in  the  second  or  hinder  part  of  two  sides 
of  the  arcade  are  arranged  a  hundred  and  eight  black  stone 
Lihgas  of  different  sizes,  one  for  each  of  the  hundred  and  eight 
principal  names  of  Siva,  and  behind  these  again  are  sixty-four 
frescoes  painted  on  the  wall — many  of  them  highly  grotesque — 
representing  various  exploits  of  the  god  or  his  attendants^. 
A  catalogue  of  sixty-three  saints  or  distinguished  personages 
whose  devotion  to  Siva  gave  them  the  power  of  performing 
miracles  and  supernatural  feats  is  sometimes  enumerated 
(see  p.  85)  ^.  On  the  left  of  the  quadrangle  as  you  enter  is 
a  pleasant  grove  of  palms  and  other  trees.  In  the  centre  is 
the  principal  temple,  containing  the  Garbha-griham  or  inner- 
most sanctuary  of  the  sacred  Liiiga,  a  kind  of  holy  of  holies 
to  which  I  was  not  allowed  access.  This  is  an  imposing 
structure,  made  still  more  so  by  the  fine  Mandapa  or  open 
hall  erected  in  front  of  it  as  a  shrine  for  the  stone  image  of 
Siva's  bull  (nandi),  which  is  a  magnificent  specimen  of  Indian 
sculpture  of  great  size.  Near  the  principal  temple  are  four 
subordinate  ones,  two  behind  and  two  on  one  side.  Those 
behind  are  dedicated  to  the  two  sons  of  Siva,  one  to  Ganesa 
and  the  other  to  Su-brahmanya  (p.  211).  In  front  of  Ganesa 
is  the  image  of  his  vehicle,  the  rat,  looking  into  the  shrine,  as 
the  bull  does  into  the  shrine  of  Siva.  The  rat  is  an  emblem 
of  sagacity,  as  the  bull  is  of  generative  power  (see  pp.  319,  328). 


^  These  structures  are  of  oblong  form,  and  sometimes  of  immense 
height.  They  are  only  pyramidal  in  the  sense  of  being  broader  at  the 
base  than  at  the  summit.  It  is  remarkable  that  Vaishnava  carvings  are 
found  on  these  Tanjore  Gopuras,  showing  that  the  temple  may  have  once 
belonged  to  the  Vaishnavas.  Everywhere  the  two  systems  seem  inter- 
mingled. 

^  In  one  of  these  a  Lihga  is  represented  with  a  face  inside  it. 
Another  has  a  serpent  for  a  canopy.  In  another  GanJodara,  an  attendant 
of  Siva,  is  swallowing  mountains  of  rice  and  drinking  up  a  river. 

^  The  catalogue  is  given  by  Mr.  Foulkes  in  his  Saiva  Catechism. 


Temples.    Places  of  Pilginniage.     Tanjore,       441 

The  Image  of  Su-brahmanya  or  Skanda  is  seated  on  a  peacock 
and  has  six  faces.     As  to  Su-brahmanya,  sec  p.  214. 

One  of  the  side  temples  near  the  entrance  of  the  quadrangle 
contains  an  image  of  Siva,  Hfting  up  his  left  leg  while  dancing 
the  Tandava  dance  and  trampling  on  the  demon  Apa-smara. 
He  holds  the  Damaru  in  one  hand,  using  it  for  a  musical 
instrument  or  rattle,  as  a  dancer  would  castanets.  This 
temple  has  some  curious  pictures  on  the  walls.  One  is  of 
Bhriiigi,  an  attendant  of  Siva,  who  became  so  feeble  and 
attenuated  through  self-mortification  ^  that  the  god  furnished 
him  with  a  third  \^^  for  support ;  another  represents  an 
attendant  with  the  lower  part  of  his  body  terminating  in  a 
snake ;  a  third  depicts  one  of  Siva's  servants  with  the  feet  of 
a  tiger.  In  a  fourth  the  sage  Markandeya  is  about  to  be 
carried  off  by  the  king  of  death  (Yama),  when  he  grasps  Siva's 
Linga  and  saves  himself.  A  fifth  represents  the  story  of  Kala- 
hasta,  a  pious  forester  who  habitually  did  homage  to  Siva 
with  offerings  of  flowers.  One  day  having  forgotten  his  usual 
oblation  he  without  any  hesitation  tore  out  one  of  his  own 
eyes  from  its  socket,  and  having  offered  it  as  a  substitute  was 
proceeding  to  take  out  the  other,  when  Siva  prevented  him. 

The  second  side  temple  is  an  oblong  chamber  containing  an 
image  of  ParvatT  at  the  further  end,  with  lights  always  burning 
in  front.  Near  the  entrance  is  a  representation  of  Parvatfs 
darpana  or  mirror.  On  one  of  the  walls  is  portrayed  a  large 
Liriga,  canopied  by  the  serpent  Sesha. 

To  describe  all  the  principal  Saiva  temples  of  India  would 
require  volumes.  One  thousand  and  eight  arc  said  to  exist, 
one  for  each  of  the  one  thousand  and  eight  names  of  the  god. 
One  hundred  and  eight  are  regarded  as  important.  KfdT's 
temples  are  equally  numerous;  see  the  Krdl-puja  at  p.  431 
and  the  description  of  the  Vindyacal  temple  at  p.  'lyj- 

^  He  was  a  model  ascetic,  and  fasted  so  continuously  that  he  became 
not  only  emaciated,  but  an  actual  living  skeleton.  He  is  so  represented 
in  the  sculptures  of  the  caves  of  Elephanta  near  Bombay. 


442        Temples.    Places  of  Pilgrimage.    Madiera. 

Of  the  others  which  I  visited,  the  temples  at  Madura, 
Ramesvara,  Trichinopoly,  Kaiijivaram,  Tinnevelly,  and  the 
shrine  of  Kapalesvara  at  Nasik  (one  of  the  oldest),  appeared 
to  me  most  worthy  of  note. 

At  the  Madura  temple  Siva  is  worshipped  as  Sundaresvara, 
a  name  given  to  him  as  the  husband  of  MinakshT  (corrupted 
into  Minacl),  the  deified  daughter  of  a  Pandya  king^ 

A  very  extensive  and  imposing  series  of  shrines,  passages, 
and  galleries,  including  a  thousand-pillared  open  hall  of  great 
beauty,  constitutes  the  temple.  These  are  enclosed  by  a  high 
wall,  inside  of  which  and  encircling  the  interior  building  is  an 
open  road  or  way  for  the  benefit  of  pious  persons  who  use  it  for 
reverential  circumambulation  (pradakshina)  round  the  sacred 
shrine.  Two  lofty  Gopuras  form  the  entrance  to  the  temple, 
each  leading  by  long  corridors  to  the  tw^o  principal  shrines. 
That  on  the  left  leads  to  the  shrine  of  Mlnakshi  (commonly 
called  MinacT);  that  on  the  right  terminates  with  the  Liiiga 
shrine.  It  is  noteworthy  that  near  the  latter  are  images  of 
the  five  Pandava  princes  who  are  generally  connected  with 
the  worship  of  Krishna  -.  Various  interesting  carvings  and 
sculptured  figures  are  in  the  neighbouring  corridors.  It  is 
evident  that  Mlnakshi  is  the  real  popular  deity  of  the  dis- 
trict, and  that  in  the  estimation  of  the  inhabitants  of  Madura 
her  consort  Siva  is  quite  secondary. 

I  happened  accidentally  to  witness  a  festival  held  in  her 
honour  called  Tailotsava,  'the  oil  festival.'  A  coarse  image  of 
the  goddess,  profusely  decorated  with  jewels  and  having  a  high 
head-dress  of  hair,  was  carried  in  the  centre  of  a  long  proces- 

•^  The  temple  is  commonly  called  the  Mmakshl-sundaresvara  pagoda, 
the  wife's  name  being  placed  first,  as  it  generally  is  in  other  cases  also 
(see  p.  184).  The  legend  is  that  Mlnakshi  was  born  with  three  breasts, 
but  one  disappeared  on  meeting  with  her  future  husband  Siva.  She  was 
then  converted  into  a  local  goddess  of  great  celebrity. 

■^  This  is  an  evidence  of  the  tolerant  spirit  which  marks  Hinduism. 
Where  Saivism  got  the  better  of  Vaishnavism  in  the  South,  the  Vaishnava 
ornaments  were  respected  and  allowed  to  remain  in  Saiva  temples. 


Te77zples.    Places  of  Pilgrimage .    Ramesvai^a.     44 


-> 


sion  on  a  canopied  throne  borne  by  eight  Brahmans  to  a 
platform  in  the  magnificent' hall  or  Mandapa  of  the  Tirumell 
Nayak  opposite  the  temple.  There  the  ceremony  of  undress- 
ing the  idol,  removing  its  ornaments,  anointing  its  head  with 
oil,  bathing,  redecorating  and  redressing  it  was  gone  through 
amid  shouting,  singing,  beating  of  tom-toms,  waving  of  hghts 
and  cowries,  ringing  of  bells,  and  deafening  discord  from 
forty  or  fifty  so-called  musical  instruments,  each  played  by 
a  man  who  did  his  best  to  overpower  the  sound  of  all  the 
others  combined.  At  the  head  of  the  procession  was  borne 
an  image  of  Ganesa.  Then  followed  three  elephants,  a  long 
line  of  priests,  musicians,  attendants  bearing  cowries  and  um- 
brellas, with  a  troop  of  dancing  girls  bringing  up  the  rear. 

No  sight  I  witnessed  in  India  made  me  more  sick  at  heart 
than  this.  It  furnished  a  sad  example  of  the  utterly  debasing 
character  of  the  idolatry  which,  notwithstanding  the  counter- 
acting influences  of  education  and  Christianity,  still  enslaves 
the  masses  of  the  population,  deadening  their  intellects,  cor- 
rupting their  imaginations,  warping  their  affections,  perverting 
their  consciences,  disfiguring  the  fair  soil  of  a  beautiful  country 
with  hideous  images,  and  encouraging  practices  unsanctioned 
even  by  their  own  most  ancient  sacred  works. 

Probably  the  Ramesvara  temple  ranks  next  to  those  of 
Tanjore  and  Madura  in  magnificence,  and  to  those  of  Benares 
in  sanctity.  It  is  situated  in  a  small  town  at  the  further  side 
of  the  island  of  Ramesvara  —  an  island  about  eight  miles 
long  by  four  broad — which,  with  the  coral  reef  stretching  for 
tw^enty-one  miles  from  its  furthest  extremity  and  appearing 
like  a  broken  bridge  above  the  sea^,  nearly  connects  India 
with  Manaar  and  Ceylon.  The  narrow  channel  separating 
the  island  from  the  mainland  is  called  Pambam  (or  Pamben). 
The  journey  to  it  caused  me  great  discomfort  and  fatigue. 

^  The  natives  still  believe  this  to  be  the  remains  of  the  bridge  formed  by 
Hanuman  and  Rama's  army  of  monkeys,  when  he  invaded  Ceylon  for 
the  recovery  of  his  wife  Sita  (see  Indian  Wisdom,  p.  35S). 


444      Temples,    Places  of  Pilgrimage.    Ramesvara. 

Starting  from  Ramnad  a  vast  sandy  waste  has  to  be 
traversed  before  this  sacred  island  can  be  reached.  Yet 
thousands  of  pilgrims  walk  first  to  Benares  and  thence  to 
Ramesvara.  And  perhaps  such  a  double  pilgrimage  (yatra) 
is  the  most  meritorious  act  a  Hindu  can  perform.  It  is  true 
that  enormous  merit  (punya)  may  be  accumulated  by  simply 
visiting  Ramesvara,  but  this  is  as  nothing  compared  to  what 
may  be  obtained  by  going  first  to  Benares. 

In  my  own  case  I  had  visited  both  Benares  and  Ramesvara, 
though  not  on  foot,  and  I  was  rewarded  at  the  latter  place 
by  being  met  on  my  arrival  by  a  number  of  Pandits,  who 
brought  a  band  of  musicians  and  conducted  me  in  state, 
amid  a  deafening  din,  through  the  streets  of  the  town.  The 
musicians,  though  they  preceded  me,  all  walked  backwards. 

In  fact,  if  a  man  wish  for  the  perfection  of  bliss  hereafter, 
he  has  only  one  course  open  to  him.  He  must  first  journey 
to  Benares,  there  go  through  at  least  a  hundred  ceremonies 
at  a  hundred  shrines  in  the  sacred  circle  surrounding  the 
centre  of  the  city,  pay  large  fees  to  the  Brahmans  at  innu- 
merable temples,  and  especially  pour  plenty  of  Ganges  water 
over  the  symbol  of  Siva  at  the  Visvesvara  shrine.  Then  he 
must  fill  a  jar  with  more  holy  water  from  the  Ganges,  and  toil 
with  it  on  foot  through  dust  and  sand  for  about  twelve  hun- 
dred miles  to  Ramesvara.  There  the  sacred  water  is  to  be 
poured  over  the  symbol  of  Siva  with  the  certainty  of  securing 
complete  beatitude  hereafter,  provided  sufficient  fees  are  paid 
to  the  Brahmans,  and  the  process  is  wound  up  by  a  bath  in 
the  sea  at  Dhanush-koti^  a  little  further  on. 

Shortly  before  my  arrival  at  the  temple  a  father  and  son 
had  just  completed  their  self-imposed  task,  and  after  months 
of  hard  walking  succeeded  in  transporting  their  precious 
burden  of  Ganges  water  to  the  other  side  of  the  channel. 
The  longed-for  goal  was  nearly  reached  and  the  temple  of 
Ramesvara  already  in  sight,  when  the  father  died  suddenly 
on  the  road,  leaving  his  son,  a  mere  child,  utterly  destitute. 


Temples.  Places  of  Pilgrimage.  Jamb2tkesva7'a.    445 

The  boy.  however,  had  one  treasure  left — his  jar  of  Ganges 
water.  This,  if  only  it  could  be  poured  upon  the  sacred 
symbol,  would  prove  a  complete  panacea  for  all  his  earthly 
troubles.  Eagerly  therefore  he  grasped  his  burden  once 
more  and  hurried  on  to  the  shrine.  Imagine  the  child's 
outburst  of  grief  when  the  door  was  closed  against  him.  He 
had  no  fee  for  the  presiding  priest. 

The  temple  of  Ramcsvara  itself  I  found  to  be  a  vast  ob- 
long structure  containing  an  immense  collection  of  Liiiga 
shrines,  open  halls  and  tanks  surrounded  by  long  beautiful 
galleries  and  corridors,  one  entrance  to  which  is  from  the 
small  town  of  Ramesvara  and  the  other  from  the  sea-shore. 
The  principal  sanctuary  or  Garbha  is  well  secluded  and  care- 
fully protected  from  all  unhallowed  eyes  in  the  centre  of  the 
structure.  It  contains  the  celebrated  Liiiga  set  up  by  Rama 
after  his  return  from  Ceylon  (Lanka). 

The  legend  is  that,  anxious  to  expiate  the  impurity  con- 
tracted by  the  slaughter  of  Ravana  in  the  battle  which  ended 
in  the  demon's  death  (p.  iii),  Rama  despatched  Hanuman 
to  bring  a  Liiiga  from  Benares  that  he  might  erect  a  shrine 
over  it  and  so  propitiate  Siva.  But  the  monkey-god  was  so 
long  in  executing  the  commission  that  Sita  prepared  a  Liiiga 
of  sand  with  her  own  hands,  and  Rama  having  then  and  there 
performed  the  ceremony  of  setting  it  up  (pratishtha)  and 
consecrating  it,  proceeded  to  worship  it.  He  then  bathed  in 
the  sea  from  the  neighbouring  promontory  at  a  spot  which 
was  afterwards  called  Thanush-kodi  (Dhanush-koti),  because 
marked  by  the  corner  of  his  bow.  Hence  a  visit  to  this  spot 
is  essential  to  a  completely  meritorious  performance  of  the 
Ramesvara  pilgrimage. 

The  Saiva  temple  at  Trichinopoly  is  dedicated  to  Siva  in 
his  character  of  Jambukesvara,  lord  of  the  Jambu  tree^  It 
is    one    of    the    most    important    and    interesting    shrines    in 

^  The  connexion  of  Siva  worship  with  tree  and  serpent  worship  seemed 
to  me  traceable  everywhere  in  Southern  India  (compare  p.  331). 


44^      Temples.    Places  of  Pilgrimage.    Kanjivara7n. 

India.  No  one  could  fail  to  be  impressed  with  its  beautiful 
colonnades,  cloisters,  and  thousand-pillared  Mandapa,  though 
when  I  visited  it  in  1877  it  was  in  a  somewhat  decaying  con- 
dition. In  the  central  court  of  the  temple  is  a  metal  column 
(stambha)  supporting  a  flag  (dhvaja)^,  and  near  it  is  the 
Jambu  tree  over  which  Siva  is  supposed  to  preside. 

The  chief  object  of  worship  is  a  stone  Lihga,  always  kept 
under  water  and  thence  called  the  Ap-Iihga.  The  Pandits 
informed  me  that  four  other  celebrated  Lihga-shrines  in  India 
represent  the  remaining  four  elements — fire,  air,  earth,  and 
ether  ^,  all  of  which  are  believed  to  be  manifestations  of  Siva 
(compare  p.  85). 

At  KafijTvaram  (the  ancient  Kaficl),  one  of  the  most  sacred 
places  in  India  ^,  not  far  distant  from  Madras,  there  are  two 
principal  temples  at  opposite  ends  of  the  town,  one  dedicated 
to  Vishnu  (as  Varada-raja),  the  other  to  Siva.  Both  were 
visited  by  me,  and  both  I  found  to  be  striking  examples  of 
South  Indian  architecture,  containing  a  very  considerable 
collection  of  imposing  buildings  within  their  exterior  walls. 
According  to  a  local  legend  the  goddess  ParvatI  once  per- 
formed penance  under  a  mango-tree  (amra)  on  the  spot 
where  the  Saiva  temple  now  stands.  There  her  husband 
Siva  appeared  to  her,  and  there  he  is  worshipped  as  Ekamra- 
natha,  '  the  peerless  lord  of  the  mango  *.' 

The  Tinnevelly  Saiva  temple  is  also  highly  interesting  and 
instructive.  Siva  is  here  again  worshipped  in  connexion  with 
a  sacred  tree,  the  Vata  or  Banian  tree,  whence  his  name 
Vatesvara,  'lord  of  the  Vata-tree^ ;'  but  here,  as  at  Madura,  his 

^  A  similar  column  is  in  other  South  Indian  shrines. 

^  They  are  called  the  Tejo-lihga,  Vayu-lihga,  Prithivl-lihga,  and  Akasa- 
lihga  respectively. 

"  It  is  enumerated  among  the  seven  most  sacred  places. 

*  So  he  was  described  to  me  by  a  Pandit  in  the  temple.  Otherwise  his 
name  might  literally  be  '  lord  of  the  one  mango.' 

^  Here  is  another  instance  of  Siva's  association  with  trees  (compare 
p.  331).    The  Pandits  who  took  me  round  the  temple  described  the  god  as 


Temples,    Places  of  Pilg7'unage.    Sri-rahgam.     447 

wife  ParvatI,  who  has  a  shrine  on  the  left  side  of  the  temple, 
under  the  name  of  Kantimatl,  '  the  lovely  one,'  is  the  most 
popular  object  of  adoration  ^  The  Liriga  of  Siva,  in  a 
kind  of  holy  of  holies  in  this  temple,  is  very  sacred.  The 
approach  to  it  is  by  a  long  corridor ;  but  the  sanctuary  itself 
is  not  visible  at  the  end  of  the  vista.  It  is  protected  by  three 
other  approaches  or  vestibules,  each  increasing  in  sanctity 
(called  the  Ghanta-mandapa,  the  Maha-mandapa,  and  the 
Arddha-mandapa),  into  none  of  which  was  I  permitted  to  enter. 

The  Liriga  is,  of  course,  never  moved  from  its  place  in  the 
penetralia  of  the  temple,  but  an  image  of  Siva,  called  the 
Utsava-miirti,  is  carried  about  in  procession  on  certain  festival 
days,  especially  when  the  annual  ceremony  of  marrying  the 
god  and  the  goddess  is  performed  every  October.  The  god 
of  love  (Kama-deva)  and  his  wife  (Rati)  have  also  images  in 
this  temple,  and  a  festival  is  held  in  their  honour  every 
spring.  Two  magnificent  open  halls — one  with  a  thousand 
columns,  the  other  with  a  hundred  and  eight — a  tank,  garden, 
and  grove  of  palms  are  all  within  the  enclosure  of  the  temple. 

I  will  not  advert  to  the  ruins  of  the  marvellous  Kailasa 
temple  cut  out  of  the  solid  rock  at  EUora,  which  I  visited 
in  1877  (pp.  70,  IT 8,  291),  further  than  to  say  that  it  is  one 
of  the  wonders  of  India  and  indeed  of  the  world.  As  to  the 
celebrated  Vishnu-temple  of  Jagan-nath  at  Purl  in  Orissa,  its 
sanctity  is  such  that  100,000  pilgrims  annually  eat  the  sacred 
food  (prasdda)  distributed  in  its  courts  to  priest,  prince  and 
peasant  alike;  for  no  distinctions  of  caste  are  recognized  in  the 
presence  of  Krishna  (Vishnu)  '  the  lord  of  the  world.'  (The 
car- festival  is  described  in  my  '  Modern  India,'  p.  68.) 

The  temple  of  Vishnu  at  Gaya  has  been  described  at  p.  309, 
and  temples  of  Krishna  at  p.  144,  and  again  at  p.  152. 

Sallvatlsvara  (or  in  Tamil,  Nel  velll-natha).  I  was  informed  that,  at  a 
sacred  shrine  south  of  the  Vindhya,  Siva  is  worshipped  as  Draksharame- 
svara,  '  lord  of  the  vineyard.' 

^  Live  parrots  and  cockatoos  are  hung  before  her  shrine  as  offerings. 


44^      Temples.    Places  of  Pilgrimage.    Sri-rangam. 

We  pass  on  to  the  Srl-rangam  temple  at  Trichinopoly  which 
contains  in  one  of  its  courts  a  shrine  of  Ramanuja,  the  great 
Vaishnava  teacher  (p.  119),  who  is  supposed  to  have  lived 
here  for  a  considerable  time  before  his  death.  Sri-rangam  is. 
indeed,  rather  a  sacred  city  than  a  temple.  Hundreds  of 
Brahmans  dwell  within  its  precincts,  thousands  of  pilgrims 
throng  its  streets,  and  on  great  anniversaries  myriads  of  wor- 
shippers crowd  its  corridors,  and  press  towards  its  sanctuary. 
No  sight  is  to  be  seen  in  any  part  of  India  that  can  at  ail 
compare  with  the  unique  effect  produced  by  its  series  of  seven 
quadrangular  enclosures  formed  by  seven  squares  of  massive 
walls,  one  within  the  other — every  square  pierced  by  four 
lofty  gateways,  and  each  gateway  surmounted  by  pyramidal 
towers  rivalling  in  altitude  the  adjacent  rock  of  Trichinopoly. 

The  construction  of  this  marvellous  congeries  of  sacred 
buildings  must  have  cost  millions  of  rupees,  and  since  its  first 
construction  fabulous  sums  have  been  spent  on  its  main- 
tenance and  enlargement.  It  is  said  that  kings  and  princes 
have  emptied  their  coffers  and  given  up  their  revenues  for 
the  completion  and  extension  of  its  many-storied  towers ; 
rich  men  of  every  rank  have  parted  with  their  treasures 
for  the  adding  of  column  after  column  to  its  thousand- 
pillared  courts ;  misers  have  yielded  up  their  hoards  for 
the  decoration  of  its  jewelled  images ;  capitalists  have  be- 
queathed vast  benefactions  for  the  support  of  its  priests ; 
architects  and  artists  have  exhausted  all  their  resources  for 
the  production  of  a  perfect  shrine,  the  worthy  receptacle  of 
an  idol  of  transcendent  glory. 

The  idea  is  that  each  investing  square  of  walls  shall  form 
courts  of  increasing  sanctity  which  shall  conduct  the  wor- 
shipper by  regular  gradations  to  a  central  holy  of  holies 
of  unique  shape  and  proportions.  In  fact,  the  entire  fabric  of 
shrines,  edifices,  towers,  and  enclosures  is  supposed  to  be  a 
terrestrial  counterpart  of  Vishnu's  heaven  (Vaikuntha),  to 
which  his  votaries  are  destined  to  be  transported. 


Temples.    Places  of  Pilgrhnage.    Sri-rahgavi.    449 

The  idol  itself  is  recumbent,  and  its  legendary  history  is 
curious.  When  Rama  dismissed  his  ally  Vibhlshana — the 
brother  of  the  conquered  demon  Ravana  who  had  carried  off 
Sita  to  Ceylon — he  gave  him,  out  of  gratitude  for  his  services, 
a  golden  idol  of  Vishnu,  with  instructions  not  to  lay  it  down 
till  he  had  reached  home.  Vibhlshana  accordingly  set  out  on 
his  return  to  Ceylon,  taking  the  precious  image  with  him. 
Passing  near  Sri-rahgam,  and  wishing  to  bathe  in  the  sacred 
tank,  he  gave  the  image  to  one  of  his  followers,  charging  him 
to  hold  it  upright,  and  on  no  account  to  let  it  pass  out  of  his 
hands.  But  Vibhlshana  was  so  long  over  his  ablutions,  that 
the  holder  of  the  image,  finding  its  weight  insupportable, 
deposited  it  on  the  ground,  intending  to  take  it  up  again 
before  Vibhishana's  return.  The  dismay  of  all  parties  con- 
cerned was  great  when  they  discovered  that  the  idol  obsti- 
nately declined  to  be  removed  from  its  comfortable  position. 
It  had,  therefore,  to  be  left  in  a  recumbent  attitude,  and  a 
shrine  was  built  over  it,  shaped  like  the  sacred  monosyllable 
Om,  supposed  to  be  a  combination  of  the  three  letters 
A,  U,  M,  mystically  significant  of  the  Supreme  Being's  three 
principal  manifestations,  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva  (pp.  44 ; 
402  ;  403).  On  the  summit  of  the  shrine  were  placed  four 
pinnacles  to  denote  the  four  Vedas,  and  around  it  were 
constructed  seven  walls  built  in  squares,  one  within  the  other, 
and  forming  seven  quadrangular  courts,  figuring  the  seven 
divisions  or  degrees  of  bliss  in  Vishnu's  heaven. 

Of  course  the  original  idol  of  Vishnu  is  supposed  to  be  still 
immovable ;  but  another  image  has  been  consecrated  (called 
the  utsava-vigraha),  which  is  carried  about  in  processions  on 
certain  anniversaries — such,  for  example,  as  the  car-festival, 
when  the  enormous  car,  attached  to  every  Vaishnava  temple 
in  Southern  India,  is  dragged  through  the  streets  of  the  town 
by  thousands  of  men. 

The  dress,  decorations,  and  jewelry  belonging  to  this  port- 
able idol  were  all  exhibited  to   me.      I  saw  the  idol-crown 


450  .T.emples.    Places  of  Pilgrimage.    Sri-rangam. 

covered  with  diamonds,  pearls,  and  rubies — worth  at  least 
eighty  thousand  rupees — with  a  breastplate,  ornaments  for 
the  feet,  and  necklace,  worth  a  similar  sum. 

In  the  centre  of  the  inner  wall  of  the  temple,  near  the 
interior  shrine  on  the  north  side,  is  a  narrow  door  called 
heaven's  gate.  I  happened  to  visit  Sri-raiigam  at  the  time 
of  the  annual  festival  celebrated  on  the  27th  of  December. 
This  is  the  one  day  in  the  year  on  which  the  gate  is  opened, 
and  on  the  occasion  of  my  visit  the  opening  took  place  at 
four  o'clock  in  the  morning.  First  the  idol — bedecked  and 
bejewelled  to  the  full — was  borne  through  the  narrow  portal, 
followed  by  eighteen  images  of  Vaishnava  saints  and  devotees  ; 
then  came  innumerable  priests  chanting  Vedic  hymns  and 
repeating  the  thousand  names  of  Vishnu  ;  then  dancing  girls 
and  bands  of  musicians — the  invariable  attendants  upon  idol- 
shrines  in  the  South  of  India.  Finally,  a  vast  throng — pro- 
bably fifty  thousand  persons — crowded  for  hours  through  the 
contracted  passage,  amid  deafening  shouts  and  vociferations, 
beating  of  drums,  and  discordant  sounds  of  all  kinds  of 
music. 

Not  a  single  human  being  passed  through  that  strait  and 
narrow  portal  without  presenting  offerings  to  the  idol,  and 
gifts  to  the  priests.  Many,  doubtless,  joined  the  surging 
throng  from  a  vague  sense  of  duty,  or  because  their  fathers 
and  grandfathers  had  joined  it  from  time  immemorial ;  but 
the  motive  which  actuated  the  majority  was  a  firm  conviction 
that  the  passage  of  the  earthly  heaven's  gate,  kept  by  the 
priests,  and  unlocked  at  their  bidding,  would  be  a  sure  pass- 
port to  Vishnu's  heaven  after  death. 

I  may  mention  in  conclusion  that  most  of  the  South  Indian 
temples  are  sufficiently  well  endowed  to  maintain  a  band  of 
musicians.  That  of  Tanjore  has  fifty.  The  number  and 
variety  of  their  musical  instruments  struck  me  as  extra- 
ordinary, though  the  resulting  sounds  at  the  time  of  morning 
and  evening  service,  when   a   noisy  orchestra  is  thought  to 


Temples.     Sri-rahgam.     Srft^red  Symhnhr       451 

contribute  largely  to  the  merit  of  religious  worship,  are  pro- 
ductive;  at  least  to  European  ears,  of  excruciating  discord. 

All  the  temples  also  maintain  troops  of  dancing  girls. 
The  Tanjore  temple  possesses  fifteen,  ten  of  whom  danced 
before  me  in  the  court  of  the  temple  with  far  livelier  move- 
ments than  are  customary  among  the  Nach  girls  of  Western 
and  Northern  India.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  dancinjj 
in  the  East  was  once  exclusively  connected  with  religious 
devotion,  especially  with  homage  paid  to  Siva  in  his  character 
of  lord  of  dancing  (see  p.  85).  Further,  it  is  well-known  that 
in  ancient  times  women  were  dedicated  to  the  service  of  the 
temples,  like  the  Vestal  virgins  of  Europe.  They  were  held 
to  be  married  to  the  god,  and  had  no  other  duty  but  to  dance 
before  his  shrine.  Hence  they  were  called  the  god's  slaves 
(deva-dasi),  and  were  generally  patterns  of  piety  and  pro- 
priety. In  the  present  day  they  are  still  called  by  the  same 
name,  but  are  rather  slaves  to  the  licentious  passions  of  the 
profligate  Brahmans  of  the  temples  to  which  they  belong. 

What  surprised  me  most  was  the  number  and  weight  of 
their  ornaments,  especially  in  the  case  of  those  attached  to 
the  temples  in  Southern  India.  Some  wore  nose-rings  and 
finger-rings  glittering  with  rubies  and  pearls.  Their  cars 
were  pierced  all  round  and  filled  with  costly  ear-rings.  Their 
limbs  were  encumbered  with  bangles,  anklets,  armlets,  toe- 
rings,  necklaces,  chain-ornaments,  head-ornaments,  and  the 
like.  One  of  the  Tanjore  girls  informed  me  that  she  had 
been  recently  robbed  of  jewels  to  the  value  of  Rs.  25,000. 
No  doubt  they  drive  a  profitable  trade  under  the  sanction  of 
religion,  and  some  courtezans  have  been  known  to  amass 
enormous  fortunes.  Nor  do  they  think  it  inconsistent  with 
their  method  of  making  money  to  spend  it  in  works  of  piety. 
Here  and  there  Indian  bridges  and  other  useful  public  works 
owe  their  existence  to  the  liberality  of  the  frail  sisterhood. 


Gg  2 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

Caste,  especially  in  relation  to  Occupations. 

The  Portuguese,  who  were  the  first  to  trade  with  India, 
used  the  word  '  casta,'  '  race,'  to  denote  the  infinite  number  of 
classes  into  which  Indian  society  is  divided.  This  word  was 
changed  by  us  into  '  caste ' — a  word  unrecognized  by  the 
natives,  but  now  universally  adopted  by  all  writers  on  Hin- 
duism.    Caste  in  India  is  closely  bound  up  with  religion. 

Indeed  it  might  fairly  be  asserted  that  Hinduism,  allowing 
as  it  does  the  most  perfect  freedom  in  regard  to  religious 
opinions,  is  rather  a  religion  of  caste-rules  and  caste-usages^ 
of  forms  and  ceremonies,  than  of  doctrines  and  dogmas. 

The  four  original  castes  of  Manu's  time  have  been  already 
described  (p.  ^'^.  His  word  for  caste  was  varna,  '  colour,' 
which  implied  some  ethnological  distinction  of  complexion 
as  separating  the  dominant  from  the  inferior  classes.  The 
modern  word  is  jati  (jat),  'birth,'  indicating  that  in  whatever 
station  or  profession  a  man  is  born  to  that  he  is  indissolubly 
bound.  Of  these  four  castes  not  one  remains  in  its  purity, 
not  even  that  of  the  Brahmans,  who  are  divided  and  sub- 
divided into  countless  sub-castes.  Nevertheless  the  Brahmans 
are  still  the  purest  caste  of  the  four,  though  the  Rajputs 
claim  to  be  pure  Kshatriyas,  and  the  Baniyahs  or  traders  call 
themselves  pure  Vaisyas,  and  in  some  parts  of  India  there  are 
so-called  pure  Sudras.  All  these  four  castes  consider  them- 
selves superior  to  the  countless  mixed  castes,  each  one  of 
which  is  generally  confined  to  its  own  employment,  and  these 


Caste,  especially  i7i  relation  to  Ocnipations.     45:; 

again  look  down  upon  the  outcastes  or  sweepers  who  in  the 
South  are  called  Pariahs.  It  has  recently  been  asserted  that 
certain  sections  of  the  Pariah  class  are  so  down-trodden  as  to 
be  kept  in  practical  slavery.  As  a  rule,  however,  the  lower 
castes  are  not  oppressed  by  the  higher  or  even  held  in  con- 
tempt by  them.  It  is  remarkable,  too,  that  the  lower  the 
caste  the  more  tenacious  are  its  members  of  their  own  caste- 
rules  and  the  more  pride  do  they  take  in  observing  them,  and 
the  more  strict  are  they  in  enforcing  them. 

Doubtless  railroads  by  necessitating  personal  contact  and 
facilitating  communication  have  relaxed  the  rigour  of  caste  in 
some  few  particulars.  Yet  its  power  is  still  exerted  with 
almost  irresistible  force  in  imposing  certain  social  restrictions 
which  may  be  classed  under  four  heads  as  follow : — 

1.  Restrictions  as  to  the  kind  of  food  allowed  to  be  eaten 
and  as  to  its  preparation  by  cooks  who  must  not  be  of  a  caste 
inferior  to  that  of  the  eaters. 

2.  Restrictions  as  to  commensality, — that  is,  as  to  persons 
of  different  castes  eating  together  ^,  outcastes  being  excluded 
from  all  commensality,  except  among  themselves. 

3.  Restrictions  as  to  marriage,  including  the  enforcement  of 
child-marriages,  the  prohibition  of  widow-remarriage,  and  the 
prevention  of  intermarriage  between  persons  of  different 
castes. 

4.  Restriction  of  particular  occupations  to  particular  castes. 

It  is  to  the  last  of  these  four  heads  that  the  present  chapter 
will  mainly  be  confined. 

It  is  remarkable  that  notwithstanding  India's  vast  poten- 
tiality of  wealth,  all  her  ancient  superiority  in  arts,  sciences,  and 


*  Fruits  and  dry  food  may  be  eaten  by  all  castes  together.  The 
moment  food  is  cooked  caste  comes  in  with  strict  prohibitions.  Nothing 
cooked  in  water  can  be  eaten  by  people  of  different  castes  together,  nor 
can  water  be  accepted  by  high  caste  from  low  caste  persons. 


454    Caste,  especially  in  relation  to  Occupations. 

industries,  carried  back  through  countless  generations  for  at 
least  3500  years,  it  is  impossible  to  deny  that  she  has  never 
advanced  beyond  a  certain  point,  and  that  she  is  at  present  both 
scientifically  and  commercially  left  far  behind  by  European 
nations.  Let  us  go  back  to  the  beginning.  Let  us  try  to 
trace  the  causes  which  first  promoted  and  then  impeded  the 
development  of  her  trades  and  industries. 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  first  Aryan  settlers  on 
Indian  soil  were  all  tillers  of  the  land.  Parties  of  immigrants 
from  Central  Asia  gained  possession  of  fertile  tracts  in 
Northern  India  and  formed  themselves  into  separate  agri- 
*  cultural  communities.  Soon  the  richness  of  the  soil  on  the 
plains  of  the  Indus  and  the  Ganges  enabled  them  to  support 
a  considerable  surplus  population.  New  wants  arose  with 
the  gradual  growth  of  the  community.  Soldiers  were  needed 
to  fight  their  battles,  watchmen  to  protect  their  cropSj  priests 
to  perform  their  religious  duties,  weavers  to  weave  their 
garments,  artisans  to  supply  them  with  common  articles  of 
every-day  use,  servants  to  do  menial  work.  Hence  arose  a 
complete  system  of  division  of  labour.  To  every  man  his 
place,  work^  rank,  and  remuneration  were  assigned.  Hence, 
too,  every  member  of  the  body  so  constituted  acquired 
great  skill  in  his  own  particular  craft,  and  took  a  pride 
in  continually  improving  it.  This  skill  and  these  feelings 
of  pride  he  transmitted  to  his  children,  by  whom  again 
they  were  developed  and  intensified.  In  this  manner  a 
strong  esprit  de  corps  was  generated,  and  associations  of 
persons  engaged  in  the  same  occupations  were  ultimately 
formed,  each  of  which  fenced  itself  round  with  rules  and 
regulations  necessary  for  the  protection  of  its  own  rights 
and  privileges. 

It  is  easy  to  see,  therefore,  that  caste  and  occupation  were 
formerly  convertible  terms.  The  number  of  these  trade- 
castes  is  at  present  quite  incalculable.  There  seems  to 
be  no  limit  to  their  formation.      New  ones  are   continually 


Caste,  especially  in  relation  to  Occttpations.    455 

forming.  Old  ones  are  continually  passing  away.  Even 
to  enumerate  their  names  would  be  impossible.  In  all 
probability  they  have  all  grown  out  of  the  primitive  con- 
stitution of  village  communities. 

And  here  I  may  observe  that  no  circumstance  in  the 
history  of  India  is  more  worthy  of  investigation  than  the 
antiquity  and  permanence  of  her  village  and  municipal  institu- 
tions. The  importance  of  the  study  lies  in  the  light  thereby 
thrown  on  the  parcelling  out  of  rural  society  into  autonomous 
divisions,  like  those  of  our  own  English  parishes,  wherever 
Aryan  races  have  occupied  the  soil  in  Asia  'or  in  Europe. 
The  Indian  village  or  township,  meaning  thereby  not  merely 
a  collection  of  houses  forming  a  village  or  town,  but  a  division 
of  territory,  perhaps  three  or  four  square  miles  or  more  in 
extent,  with  its  careful  distribution  of  fixed  occupations  for 
the  common  good,  with  its  intertwining  and  inter-dependence 
of  individual,  family,  and  communal  interests,  with  its  perfect 
provision  for  political  independence  and  autonomy,  is  the 
original  type — the  first  germ  of  all  the  divisions  of  rural 
and  civic  society  in  medieval  and  modern  Europe.  It  has 
existed  almost  unaltered  since  the  description  of  its  or- 
ganization in  Manu's  code,  two  or  three  centuries  before  the 
Christian  era.  It  has  survived  all  the  religious,  political,  and 
physical  convulsions  from  which  India  has  suffered  from  time 
immemorial.  Invader  after  invader  has  ravaged  the  country 
with  fire  and  sword  ;  internal  wars  have  carried  devastation 
into  every  corner  of  the  land ;  tyrannical  oppressors  have 
desolated  its  homesteads  ;  famine  has  decimated  its  peasantry ; 
pestilence  has  depopulated  entire  districts ;  floods  and  earth- 
quakes have  changed  the  face  of  nature ;  folly,  superstition, 
and  delusion  have  made  havoc  of  all  religion  and  morality — 
but  the  simple,  self-contained  Indian  township  has  preserved 
its  constitution  intact,  its  customs,  precedents,  and  peculiar 
institutions  unchanged  and  unchangeable  amid  all  other 
changes. 


45 6     Caste,  especially  in  relation  to  Occupations. 

Let  us  endeavour  to  draw  a  picture  of  one  of  these  Indian 
communities.  And  in  the  first  place  let  us  bear  in  mind  that 
it  consists  mainly  of  tillers  of  the  soil.  At  least  three-fourths 
of  the  whole  body  are  common  field-labourers.  Each  man 
tills  a  small  plot  of  ground  of  his  own,  which  may  vary  in 
extent  according  to  his  position  and  capabilities.  In  some 
parts  of  India  the  cultivators  form  a  separate  caste,  but  as 
a  rule  almost  any  low-caste  man  may  become  a  tiller  of  the 
ground.  The  implements  are  of  the  rudest  kind.  An  Indian 
plough  is  exactly  what  it  was  two  or  three  thousand  years 
ago,  not  unlike  a  thin  anchor,  one  claw  of  which  pierces  the 
ground  while  the  other  is  held  by  the  ploughman.  It  may 
be  carried  on  a  man's  back^  and  scarcely  does  more  than 
scratch  the  soil. 

How,  then,  does  this  body  of  agriculturists  provide  for  the 
management  of  its  own  affairs  and  the  maintenance  of  order 
and  organization  ?  Each  community  forms  itself  into  a  little 
republic ;  bound,  however,  to  the  central  Government  by  the 
regular  payment  of  an  assessment  or  tax  on  the  produce. 
The  first  step  is  to  elect  their  Headman  or  President,  who 
is  paid  by  a  fixed  proportion  of  the  land,  and  is  a  kind  of 
mayor  or  civic  magistrate.  He  is  the  chairman  of  the  village 
or  town  council — called  a  panchayat — a  kind  of  local  board, 
which  often  holds  its  sittings  under  a  large  tree.  He  decides 
disputes,  apportions  the  labour  and  the  amount  of  produce 
each  labourer  is  to  receive  as  remuneration,  and  is  responsible 
for  the  annual  proportion  due  to  the  Government.  It  will 
astonish  an  English  workman  to  learn  that  the  amount  of 
grain  required  for  the  support  of  an  adult  man  in  Bengal 
is  only  valued  at  three  shillings  a  month,  and  for  a  woman 
at  eighteen  pence.  A  large  family  may  be  supported  for 
fourteen  shillings  a  month. 

The  next  important  personage  in  the  community  is  the 
accountant  or  notary,  a  kind  of  local  attorney,  who  transacts 
the  village  business  and  keeps  an  account  of  the  land,  the 


Caste i  especially  in  relation  to  Ocntpations,     457 

produce,  the  rents,  and  assessment.  In  some  respects  a  far 
more  important  functionary  than  either  headman  or  notary 
is  the  priest  (purohita),  the  spiritual  head  of  the  society,  who 
performs  all  religious  ceremonies  for  its  members,  whether 
at  births,  marriages,  or  deaths,  and  is  supported  by  fixed 
allotments  of  grain,  or  special  offerings  on  solemn  occasions. 
As  a  Brahman  he  may  be  of  higher  caste  than  either  the 
headman  or  notary  (who  are  not  generally  Brahmans),  and 
his  spiritual  power  is  unbounded.  His  anger  is  as  terrible  as 
that  of  the  gods.  His  blessing  makes  rich,  his  curse  withers. 
Nay,  more,  he  is  himself  actually  worshipped  as  a  god. 
No  marvel,  no  prodigy  in  nature  is  believed  to  be  beyond 
the  limits  of  his  power  to  accomplish.  If  the  priest  were 
to  threaten  to  bring  down  the  sun  from  the  sky  or  arrest 
it  in  its  daily  course  in  the  heavens,  no  villager  would  for  a 
moment  doubt  his  ability  to  do  so.  And  indeed  the  priests 
of  India,  in  their  character  of  Brahmans,  claim  to  have  worked 
a  few  notable  miracles  at  different  times  and  on  various 
occasions.  One  of  their  number  once  swallowed  the  ocean 
in  three  sips,  another  manufactured  fire,  another  created 
animals,  and  another  turned  the  moon  into  a  cinder.  The 
priest  confers  incalculable  benefits  on  the  community  of  which 
he  is  a  member  by  merely  receiving  their  presents.  A  cow 
given  to  him  secures  heaven  of  a  certainty  to  the  lucky  donor. 
The  consequences  of  injuring  him  are  terrific.  The  man  who 
does  him  the  smallest  harm  must  make  up  his  mind  to  be 
whirled  about  after  death,  for  at  least  a  century,  in  a  hell 
of  total  darkness.  This  wdll  suffice  to  account  for  the  respect 
paid  to  the  Brahman-priest  by  the  peasants,  w^ho  sometimes 
drink  the  water  in  which  his  feet  have  been  washed,  by  way 
of  getting  rid  of  their  sins  with  the  least  possible  difficulty.  It 
by  no  means  follows,  however,  that  every  Brfdiman  is  a  priest. 
Sometimes  the  priest  combines  the  functions  of  village 
astrologer — a  very  necessary  official,  since  a  chief  part  of  the  re- 
ligion of  all  Indian  peasants  consists  in  a  fear  of  the  evil  influence 


45 8      Caste^  especially  in  relation  to  Occupations. 

of  stars  and  planets  (p.  '>f']i)'  The  astrologer  determines  the 
lucky  days  for  sowing  and  reaping,  tells  fortunes,  prepares  horo- 
scopes, and  knows  how  to  counteract  bad  omens — to  avert 
the  evil  consequences  of  an  envious  look,  of  a  sudden 
sneeze,  of  the  yell  of  a  jackal  or  chirping  of  a  lizard.  If  the 
astrologer  also  practises  magic  it  becomes  necessary  to  con- 
ciliate him  ;  for  he  has  power  over  demons  and  evil  spirits. 
He  can  cause  diseases  as  well  as  cure  them,  and  can  destroy  life 
by  the  repetition  of  magical  texts.  He  is,  I  fear,  the  only  phy- 
sician. The  true  art  of  healing  and  of  sanitation  is  unknown. 
Then  nearly  every  Indian  village  possesses  a  schoolmaster, 
and  his  functions  also  are  sometimes  united  in  those  of  the 
priest.  In  passing  through  a  large  village  in  Bengal,  I  came 
upon  a  group  of  at  least  fifty  naked  children  squatting  under 
a  tree  near  a  homestead,  some  engaged  in  scratching  the 
letters  of  the  alphabet  on  leaves,  and  some  learning  to  write 
on  the  dust  of  the  ground.  This  was  the  national  school, 
presided  over  by  a  nearly  naked  pedagogue  who,  on  my 
approach,  made  his  pupils  show  off  their  knowledge  of 
arithmetic  before  me,  by  shouting  out  their  multiplication 
table  with  deafening  screams.  It  may  be  noted  as  remark- 
able, that  no  religious  teacher  in  the  native  schools  of  India 
receives  money  for  teaching.  Divine  knowledge  is  too  sacred 
a  thing  to  be  sold.  It  is,  therefore,  nominally  imparted  gratis, 
though  the  teacher  has  no  objection  to  receive  presents  from 
the  parents  on  festive  occasions.  Some  of  the  national  punish- 
ments are  certainly  curious  from  our  point  of  view.  For 
instance,  a  boy  is  condemned  to  stand  for  half-an-hour  on 
one  foot.  Another  is  made  to  sit  on  the  floor  with  one 
leg  turned  up  behind  his  neck.  Another  is  made  to  hang 
for  a  few  minutes  with  his  head  downwards  from  the  branch 
of  a  neighbouring  tree.  Another  is  made  to  bend  down 
and  grasp  his  own  toes  and  remain  in  that  position  for  a 
fixed  period  of  time.  Another  is  made  to  measure  so  many 
cubits  on  the  ground  by  marking  it  with  the  tip  of  his  nose. 


Caste,  especially  in  relation  to  Occitpations.     459 

Another  is  made  to  pull  his  own  ears,  and  dilate  them  to 
a  given  point  on  pain  of  worse  chastisement.  Two  boys, 
when  both  have  done  wrong,  arc  made  to  knock  their  heads 
several  times  against  each  other. 

Amongst  the  most  important  functionaries  of  the  com- 
munity I  ought  to  mention  the  barber,  who  with  the  roughest 
implements  does  his  appointed  work  admirably.  An  Indian 
barber  can,  if  he  likes,  shave  without  soap.  Shaving  is,  as 
w^e  have  seen,  a  religious  duty  with  all  Hindiis,  but  no  one 
ever  thinks  of  shaving  himself.  He  sends  for  the  barber, 
as  he  would  for  the  priest  or  the  doctor.  Nor  are  this  func- 
tionary's duties  restricted  to  shaving.  He  cuts  the  nails, 
cleans  the  ears,  kneads  the  body,  cracks  the  joints,  and  often 
does  the  work  of  a  homely  surgeon.  The  natives  of  India 
are  particularly  fond  of  having  their  joints  cracked.  A  rich 
man's  barber  performs  all  these  operations  for  him  every 
day,  and  is  content  with  two  shillings  a  month  wages. 

Next  we  have  the  village  carpenter.  If  you  enter  a  village 
at  early  dawn  you  will  probably  find  him  engaged  in  making 
handles  for  ploughs.  You  will  see  him  saw  as  much  by  the 
help  of  his  feet  as  his  hands  ;  for  a  Hindu's  toes  are  never 
cramped  or  made  useless  by  tight  shoes,  but  early  begin 
to  assist  his  fingers.  The  ground  is  our  carpenter's  onl)- 
bench,  while  the  tools  he  uses  are  of  the  rudest  kind,  per- 
haps nothing  beyond  a  coarse  saw,  hammer,  plane,  chisel, 
and  wedge. 

Next  look  at  the  village  blacksmith,  he  has  only  a  hammer, 
file,  pair  of  tongs,  and  bellows.  His  forge  is  hollowed  out  of 
the  ground  or  constructed  of  a  few  broken  bricks,  and  his 
only  anvil  is  a  stone.  Sitting  on  his  hams  he  fashions  old 
hoop-iron  into  bill-hooks,  nails,  and  ferrules  for  ploughs. 

Then  there  is  the  cowman,  who  furnishes  the  milk,  curds, 
and  a  kind  of  butter,  but  not  cheese  ;  for  cheese  is  an  article 
of  manufacture  quite  unknown  to  the  Hindus.  No  such  trade 
as  that  of  a  cheesemonger  is  to  be  found  throughout  India. 


460     Caste,  especially  in  relation  to  Occupations. 

Again,  in  some  parts  of  India,  behind  the  low  huts  of  the 
irregular  village  street  is  sure  to  be  seen  the  weaver's  loom. 
For  India,  as  Sir  George  Birdwood  has  well  shown,  is  probably 
the  first  of  all  countries  that  perfected  weaving.  The  weaver's 
art  is  alluded  to  in  the  Rig-veda,  1500  years  before  Christ, 
and  as  the  original  source  of  any  textile  fabric  is  often 
indicated  by  its  name,  so  we  find  that  calico  takes  its  name 
from  Calicut,  on  the  western  coast  of  India ;  chintz  from  the 
Sanskrit  citra,  'variegated;'  shawl  from  said,  'a  hall;'  just 
as  damask  is  from  Damascus,  dimity  from  Damietta,  muslin 
from  Mosul,  nankeen  from  Nankin,  drugget  from  Drogheda. 
The  cotton  thread  used  in  India  is  spun  by  women  of  all 
castes.  They  spin  it  on  a  thin  rod  of  iron  with  a  ball  of 
clay  at  the  end,  but  the  coarser  thread  is  spun  by  means  of 
a  wheel  similar  to  that  of  an  English  spinster. 

Another  useful  functionary  is  the  village  shoemaker.  If 
you  wish  him  to  make  you  a  pair  of  shoes  you  must  pay  him 
in  advance^  that  he  may  first  purchase  a  prepared  hide  from 
the  tanner,  or  prepare  one  himself,  for  he  has  no  stock  of 
leather.  Then  with  a  rough  last,  a  knife  and  an  awl,  he  will 
turn  you  out  a  very  respectable  pair  of  shoes,  if  you  only  give 
him  plenty  of  time. 

Then  on  the  outskirts  of  the  village  is  sure  to  be  established 
another  indispensable  and  much  respected  functionary,  the 
hereditary  potter.  There  he  sits  on  a  slightly  elevated  piece 
of  ground  outside  the  door  of  his  hut  with  his  apparatus  ready 
for  use — the  ideal  of  a  man  who  has  achieved  perfect  mastery 
over  the  mechanism  of  his  fingers,  and  is  conscious  of  the 
power  of  the  human  hand,  as  the  instrument  of  bringing 
beautiful  shapes  within  the  reach  of  the  humblest  cottager. 
The  apparatus  with  which  he  effects  this  object  is  a  simple 
circular  horizontal  well-balanced  fly-wheel,  generally  two  or 
three  feet  in  diameter,  which  can  be  made  to  rotate  for  two 
or  three  minutes  by  a  slight  impulse.  This  he  loads  with 
clay,  and  then  with  a  few  easy  sweeps  and  turns  of  his  hands 


Caste ^  especially  in  relation  to  Occupations.     461 

he  moulds  his  material  into  beautiful  curves  and  symmetrical 
shapes,  and  leaves  the  products  of  his  skill  to  bake  by  them- 
selves in  the  sun.  In  fact,  the  sun  is  the  Indian  workman's 
head  assistant — nay,  rather,  his  ever-present  benefactor,  from 
whom  he  gets  coals,  candles,  clothing,  and  almost  every 
necessary  of  life,  free  of  all  cost  ^  This  relieves  him  from  a 
deadweight  of  care,  and  enables  him  to  give  to  his  work — 
which  in  India  is  always  regarded  as  a  religious  function — that 
placidity  of  mind,  that  pride  and  pleasure  in  it  for  its  own 
sake,  which  are  essential  to  all  artistic  excellence  and  per- 
fection. And  no  man  takes  a  greater  pride  and  pleasure 
in  his  work,  no  man  displays  a  greater  air  of  dignity,  self- 
respect,  and  contentment  than  the  village  potter  (kumbha- 
kara,  corrupted  into  kumbhar).  No  man  furnishes  a  better 
illustration  of  that  excellent  doggerel  of  ours, 

If  I  were  a  cobbler,  it  would  be  my  pride 

The  best  of  all  cobblers  to  be ; 
If  I  were  a  tinker,  no  tinker  beside 

Should  mend  a  tin-kettle  like  me. 

It  never  enters  into  his  head  to  work  for  merely  mercenary 
motives  or  with  any  idea  of  making  money.  He  simply 
works  because  it  is  his  appointed  duty — the  sacred  duty  for 
which  God  created  him — to  supply  the  villagers  with  as  many 
pots,  pans,  bowls,  and  jars  as  they  need,  and  to  make  them  in 
the  best  and  most  workmanlike  manner  possible.  Nor  docs 
his  ambition  ever  soar  above  simple  earthenware.  Such  a 
man  never  dreams  of  aspiring  to  the  manufacture  of  valuable 
china  dishes  or  vessels  and  plates  of  porcelain.  He  has  no 
idea  of  rising  above  the  art  received  from  his  fathers.  One 
reason  for  this  may  be  that  in  India  there  is  no  demand  for 
chinaware.  No  orthodox  Hindu  likes  to  eat  off  anything  but 
plates  of  leaves  freshly  prepared  for  every  meal  and  never 
used  again.     Even  earthenware  dishes  ought  to  be  thrown 


^  All  this,  too,  has  been  shown  by  Sir  George  Birdwood,  K.C.I.E.,  to 
whose  able  works  on  Indian  art  my  descriptions  are  greatly  indebted. 


462      Caste i  especially  in  relation  to  Occupations. 

away  immediately  after  use.  The  great  demand  for  earthen- 
ware vessels  in  India  arises  from  the  impurity  supposed  to  be 
contracted  by  using  any  such  articles  a  second  time.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  during  an  eclipse  the  very  poorest  people 
fling  them  away. 

I  could  go  on  to  speak  of  the  dyer,  the  washerman,  the 
druggist,  the  oilman,  the  water-carrier,  the  watchman,  and 
last  but  not  the  least  useful  functionary — the  sweeper. 

As  to  the  towns,  they  are  often  of  immense  size  and  have 
teeming  populations.  Calcutta  and  Bombay  are  larger  cities 
than  any  in  the  British  Empire  except,  of  course,  London. 
They  have  a  larger  population  than  Liverpool  and  Man- 
chester, and  every  conceivable  kind  of  trade  is  represented  in 
their  streets.  Even  in  the  days  of  Rama,  several  centuries 
B.C.,  the  procession  that  went  out  to  meet  him  from  the 
capital  of  Oudh  included  metal-workers,  copper-smiths,  ivory- 
workers,  crystal-cutters,  glass-makers,  inlayers,  umbrella- 
makers,  perfumers,  hair-dressers,  fishmongers,  musical  instru- 
ment-makers, painters,  distillers,  seedsmen,  gardeners, partridge 
dealers,  basket-makers,  brick-makers,  plasterers,  architects, 
clothiers,  exorcists,  with  the  headmen  of  guilds  bringing  up 
the  rear.  In  an  ancient  work  (already  alluded  to)  by  a  sage 
named  Vatsyayana  sixty-four  arts  are  enumerated.  Among 
them  are  the  following : — singing ;  dancing ;  playing  on  musical 
instruments  ;  playing  on  musical  glasses  filled  with  water  ; 
tattooing ;  colouring  the  teeth,  hair,  and  nails ;  dyeing  and 
painting  ;  writing  and  drawing  ;  scenic  representations,  stage- 
playing  ;  fixing  stained  glass  into  floors  ;  magic  or  sorcery ; 
culinary  art ;  making  lemonades,  sherbets,  and  acidulated 
drinks  ;  practice  with  sword,  single-stick,  quarter-staff,  and 
bow  and  arrow;  carpentry;  architecture;  knowledge  about  gold 
and  silver  coins,  jewels  and  gems;  chemistry  and  mineralogy; 
gardening ;  knowledge  of  treating  the  diseases  of  trees  and 
plants,  of  nourishing  them  and  determining  their  ages ;  cock- 
fighting,  quail-fighting,   and    ram-fighting ;   teaching   parrots 


Caste,  especially  in  relation  to  Ocnipations.      46 


') 


and  Maina  birds  to  speak  ;  knowledge  of  languages  and  ver- 
nacular dialects  ;  obtaining  possession  of  the  property  of  others 
by  means  of  incantations  ;  skill  in  youthful  sports  and  gym- 
nastics ;  knowledge  of  the  art  of  war,  arms,  armies,  etc. ; 
knowledge  of  the  rules  of  society  and  how  to  pay  respects  and 
compliments  to  others  ;  art  of  knowing  the  character  of  a  man 
from  his  features. 

It  is  curious  to  compare  this  ancient  list  with  a  modern  one 
published  by  the  Indian  Census  Office,  in  which,  among  other 
remarkable  varieties  of  modern  trades,  the  following  are 
enumerated : — professional  makers  of  speeches,  professional 
ear-cleaners,  vendors  of  drugs  to  promote  digestion,  profes- 
sional givers  of  evidence,  and  professional  devil-extractors. 

Now,  in  India,  all  who  practise  the  same  trade  are  con- 
gregated in  one  quarter  of  the  town.  Some  artisans  are 
scarcely  numerous  enough  to  form  a  street  of  their  own  ;  but 
you  might  find  whole  streets  of  ironmongers,  copper-smiths, 
braziers,  weavers  and  confectioners,  and  these  streets  of  shops 
are  called  bazaars.  Let  us  wander  for  a  few  minutes  through 
one  of  these  native  bazaars.  We  see  nowhere  any  closed 
shops  resembling  those  of  Europe.  On  both  sides  of  us  are 
open  recesses  with  dark  interiors,  wholly  destitute  of  glass 
windows,  but  protected  towards  the  street  by  projecting 
wooden  eaves,  often  covered  with  cocoa-nut  leaves  or  bamboos, 
and  sometimes  supported  by  well-carved  wooden  pillars.  In 
these  recesses,  or  under  the  open  projections,  are  exposed  for 
sale  all  kinds  of  commodities,  their  scantily  clothed  owners 
squatting  in  an  apathetic  manner  on  the  ground,  and  ap- 
parently by  no  means  eager  to  serve  their  customers.  Here, 
in  one  quarter,  we  find  vendors  of  coarse  confectionery — 
strange  concoctions  of  ghee,  sugar,  almonds,  pistachio  nuts, 
and  saff'ron,  or  sellers  of  vegetables  prepared  with  turmeric 
and  flavoured  with  assafetida.  There,  in  another  street,  are 
the  workers  in  metal  or  wood.  Everywhere  we  see  open 
workshops  filled  with  artisans  patiently  and  persistently  plying 


464     Caste,  especially  in  relation  to  Occupations. 

their  occupation  after  the  fashion  of  their  fathers.  Even 
artificers  of  a  higher  grade  carry  on  their  work  almost  in  the 
open  street  before  your  eyes,  not  at  all  disturbed  by  the 
jostling  throng  of  passengers  around  them,  and  not  at  all 
objecting  to  their  operations  being  watched  or  the  secrets  of 
their  craft  studied.  The  patience,  perseverance,  and  power  of 
physical  endurance  displayed  by  an  Indian  workman  are  well 
worthy  of  imitation  by  us  in  Europe.  He  seems  to  be  pro- 
foundly conscious  of  the  truth  that  nothing  of  any  kind  can 
be  well  done,  and  no  success  of  any  kind  achieved  in  this 
workday  world  of  ours,  without  the  application  of  the  most 
common-place  patient  drudgery. 

It  is  curious  that  in  some  trades  even  strict  holidays  are 
made  a  source  of  revenue  to  the  general  body.  One  shop 
in  each  market  is  then  allowed  to  be  kept  open.  The  right 
to  open  this  shop  is  put  up  to  auction  and  given  to  the 
highest  bidder,  the  amount  being  devoted  to  the  general 
purposes  of  the  caste. 

In  a  few  trades  children  help  the  men.  The  aid  of  their 
lithe  and  supple  fingers  is  of  great  importance  in  all  delicate 
manipulations.  It  must,  however,  be  admitted  that  the  Hindu 
is  a  slow  worker ;  he  will  take  a  whole  day  about  a  thing 
which  an  active  European  would  finish  off  in  a  couple  of 
hours.  Yet  for  all  that,  if  we  watch  a  party  of  Hindu  work- 
men for  a  sufficient  length  of  time  we  shall  see  the  crudest 
raw  material  transformed  before  our  eyes  into  excellent 
articles  of  every-day  use ;  not  very  rapidly — not  by  any 
striking  processes  of  inventive  art — but  by  simple  dexterity 
of  manipulation,  by  skilful  movements  of  hands  and  feet, 
aided  by  a  few  rough  implements  according  to  the  most 
primitive  methods. 

Often  these  humble  artisans  have  no  workshops  of  their 
own.  They  bring  their  implements  and  their  whole  stock-in- 
trade  to  the  houses  of  those  who  need  their  services,  and 
when  the  work  required  of  them  is  finished,  pack  up  their 


Caste,  especially  in  relation  to  Occitpations.   465 

tools  and  seek  another  employer.  Nor  does  it  ever  enter  into 
the  heads  of  even  the  better  class  of  workmen  to  think  of 
availing  themselves  of  any  modern  scientific  improvements. 
If  the  most  wonderful  labour-saving  machine  were  offered  for 
their  use,  they  would  still  prefer  the  machinery  of  their  fingers, 
and  the  old  traditionary  practices  received  from  their  fathers. 

And,  perhaps,  the  great  secret  of  the  beauty  of  Indian  art 
lies  in  the  suppleness  and  flexibility  of  Indian  fingers,  and  the 
consequent  delicacy  of  Indian  manipulation.  The  hand  of 
the  commonest  menial  servant  in  an  Indian  household  is  often 
as  delicately  formed  as  that  of  the  most  refined  aristocratic 
beauty  at  a  European  court.  Yes,  we  must  go  to  India  for 
the  best  illustration  of  the  truth  that  the  human  hand  is  the 
most  wonderful  of  all  machines.  In  Europe,  manufacture  is 
no  longer,  as  it  ought  to  be  according  to  its  etymology,  hand- 
work. But  in  India  the  hand  is  still  the  chief  implement 
employed  ;  and  a  fervent  hope  may  be  expressed  that  no 
European  machinery  may  soon  take  its  place.  No  greater 
calamity  could  befall  Indian  art  than  that  it  should  abandon 
its  own  traditions  and  principles  for  meretricious  ideas  derived 
from  European  sources.  If  any  one  doubts  this,  let  him  visit 
the  Indian  Museum  at  South  Kensington  and  examine  the 
specimens  there  collected.  No  one  could  fail  to  admire  the 
exquisite  carvings,  the  delicate  silver  filigree  work,  the  artistic 
feeling  displayed  in  the  fashioning  of  ornaments ;  the  gor- 
geous richness  of  the  Kincob  work,  with  its  gold,  silver,  and 
silken  threads,  woven  into  the  texture  of  the  fabric  ;  the 
tasteful  designs  and  matchless  colouring  of  Cashmere  and 
Delhi  scarfs  and  shawls ;  the  marvellous  skill  and  taste 
displayed  in  the  sandal  wood-carving  and  inlaid  wood-work  ; 
the  sumptuous  gold  and  silver  plate-work  and  highly-tem- 
pered steel  weapons  of  Kutch  ;  the  admirable  embroidery  and 
needlework  of  Amritsar  and  Delhi  ;  the  exquisitely  fine 
muslin  produced  at  Dacca. 

In   this   last   kind    of   manufacture    the    Hindu   artisan    is 

Hh 


466    Caste,  especially  in  relation  to  Occttpations. 

absolutely  unrivalled.  With  a  loom  of  the  simplest  con- 
struction, formed  of  a  few  rough  sticks  and  reeds,  he  pro- 
duces something  which  no  European  machinery  can  equal  ; 
for  the  mysteries  of  his  craft  have  been  transmitted  from 
father  to  son  for  thousands  of  years.  The  names  given  to 
different  kinds  of  these  muslins,  such  as  'woven  air,'  'web 
of  the  wind/  '  evening  dew,'  '  running  water,'  indicate  the 
extreme  fineness  and  subtlety  of  their  texture.  A  whole 
dress  of  the  finest  quality  may  easily  be  passed  through  a 
small  finger  ring,  and  a  piece  thirty  feet  in  length  may 
be  packed  in  a  case  not  much  bigger  than  an  ^g^  shell — 
yet  such  a  piece  may  take  a  workman  at  least  four  months 
to  fabricate,  and  be  worth  forty  pounds. 

It  is  recorded  that  a  cow-keeper  was  once  prosecuted  by 
a  weaver  because  one  of  his  cows  had  eaten  up  three  dresses 
of  this  muslin  accidentally  left  on  the  grass.  The  cow-keeper 
pleaded  before  the  Judge  that  the  muslin  was  too  fine  to  be 
distinguished  by  a  hungry  cow,  and  his  plea  was  accepted. 

Again,  a  story  is  told  of  a  young  lady  who  appeared  at  the 
court  of  a  Muhammadan  Emperor  in  much  too  transparent 
garments  to  be  thought  respectable.  When  accused  of  ex- 
hibiting rather  too  much  of  the  surface  of  her  body  in  a 
questionable  manner,  she  indignantly  repudiated  the  charge, 
on  the  ground  that  she  had  carefully  enveloped  her  entire 
person  in  seven  folds  of  Dacca  muslin. 

It  would  be  easy  to  dilate  on  other  examples  of  the  higher 
artistic  genius  of  India.  We  are  astonished  at  the  Indian 
workman^s  mastery  over  his  materials.  Even  in  the  more 
common  work  great  regard  Is  paid  to  beauty  of  form  and 
right  proportion,  and  great  taste  in  the  arrangement  and 
distribution  of  the  ornament. 

As  to  jewelry.  Sir  Sourindro  Mohun  Tagore  has  written 
two  thick  volumes  on  the  virtues  and  supernatural  properties 
of  Indian  gems.  The  Puranas  regard  diamonds  as  differing 
in  gender  and  as  divided  into  castes.     Krishna  or  Vishnu  has 


Caste,  especially  271  relation  to  Ocntpations.    467 

two  marvellous  jewels  (see  p.  104)  about  which  long  histories 
have  been  written.  And  doubtless  jewelry  is  of  all  Indian  arts 
the  most  ancient ;  for  what  would  Indian  women,  from  the 
lowest  to  the  highest,  be  without  their  jewels  ?  In  most  large 
Indian  houses  belonging  to  rich  natives  a  jeweller  will  be 
found  in  some  ante-room  manufacturing  jewelry  for  the  family, 
or  repairing  that  in  daily  use  (p.  396).  Here  is  a  description 
of  a  typical  Indian  bride  of  high  rank  in  ancient  times  : — 

'  She  has  no  other  clothing  but  one  light  garment,  ten  yards 
in  length,  of  a  rosy  red  colour,  embroidered  with  gold,  wound 
round  her  body  in  graceful  folds  ;  she  has  jewelled  butterflies 
in  her  raven  hair  ;  her  ears  are  bored  in  six  places,  and 
loaded  wath  resplendent  gems  ;  a  magnificent  nose-ring  of 
emeralds  and  pearls  sparkles  in  one  nostril  ;  bright  golden 
bracelets  encircle  her  wrists,  and  shining  armlets  her  arms  ; 
a  golden  zone  binds  her  slender  waist  ;  she  has  jewelled  rings 
on  her  fingers,  and  golden  rings  on  her  toes,  and  golden 
anklets,  with  musical  bells  attached,  are  fastened  round  her 
ankles,  which  make  a  tinkling  sound  as  she  walks.' 

Those  who  were  in  India  during  the  Prince  of  Wales' 
visit,  and  saw  the  jewelled  dresses  of  the  Indian  chiefs,  will 
not  easily  forget  the  sight.  I  was  myself  present  in  Sir 
Richard  Temple's  house,  when  the  Maharaja  of  Patiala  hap- 
pened to  make  a  morning  call.  His  coat  was  of  blue  satin, 
beautifully  embroidered  wdth  rows  of  pearls  ;  he  had  costly 
ear-rings,  and  a  necklace  of  diamonds  worth  ;^6o,ooo  was 
suspended  carelessly  about  his  neck.  Strings  of  immense 
uncut  jewels  ornamented  his  white  turban.  Even  the  humblest 
woman  would  lose  her  self-respect  if  she  appeared  before 
her  family  without  a  nose-ring  and  bangles.  Children  are 
often  left  without  a  shred  of  clothing,  till  they  are  six  years 
of  age,  but  are  rarely  without  wrist-bands,  or  jewelled 
ornaments  of  some  kind. 

When  the  sister  of  the  late  Bishop  of  Calcutta  once  visited 
some  native  ladies  in  a  Zenana,  she  made  some  remark  about 

H  h  2 


4-68    Caste i  especially  in  relation  to  Occupations. 

the  simplicity  of  their  attire.  '  Look,'  she  said, '  at  the  number 
and  weight  of  my  garments/  'Yes,'  they  repHed,  'but  look 
at  the  number  and  weight  of  our  jewelry/  The  use  of  jewels, 
especially  diamonds,  as  amulets,  is  very  common.  Certain 
gems  are  believed  to  possess  magical  properties.  A  celebrated 
amulet  once  existed  in  ancient  India,  supposed  to  be  all- 
potent  in  protecting  from  evil.  It  consisted  of  nine  gems — 
pearl, ruby,  sapphire,  topaz, diamond,  emerald,  lapis  lazuli,  coral, 
and  Gomeda.  (We  may  compare  the  Hebrew  High  Priest's 
breastplate  containing  twelve  gems.)  Even  the  commonest 
Indian  jewelry  presents  examples  of  every  variety  of  beautiful 
design.  The  forms  have  come  down  by  unbroken  tradition 
from  the  earliest  times. 

The  fact  is,  that  in  India,  artisans  are  not  obliged  to  be 
ever  pandering  to  the  mania  for  novelty^  ever  racking  their 
brains  to  invent  some  new  fashion.  They  plod  on  in  the 
old  beaten  paths  ;  they  are  able  to  devote  their  energies 
to  the  beautifying,  improving,  and  perfecting  of  what  already 
exists.  Perhaps  the  most  beautiful  ornaments  are  the  work 
of  artificers,  who  have  continued  in  the  service  of  a  particular 
line  of  Rajas  for  centuries.  These  men  dare  not  work  for 
other  employers.  The  secret  of  their  skill  is  preserved  reli- 
giously in  their  own  families,  and  held  to  be  the  property  of 
their  masters. 

Sometimes  the  work  of  such  men  is  made  subservient  to 
the  spiritual  interests  of  their  masters  in  rather  a  remarkable 
manner.  For  example,  it  is  recorded  of  a  certain  king  of 
Travancore,  that  feeling  the  blood  he  had  spilt  in  his  many 
wars  lie  heavily  on  his  conscience,  he  sought  counsel  of  his 
priests,  who  told  him  that  if  he  wished  to  be  cleansed  from 
his  guilt  his  only  course  was  to  pass  through  the  body  of 
a  cow — that  being  the  most  sacred  of  all  animals.  This 
seemed  rather  a  difficult  task  to  perform,  but  it  was  eventually 
accomplished  by  help  of  the  court  jeweller  and  goldsmith,  who 
manufactured  a  jewelled  cow  of  the  purest  gold  of  immense 


Caste,  especially  in  relation  to  Occupations.    469 

value.  Into  the  interior  of  this  golden  image  the  king 
solemnly  crept,  and  there  lay  for  many  days  in  a  state  of 
abject  contrition,  till  at  length  the  process  of  purification 
being  completed,  he  was  permitted  to  emerge  with  all  his 
blood-guiltiness  removed,  all  his  sins  atoned  for,  and  all  his 
cheerfulness  of  mind  restored. 

Then  as  to  sculpture  and  painting,  would  it  be  possible 
to  see  anywhere  more  admirable  specimens  of  modelling 
than  the  clay  figures  made  at  Krishnagar?  Such  exquisite 
modelling,  and  the  beauty  of  Indian  miniature  paintings  on 
wood,  talc,  and  ivory,  prove  that  had  the  arts  of  sculpture 
and  painting  been  cultivated  by  the  Hindus,  they  might  have 
attained  great  perfection.  As  it  is,  not  a  single  fine  large 
painting,  nor  beautiful  statue  is  to  be  seen  throughout  India. 
Even  the  images  of  gods  are  only  remarkable  for  their  utter 
hideousness ;  nor  do  we  see  anywhere  good  specimens  of 
household  furniture,  for  in  India  the  houses  of  the  richest 
natives  are,  to  European  eyes,  almost  furnitureless.  Even 
in  princely  palaces  we  may  pass  through  beautifully  decorated 
rooms,  we  may  see  elaborate  carved  wood  in  niches  and 
verandahs  ;  yet  the  rooms  appear  to  us  bare  and  empty. 
Not  a  chair  or  table  is  to  be  seen  except  in  apartments  set 
apart  for  Europeans  ;  and  the  owner  of  the  mansion  will  pro- 
bably be  found  seated  on  a  rug  with  a  pillow  behind  his  back. 

And  here  let  me  say,  that  if  the  excellence  of  the  articles 
which  the  Indian  artificer  produces,  with  no  other  appliances 
than  his  hands,  and  the  rudest  tools,  and  the  admirable  tra- 
ditions of  form,  design,  and  colour  preserved  in  his  produc- 
tions, excite  our  surprise,  we  are  no  less  astonished  at  the 
low  cost  of  his  workmanship.  I  visited  a  turner's  shop  In 
Benares,  where  a  man  was  making  a  set  of  twenty  toy  boxes, 
some  lacquered,  some  coloured,  all  neatly  constructed  and 
furnished  with  lids,  and  fitting  one  inside  the  other  so  that 
the  smallest  box  in  the  Interior  of  all  was  not  bigger  than 
the  head  of  a  knitting-needle.     The  price  of  the  whole  nest 


470    Caste,  especially  in  relation  to  Occupations. 

of  twenty  boxes  was  not  more  than  fourpence  or  sixpence, 
although  twenty-three  different  manipulations  were  needed 
to  complete  each  box. 

Ao-ain,  I  went  into  a  brass-worker's  shop  in  the  braziers' 
quarter  at  Benares,  where  men  were  engaged  in  manu- 
facturing drinking  cups,  salvers,  vases,  and  other  vessels. 
These  workmen  were  seen  chiselling  out  the  most  intricate 
and  beautiful  patterns  with  no  other  implements  than  a 
hammer  and  a  nail.  A  purchaser  of  any  such  articles  re- 
quests to  have  them  weighed  before  buying  them,  and  only 
pays  a  shilling  or  two  beyond  the  actual  value  of  the  brass. 

Frequently,  indeed,  it  strikes  a  European  as  strange,  that  if 
he  desires  to  purchase  any  of  the  beautiful  articles  he  sees 
before  him  in  native  workshops,  scarcely  a  single  thing  is 
to  be  had  ;  they  have  all  been  made  to  order.  There  is  little 
stock  kept,  and  whatever  a  customer  wants  must  be  made 
specially  to  order,  and  not  without  an  advance  in  money. 
There  is  little  capital  to  be  found  in  India;  and  this  perhaps 
will  account  for  the  undoubted  fact,  that  Indian  industries  are 
left  behind  in  the  race  of  competition  by  those  of  Europe. 

During  the  American  war,  vast  quantities  of  Indian  cotton — 
to  the  annual  value  of  twenty-two  million  pounds  sterling 
— found  its  way  to  England,  to  be  returned  in  the  form  of 
printed  calico  to  India.  The  Manchester  cotton  cloth  was 
far  inferior  to  that  spun  and  woven,  and  decorated  with  orna- 
mental patterns,  by  men's  hands  in  India,  but  it  was  much 
cheaper,  because  even  the  most  active  hand  workers,  working 
with  imperfect  implements  and  tools,  according  to  antiquated 
methods  for  the  lowest  possible  wages,  cannot  compete  with 
machine-made  goods,  or  make  head  against  the  combination 
of  European  science,  capital,  and  enterprise.  It  is  on  this 
account  that  cotton  mills  have  recently  been  established  at 
Bombay,  and  in  some  other  parts  of  India.  No  less  than 
fifty-three  spinning  and  weaving  mills  had  been  erected 
ten  years  ago,  while  others  were  in  process  of  erection.     Is  it 


Caste,  especially  iii  relation  to  Occttpatioits,    471 

likely,  then,  that  Indian  trades  and  industries  will  be  inju- 
riously affected  by  the  introduction  of  English  ideas,  English 
machinery,  and  English  education?  Time  will  show.  But 
Caste  is  a  strong  conservative  force^  and  as  long  as  its  strength 
continues,  and  the  present  intimate  connexion  between  religion 
and  caste  is  maintained,  so  long  may  Indian  artisans  be  ex- 
pected to  work  on  in  their  old  grooves,  Indian  agriculturalists 
to  plod  on  in  their  old  ruts,  and  primitive  customs  to  hold 
their  own  against  all  modern  inventions. 

And  be  it  borne  in  mind  that  an  Indian  caste  is  more  than 
a  mere  union  for  trading  and  industrial  objects.  It  is  cer- 
tainly much  more  than  a  mere  social  division  into  classes  of 
men.     It  is  part  of  a  man's  religious  creed. 

Its  prohibitions  extend,  as  we  have  seen  (p.  453),  to  food, 
commensality  and  intermarriage  as  well  as  to  occupations. 

And,  in  truth,  the  idea  of  a  man's  birth  in  a  particular  circle, 
and  of  his  being  unalterably  prohibited  by  the  laws  of  his 
religion  from  eating,  marrying,  or  engaging  in  any  occupation 
except  within  the  boundaries  of  that  circle  is  essential  to  the 
idea  of  caste.  This  applies  even  to  certain  criminal  castes 
in  India,  whose  fixed  business,  inherited  from  their  fathers 
and  grandfathers,  is  that  of  plund ering  or  even  murdering  others. 

Even  in  England  caste  feeling  operates  strongly,  although 
Christianity  proclaims  all  men  equal  before  God.  In  India 
any  individual  who  might  try  to  break  down  the  barriers  of 
caste,  would  find  it  impossible  to  withstand  the  opposition 
of  the  Brahmans  and  his  own  caste-fellows. 

Of  course  there  are  some  exceptions  to  caste-rules.  In 
some  instances  castes  have  changed  their  occupations  without 
changing  their  names,  just  as  the  members  of  our  great  city 
Companies  are  no  longer  goldsmiths,  drapers,  merchant  tailors, 
or  fishmongers.  The  higher  castes,  too,  are  allowed  consider- 
able liberty  of  employment.  A  Brahman  may  devote  himself 
to  almost  any  pursuit  not  absolutely  degrading.  He  may  be 
a  cook,  or  even  a  soldier.    Occasionally,  too,  men  of  the  lower 


472    Caste,  especially  in  relatio7t  to  Occupations. 


I 


castes  may  rise  to  higher  professions,  though  not  to  higher 
castes ;  but  these  exceptions  only  prove  the  rule.  A  Hindu 
is  taught  by  his  religious  books  to  believe  that  God  created 
orders  of  men,  with  fixed  employments,  as  He  created  varieties 
of  animals  and  plants  (see  p.  Sd>)' 

In  Europe,  the  laws  of  society  are  supposed  to  be  of  inferior 
oblicration  to  the  laws  of  the  nation  and  the  laws  of  religion. 
An  educated  Englishman,  for  instance,  is  ready  to  submit  to 
the  unwritten  laws  of  his  own  social  circle,  but  never  allows 
any  rule  of  caste  to  supersede  the  higher  laws  of  the  nation 
and  of  Christianity.  In  India,  on  the  contrary,  the  laws  of 
caste,  and  the  laws  of  religion,  are  part  and  parcel  of  one 
Divine  law,  of  which  the  Brahman  is  the  interpreter,  and 
the  laws  of  caste  are  stronger  and  more  effectual  than  any 
of  the  laws  imposed  by  Government. 

Perhaps  the  nearest  parallel  to  the  action  of  Indian  caste 
to  be  found  in  Europe  is  in  such  a  social  confederation  as  the 
late  Land-League  of  Ireland,  the  members  of  which  were 
bound  together  by  an  iron  bond,  were  allowed  no  individual 
liberty  of  action,  were  forced  to  submit  their  lives  to  the  will 
of  the  League,  and  made  to  subordinate  the  laws  of  the  state 
to  the  laws  and  mandates  of  their  own  leaders. 

India  has  furnished  examples  of  Boycotters,  and  Boycottees, 
for  many  centuries.  If  a  man  offend  against  the  rules  of 
caste,  a  meeting  of  his  caste-fellows  is  instantly  called,  and 
the  offence  being  proved,  he  is  thereupon  condemned  to  a 
form  of  persecution  of  which  Boycotting  is  a  bad  imitation. 

When  I  was  in  Gujarat,  in  1875,  a  man  named  Lallu-bhal, 
a  cloth  merchant  of  Ahmedabad,  was  proved  to  have  com- 
mitted a  heinous  caste  crime.  He  had  married  a  widow  of 
his  own  caste,  and  to  marry  a  widow  is,  in  the  eyes  of  a 
Hindu,  a  most  awful  offence.  A  woman  once  married,  belongs 
to  one  husband,  for  time  and  eternity.  Forthwith,  he  was 
sentenced  to  complete  excommunication.  No  one,  either  of 
his  own  or  any  other  caste,  was  to  be  allowed  to  associate 


Caste,  especially  in  relation  to  Occupations.    47 


with  him  ;  no  one  was  to  eat  with  him  ;  no  one  was  to 
have  any  trade-dealings  with  him  ;  no  one  was  to  many 
any  of  his  children  ;  no  temple  was  to  receive  him  as  a  wor- 
shipper ;  and,  if  he  died,  no  one  was  to  carry  his  body  to  the 
burning  ground.  On  the  morning  after  the  sentence  was 
passed,  he  went  into  the  bazaar  as  usual,  but  not  a  person 
would  buy  from  him  or  sell  to  him ;  he  could  get  no 
home  to  live  in  ;  and  none  of  his  debtors  would  pay  him. 
It  was  impossible  to  sue  them,  as  no  one  would  give 
evidence.  He  was  a  ruined  man,  and  had  to  leave  the 
country,  and  obtain  Government  employment  in  a  distant 
city. 

This  may  seem  an  extreme  case,  but  it  would  be  easy  to 
multiply  similar  instances  of  the  tyranny  and  terrorism  of 
caste-leagues  in  our  Indian  Empire.  Yet,  it  cannot  be 
doubted,  that  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  caste  system  of  India 
really  resulted  from  a  natural  and  beneficial  process  of  division 
of  labour.  Nor  can  there  be  a  greater  mistake  than  to 
conclude  that  the  lower  castes  are  in  a  condition  of  un- 
happiness. 

In  the  present  day,  moreover,  caste  is  certainly  becoming 
relaxed,  and  re-admission,  after  violating  any  of  its  rules 
(especially  that  against  a  sea-voyage  to  Europe),  can  generally 
be  accomplished  by  a  money-indemnity,  and  by  the  religious 
ceremony  of  swallowing  the  Paficagavya  (or  five  products  of 
a  cow,  viz.  milk,  curds,  butter,  and  the  two  excreta). 

The  truth  is,  that  of  all  masters,  caste  is  the  worst  when 
allowed  to  become  a  despot.  It  is  then  a  league  of  the  worst 
kind  ;  and  we  have  not  far  to  look,  even  in  our  own  favoured 
country,  if  we  wish  to  see  the  tyranny  and  terrorism  such 
a  league  may  establish.  Its  action  tends  to  arrest  progress, 
to  paralyse  energy,  to  crush  manly  Independence,  to  stifle 
healthy  public  opinion,  to  make  nationality,  patriotism,  and 
true  liberty  almost  impossible.  At  the  same  time  caste- 
leagues  have  their  good  as  well  as  their  bad  side,  and   at 


474    Caste i  especially  in  relatio7i  to  Occupations, 

a  particular  stage  of  a  nation's  life  may  do  good  service.  In 
India,  caste  has  been  useful  in  promoting  self-sacrifice,  in 
securing  subordination  of  the  individual  to  an  organized  body, 
in  restraining  from  vice,  in  preventing  pauperism.  And 
certainly  the  antagonism  of  these  caste  associations  and  trade 
leagues  has  helped  us  to  govern  the  country  by  making 
political  combinations  impracticable^.  Our  wisest  policy  will 
be  to  convert  caste  from  a  master  into  a  servant ;  to  defeat 
its  evil  action,  not  indeed  by  forcible  suppression  but  by  the 
gradual  application  of  corrective  influences ;  to  counteract  its 
false  teaching  by  imparting  true  ideas  of  liberty — true  principles 
of  political  economy,  social  science,  and  moraHty  ;  to  supplant 
its  tyrannical  enactments  by  considerate  legislation,  based  on 
the  ancient  laws  and  customs  of  the  country ;  to  make  its 
hard  support  and  iron  grasp  needless  by  helping  the  masses  to 
ameliorate  their  own  social  condition,  and  stimulating  them  to 
improve  their  own  national  arts,  trades,  and  industries  in  their 
own  way.  By  doing  this  will  England  best  fulfil  her  mission ; 
best  discharge  her  sacred  trust ;  best  advance  the  cause  of 
true  religion  and  justice;  best  promote  the  well-being  and  con- 
ciliate the  affections  of  the  countless  millions  of  her  Eastern 
Empire. 


'^  The  great  diversity  of  languages  and  dialects,  numbering  at  least 
200— not  to  mention  religious  and  sectarian  differences  which  accompany 
caste — is  doubtless  another  great  element  of  safety.  It  may  be  well, 
however,  to  point  out  that  education,  scepticism  in  regard  to  religious 
dogma,  and  the  increasing  employment  of  English  as  a  common  medium 
of  communication  among  an  increasing  number  of  intelligent  natives  in 
every  separate  district  and  province  of  India,  are  contributing  in  no  small 
degree  towards  making  national  union  possible,  and  towards  weakening 
the  walls  of  partition. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

Modeim  Hincifi   Theism^.     Rdmmohttn  Roy. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  first  introduction  of 
Theism  into  India  was  due  to  the  founders  of  the  Brahma- 
Samaj  (in  Bengal  written  Brahmo-Somaj),  or  modern  Theistic 
Churches  of  Bengal.  Some  of  the  oldest  hymns  of  the  Rig- 
veda  are  monotheistic,  and  all  the  most  pronounced  forms  of 
Indian  pantheism  rest  on  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  God's 
unity.  '  There  is  one  Being  without  a  second,'  '  Nothing  really 
exists  but  the  one  eternal  omnipresent  Spirit,'  was  the  dogma 
enunciated  by  ancient  Hindu  thinkers.  It  was  a  dogma 
accepted  by  the  philosophical  Brahman  with  all  its  con- 
sequences and  corollaries.  He  firmly  believed  himself  and 
the  Universe  to  be  parts  of  the  one  eternal  Essence,  and 
wrapped  himself  up  accordingly  in  a  kind  of  serene  indiffer- 
ence to  all  the  illusions  of  external  phenomena.  Again 
even  the  ordinary  Hindu  who  practises  the  most  corrupt 
forms  of  polytheism  is  never  found  to  deny  the  doctrine  of 
God's  unity.  On  the  contrary,  he  will  always  maintain  that 
God  is  essentially  one,  though  he  holds  that  the  one  God 
exhibits  Himself  variously,  and  that  He  is  to  be  worshipped 

^  The  two  following  chapters,  which  are  principally  the  result  of  my  own 
researches  in  India,  have  had  the  advantage  of  being  revised  and 
corrected  by  the  venerable  Debendra  Nath  Tagore  himself,  so  that  their 
accuracy  can  be  depended  upon.  Miss  Collet's  Brahma  Year-book,  once 
published  at  the  end  of  every  year,  gave  a  lucid  and  impartial  account  of 
the  progress  of  the  Indian  theistical  movement,  and  to  her  labours  we 
are  all  indebted. 


47^    Modern  Hindu   Tkeisin.     Rainmohun  Roy. 

through  an  endless  diversity  of  manifestations,  incarnations, 
and  material  forms. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  too,  that  as  often  as  pantheistic  and 
polytheistic  ideas  have  been  pushed  to  preposterous  extremes 
in  India,  a  reaction  has  always  taken  place  towards  simple 
monotheism.  The  Vaishnava  Reformers  of  the  i2th,  13th, 
15th,  and  1 6th  centuries  inculcated  a  doctrine  which  was  an 
approximation  towards  the  Christian  idea  of  God's  Unity  and 
Personality,  as  set  forth  in  the  first  article  of  the  Church  of 
England.  Ramanuja,  Madhva,  Vallabha,  and  Caitanya,  all, 
as  we  have  seen,  taught  the  existence  of  one  supreme  personal 
God  of  infinite  power,  wisdom,  and  goodness,  the  Maker  and 
Preserver  of  all  things — a  God  whom  they  called  Vishnu,  and 
whom  they  believed  to  be  distinct  from  the  human  soul 
and  the  material  world. 

But  none  of  these  great  Reformers  succeeded  in  counter- 
acting the  corrupt  tendencies  inherent  in  the  Vaishnava 
system.  That  system  contains  within  itself  the  seeds  of 
constant  morbid  growth  and  unhealthy  development.  It 
cannot  get  rid  of  its  dogma  of  repeated  incarnations,  or,  to 
speak  more  correctly,  repeated  descents  (avatara).  Vishnu,  it 
is  believed,  has  ever  been  accustomed  to  descend  in  the  shape 
of  great  warriors,  great  teachers,  and  even  animals,  to  deliver 
the  world  in  seasons  of  special  exigence  and  peril.  Of 
course  such  a  theory  opens  the  door  to  every  kind  of  extra- 
vagant superstition.  Notwithstanding,  therefore,  the  partial 
reformation  accomplished  by  Ramanuja,  Madhva,  Vallabha, 
and  Caitanya,  the  tide  of  degrading  idolatrous  practices  set  in 
more  strongly  than  ever. 

Then  followed  the  monotheistic  reaction  led  by  Kabir  in 
the  1 6th  century  and  improved  upon  afterwards  by  Nanak, 
the  founder  of  the  Sikh  religion  (p.  161).  These  movements 
were  in  a  great  measure  due  to  Muhammadan  influences. 
Both  Kabir  and  Nanak  did  their  best  to  purify  the  Augean 
stable  of  corrupt  Hindu  doctrine,  but  met  with  only  partial 


Modern  HindjL   Theism.     Raimnohun  Roy.    477 

success.  They  taught  devotion  to  one  personal  God,  whether 
called  Vishnu  or  Krishna,  or  designated  by  any  of  his 
established  epithets  or  synonyms.  They  even  endeavoured 
to  unite  Hindus  and  Muhammadans  on  the  common  ground 
of  belief  in  the  Unity  of  the  Godhead.  But  in  this  they  were 
wholly  unsuccessful,  and  the  tenth  Sikh  Guru,  Govind,  made 
religious  fusion  impossible  by  converting  Sikhs  and  Muslims 
into  bitter  mutual  opponents. 

It  became,  indeed,  a  question  whether  the  follow^ers  of 
Kabir  and  Nanak  were  not  destined  to  become  exterminated 
under  the  persecutions  to  which  they  were  exposed  in  the 
reign  of  Aurangzib.  Under  that  Emperor  India  suffered 
everywhere  from  an  outburst  of  Muhammadan  fanaticism. 
Nor  was  the  stability  of  Islam  shaken  or  its  hold  over  the 
people  of  India  weakened,  when  the  political  power  of  the 
Muhammadans  declined.  On  the  contrary,  the  number  of 
Muslims  increased,  and  their  bigotry  and  intolerance  gathered 
strength  in  opposition  to  the  advance  of  British  domination, 
and  the  diffusion  of  European  knowledge. 

The  Hindus,  on  the  other  hand,  were  not  too  proud  to 
profit  by  contact  with  European  ideas.  Everywhere  at  the 
great  centres  of  British  authority  a  mighty  stir  of  thought 
began  to  be  set  in  motion,  and  able  men,  educated  by  us,  made 
no  secret  of  their  dissatisfaction  with  the  national  religion,  and 
their  desire  for  a  purer  faith  than  that  received  from  their 
fathers.  At  the  moment  when  thoughtful  Hindiis  were  thus 
asking  for  light  and  leading,  the  right  leader  appeared.  The 
Hindu  reformation  inaugurated  by  Rammohun  Roy  w^as  tlie 
first  reformation  due  to  Christian  influences,  and  to  the 
diffusion  of  European  ideas  through  English  education.  He 
was  the  first  great  modern  theistical  reformer  of  what  may 
be  called  British  India. 

Unhappily  no  biographies  of  India's  eminent  men  have 
ever  been  written.  Neither  Hindus  nor  Muhammadans  have 
ever  shown  any  appreciation  of  the  value  of  such  writings. 


47^    Modern  Hindu  Theism.     Ram^noktm  Roy, 

A  good  life  of  Rammohun  Roy,  composed  in  Sanskrit  or 
Bengali,  and  translated  into  Hindustani  and  other  principal 
vernaculars,  together  with  a  collection  of  his  writings,  were 
for  a  long  time  greatly  needed  ^ ;  but  these  wants  have  been 
recently  to  a  great  extent  supplied  by  Nagendra-nath 
Chatterjea  and  Raj  Narain  Bose.  The  former  has  published 
a  life  of  the  Raja  and  the  latter  a  new  edition  of  his  Bengali 
writings.  What  little  is  known  of  his  early  history  is  soon 
told.  According  to  Nagendra-nath  he  was  born  in  May, 
1774,  at  a  village  called  Radhanagar,  in  the  district  of 
Murshidabad.  His  father,  Ram  Kant  Roy,  was  a  Brahman 
of  high  caste,  and  his  grandfather  had  held  offices  under  the 
Mogul  Emperor.  At  an  early  age  Rammohun  Roy  was  sent 
to  study  Persian  and  Arabic  literature,  including  the  Kuran 
itself,  at  the  great  seat  of  Muhammadan  learning,  Patna.  It 
was  thought  that  his  proficiency  in  Muhammadan  lore  might 
lead  to  his  advancement  at  the  Mogul  court.  Not  that  he 
nesflected  Sanskrit  or  his  Brahmanical  studies.  His  father 
was  a  worshipper  of  Vishnu.  Every  morning  the  son  was 
accustomed  to  read  a  chapter  of  the  Vaishnava  bible — the 
Bhagavata  Purana.  Naturally  thoughtful  and  intelligent,  he 
soon  began  to  think  for  himself,  and  to  see  through  the  absurd 
tissue  of  fable  by  which  its  authority  is  supported.  Wholly 
unable  to  acquiesce  in  its  extravagant  mythology,  he  betook 
himself  to  the  simple  Vedic  system,  and  the  Vedanta  as 
expressed  in  the  Upanishads  attracted  his  special  attention. 

At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  composed  a  spirited  tract  against 
idolatry.  This  for  a  mere  boy  was  a  sufficiently  remarkable 
achievement,  and  not  likely  to  pass  unnoticed.  As  a  matter 
of  course  it  roused  the  anger  not  only  of  his  own  immediate 

^  The  Rev.  K.  S.  Macdonald  gave  a  short  and  interesting  summary  of 
his  life  in  a  paper  read  at  Darjeeling  (June,  1879),  and  Miss  Mary  Car- 
penter pubhshed  an  interesting  account  of  his  '  Last  Days  '  in  1866.  Mr. 
Macdonald's  anecdotes  were  chiefly  taken  from  a  speech  delivered  by 
Raj  Narain  Bose  at  one  of  the  annual  meetings  for  commemorating  the 
memory  of  the  Raja. 


Modern  Hindu   Theism,     RavtnioJuin  Roy.     479 

family,  but  of  all  his  relatives  and  superiors.  In  consequence 
of  the  enmity  thus  excited  against  him,  it  was  thought 
advisable  that  he  should  leave  his  father's  home  for  a  time. 
He  resided  first  at  Benares,  the  stronghold  of  Brahmanism. 
and  afterwards  in  Tibet,  where  he  gave  himself  with  much 
zeal  to  the  study  of  Buddhism,  and  had  many  controversies 
with  Buddhist  priests.  Probably  Rammohun  Roy  was  the 
first  earnest-minded  investigator  of  the  science  of  comparative 
religion  that  the  world  has  produced.  From  his  earliest  years 
he  displayed  an  eagerness  to  become  an  unbiased  student  of 
all  the  religions  of  the  globe.  His  sole  aim  in  such  studies 
was  to  seek  out  religious  truth  for  himself  with  perfect  fairness 
and  impartiality.  Hence  he  spared  himself  no  trouble  in 
endeavouring  to  master  the  several  languages  of  the  world's 
sacred  books,  each  of  which  claimed  to  be  the  sole  depositaries 
of  such  truth.  As  he  studied  the  Hindi!  Veda  in  Sanskrit,  so 
he  is  believed  to  have  given  his  attention  to  the  Buddhist 
Tripitaka  in  the  original  Pali.  He  is  known,  too,  to  have 
mastered  Arabic  that  he  might  read  the  Kuran,  and  later  in 
life  he  learnt  Hebrew  that  he  might  form  a  just  estimate  of 
the  authority  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  even  began  Greek 
that  he  might  gain  a  complete  knowledge  of  the  New 
Testament. 

On  his  return  home  about  the  year  1796,  he  appears 
to  have  been  reinstated  in  the  favour  of  his  family  and 
relations.  This  led  him  to  apply  himself  with  more  zeal  than 
ever  to  the  study  of  Sanskrit  literature  and  an  examination  of 
the  doctrines  of  his  ancestral  religion.  He  had  too  logical 
a  mind  to  be  deceived  by  Brahmanical  sophistries.  Yet  he 
was  accustomed  to  assert  that  he  had  found  nothing  in  the 
works  of  any  other  country,  Asiatic  or  European,  equal  to 
the  scholastic  philosophy  of  the  Hindus.  It  was  at  about 
this  period  that  he  gave  himself  seriously  to  the  study  of 
English.  At  the  same  time  he  began  to  shake  off  the 
prejudices  he  had  imbibed  against  social  intercourse  with  his 


480    Modern  Hindic  Theism,     Rammohim  Roy. 

country's  rulers,  and  to  derive  benefit  from  mixing  in 
European  society.  After  his  father's  death  in  1803  1,  Ram- 
mohun  Roy  became  bolder  in  his  controversies  with  the 
Brahmans.  Soon  he  began  to  publish  various  pamphlets  and 
treatises  against  the  errors  of  Hinduism.  This  he  did  at 
considerable  risk  to  his  own  worldly  prospects.  His  father 
had  left  his  property  to  be  divided  among  his  three  sons  ; 
but  it  was  not  long  before,  by  their  death,  Rammohun  Roy 
became  possessed  of  considerable  patrimony,  which  would  have 
been  forfeited  had  he  formally  abjured  his  family  religion, 
and  legally  lost  caste.  With  an  increase  of  wealth  came  an 
increased  desire  for  extension  of  usefulness.  Notwithstandinsj; 
an  inheritance  sufficiently  ample  for  his  own  personal  wants, 
Rammohun  Roy  found  himself  cramped  in  the  carrying  out 
of  the  vast  objects  he  had  in  view.  This  led  him  to  seek 
Government  employment,  and  we  find  him  acting  for  ten 
years  as  Dlwan  or  managing  officer  to  the  judges  and 
collectors  of  Rangpur,  Bhagalpur  and  Ramgarh,  especially 
to  a  Mr.  Digby.  Hence  he  was  often  called  Dlwan-ji, — a 
title  by  which  He  continued  to  be  known  until  he  received 
that  of  Raja  from  the  ex-Emperor  of  Delhi,  on  the  occasion 
of  his  embassy  to  England.  One  object  he  had  in  under- 
taking revenue  work  was  to  gain  a  practical  knowledge  of 
the  working  of  the  British  administration.  Some  have 
spitefully  accused  him  of  augmenting  his  own  legitimate 
earnings  by  doubtful  and  underhand  transactions.  It  is  far 
more  likely  that  his  prosperous  career  was  due  to  his 
righteous  dealings,  which  made  him  popular  among  the 
landed  proprietors,  and  to  the  skill  he  displayed  in  the 
settlement  of  Zamindarl  accounts,  which  made  his  services 
indispensable  to  his  masters. 

Notwithstanding   his   assiduous   attention   to   business,  he 

^  Some  give  1804  as  the  date  of  his  death.  His  mother,  who  n-as  at  first 
very  bitter  against  him,  Hved  to  acknowledge  that  he  was  right,  though 
she  could  not  give  up  her  old  faith,  '  which  was  a  comfort  to  her.' 


Modern  Hindu   Theism.     Ranivwhun  Roy.     481 

found  umple  time  for  study  and  for  the  prosecution  of  his 
schemes  of  reform.  Every  year  his  attitude  of  antagonism 
to  the  idolatry  of  his  fellow-countrymen  became  more  and 
more  marked  and  decided.  The  crround  he  took,  accordincf 
to  his  own  statement,  was  not  that  of  opposition  to  the 
national  faith,  but  to  a  perversion  of  it.  He  endeavoured  to 
show  that  the  idolatry  of  the  Hindus  was  contrary  to  the 
practice  of  their  ancestors,  and  to  the  doctrine  of  the  ancient 
books  and  authorities  which  they  profess  to  revere  and  obey. 
Very  soon  after  his  father's  death  he  had  written  a  book  in 
Persian  :  '  Against  the  idolatry  of  all  religions.'  This  was 
followed  at  intervals  by  various  treatises,  and  especially  trans- 
lations of  some  of  the  Upanishads.  In  the  preface  to  the 
Mundaka  Upanishad  of  the  Atharva-veda,  he  says : 

'An  attentive  perusal  of  this,  as  well  as  of  the  remaining  books  of  the 
Vedanta,  will,  I  trust,  convince  every  unprejudiced  mind  that  they,  with 
great  consistency,  inculcate  the  unity  of  God  ;  instructing  men,  at  the 
same  time,  in  the  pure  mode  of  adoring  him  in  spirit.  It  will  also  appear 
evident,  that  the  Vedas,  although  they  tolerate  idolatry  as  the  last  provi- 
sion for  those  who  are  totally  incapable  of  raising  their  minds  to  the  con- 
templation of  the  invisible  God  of  Nature,  yet  repeatedly  urge  the 
rehnquishment  of  the  rites  of  idol-worship,  and  the  adoption  of  a  purer 
system  of  religion,  on  the  express  grounds  that  the  observance  of 
idolatrous  rites  can  never  be  productive  of  eternal  beatitude.  These  are 
left  to  be  practised  by  such  persons  only  as,  notwithstanding  the  constant 
teaching  of  spiritual  guides,  cannot  be  brought  to  see  perspicuously  the 
Majesty  of  God  through  the  works  of  Nature. 

'  The  pubhc  will,  I  hope,  be  assured  that  nothing  but  the  natural  in- 
clination of  the  ignorant  towards  the  worship  of  objects  resembling  their 
own  nature,  and  to  the  external  form  of  rites  palpable  to  their  grosser 
senses,  joined  to  the  self-interested  motives  of  their  pretended  guides,  has 
rendered  the  generality  of  the  Hindii  community  (in  defiance  of  their 
sacred  books)  devoted  to  idol-worship  : — the  source  of  prejudice  and 
superstition,  and  the  total  destruction  of  moral  principle,  as  countenancing 
criminal  intercourse,  suicide,  female  murder,  and  human  sacrifice.' 

Perhaps  the  most  important  point  to  which  he  awakened 
attention  was  the  absence  of  all  Vedic  sanction  for  the  self- 
immplation  of  widows  (Suttee^ Sanskrit  Sati).  It  was  prin- 
cipally his  vehement  denunciation  of  this  practice,  and  the 

I  i 


482     Modern  Hindu   Theism.     Ram7nohun  Roy. 

agitation  against  it  set  on  foot  by  him,  which  ultimately  led  to 
the  abolition  of  SatI  by  statute  throughout  British  India  in  1 829. 

Long  before  that  period,  however,  the  effect  of  his  pub- 
lications and  addresses  was  to  make  his  position  one  of 
increasing  isolation,  until,  in  18 14,  finding  himself  surrounded 
by  religious  opponents,  and  ostracised  by  his  own  social 
circle,  he  retired  to  Calcutta.  His  property  by  that  time 
had  so  far  increased  that  he  could  reckon  on  an  income  of 
;^iooo  per  annum,  and  he  was  able  to  purchase  a  residence 
there. 

It  was  only  to  be  expected  that  among  the  inhabitants  of 
the  metropolis  would  be  many  thoughtful  persons  capable 
of  sympathizing  with  his  lofty  aspirations.  Accordingly  he 
attracted  a  number  of  adherents  from  Hindus  and  Jains  of 
rank,  wealth,  and  influence.  They  gathered  round  him  in  a 
small  but  united  band,  and  agreed  to  co-operate  with  him 
for  the  purification  of  their  religion. 

It  may  well  be  imagined  that  opinions  like  those  which 
Rammohun  Roy  laboured  to  propagate  could  not  have  been 
adopted  by  any  body  of  Hindus  without,  so  to  speak,  loosen- 
ing the  anchorage  by  which  they  held  on  to  the  foundations 
of  their  ancient  faith.  Yet  in  seeking  their  co-operation,  he 
never  swerved  from  his  original  position.  He  continued  to 
declare  that  his  only  object  was  to  bring  back  his  countrymen 
to  what  he  believed  to  be  the  true  monotheistic  doctrine 
underlying  the  Vedic  hymns  and  brought  out  more  clearly 
in  the  Upanishad  portion  of  the  Veda. 

The  first  step  taken  was  to  establish  a  private  society  for 
spiritual  improvement.  The  association  was  called  Atmlya- 
Sabha,  spiritual  society,  and  was  first  formed  about  the  year 
1 81 6.  It  consisted  chiefly  of  Rammohun  Roy's  own  personal 
friends,  among  whom  was  Dvaraka-nath  (Dwarkanath)  Tagore. 
It  met  in  Rammohun  Roy's  house  at  Manictolah,  for  discussion 
at  periodical  intervals  ;  but  the  hostility  of  the  Brahmans  and 
Pandits  who  were  sometimes  present,  and  who  were  offended 


Modern  Hindu   Theism.     Raninwhun  Roy,     483 

and  alarmed  at  the  crushinf^  demolition  of  their  arguments 
by  the  reforming  party,  proved  too  strong  for  its  continued 
existence.  One  by  one  its  members  dropped  off.  till  b\' 
degrees  the  society  ceased  to  exist.  The  great  leader  of  the 
movement,  however,  was  not  to  be  so  easily  suppressed.  On 
the  contrary,  he  braced  himself  up  with  greater  energy  than 
ever,  to  continue  the  conflict  single-handed.  His  zeal  and 
industry  in  writing  books,  pamphlets,  and  addresses,  only 
increased  in  vehemence. 

It  is  clear  that  even  at  that  time  his  study  of  the  sayings 
of  Christ  in  the  New  Testament  had  brought  him  to  a  quali- 
fied acceptance  of  Christianity;  for  in  1820  he  published  in 
Bengali  and  English  a  book  called  '  The  Precepts  of  Jesus, 
the  Guide  to  Peace  and  Happiness.'  In  the  preface  he 
wrote : — 

'  This  simple  code  of  religion  and  morality  is  so  admirably  calculated 
to  elevate  men's  ideas  to  high  and  liberal  notions  of  one  God,  .  .  .  and  is 
so  well  fitted  to  regulate  the  conduct  of  the  human  race  in  the  discharge 
of  their  various  duties  to  God,  to  themselves,  and  to  society,  that  I  cannot 
but  hope  the  best  effects  from  its  promulgation  in  its  present  form.' 

In  a  letter  prefixed  to  one  of  his  later  works  (an  edition  of 
the  Kena  Upanishad)  he  makes  the  following  admission  : — 

'The  consequence  of  my  long  and  uninterrupted  researches  into  reli- 
gious truth  has  been  that  I  have  found  the  doctrines  of  Christ  more  con- 
ducive to  moral  principles,  and  better  adapted  for  the  use  of  rational 
beings,  than  any  other  which  have  come  to  my  knowledge.' 

It  is  said  that  on  being  one  day  shown  a  picture  of  Christ, 
he  remarked  that  the  painter  had  represented  Him  falsely, 
for  he  had  given  Him  a  European  countenance,  forgetting 
that  Jesus  Christ  was  an  Oriental,  and  that,  in  keeping  with 
the  Eastern  origin  of  Christianity,  the  Christian  scriptures 
glow  throughout  with  rich  Oriental  colouring. 

Some  indeed,  have  not  hesitated  to  affirm  that  Rammohun 
Roy,  though  he  never  abjured  caste,  was  in  real  it}-  a  true 
Christian.  But  that  he  ever  had  the  slightest  leaning  towards 
Trinitarian  Christianity  is  altogether  unlikely. 

I  i  2 


484    Modem  Hindu  Theism.     Rautmohtm  Roy. 

In  his  '  Final  Appeal  ^ '  he  says  : — 

'  After  I  have  long  relinquished  every  idea  of  a  plurality  of  Gods,  or 
of  the  persons  of  the  Godhead,  taught  under  different  systems  of  modern 
Hindooism,  I  cannot  conscientiously  and  consistently  embrace  one  of 
a  similar  nature,  though  greatly  refined  by  the  religious  reformations  of 
modem  times.  Since  whatever  arguments  can  be  a.dduced  against  a 
plurality  of  Gods  strike  with  equal  force  against  the  doctrine  of  a  plurality 
of  persons  of  the  Godhead;  and  on  the  other  hand,  whatever  excuse  may 
be  pleaded  in  favour  of  a  plurality  of  persons  of  the  Deity,  can  be  offered 
with  equal  propriety  in  defence  of  polytheism.' 

In  fact  his  sympathies  with  the  Unitarian  sect  were  always 
strongly  marked,  and  it  is  certain  that,  whenever  his  mind 
could  free  itself  from  the  influence  of  Vedantic  proclivities, 
it  gravitated  towards  a  form  of  Unitarian  Christianity. 

But  in  truth  the  dominant  feeling  in  Rammohun  Roy's 
mind  was  a  craving  for  a  kind  of  eclectic  catholicity. 
Throughout  life  he  shrank  from  connecting  himself  with 
any  particular  school  of  thought.  He  seems  to  have  felt 
a  satisfaction  in  being  claimed  as  a  Vedantist  by  Hindijs, 
as  a  Theist  by  Unitarians,  as  a  Christian  by  Christians,  and 
as  a  Muslim  by  Muhammadans.  His  idea  of  inspiration  was 
that  it  was  not  confined  to  any  age  or  any  nation,  but  a  gift 
co-extensive  with  the  human  race.  He  believed  it  to  be  a 
kind  of  divine  illumination,  or  intuitive  perception  of  truth, 
granted  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  to  every  good  man  in 
every  country.  Whatever  was  good  in  the  V^edas,  in  the 
Christian  Scriptures,  in  the  Kuran,  in  the  Zand  Avasta,  or  in 
any  book  of  any  nation  anywhere,  was  to  be  accepted  and 
assimilated  as  coming  from  the  '  God  of  truth,'  and  to  be 
regarded  as  a  revelation.  The  only  test  of  the  validity  of 
any  doctrine  was  its  conformity  to  the  natural  and  healthy 
working  of  man's  reason,  and  the  intuitions  and  cravings  of 
the  human  heart.  '  My  view  of  Christianity,'  he  says  in  a 
letter  to  a  friend,  '  is,  that  in  representing  all  mankind  as  the 


^  He  published  three  'Appeals  to  the  Christian  public'  against  the 
unfair  construction  which  Dr.  Marsham  and  others  had  put  on  his 
'  Precepts  of  Jesus.' 


Modern  Hindit   Theism.     RannuoJmn  Roy.    48 5 

children  of  one  eternal  Father,  it  enjoins  them  to  love  one 
another,  without  making  any  distinction  of  country,  caste, 
colour,  or  creed.'  It  was  easy  for  a  man  of  so  catholic  and 
liberal  a  spirit  to  become  all  things  to  all  men.  Hence,  it 
is  not  surprising  that  he  cultivated  friendship  with  Christian 
Missionaries  of  all  denominations.  He  assisted  them  in  their 
translation  of  the  Scriptures,  and  occasionally  joined  in  their 
worship.  It  is  well  known  that  he  aided  Dr.  Duff  in  the 
estabhshment  of  his  educational  institution  in  Calcutta,  re- 
commending that  its  daily  work  should  be  commenced  witli 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  declaring  that  he  had  studied  the 
Brahman's  Veda,  the  Muslim's  Kuran,  and  the  Buddhist's 
Tripitaka,  without  finding  anywhere  any  other  prayer  so 
brief,  comprehensive,  and  suitable  to  man's  wants. 

In  1828  occurred  an  event  which  may  be  regarded  as  an 
important  turning-point  in  the  history  of  the  Theistic  move- 
ment. Mr.  W.  Adam,  a  Protestant  Missionary,  had  entered 
into  friendly  communications  with  Rammohun  Roy,  and  had 
been  led  through  his  influence  to  adopt  a  decidedly  Unitarian 
form  of  Christianity.  This  led  to  his  being  called  '  the  second 
fallen  Adam '  by  his  opponents.  But  not  content  with 
changing  his  own  creed,  he  sought  to  disseminate  the 
opinions  he  had  adopted  by  holding  meetings  and  giving 
lectures  in  a  room  attached  to  the  Bengal  Hurkaru  News- 
paper Office.  For  some  time  Rammohun  Roy,  with  a  few 
of  his  friends,  was  accustomed  to  be  present,  till  at  last  the 
thought  struck  them  that,  instead  of  being  dependent  upon 
a  foreigner  for  religious  edification,  they  might  establish  a 
meeting-house  of  their  own.  Dvaraka-nath  (Dwarkanath) 
Tagore,  Prosonno  Kumar  Tagore,  and  others,  came  forward 
with  pecuniary  aid.  Temporary  rooms  in  the  Chitpore  Road 
were  hired  by  Rammohun  Roy,  and  ^:)rayer-meetings  held 
there  every  Saturday  evening.  The  service  was  divided  into 
four  parts— recitation  of  Vedic  texts  ;  reading  from  the 
Upanishads ;    delivery  of  a  sermon  ;   and  singing  hymns. 


486    Modern  Hindu   Theism.     Ranimohtm  Roy, 

It  was  thus  that  the  germ  of  the  first  Theistic  church  was 
planted  at  Calcutta  in  1828.  The  commencement  of  its 
existence  as  a  living  growing  organization  did  not  take  place 
till  two  years  later.  The  beginning  of  1830,  now  more  than 
sixty  years  ago,  inaugurated  a  new  era  in  the  history  of 
Indian  religious  thought.  It  ushered  in  the  dawn  of  the 
greatest  change  that  has  ever  passed  over  the  Hindu  mind. 
A  new  phase  of  the  Hindu  religion  then  took  definite  shape — 
a  phase  which  differed  essentially  from  every  other  that  had 
preceded  it.  For  no  other  reformation  has  resulted  in  the 
same  way  from  the  influence  of  European  education  and 
Christian  ideas. 

The  increase  of  contributions  had  enabled  Rammohun  Roy 
to  purchase  a  large  house  in  the  Chitpore  Road,  and  endow 
it  with  a  maintenance  fund.  Trustees  were  appointed,  and 
the  first  Hindu  Theistic  Church,  or,  as  it  was  sometimes 
called  by  English-speaking  natives,  the  Hindu  Unitarian 
Church  \  was  then  opened  in  Calcutta  on  the  nth  Magha, 
1 751,  equivalent  to  January  23,  1830.  The  name  given  to  it 
by  Rammohun  Roy  indicated  its  Unitarian  character,  and 
yet  connected  it  with  the  national  faith.  It  was  called 
Brahma-Sabha,  or  Brahmlya-Samaj,  that  is  to  say,  'the 
society  of  believers  in  God,'  the  word  Brahma  being  an 
adjective  formed  from  Brahman  (nom.  case  Brahma),  the 
name  of  the  one  self-existent  God  of  orthodox  Hinduism. 

The  trust-deed  of  the  building  laid  down  that  it  was  to  be 
used  as  a  place  of  meeting  for  the  worship  of  the  One 
Eternal,  Unsearchable,  and  Immutable  Being,  the  Author 
and  Preserver  of  the  Universe,  to  the  promotion  of  piety, 
morality,  and  charity,  and  the  strengthening  of  the  bonds 
of  union  between  men   of   all  religious  classes  and   creeds^. 

^  So  the  Press  at  which  Rammohun  Roy's  publications  were  printed 
was  called  the  Unitarian  Press. 

^  It  is  said  that  in  accordance  with  this  principle,  Eurasian  boys  used 
to  sing  the  Psalms  of  David  in  Enghsh,  and  Hindu  musicians  religious 
songs  in  Bengali. 


Modern  Hindii   Theism,     Raininohitn  Roy,     487 

Moreover,  that  no  image,  print,  picture,  portrait,  or  likeness, 
should  be  admitted  within  the  building,  that  no  sacrifice 
should  be  offered  there,  and  that  nothing  recognized  as  an 
object  of  worship  by  other  men  should  be  spoken  of  con- 
temptuously there.  Yet  Rammohun  Roy  still  held  fast  to 
his  original  position.  He  was  careful  to  make  the  members 
of  the  new  society  understand  that  he  had  no  idea  of  found- 
ing a  new  sect  or  new  system,  or  even  a  new  church  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  the  word.  He  simply  claimed  to  have 
established  a  pure  monotheistic  worship  for  the  first  time  in 
a  building  where  men  of  all  castes,  all  classes,  and  all  creeds, 
Hindus^,  Muhammadans,  and  Christians,  were  invited  to 
worship  together,  the  only  unity  of  faith  demanded  being 
belief  in  the  Unity  of  God.  This  first  introduction  of  congre- 
gational worship  and  united  prayer — before  unknown  among 
the  Hindus  (pp.  351,  '^^i) — was  not  the  least  of  the  benefits 
effected  by  Rammohun  Roy.  Yet  he  never  quite  abandoned 
the  idea  of  an  order  of  men  ordained  by  God  to  be  special 
teachers  of  divine  truth.  It  is  said  that  the  meeting-house 
of  the  Samaj  had  a  private  room  open  only  to  Brahmans, 
where  special  readings  of  the  Veda  were  conducted  by  them. 

And,  in  truth,  Rammohun  Roy's  attitude  towards  his 
national  religion  continued  that  of  a  friendly  reformer,  even 
to  the  end  of  his  life — a  reformer  who  aimed  at  retaining  all 
that  was  good  and  true  in  Brahmanism,  while  sweeping  away 
all  that  was  corrupt  and  false.  The  weak  point  in  his  plan 
is  manifest.  The  form  of  theology  he  propounded  was  too 
vague,  undogmatic,  and  comprehensive.  He  was,  in  fact,  by 
natural  character  too  intensely  patriotic  not  to  be  swayed, 
even  to  the  last,  by  an  ardent  love  of  old  national  ideas.  He 
had  denounced  caste  as  a  demorahzing  institution  ^ ;  he  had 


^  Thus,  in  the  introduction  to  his  translation  of  the  Isopanishad,  he 
says  :  '  The  chief  part  of  the  theory  and  practice  of  Hindooism,  I  am  sony 
to  say,  is  made  to  consist  in  the  adoption  of  a  peculiar  mode  of  diet,  the 
least  aberration  from  which  is  punished  by  exclusion  from  both  family  and 


488    Modern  Hindti   Theism.     Raimnohun  Roy. 

adopted  a  nearly  true  theory  of  the  unity  and  personaHty  of 
God  ;  he  had  abandoned  the  doctrines  of  transmigration  and 
final  absorption  of  the  soul  ;  he  had  professed  his  belief  in 
a  day  of  judgment ;  he  had  accepted  the  Christian  miracles, 
and  had  even  declared  Jesus  Christ  to  be  the  '  Founder  of 
truth  and  true  religion,'  and  had  admitted  that  the  Son  of 
God  was  empowered  by  God  to  forgive  sins ;  but  he  never 
entirely  delivered  himself  from  his  old  prepossessions,  and 
the  alleged  purity  of  his  monotheism  was  ever  liable  to  be 
adulterated  with  pantheistic  ideas.  In  the  eyes  of  the  law 
he  always  remained  a  Brahman.  He  never  abandoned  the 
Brahmanical  thread,  and  had  too  lively  a  sense  of  the  value 
of  money  to  risk  the  forfeiture  of  his  property,  and  the  con- 
sequent diminution  of  his  usefulness  and  influence,  by  formally 
giving  up  his  caste.  In  fact,  though  far  in  advance  of  his  age 
as  a  thinker,  he  laid  no  claim  to  perfection,  or  to  perfect  dis- 
interestedness of  motive  as  a  man. 

Unfortunately  for  the  interests  of  India,  Rammohun  Roy's 
career  was  cut  short  prematurely.  In  1830  the  ex-Emperor 
of  Delhi,  having  long  felt  himself  ill-treated  by  the  Indian 
Government,  deputed  Rammohun  Roy  to  lay  a  representation 
of  his  grievances  before  the  Court  of  Great  Britain,  at  the 
same  time  conferring  on  him  the  title  of  Raja.  The  Raja's 
great  wish  had  always  been  to  visit  England  and  inter- 
change ideas  with  the  Western  thinkers.  He  also  wished  to 
oppose  in  person  a  threatened  appeal  against  the  law  for  the 
abolition  of  Suttee  (Sati),  the  passing  of  which  had  been 
just  effected  through  his  exertions,  and  which  only  required 
the  royal  assent.  He  was  aware,  too,  that  the  granting  of  a 
new  charter  to  the  East  India  Company  was  about  to  be 
discussed   in    Parliament,   and    he    felt    the    importance    of 


friends.  Murder,  theft,  or  perjury,  though  brought  home  to  the  party  by 
a  judicial  sentence,  so  far  from  inducing  loss  of  caste,  is  visited  with  no 
pecuHar  mark  of  infamy.' 


Modern  Hindu    Theism.     Rannnohun  Roy.     4S9 

watching  the  proceedings  on  behalf  of  the  natives  of  India, 
and  for  the  furtherance  of  their  interests. 

No  better  time  for  carrying  these  objects  into  execution 
seemed  possible  than  the  period  which  followed  the  opening 
of  his  new  Church.  He  therefore  sailed  for  Liverpool  in 
November,  1830,  and  arrived  there  on  the  Hth  of  April,  I'S^i, 
being  the  first  native  of  rank  and  influence  who  had  ventured 
to  break  through  the  inveterate  prejudices  of  centuries  by 
crossing  '  the  black  water.'  In  Eno-land  his  enlisjhtencd 
views,  courteous  manners,  and  dignified  bearing  attracted 
much  attention.  During  his  residence  in  London  he  took 
great  interest  in  the  exciting  political  conflicts  then  raging, 
and  the  passing  of  the  Reform  Bill  caused  him  unmixed 
satisfaction.  He  was  presented  to  the  King,  and  was  pre- 
sent at  the  coronation.  The  evidence  he  gave  on  Indian 
affairs  before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  was  of 
course  highly  valuable,  and  ought  to  be  reprinted.  In 
one  of  his  replies  to  the  questions  addressed  to  him  we 
find  him  asserting  that  the  only  course  of  policy  likely  to 
insure  the  attachment  of  the  intelligent  part  of  the  native 
community  to  English  rule  was  '  the  making  them  eligible 
to  gradual  promotion,  according  to  their  respective  abilities 
and  merits,  to  situations  of  trust  and  respectability  in  the 
State.'  Unhappily  Rammohun  Roy  had  not  sufficient  phy- 
sical strength  to  contend  with  the  severity  of  a  European 
climate.  After  visiting  Paris  and  other  parts  of  Erance  in 
1833,  he  began  to  show  symptoms  of  declining  health.  He 
had  been  invited  to  visit  Bristol,  and  to  take  up  his  residence 
at  the  house  of  Miss  Castle — a  ward  of  Dr.  Carpenter — in  the 
vicinity  of  that  city.  He  arrived  there  early  in  September, 
1833,  and  shortly  afterwards  was  taken  ill  with  fever.  Every 
attention  was  lavished  on  him,  and  the  best  medical  skill 
called  in ;  but  all  in  vain.  His  death  took  place  at  Bristol 
on  September  27th,  1833.  He  died  a  Hindu  in  respect  of 
external  observances  ;    his  Brahman   servant  performed   the 


490    Modern  Hindu  Theism.     Rammohtm  Roy. 

usual  rites  required  by  his  master's  caste,  and  his  Brahmanical 
thread  was  found  coiled  round  his  person  when  his  spirit 
passed  away.  In  all  his  Anti-Brahmanism  he  continued  a 
Brahman  to  the  end. 

Even  after  his  death  it  was  thought  advisable  to  keep  up 
the  fiction  of  a  due  maintenance  of  caste.  His  body  was  not 
interred  in  a  Christian  burial-ground,  but  in  the  shrubbery  at 
Stapleton  Grove,  and  without  a  religious  service  of  any  kind. 
It  was  not  till  about  ten  years  afterwards  that  Dwarkanath 
Tagore,  on  the  occasion  of  his  visiting  England  in  1843,  had 
the  coffin  removed  to  Arno's  Vale  Cemetery,  and  a  suitable 
monument  erected  over  the  remains  of  one  of  the  greatest 
men  that  India  has  ever  produced.  Yet  his  grave  is  rarely 
now  visited,  even  by  Indians,  and  few  care  to  make  them- 
selves acquainted  with  the  particulars  of  his  last  days.  For 
India  is  not  alive  to  the  magnitude  of  the  debt  she  owes  to 
her  greatest  modern  Reformer.  Nor  have  his  merits  yet 
received  adequate  recognition  at  the  hands  of  European 
writers.  Nor  indeed  has  it  been  possible  within  the  compass 
of  the  present  summary  to  give  even  a  brief  description  of 
all  the  services  rendered  by  Rammohun  Roy  to  his  country 
as  a  social  as  well  as  rehgious  Reformer,  of  his  labours  for 
the  elevation  of  women  and  for  the  education  of  the  people 
generally,  of  his  invaluable  suggestions  made  from  time  to 
time  for  the  carrying  out  of  Lord  William  Bentinck's 
political  reforms,  and  of  his  efforts  for  the  improvement  of 
the  Bengali  language,  and  the  formation  of  a  native  litera- 
ture. Assuredly  the  memory  of  such  a  man  is  a  precious 
possession  to  be  cherished  not  by  India  alone,  but  by  the 
whole  human  race. 


CHAPTER    XX. 

Mode^m  Hmdu  Theism.     Rdinmohun  Roy  s  successors. 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  void  caused  by  the 
death  of  so  great  a  patriot  as  Rammohun  Roy  could  be 
filled  up  immediately.  The  church  he  had  founded  in  Cal- 
cutta languished  for  a  time,  notwithstanding  that  his  friend 
Dwarkanath  Tagore  and  his  learned  coadjutor  Ramachandra 
Vidyabaglsh  made  efforts  to  maintain  its  vitality,  the  latter 
acting  very  regularly  as  minister  of  the  Samaj.  At  length, 
after  the  interval  of  a  few  years,  a  not  unworthy  successor 
to  Rammohun  Roy  was  found  in  Dwarkanath's  son,  Dcbcn- 
dra-nath  Tagore. 

This  remarkable  man,  who  was  born  in  1818,  and  is  now, 
if  alive,  seventy-three  years  of  age,  received  a  good  English 
education  at  the  old  Hindu  College^,  and  was  the  first 
to  give  real  organization  to  Rammohun  Roy's  Thcistic 
Church.  But  he  imitated  his  great  predecessor  in  doing 
as  little  violence  as  possible  to  the  creed  and  practice  of 
his  forefathers.  He  aimed  at  being  a  purifier  rather  than 
a  destroyer.  He  had  the  advantage  and  disadvantage  of 
a  rich  and  liberal  father.  The  luxury  in  which  he  passed 
his  youth  was  for  some  time  a  drawback  rather  than  an 
aid.  It  was  not  till  he  was  twenty  years  of  age  that  he 
began  to  be  conscious  of  spiritual  aspirations.  Utterly  dis- 
satisfied with  the  religious  condition  of  his  own  people,  and 
with  the  ideas  of  God  presented  by  Brahmanical  teaching,  he 


^  Under  the  teaching  of  a  man  to  whom  Bengal  is  perhaps  as  much 
indebted  as  to  David  Hare. 


492     Modern  Theism.    Ramniohun  Roys  successors 

set  himself  to  discover  a  purer  system.  It  was  highly  credit- 
able to  his  earnestness  and  sincerity  that  he  took  time  for 
consideration  before  joining  Rammohun  Roy's  Brahma-Sabha, 
or,  as  it  came  to  be  called,  Brahma-Samaj  (Brahmo-Somaj). 

In  1839,  he  established  a  society  of  his  own,  called  the 
'  Truth-investigating  '  or  '  Truth-teaching  Society '  (Tattva- 
bodhinl  Sabha),  the  object  of  which,  according  to  its  founder, 
was  to  sustain  and  carry  on  the  labours  of  Raja  Rammohun 
Roy,  and  to  assist  in  restoring  the  monotheistic  system  of 
divine  worship  in  the  original  Hindii  scriptures. 

This  Society  lasted  for  twenty  years,  and  was  not  finally 
merged  in  the  Brahma-Samaj  till  1859.  It  met  every  week 
for  discussion  at  Debendra-nath's  house,  and  had  also  monthly 
meetings  for  worship  and  prayer,  and  the  exposition  of  the 
Upanishad  portion  of  the  Veda.  It  had  its  organ  in  a  monthly 
periodical,  called  the  Tattva-bodhini  patrika.  This  journal 
was  started  in  August,  1843,  "^"^^  ^^'^^  well  edited  by  Akhay 
Kumar  Datta,  an  earnest  member  of  the  theistic  party.  Its 
first  aim  seems  to  have  been  the  dissemination  of  Vedantic 
doctrine,  though  its  editor  had  no  belief  in  the  infallibility  of 
the  Veda,  and  was  himself  in  favour  of  the  widest  catholicity^. 
He  afterwards  converted  Debendra-nath  to  his  own  views. 

It  was  not  till  1841  that  Debendra-nath,  without  giving 
up  occasional  meetings  at  his  own  house,  formally  joined  the 
church  founded  by  Rammohun  Roy.  He  soon  saw  that  if 
Indian  Theists  were  to  maintain  their  ground  in  India,  they 
needed  organization,  and  that  if  the  Samaj  was  to  exist  as 
a  permanent  church,  it  wanted  a  properly  appointed  presi- 
dent, a  regularly  ordained  minister,  a  settled  form  of  worship, 
and  a  fixed  standard  of  faith  and  practice.  He  himself  under- 
took the  task  of  preparing  what  is  sometimes  called  the 
Brahma    covenant,   consisting   of  seven  solemn  declarations, 


The  Tattva-bodhini  patrika  is,  I  believe,  still  in  existence  and  is  now 
known  as  the  organ  of  the  Adi  Brahma-Samaj. 


Modern  Theism.    Raiimiohuii  Roy  s  successois.     493 

or  vows  to  be  taken  by  all  candidates  for  admission  into  the 
Theistic  Society. 

By  the  most  important  of  these  declarations  every  member 
of  the  Society  bound  himself  to  abstain  from  idolatry  ;  to 
worship  no  created  object,  but  to  worship  through  the  love 
of  God,  and  through  doing  the  works  dear  to  God  (Para- 
brahmani  pritya  tat-priya-karya-sadhanena),  the  One  God, 
the  Creator,  Preserver,  Dissolver  (srishti-sthiti-pralaya-kartri), 
the  Causer  of  emancipation  (mukti-karana),  the  Partless  (nir- 
avayava),  the  One  only  without  a  second  (ekamatradvitlya) ; 
to  lead  holy  lives,  and  to  seek  forgiveness  through  abandon- 
ment of  sin.  At  the  same  time  a  few  short  formulae  for 
worshipping  God  (Brahmopasana),  consisting  of  prayers,  invo- 
cations, hymns,  and  meditations,  were  promulgated  for  use  in 
the  daily  services.     This  took  place  at  the  end  of  1843. 

Pandit  Ram  Chandra  Vidya-bag-Ish  was  appointed  minister 
of  the  newly-organized  church,  and  not  long  afterwards 
Debendra-nath,  with  twenty  friends,  solemnly  took  the  oaths 
of  the  new  Theistic  covenant  in  his  presence.  The  year 
1844  may  be  given  as  the  date  of  the  real  commencement 
of  the  first  organized  Theistic  Church  of  India,  hence  after- 
wards called  the  Adi  Brahma-Samaj,  though  at  that  time 
and  until  the  first  secession  it  was  simply  denominated  the 
Calcutta  Brahma-Samaj. 

Three  years  later,  in  1847,  the  number  of  covenanted 
Brahmans  had  increased  to  seven  hundred  and  sixty-seven. 

But,  as  usual,  with  the  accession  of  new  members,  the 
growing  church  began  to  be  agitated  by  contending  opinions. 
It  was  afTfirmed  that  the  Vedas  had  never  been  thoroughly 
examined  with  a  view  of  arriving  at  a  just  estimate  of  their 
value  as  an  authoritative  guide  to  truth.  P'our  >-oung  Brah- 
mans were  therefore  sent  to  Benares.  Each  was  commissioned 
to  copy  out  and  study  one  of  the  four  Vedas.  The  result  of 
a  careful  examination  of  the  sacred  books  was,  that  some 
members  of  the  Samaj  maintained  their  authority,  and  even 


494    Modern  Theism.    Rammohtm  Roys  successors. 

their  infallibility,  while  others  rejected  them  as  abounding  in 
error.  A  serious  conflict  of  opinion  continued  for  some  time. 
In  the  end  it  was  decided  by  the  majority,  that  neither  Vedas 
nor  Upanishads  were  to  be  accepted  as  an  infallible  guide. 
Only  such  precepts  and  ideas  in  them  were  to  be  admitted  as 
harmonized  with  pure  Theistic  truth,  such  truth  resting  on 
the  two  chief  foundations  of  external  nature  and  internal 
intuition.  Moreover,  the  religion  of  Indian  Theists  was  held 
to  be  one  of  equilibrium — that  is,  a  system  balanced  by 
intuition,  reason,  authority,  personal  experience,  observation, 
and  faith. 

This  took  place  about  the  year  1850,  by  which  time  other 
Samajes  had  begun  to  be  established  in  the  provinces,  such    \ 
as  those  at  Midnapur,  Krishnagar,  and  Dacca.     Raj  Narain 
Bose  was  minister  of  the  Midnapur  Samaj  for  many  years. 

A  new  Theistic  Directory  was  then  put  forth  by  Debendra- 
nath,  called  Brahma-Dharma,  or  '  the  Theistic  Religion.'  It 
contained  a  statement  in  Sanskrit  of  the  four  fundamental 
principles  of  Indian  Theism,  together  with  the  seven  declara- 
tions revised,  and  approved  extracts  from  the  Veda,  Upani- 
shads, and  later  Hindii  scriptures,  as,  for  example,  from  the 
Isopanishad,  Satapatha-Brahmana,  and  Manu.  vSelections 
from  these  works  were  thought  to  commend  themselves  to 
national  predilections.  Otherwise  they  were  not  regarded 
as  possessing  any  special  inspiration,  or  inherent  superiority 
over  other  good  books.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  natter 
word  Brahma  is  used  for  God — a  word  which  seems  incon- 
sistent with  the  idea  of  personality  and  Fatherhood. 

And  any  one  who  examines  the  whole  compendium  with 
impartiality  must  come  to  the  conclusion  that,  although  the 
quotations  it  gives  are  pervaded  throughout  by  a  strong 
aroma  of  Vedantic  and  Pantheistic  ideas^  it  marks  an  advance 
in  the  Theistic  movement.  It  presents  us  for  the  first  time 
with  a  definite  exposition  of  Indian  Theistic  doctrine,  which 
may  be  held  by  those  who  reject  Vedantism.     Its  four  funda- 


Modeim  Theism.    Raimuohiin  Roy  s  successors.     495 

mental  principles  (called  Brahma-dharma-vija)  translated  from 
the  Sanskrit  are  : — 

I. — In  the  beginning  before  this  Universe  was,  the  One  Supreme 
Being  was  (Brahma  va  ekam  idam-agra  asTt) ;  nothing  else  whate\er  was 
(nanyat  kiiicanaslt)  ;  He  has  created  all  this  universe  (tad  idam  sarvam 
asrijat). 

II. — He  is  eternal  (tadeva  nityam),  intelligent  (jnanam),  infinite  (anan- 
tam),  blissful  (sivam),  self-dependent  (sva-tantram),  formless  (nir-avaya- 
vam),  one  only  without  a  second  (ekam  evadvitlyam),  all-pervading 
(sarva-vyapi),  all-governing  (sarva-niyantri),  all-sheltering  fsarvasraya), 
all-knowing  (sarva-vid),  all-powerful  (sarva-saktimat),  unmovable  (dhru- 
vam),  perfect  (purnam),  and  without  a  parallel  (apratimam). 

III. — By  Worship  of  Him  alone  can  happiness  be  secured  in  this  world 
and  the  next  (Ekasya  tasyaivopasanaya  paratrikam  aihikam  ca  subham 
bhavati). 

IV. — Love  towards  Him  (Tasmin  pritis),  and  performing  the  works 
He  loves  (priya-karya-sadhanarn  ca),  constitute  His  worship  (tad-upasa- 
nam  eva).    Note  that,  although  the  word  '  He'  is  used,  Bnlhma  is  neuter. 

Any  one  who  subscribed  to  these  four  principles  was  ad- 
mitted a  member  of  the  Calcutta  Brahma-Samaj.  The  seven 
more  stringent  declarations  were  only  required  of  those  who 
desired  a  more  formal  initiation  into  the  system. 

The  substance  of  this  improved  Theistic  teaching  may  be 
thus  summarized : — 

Intuition  and  the  book  of  Nature  form  the  original  basis 
of  the  Brahman's  creed,  but  divine  truth  is  to  be  thankfully 
accepted  from  any  portion  of  the  ancient  Hindu  scriptures 
as  from  any  other  good  books  in  which  it  may  be  contained. 
According  to  the  truth  thus  received,  man  is  led  to  regard 
God  as  his  Heavenly  Father,  endowed  with  a  distinct  person- 
ality, and  with  moral  attributes  befitting  His  nature.  God 
has  never  become  incarnate,  but  He  takes  providential  care  of 
His  creatures.  Prayer  to  Him  is  efficacious.  Repentance  is 
the  only  way  to  atonement,  forgiveness,  and  salvation.  The 
religious  condition  of  man  is  progressive.  Good  works,  charity, 
attainment  of  knowledge,  contemplation,  and  devotion,  arc 
the  only  religious  rites.  Penances  and  pilgrimages  are  useless. 
The  only  sacrifice  is  the  sacrifice  of  self,  the  only  place  of 


49 6    Modern  Theism.   Ramniohun  Roys  stLccesso7^s. 

pilgrimage  is  the  company  of  the  good,  the  only  true  Temple 
is  the  pure  heart.     There  is  no  distinction  of  castes. 

The  Hindu  doctrine  of  transmigration  of  souls  was  given 
up.  Yet  great  latitude  in  regard  to  the  maintenance  of  old 
national  customs  was  still  allowed,  and  a  friendly  demeanour 
towards  the  national  religion  encouraged. 

In  fact,  the  Mission  of  the  Calcutta  Brahma-Samaj,  accord- 
ing to  its  president  and  most  able  literary  representative  Raj 
Narain  Bose\  was  to  fulfil  or  at  least  to  purify  the  old  religion, 
not  to  destroy  it. 

Such  a  compromise  appeared  wholly  unsatisfactory  to  the 
more  thoughtful  members  of  the  Samaj,  especially  to  those 
who  were  beginning  to  be  influenced  by  the  opinions  of  a 
clever  eloquent  young  man,  Keshab  Chandar  Sen,  who  joined 
it  in  1858.  They  felt  that  a  more  complete  Reform  was 
needed  before  the  Samaj  could  deliver  itself  from  all  complicity 
with  degrading  social  customs. 

The  youthful  Keshab  addressed  himself  to  the  task  of 
radical  reform  with  the  ardour  of  a  young  man  full  of  spirit 
and  energy,  who  had  his  knightly  spurs  to  win. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  we  in  Europe  are  wholly 
unable  to  realize  the  difficulties  which  beset  the  career  of  a 
radical  religious  reformer  in  India.  There,  religious  and  social 
life  are  so  intimately  interwoven — there,  the  ordinary  creed  of 
the  people,  their  debasing  idolatry  and  demoralizing  super- 
stitions, are  so  intertwined  with  the  texture  of  their  daily  life, 
with  their  domestic  manners  and  institutions,  and  even  with 
the  common  law  of  the  land,  that  to  strike  at  the  root  of  the 
national  faith  is  to  subvert  the  very  foundations  of  the  whole 
social  fabric.  Let  a  man  enter  on  the  path  of  progress,  let 
him  abandon  the  ideas  inherited  from  his  parents,  let  him  set 

^  Raj  Narain  Bose  has  rendered  good  service  to  the  Adi  Brahma- 
Samaj  by  his  able  writings,  just  as  Mr.  P.  C.  Mozoomdar  (see  p.  521)  has 
done  to  the  later  development  of  Theism  about  to  be  described — the 
Brahma-Samaj  of  India. 


Modern  Theism.     Rainnwhun  Roy  s  successors.     497 

his  face  against  the  time-honoured  usages  of  his  country,  let 
him  stand  up  boldly  as  the  champion  of  truth,  the  eradicator 
of  error,  the  regenerator  of  a  degenerate  age,  the  purifier  of  a 
corrupt  condition  of  society,  and  what  are  the  consequences  ? 
He  has  to  fight  his  way  through  a  host  of  antagonisms  and 
obstructions,  sufficient  to  appal,  if  not  to  overpower,  a  man  of 
ordinary  courage  and  determination.  The  inveterate  pre- 
judices of  centuries,  deeply-seated  antipathies,  national  pride, 
popular  passion,  a  thousand  vested  interests  of  tradition, 
ignorance,  bigotry,  superstition,  indolence,  priestcraft,  conspire 
to  crush  his  efforts  and  impede  his  advance.  Every  inch  of 
the  ground  is  disputed  by  a  host  of  bitter  antagonists. 
Humiliation,  insult,  threat,  invective,  vituperation  are  heaped 
upon  his  head.  Father,  mother,  wife,  children,  relatives  and 
friends  hold  him  fast  in  their  embraces  or  unite  their  efforts 
to  drag  him  backwards.  No  one  stirs  a  finger  to  help  him 
onwards.  At  length,  by  the  force  of  his  own  resolute 
character,  by  patience  and  conciliation,  by  firmness  and 
gentleness,  by  persuasion  and  earnestness,  by  carrying  people 
with  him  against  their  will,  by  making  his  work  theirs  as 
well  as  his  own,  he  gains  a  few  adherents ;  for  nowhere  do 
qualities  such  as  these  command  so  much  admiration  as  in 
India.  Then  his  progress  becomes  easier.  But  if  his  attitude 
towards  ancient  creeds  and  social  abuses  continues  that  of  an 
uncompromising  enemy,  he  will  still  have  to  do  battle  at  the 
head  of  a  little  band  of  followers  against  countless  adversaries, 
and  will  only  triumph  over  opposition  in  one  quarter,  to  find 
it  renewed  with  increased  acrimony  and  vehemence  in  other 
directions. 

This  may  be  taken  as  a  description  of  the  carl\'  career  of 
the  third  ereat  Theistic  Reformer  of  British  India,  Kcshab 
Chandar  Sen,  who  was  born  in  i(S3(S  and  died  in  TSS4. 

A  few  particulars  of  Mr.  Sen's  life  ought  to  be  given  here. 
He  was  a  erandson  of  a  well-known  member  of  the  Vaid}-a 
caste,  Ram  Comul  Sen,  who  was  a  man  of  great  worth,  talent 

Kk 


49 S    Modern  Theism.    Rammohun  Roys  successors. 

and  literary  culture  '^,  but  a  bigoted  Hindu  of  the  Vaishnava  \ 
school.  The  young  Keshab  was  brought  up  in  an  atmosphere  1 
of  Hindu  superstition  and  idolatry.  As  might  have  been 
expected,  the  Vishnu-worship  in  which  he  was  trained  pre- 
disposed him  to  emotional  religion  and  to  a  belief  in  one 
supreme  personal  God.  Subsequently  he  received  a  thorough 
English  education  at  the  Presidency  College,  Calcutta.  There, 
of  course,  the  foundations  of  his  family  faith  crumbled  to 
pieces.  It  could  not  bear  collision  with  scientific  truth  as 
imparted  by  European  teachers.  Nor  was  any  new  faith 
built  up  immediately  on  the  ruins  of  the  old.  His  attitude 
towards  all  religion  became  one  of  absolute  indifference. 
Happily,  in  a  character  like  that  of  Keshab,  the  void  caused 
by  the  over-development  of  one  part  of  his  nature  was  not 
long  left  unfilled.  With  a  greater  advance  in  intellectual 
culture  came  a  greater  consciousness  of  spiritual  aspirations, 
and  a  greater  sense  of  dependence  upon  the  Almighty  Ruler 
of  the  Universe.  He  began  to  crave  for  a  knowledge  of  the 
true  God.  One  day,  when  he  was  twenty  years  of  age,  some 
sermons  by  Raj  Narain  Bose  fell  into  his  hands,  and  he  found 
to  his  astonishment  that  a  pure  Theistic  Church  had  been 
already  founded  in  Calcutta.  Without  a  moment's  hesitation 
he  decided  to  enroll  himself  a  member  of  the  Calcutta 
Brahma-Samaj.  This  happened  towards  the  end  of  1858, 
when  he  was  in  his  twentieth  year. 

The  English  culture  and  freedom  of  thought,  not  unmixed 
with  Christian  ideas,  which  Keshab  imported  into  the  Calcutta 
(Adi)  Samaj,  could  not  fail  to  leaven  its  whole  constitution. 
Not  that  Debendra-nath  had  been  uninfluenced  by  similar 
culture  in  his  reorganization  of  the  Brahma-Samaj.  The  fear 
however  was  that  Keshab's  enthusiasm  might  lead  him  to  put 
himself  forward  prematurely.     Happily  his  extreme  youth- 

■^  He  was  held  in  great  esteem  by  Prof  H.  H.  Wilson,  and  was  the  | 
author  of  a  useful  English  and  Bengali  dictionary,  to  which  my  own  ' 
lexicography  is  under  some  obligations. 


Modern  Theism.    Rammohitn  Roy  s  successors.    499 

fulness  and  inexperience  compelled  him  to  veil  his  own 
individuality.  He  longed  from  the  first  to  bring  all  the 
impetuosity  of  his  fervid  nature  to  bear  on  the  accomplishment 
of  vast  changes.  He  was  ambitious  of  penetrating  to  the 
very  springs  of  social  life  and  altering  their  whole  course. 
But  he  was  sensible  enough  to  perceive  that  he  could  not 
enter  upon  such  a  Herculean  task  without  feeling  his  way  and 
testing  his  powers.  He,  therefore,  commenced  his  mission  as 
a  fellow-worker  with  Debendra-nath,  and  in  due  subordination 
to  him  as  his  recognized  leader.  Their  fellowship  and  co- 
operation lasted  for  about  five  years.  Nothing,  however, 
could  keep  the  enthusiastic  Keshab  long  in  the  background. 
It  w^as  not  sufficient  for  him  that  idolatry  had  been  eliminated 
from  Hindu  usages.  They  remained  HindQ  usages  still.  He 
soon  began  to  urge  a  complete  abolition  of  all  caste-restrictions. 
The  first  change  he  advocated  was  that  all  who  conducted 
the  services  in  the  Mandir  should  abandon  the  sacred  thread 
(upavita,  p.  378)  which  distinguished  the  Brahmans  and  higher 
castes  from  the  lower.  But  Debendra-nath,  though  he  consented 
to  give  up  this  sacred  badge  in  his  own  case,  declined  to 
force  a  similar  renunciation  upon  others.  Unhappily  this  was 
the  commencement  of  a  difference  of  opinion  between  the 
progressive  and  conservative  Reformers,  which  afterwards  led 
to  a  more  complete  rupture. 

Next  to  the  abandonment  of  the  thread  came  the  alteration 
of  the  Sraddha,  or  worship  of  deceased  ancestors — a  rite 
involving  ideas  incompatible  with  the  Brahma  doctrine  of 
a  future  state.  This  was  followed  by  a  remodelling  of  the 
ritual  at  the  ceremonies  of  birth  (jata-karma,  p.  '^Si)^  name- 
giving  (nama-karana,  p.  '^^'^),  and  cremation  of  the  dead 
(antyeshti,  p.  354).  Then  a  solemn  and  impressive  form  of 
initiation  into  the  Brahma  faith  was  substituted  for  the  Upa- 
nayana,  or  initiatory  rite  of  Brahmanism  (p.  377).  Of  course, 
efforts  were  made  for  the  education  and  elevation  of  women. 
They   were    encouraged   to   join   the    Brahma-Samaj,   which 

K  k  z 


500    Modem  Theism.    Raimnohim  Roys  successors. 

many  eventually  did  under  the  name  of  Brahmikas,  worship- 
ping at  first  either  behind  screens,  or  in  a  separate  room. 

A  still  more  important  matter  was  the  reform  of  marriage 
customs.  Vast  difficulties  beset  any  reform  in  this  direction. 
Marriage  is  the  most  ancient,  sacred,  and  inviolable  of  all 
Hindu  institutions,  and  its  due  performance  the  most  com- 
plicated of  all  religious  acts.  It  involves  intricate  questions 
of  caste,  creed,  property,  family  usage,  consanguinity,  and 
age.  To  remodel  the  institution  of  marriage  is  to  reorganize 
the  whole  constitution  of  Indian  society,  and  to  create,  so  to 
speak,  an  entirely  new  social  atmosphere.  The  first  change 
advocated  by  the  Reformers  had  reference  to  the  abolition  of 
child-marriages.  Nothing  has  tended  to  the  physical  and 
moral  deterioration  of  the  people  so  much  as  child-marriage. 
It  has  not  only  resulted  in  excessive  population,  rapidly 
multiplying  till  reduced  to  so  low  a  standard  of  moral  and 
physical  stamina  that  every  failure  of  crops  adds  demoral- 
ization to  starvation.  It  is  an  ever-present  source  of  weak- 
ness and  impoverishment,  destructive  of  all  national  vigour, 
and  fatal  to  the  development  of  national  thrift  and  economy. 
The  progressive  Reformers  felt  that  until  this  evil  was  re- 
moved there  could  be  no  hope  of  India's  regeneration. 

Of  course,  no  man  was  to  be  allowed  more  than  one  wife. 
The  idea  that  child-widowhood  was  the  result  of  crimes  com- 
mitted in  former  births  was  scouted,  and  widows  were  to  be 
released  from  enforced  celibacy.  Raj  Narain  Bose  was  the 
first  to  introduce  the  remarriage  of  widows  into  his  family — 
a  reform  for  which  the  inhabitants  of  the  village  in  which 
he  was  born  threatened  to  stone  him  to  death  (compare 
p.  473).  As  to  the  marriage  ceremony  itself,  all  semblance  of 
idolatrous  worship,  all  foolish  ritual,  all  noisy  music,  needless 
display  and  unnecessary  expense,  caused  by  spreading  the 
festivities  over  many  days,  were  to  be  eliminated.  Debendra- 
nath  himself  was  induced  to  set  the  example  of  celebrating 
a  nuptial  ceremony  in  his  own  family  according  to  this  simple 


Modern  Theism,    Raimnohttn  Roy  s  successo7^s.    501 

Brahmic  form.  His  second  daughter  was  engaged  to  be 
married  to  Babu  H.  N.  Mukerjea.  The  rite  was  performed 
on  the  26th  of  July,  1861,  quietly,  solemnly,  simply,  and 
without  protracted  festivities,  in  the  presence  of  nearly  two 
hundred  co-religionists.    This  was  the  first  Brahmic  marriage. 

A  still  more  momentous  reform  was  attempted  by  Keshab 
Chandar  Sen  when  he  performed  a  marriage  ceremony 
between  two  persons  of  different  castes  in  August,  1864. 
An  innovation  so  revolutionary  gave  great  dissatisfaction  to 
Debendra-nath.  In  fact,  Mr.  Sen,  notwithstanding  the  real 
good  he  had  effected  by  his  influence,  example,  and  personal 
efforts,  found  himself  hampered  by  his  connexion  with  the 
too  conservative  Calcutta  Adi-Samaj.  He  was  like  a  man 
working  in  chains.  He  felt  himself  powerless  to  penetrate 
beneath  the  outer  crust  of  the  social  fabric.  The  old  caste- 
customs,  the  old  superstitious  rites,  were  still  practised  by 
a  large  number  of  Theists,  while  others  who  professed  sym- 
pathy with  the  advanced  Reformer,  and  adopted  his  opinions 
in  public,  secretly  reverted  to  their  old  ways.  It  was  not  to 
be  expected  that  a  man  of  Mr.  Sen's  temperament  would 
long  acquiesce  in  merely  superficial  changes  and  patchy 
incomplete  reformations.  He  was  willing  to  accept  half 
measures  as  an  instalment.  But  nothing  short  of  a  thorough 
reconstruction  of  the  whole  religious  and  social  fabric  could 
afford  him  permanent  satisfaction.  He  was  bent  on  laying 
the  axe  to  the  very  root  of  the  tree.  He  felt  his  own  mission 
to  be  very  different  from  that  of  Debendra-nath.  He  was  to 
destroy  rather  than  to  renovate  the  old  Vedic  system  with  all 
its  train  of  ceremonial  rites  and  observances. 

Of  course,  he  no  sooner  gave  up  all  idea  of  compromise 
than  instantly  he  found  himself  plunged  in  a  slough  of 
obstruction.  Difficulties  and  opposition  met  him  at  every 
turn.  At  length,  in  February,  1865,  the  inevitable  crisis 
arrived.  Keshab  Chandar  Sen  with  a  large  number  of  the 
younger  members  of  the  Samaj  formed  themselves  into   a 


502    Modern  Theism.    Rammohtm  Roy's  successors. 

separate  body  of  advanced  or  progressive  reformers,  and 
seceded  from  the  old  Society,  leaving  behind  them  all  its 
J  accumulated  property.  It  was  not,  however,  till  November, 
1866,  that  they  were  able  to  organize  themselves  into  a  new 
Theistic  Church  called  the  Brahma-Samaj  of  India  (Bhara- 
tavarshlya  Brahma-Samaj  ^),  a  church  which  gloried  in  having 
broken  entirely  with  Brahmanism,  and  severed  every  link 
which  connected  it  with  the  national  religion. 

At  a  meeting  held  on  November  nth,  1866,  the  day  of 
the  incorporation  of  the  new  society,  Mr.  Sen  announced  that 
the  aim  of  the  new  Church  would  be  to  unite  all  Brahmas 
into  one  body,  to  reduce  their  labours  to  a  well-organized 
system  of  co-operation,  and  to  establish  a  central  metropo- 
litan Brahma-Samaj  of  all  India,  to  which  all  other  Samajes 
throughout  the  country  might  be  affiliated,  or  with  which 
they  might  establish  friendly  relations.  This  idea  was  not  a 
new  one.  An  effort  had  been  made  in  1864  to  establish 
a  General  Representative  Assembly  or  Council  of  all  the 
existing  Brahma  Samajes.  A  meeting  was  then  convened, 
and  twenty-eight  out  of  the  existing  fifty  Samajes  sent  repre- 
sentatives, but  little  further  was  done.  Nor  did  Mr.  Sen 
ever  succeed  in  making  his  own  Samaj  a  centre  of  union  and 
authority,  though  for  a  long  time  his  talents  as  an  orator 
secured  him  a  position  as  chief  leader  of  the  Brahma  com- 
munity. 

The  first  stone  of  the  new  Mandir  or  place  of  worship  of 
the  Brahma-Samaj  of  India  was  laid  on  the  23rd  of  January, 

1868,  but  the  building  was  not  opened  until  August  (Bhadra), 

1869.  As  might  have  been  expected,  the  new  Samaj  ex- 
hibited from  its  first  foundation  a  decided  reflection  of  its 
founder's  individuality.  He  had  imbibed  Vaishnava  ideas 
with    his    earliest    impressions.     Yet    the    peculiar   vein    of 


^  This  new  Church  has  been  sometimes  called  the  progressive  Brahma- 
Samaj. 


Modern  Theisiit.    Ra^nmohim  Roys  successors.     50 


J 


Hindu  theology  which  permeated  his  mind  only  operated 
beneficially.  The  introduction  of  faith  (bhakti),  emotional 
religion,  and  devotional  fervour  into  the  Brahma  system  was 
a  real  advantage.  It  infused  warmth  and  light  into  a  cold 
inanimate  Theology,  and  brought  the  latest  development  of 
Indian  Theism  into  closer  harmony  with  Christian  ideas. 

It  remains  to  describe  more  fully  the  nature  of  that  de- 
velopment. No  sooner  was  Brahmanism  finally  discarded  than 
it  became  necessary  to  formulate  more  definite  articles  of 
faith.  Briefly  the  new  creed  might  have  been  described  as 
'  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Man.'  Its 
most  essential  points  are  as  follow  : — 

God  is  the  first  cause  of  the  Universe.  By  His  will  He  created  all 
objects  out  of  nothing  and  continually  upholds  them.  He  is  spirit,  not 
matter.  He  is  perfect,  infinite,  all-powerful,  all-merciful,  all-holy.  He  is 
our  Father,  Preserver,  Master,  King,  and  Saviour. 

The  soul  is  immortal.  Death  is  only  the  dissolution  of  the  body. 
There  is  no  new  birth  on  earth  after  death  ;  the  future  life  is  a  continua- 
tion and  development  of  the  present  life.  The  men  that  now  live  are  the 
embryos  of  the  men  that  are  to  be. 

The  true  scriptures  are  two, — the  volume  of  nature,  and  the  natural 
intuitions  implanted  in  the  mind.  The  wisdom,  power,  and  mercy  of  the 
Creator  are  written  on  the  Universe.  All  ideas  about  immortality  and 
morality  are  primary  convictions  rooted  in  the  constitution  of  man. 

God  Himself  never  becomes  man  by  putting  on  a  human  body.  His 
divinity  dwells  in  every  man,  and  is  displayed  more  vividly  in  some  ; 
as  in  Moses,  Jesus  Christ,  Muhammad,  Nanak,  Caitanya,  and  other  great 
Teachers,  who  appeared  at  special  times,  and  conferred  vast  benefits  on 
the  world.     They  are  entitled  to  universal  gratitude  and  love. 

The  Brahma  religion  is  distinct  from  all  other  systems  of  religion  ;  yet 
it  is  the  essence  of  all.  It  is  not  hostile  to  other  creeds.  What  is  true 
in  them  it  accepts.  It  is  based  on  the  constitution  of  man,  and  is,  there- 
fore, eternal  and  universal.     It  is  not  confined  to  age  or  country. 

All  mankind  are  of  one  brotherhood.  The  Brahma  religion  recognizes 
no  distinction  between  high  and  low  caste.  It  is  the  aim  of  this  religion 
to  bind  all  mankind  into  one  family. 

Duties  are  of  four  kinds  :  (i)  Duties  towaj'ds  God — such  as  belief  in 
Him,  love,  worship,  and  service ;  (2)  Duties  towards  self— snch.  as  pre- 
servation of  bodily  health,  acquisition  of  knowledge,  sanctification  of 
soul ;  (3)  Duties  towards  others — such  as  veracity,  justice,  gratitude,  the 
promotion  of  the  welfare  of  all  mankind ;  (4)  Duties  towards  animals 
and  inferior  creatures — such  as  kind  treatment. 


504    Modemi  Theism.     Rammohttn  Roy  s  successors. 

Every  sinner  must  suffer  the  consequences  of  his  own  sins  sooner 
or  later,  in  this  world  or  the  next.  Man  must  labour  after  holiness 
by  the  worship  of  God,  by  subjugation  of  the  passions,  by  repentance, 
by  the  study  of  nature  and  of  good  books,  by  good  company  and  by 
soUtary  contemplation.  These  wall  lead  through  the  action  of  God's 
grace  to  salvation. 

Salvation  is  deliverance  of  the  soul  from  the  root  of  corruption  and 
moral  disease,  and  its  perpetual  growth  in  purity.  Such  growth  continues 
through  all  eternity,  and  the  soul  becomes  more  and  more  godly  and  happy 
in  Him  who  is  the  fountain  of  infinite  holiness  and  joy.  The  companion- 
ship of  God  is  the  Indian  Theists'  heaven. 

With  regard  to  the  worship  of  God,  it  was  declared  to  be 
*  a  wholly  spiritual  act.' 

The  form  of  divine  service  was  as  follows  : — First  a  hymn ; 
then  an  invocation  of  God  by  the  minister,  followed  by 
another  hymn ;  then  adoration  of  God,  chanted  by  the 
whole  congregation  together,  and  continued  by  the  minister 
alone  ;  then  silent  communion  for  some  minutes.  Then  the 
following  united  prayer  ^j  chanted  by  the  whole  congregation 
standing : — 

'  Lead  us,  O  God  !  from  untruth  to  truth,  from  darkness  to  light,  from 
death  to  immortality.  O  !  thou  Father  of  truth,  reveal  thyself  before  us. 
Thou  art  merciful,  do  thou  protect  us  always  in  thy  unbounded  goodness. 
Peace  !  Peace !  Peace  ! 

Then  a  prayer  for  the  well-being  of  the  whole  world  by  the 
minister  alone  standing,  succeeded  by  another  hymn,  and 
by  a  recitation  of  texts  from  Hindu  and  other  scriptures. 
Finally,  a  sermon,  followed  by  a  prayer,  a  benediction,  and 
a  hymn  (see  pp.  527,  528). 

Services  of  this  kind  still  take  place — generally  on  Sundays, 
and  often  on  a  week-day  in  addition.  There  are  also  grand 
anniversary  festivals  to  celebrate  the  foundation  of  the  Brahma 
Church.  The  chief  festival,  called  Maghotsab  (Maghotsava), 
on  the  23rd  of  January  (nth  of  Magha),  is  kept  by  all  the 
Samajes  in  commemoration  of  the  founding  of  monotheistic 
worship  by  Rammohun   Roy.     Another,    called  Bhadrotsab 


^  This  was  taken  from  the  form  used  by  the  Adi  Brahma-Samaj. 


Modeim  Theism.    Ranunohim  Roys  sticcessor^s.     505 

(Bhadrotsava),  is  held  by  the  Brahma-Samaj  of  India  in 
celebration  of  the  opening  of  the  Mandir  in  August,  1869. 
Solemn  initiation  services  for  the  admission  of  new  members 
are  also  performed.  They  correspond  in  an  interesting 
manner  to  our  Confirmation  services. 

Clearly  it  would  be  easy  to  prove  that  the  advanced 
Indian  Reformers,  trained  and  educated  by  us,  and  imbued 
L  unconsciously  with  Western  theological  ideas,  have  borrowed 
largely  from  our  Christian  system  in  formulating  their  own 
creed.  The  points  of  agreement  are  too  obvious  to  need 
indicating.  One  noteworthy  point  of  contact  with  Chris- 
tianity is  the  active  missionary  spirit  displayed  by  progres- 
Isive  Brahmas,  which  indeed  was  originated  by  the  members 
of  the  Adi-Samaj.  Such  a  spirit  is,  of  course,  essential  to 
the  growth  and  vitality  of  all  new  systems.  Keshab  Chandar 
Sen  has  made  several  Missionary  tours  in  India,  and  in  1870 
he  came  to  England,  giving  out  that  his  mission  was  to 
excite  the  interest  of  Englishmen  in  the  religious,  social, 
and  political  progress  of  his  fellow-countrymen.  Here  he 
visited  fourteen  of  the  chief  towns  of  England  and  Scotland, 
and  conducted  religious  services  in  the  pulpits  of  Baptist, 
Congregational,  and  Unitarian  chapels.  He  preached  to 
large  congregations  in  East  London,  and  addressed  seventy 
meetings  in  different  places  in  behalf  of  such  objects  as 
Temperance,  Peace,  Reformatories,  Ragged  Schools,  and 
general    education.     He   had   interviews   with    Her    Majesty 

rand  several  eminent  Statesmen. 
And  what  were  the  impressions   he  formed    of   Christian 
religious  life  and  doctrine  in   England  ?      It  may  do  us  no 
harm  to  Hsten  once  more  to  the  Hindu  Theist's  utterances 
before  he  left  our  shores  : — 

'  One  institution,'  he  said,  '  in  England  I  have  looked  upon  with  pecu- 
liar feelings  of  delight — the  happy  English  home,  in  which  the  utmost 
warmth  and  cordiality  of  affection,  and  sympathy,  are  mingled  with  the 
highest  moral  and  religious  restraint  and  discipline.  The  spirit  of  prayer 
and   worship   seems   mixed   up   with   daily   household   duties,  and  the 


5o6    Modern  Theism.    Rammohun  Roy  s  stcccessors. 

influence  of  the  spirit  of  Christ  is  manifest  in  domestic  concerns.'  'Yet,' 
he  added,  '  it  grieves  me  to  find  that  the  once  crucified  Jesus  is  crucified 
hundreds  of  times  every  day  in  the  midst  of  Christendom.  The  Christian 
world  has  not  imbibed  Christ's  spirit.' 

At  Birmingham  he  said  : — 

'  Since  my  arrival  in  England  I  have  found  myself  incessantly  sur- 
rounded by  various  religious  denominations,  professing  to  be  Christians. 
Methinks  I  have  come  into  a  vast  market.  Every  sect  is  like  a  small 
shop  where  a  peculiar  kind  of  Christianity  is  offered  for  sale.  As  I  go 
from  door  to  door,  from  shop  to  shop — each  sect  steps  forward  and  offers 
for  my  acceptance  its  own  interpretations  of  the  Bible,  and  its  own 
peculiar  Christian  beliefs.  I  cannot  but  feel  perplexed  and  even  amused 
amidst  countless  and  quarrelling  sects.  It  appears  to  me,  and  has  always 
appeared  to  me,  that  no  Christian  nation  on  earth  represents  fully  and 
thoroughly  Christ's  idea  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  I  do  believe,  and  I 
must  candidly  say,  that  no  Christian  sect  puts  forth  the  genuine  and 
full  Christ  as  He  was  and  as  He  is,  but,  in  some  cases,  a  mutilated, 
disfigured  Christ,  and,  what  is  more  shameful,  in  many  cases,  a  counter- 
feit Christ.  Now,  I  wish  to  say  that  I  have  not  come  to  England  as  one 
who  has  yet  to  find  Christ.  When  the  Roman  Catholic,  the  Protestant, 
the  Unitarian,  the  Trinitarian,  the  Broad  Church,  the  Low  Church,  the 
High  Church,  all  come  round  me,  and  offer  me  their  respective  Christs,  I 
desire  to  say  to  one  and  all  :  "  Think  you  that  I  have  no  Christ  within 
me?  Though  an  Indian,  I  can  still  humbly  say,  thank  God  that  I  have 
my  Christ." ' 

This  remarkable  statement  has  become  invested  with  far 
deeper  significance  and  interest  since  the  pubhcation  of  Mr. 
Sen's  striking  lecture,  on  the  subject  '  India  asks,  Who  is 
Christ  ? '  It  might  have  been  expected  that  his  Enghsh  visit 
would  have  brought  his  Theism  into  closer  afifinity  with 
Christian  dogma.  But  such  was  not  really  the  case.  I  may 
state,  however,  as  an  interesting  fact,  that  two  of  his  Hindii 
travelling  companions  were  afterwards  baptized. 

On  his  return  to  India  Mr.  Sen  applied  himself  zealously  to 
the  work  of  social  reform,  and  at  once  started  what  was  called 
'  The  Indian  Reform  Association '  for  female  improvement, 
for  the  promotion  of  education  among  men  and  women,  for 
the  suppression  of  intemperance,  and  generally  for  the  social 
and  moral  reformation  of  the  people  of  India.  This  society, 
open  to  all  classes  and  creeds,  was  founded  November  2nd, 


Modemi  Theism.    Rammohun  Roy  s  sttccessors.     507 

w     1870,  and  a  female  Normal    and  Adult   School  was  opened 
I    in  1871. 

P  The  most  important  Reform  of  all — that  relating  to  mar- 
riage— to  which  Mr.  Sen's  efforts  had  already  been  directed, 
*  had  not  made  much  progress.  The  example  so  well  set  by 
the  marriage  of  Debendra-nath  Tagore's  daughter  in  1861  had 
I  created  hopes  of  a  better  state  of  things,  but  little  real  advance 
had  been  achieved.  It  is  true  that  similar  marriages  had  fol- 
lowed, but  the  legality  of  such  marriages  was  disputed,  though 
I  a  form  of  ritual  had  been  adopted  which  was  thought  to  be 
sufficiently  conformable  to  Hindu  usage  to  insure  their  va- 
lidity. It  was  not  encouraging  that  between  1864  and  1867 
only  seven  or  eight  Adi  Samaj  Brahma  marriages  and  four  or 
(five  Progressive  Brahma  intermarriages  between  persons  of 
different  castes  had  been  solemnized.  Nor  had  much  success 
attended  the  attempt  to  prevent  early  marriages.  Mr.  Sen 
and  his  followers  now  threw  themselves  more  vigorously  than 
ever  into  the  marriage-reform  movement.  The  best  medical 
opinions  were  sought,  and  the  proper  marriageable  age  fixed. 
But  the  most  important  step  was  to  memorialize  the  Govern- 
ment for  a  new  Marriage  Act,  to  relieve  Brahmas  from  their 
I  disability  to  contract  legal  marriages  according  to  their  own 
forms.  Much  ac^itation  ensued.  The  native  mind  became 
greatly  excited,  and  Indian  society  was  stirred  to  its  depths 
by  a  conflict  of  opinion  on  a  matter  which  affected  the  very 
framework  of  its  whole  structure  and  composition. 

At  length  a  Bill  was  drawn  up  by  Sir  Henry  Maine — the 
p"  legal  Member  of  Council — and  improved  upon  by  his  successor 
Sir  Fitzjames  Stephen.  This  pleased  no  one.  It  was 
violently  opposed  not  only  by  the  orthodox  Brahmans,  but 
by  the  more  conservative  Theists.  The  struggle  was  pro- 
tracted with  much  bitterness  on  the  part  of  the  natives  for  four 
years.     Finally,  after  many  ineffectual  attempts  at  obtaining 

(a  general  agreement  of  opinion,  a  third  Bill  was  elaborated, 
and  under  the  able   management  of  Sir  Fitzjames  Stephen 


5o8    Modern  Theism.    Rammohim  Roy  s  successors, 

the  Native  Marriage  Act  became  law  on  the  22nd  of  March, 
1872.     It  commences  thus  : — 

'  Whereas  it  is  expedient  to  provide  a  form  of  marriage  for  persons  who 
do  not  profess  the  Christian,  Jewish,  Hindu,  Muhammadan,  ParsI,  Bud- 
dhist, Sikh  or  Jaina  religion,  and  to  legalize  certain  marriages  the  validity 
of  which  is  doubtful ;  it  is  hereby  enacted,'  etc. 

The  Act,  in  fact,  introduced  for  the  first  time  the  insti- 
tution of  civil  marriage  into  Hindu  society.  It  sanctioned 
matrimonial  union  without  any  necessary  religious  ceremo- 
nial. It  legalized  marriages  between  different  castes.  It 
fixed  the  minimum  age  for  a  bridegroom  at  18  and  of  a 
bride  at  14,  but  required  the  written  consent  of  parents  or 
guardians  when  either  party  was  under  21.  It  prevented 
marriage  within  certain  degrees  of  consanguinity.  It  pro- 
hibited bigamy,  and  permitted  the  remarriage  of  widows,  which 
had  been  before  legalized  generally  by  the  Act  of  1856. 

After  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  1872  fifty-eight  marriages 
took  place  in  the  eight  and  a  half  years  ending  August,  1879, 
against  fifty-one  in  the  ten  and  a  half  years  preceding  its 
ratification.  The  average  of  widow  marriages  has  not  as 
yet  been  greatly  increased  by  the  passing  of  the  Act.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  intermarriages  between  persons  of  dif- 
ferent castes,  though  these  are  said  to  have  become  more 
numerous  during  the  Prince  of  Wales's  visit.  All  the  mar- 
riages which  took  place  before  the  Act  might  have  been 
registered  retrospectively,  and  in  this  manner  legalized,  but 
only  twenty-one  were  so  registered.  Singularly  enough,  too, 
even  to  this  day,  some  Hindu  Theists  continue  to  prefer  being 
married  according  to  Brahmic  rites,  without  availing  them- 
selves of  the  Act.  There  appears  to  be  a  dislike  to  the 
Registrar,  as  if  he  were  required  to  take  the  place  of  the 
minister  of  religion,  whereas  he  simply  witnesses  the  contract 
between  the  bride  and  bridegroom,  and  listens  to  the  words 
by  which  they  bind  themselves  to  matrimonial  union.  Some 
Theists  also  object  to  the  categorical  repudiation  of  the  Hindu 


Modern  Theism.     Ravimohttn  Roys  successors.     509 

religion  which  must  precede  the  performance  of  the  civil 
marriage,  considering  that  because  they  are  Brahmas  they 
are  not,  therefore,  un-Hinduized. 

Yet,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  Mr.  Sen  and  his  followers 
deserve  the  gratitude  of  their  fellow-countrymen  for  their 
labours  in  agitating  for  and  obtaining  the  ratification  of  so 
useful  an  Act.  At  any  rate  the  ^events  of  the  year  1872 
must  always  constitute  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  reform- 
ing movement. 

For  some  time  afterwards  the  Adi  Brahma-Samaj  led  by 
Debendra-nath,  and  the  Brahma-Samaj  of  India  under  Keshab 
Chandar  Sen,  achieved  good  work  in  their  respective  spheres, 
and  in  not  unfriendly  co-operation  with  each  other.  The  two 
leaders,  though  very  different  in  character,  were  both  men  of 
unusual  ability,  and  both  penetrated  by  a  sincere  desire  for 
the  regeneration  of  India.  Each  Samaj,  too,  had  its  able 
Secretary  and  Writer ;  the  Adi-Samaj  in  Raj  Narain  Bose, 
and  the  more  Progressive  Samaj  in  Mr.  Sen's  cousin  Pratap 
Chandar  Mozoomdar^  Moreover,  the  Conservative  Samaj 
had  its  literary  organ  in  the  Tattva-bodhini  patrika,  and  the 
Progressive  in  a  daily  newspaper  called  'The  Indian  Mirror.' 

No  better  proof  of  the  activity  of  the  two  societies  could  be 
given  than  the  success  of  their  missionary  operations.  By  the 
end  of  1877  the  number  of  Brahma  Samajes  scattered  through- 
out India,  including  Assam,  had  increased  to  a  hundred 
and  seven,  some  following  the  Conservative  pattern,  and 
isome  the  Progressive.  In  1875  fresh  attempts  were  made  to 
establish  a  general  representative  Council  of  all  the  Samajes, 
and  one  or  two  meetings  were  held,  but  no  definite  scheme 
has  yet  been  matured. 

Meanwhile,  lamentable   dissensions,  leading   to   a   serious 


^  This  gentleman  was  in  England  for  three  or  four  months  in  the 
year  1883.  He  kindly  called  to  see  me  at  Oxford  and  much  impressed 
me  by  his  conversation.  I  have  given  an  account  of  my  conversation  with 
him  at  p.  522.  He  has  lately  published  a  very  interesting  summary 
of  the  doctrines  of  his  Samaj. 


5  TO    Modern  Theism.    Ranimohun  Roy  s  successors. 

schism,  have  taken  place  in  the  Progressive  Brahma-Samaj. 
Without  doubt  the  career  of  this  Samaj  continued  for  several 
years  to  be  one  of  real  progress.  It  did  sterling  work  in 
propagating  its  own  reforming  principles.  It  sent  forth 
earnest  missionaries  to  all  parts  of  India.  It  put  forth  an 
ably  written  Sunday  edition  of  its  daily  newspaper  the  '  Indian 
Mirror  ^'  It  encouraged  fervour  of  faith  and  devotion  (bhakti) 
to  such  an  extent  that  it  was  accused  of  making  religion  an 
affair  of  mere  emotion  and  excitement.  One  direction  in 
which  the  devotional  side  of  the  movement  developed  itself 
was  in  the  rapturous  singing  of  hymns  in  chorus  (samklrtana), 
sometimes  performed  in  procession  through  the  streets. 
Another  form  of  development  was  the  establishment  of 
Brahmotsavas,  or  periodical  religious  festivals  as  seasons  of 
special  prayer,  faith,  and  rejoicing.  Besides  all  this,  many 
members  of  the  Society  were  remarkable  for  austerity  of  life, 
and  the  Samaj  had  a  niche  for  those  who  gave  themselves  up 
to  severe  self-discipline  and  asceticism  (Vairagya). 

The  rock  on  which  it  split  was  its  too  unquestioning 
submission  to  the  commanding  ability  of  its  leader.  Keshab 
Chandar  Sen  had  fought  his  way  through  difficulties,  hard- 
ships and  perils,  with  indomitable  energy,  but  was  not  prepared 
for  an  unsuspected  danger — the  danger  of  success — the  danger 
that  too  much  praise  would  be  lavished  on  the  work  he  had 
accomplished.  For  many  years  his  daily  path  had  certainly 
not  led  him  through  clover  ;  nor  had  his  nightly  rest  been 
taken  on  a  bed  of  roses.  Nowhere  is  eminent  ability  wor- 
shipped with  more  fervour  than  in  India.  So  conspicuous 
were  Mr.  Sen's  talents  that  he  soon  became  the  object  of  a 
kind  of  adoration.     He  was  even  accused  of  accepting  divine 


'  Besides  die  'Indian  Mirror'  the  Sulabh  SainCichar  ('Cheap  News') 
and  DhaiDia-tattva^  '  Religious  Truth,'  have  long  been  exponents  of  Mr. 
Sen's  teaching.  Mr.  Mozoomdar's  '  Theistic  Annual,'  and  his  'Theistic 
Quarterly  Review '  which  has  lately  taken  its  place,  are  more  recent 
advocates  on  the  same  side. 


} 


Modeim  Theism.    Ranwiolmn  Roy  s  sttccessors.     5 1 1 

honours.  This,  of  course,  he  denied,  and  his  followers  have 
ahvays  indignantly  repelled  the  charge,  but  his  old  Vaishnava 
training  was  not  without  its  influence  on  his  own  estimate 
of  his  own  mission  and  office.  He  certainly  supposed  himself 
to  be  in  some  special  manner  a  partaker  of  divine  gifts.  It  is 
noticeable  that  in  his  address,  delivered  January,  1879,  though 
he  answered  the  question^ '  Am  I  an  inspired  prophet  ? '  in  the 
negative,  he  laid  claim  to  a  kind  of  direct  inspiration.  He 
declared  that  he  had  had  visions  ^  of  John  the  Baptist,  Jesus 
Christ,  and  St.  Paul,  who  all  favoured  him  with  personal 
communications^  that  the  Lord  said  he  was  to  have  perennial 
inspiration  from  heaven,  that  all  his  actions  were  regulated  by 
divine  command  (adesa),  and  that  men  should  remember  that 
to  protest  against  the  cause  which  he  upheld  was  to  protest 
against  the  dispensations  of  God  Almighty. 

Then,  again,  Keshab  Chandar  Sen  was  not  merely  an 
autocrat  among  his  own  people  in  matters  of  faith  and 
doctrine.  He  was  the  sole  administrator  of  the  affairs  of 
the  Society,  and  ruled  it  with  the  rod  of  an  irresponsible 
dictator.  People  began  to  complain  that  the  Progressive 
Brahma-Samaj  was  without  a  constitutional  government.  It 
had  no  freedom  of  discussion  in  the  management  of  its  own 
affairs.  Keshab  Chandar  Sen  was  not  only  its  Bishop,  Priest, 
and  Deacon  all  in  one  ;  he  was  a  kind  of  Pope^,  from  whose 
decision  there  was  no  appeal. 

^  A  great  part  of  the  matter  in  this  chapter  was  written  by  me  soon 
after  my  second  travels  in  India,  about  the  year  1879.  Not  long  afterwards 
a  Brahma  Missionary  Conference  held  on  Dec.  22,  1880,  commissioned 
the  brother  of  Mr.  Sen  to  write  me  a  letter  calHng  in  question  some  of 
my  statements.  In  that  letter  the  members  of  the  Conference  objected  to 
the  expression  '  visions,'  and  declared  that  on  the  occasion  here  alluded 
to  Mr.  Sen  only  meant  to  use  metaphorical  expressions.  Further,  they 
assert  that  Mr.  Sen  was  not  regarded  by  them  as  a  Pope,  but  only  as  an 
inspired  apostle  commissioned  by  God. 

^  Raj  Narain  Bose  considered  that  Mr.  Sen  was  justly  amenable  to  this 
charge,  as  he  (Mr.  Sen)  brought  the  same  charge  against  Debendra-nath 
at  the  time  of  the  schism. 


5 1 2    Modern  Theism.     RanimoJmn  Roys  successors. 

While  all  these  elements  of  discontent  were  at  work,  a 
most  unexpected  revelation  took  place,  the  effect  of  which 
was  to  precipitate  the  disruption  of  the  Samaj.  It  turned 
out,  in  fact,  that  Keshab  Chandar  Sen,  with  all  his  almost 
superhuman  eloquence,  ability,  and  genius,  was  nothing  after 
all  but  a  plain  human  being,  with  very  human  infirmities. 
It  appears  that  as  early  as  August,  1877,  it  began  to  be 
anxiously  whispered  that  the  great  social  Reformer  was 
likely  to  sacrifice  his  own  cherished  principles  at  the  altar  of 
ambition.  He,  who  had  denounced  early  marriages  as  the 
curse  of  India,  was  said  to  be  inclined  to  accept  an  offer  of 
marriage  for  his  own  daughter  not  yet  fourteen,  from  the 
young  Maharaja  of  Kuch  Behar  not  yet  sixteen  years  of  age. 
The  rumour  proved  to  be  too  true,  and  the  '  Indian  Mirror '  of 
February  6,  1878,  formally  announced  that  the  marriage  had 
been  arranged.  Protests  from  every  conceivable  quarter 
poured  in  upon  the  great  social  Reformer,  but  they  were  not 
only  unheeded,  they  were  absolutely  ignored.  The  marriage 
ceremony^  took  place  on  March  6,  1878.  and  not  without  \ 
idolatrous  rites  on  the  bride's  side,  though  these  were  not 
performed  in  the  presence  of  Mr.  Sen  himself^.  In  point 
of  fact,  the  performance  of  certain  ceremonies — such  as  the 
Homa,  or  fire-oblation — was  necessary  to  secure  the  validity 
of  the  marriage  in  a  Native  State  protected  by  our  Govern- 
ment, but  not  subject  to  the  operation  of  the  Marriage  Act. 
Immediately  after  the  wedding  the  young  Maharaja  set  out 


^  The  Missionary  Conference  of  Dec.  22,  1880,  commissioned  Mr.  Sen 
to  inform  me  that  this  ceremony  was  only  a  betrothal  and  that  the  parties 
did  not  live  together  as  man  and  wife  till  a  final  ceremony  had  been  per- 
formed in  the  Brahma  Mandir  on  Oct.  20,  1880.  But  the  ceremony  of 
March  6  was  surely  the  legal  ceremony. 

^  The  'Indian  Mirror'  of  March  17,  1878,  informed  its  readers  that 
'  though  the  Raja's  Purohits,  who  were  orthodox  Brahmins,  were  allowed 
to  officiate  at  the  ceremony,  the  Homa  was  not  performed  during  the 
marriage  ;  but  after  the  bride  and  her  party  left  the  place.  The  prin- 
ciples of  Brahma  marriage  were  barely  preserved.' 


I 


Brahma- Samaj  and  Keshab  Chandar  Sen.     51 


•^ 


for  England,  and  the  bridegroom  and  bride  did  not  live 
together  as  man  and  wife  till  a  final  ceremony  had  been 
performed  on  Oct.  20,  1880. 

Subsequently  the  Dharma-tattva  and  the  'Indian  Mirror' 
published  an  elaborate  justification  of  Mr.  Sen's  conduct. 
The  defence  set  up  was  that  Mr.  Sen  had  no  choice  in  the 
matter.  He  had  acted,  it  was  said — as  was  said  of  Muhammad 
of  old — under  divine  command  (adesa),  and  in  obedience  to 
God's  will.  Moreover,  it  was  contended  that  the  marriage  of 
his  daughter  with  a  Maharaja  had  dealt  a  blow  at  caste- 
marriages,  while  the  propagation  of  Theistic  opinions  in  Kuch 
Behar  and  other  Native  States  was  likely  to  be  materially 
promoted.  Another  line  of  defence  taken  was  that  Keshab 
Chandar  Sen's  mission  had  always  been  that  of  a  religious 
and  not  secular  Reformer. 

As  might  have  been  expected,  the  Protestors,  who  objected 
to  Mr.  Sen's  proceedings  in  regard  to  the  marriage,  met 
together,  soon  after  he  left  for  Kuch  Behar,  to  decide  on  their 
line  of  action.  An  unsuccessful  attempt  was  then  made  to 
depose  Mr.  Sen  from  his  office  as  Minister,  and  an  unseemly 
struggle  took  place  for  the  possession  of  the  Mandir.  In  the 
end  it  was  determined  to  establish  a  new  church  on  a  con- 
stitutional and  catholic  basis.  All  the  provincial  Samajes 
were  consulted,  and  with  the  approval  of  the  majority,  a 
meeting  was  held  in  the  Town  Hall,  Calcutta,  May  15,  1878, 
Mr.  Ananda  Mohan  Bose  being  in  the  chair,  when  the  follow- 
ing resolution  was  passed  :  — 

'  That  this  meeting  deeply  deplores  the  want  of  a  constitutional  or- 
ganization in  the  Brahma- Samaj,  and  does  hereby  establish  a  Samaj  to 
be  called  "The  Sadharana  [or  general]  Brahma-Samaj,"  with  a  view 
to  remove  the  serious  and  manifold  evils  resulting  from  this  state  of 
things,  and  to  secure  the  representation  of  the  views  and  the  harmonious 
co-operation  of  the  general  Brahma  community,  in  all  that  affects  the 
progress  and  well-being  of  the  Theistic  cause  and  Theistic  work  in 
India.' 

At  first  the  Prayer  Meetings  of  this  new  Brahma-Samaj,  of 

Ll 


5 1 4  Sadharana-Brahma-Samaj , 

which  Mr.  Ananda  Bose  was  the  first  President  ^,  were  held  in 
temporary  rooms,  but  the  foundation  stone  of  a  new  Prayer 
Hall  (211,  Cornwallis  Street)  was  laid  on  January  23,  1879, 
and  the  building  finished  and  consecrated  on  January  22, 
1881.  Moreover,  the  Brahma  Public  Opinion^  newspaper, 
and  the  Tattva-kaumudI,  '  Moonlight  of  Truth,'  a  fortnightly 
paper,  were  started  as  religious  and  literary  organs  of  the 
protesting  party. 

It  is  not  possible  for  me  to  speak  with  certainty  as  to  the 
success  of  this  fourth  development  of  the  Brahma  Theistic 
movement  although  I  visited  its  Mandir.  Its  name,  Sddhdr- 
ajia,  implied  that  it  aimed  at  more  catholicity,  and  a  more 
democratic  government,  but  its  organization,  though  promis- 
ing well  under  Mr.  A.  M.  Bose  and  Pandit  Sivanath  Sastrl 
(a  man  of  eloquence  and  ability),  did  not  appear  to  be 
complete  in  relation  to  the  rest  of  India.  There  appeared, 
at  that  time,  to  be  no  one  man  among  its  members  who  had 
the  religious  genius  of  either  Keshab  Chandar  Sen,  or  of 
Debendra-nath  Tagore,  or  the  literary  culture  which  charac- 
terized the  best  productions  of  Mr.  P.  C.  Mozoomdar  and  Raj 
Narain  Bose.  Yet  there  seemed  to  be  a  large  number  of 
practical  men — men  of  good  sound  sense,  religious  earnest- 
ness, and  sufficient  ability,  who  were  likely  to  accomplish  a 
great  deal  of  useful  work  together,  and  to  make  their  society 
one  of  the  leading  Samajes  of  India. 

After  the  unhappy  breach  of  harmony,  caused  by  Mr. 
Sen's  conduct  in  regard  to  the  marriage  of  his  daughter,  he 
appears  to  have  made  extraordinary  efforts  to  restore  his 
own  prestige  by  the  elaboration  of  novel  ideas.  The  year 
1879  was  signalized  by  the  institution|,of  an  order  of  professed 

^  He  was  succeeded  by  Babu  Shib  Chandar  Deb,  the  Secretary  being 
Babu  Dvarka  Nath  GaTVuH.     Whether  these  still  continue  I  know  not. 

^  This  has  now  become  a  purely  secular  paper  and  has  changed  its 
name  to  '  Bengal  Public  Opinion,'  while  the  '  Indian  Messenger,'  well 
edited  by  Sivanath  Sastri,  M.  A.,  was  started  on  September  9,  1883,  and 
has  taken  its  place  as  the  religious  organ. 


Keshab  Chandar  Seiis  Annual  Sermon.       515 

teachers  of  religion,  called  Adhyapakas.     Four  teachers  were 

ordained  by  Mr.  Sen  on  September  7,  1879,  among  whom  was 

Mr.  Mozoomdar.     A  curious  practice  was  also  introduced  of 

holding  supposed  conversations  and  passing  days  and  nights  as 

imaginary  pilgrims  with  the  great  prophets,  apostles,  and  saints 

of  the  world — as,  for  example,  with  Moses,  Socrates,  Caitanya, 

the  Rishis,  Muhammad,  Buddha — who  were  supposed  to  be 

present  and  to  take  part  in  the  dialogues  and  to  inspire  the 

pilgrims  with  the  fire  of  their  own  nature. 

Furthermore,  a  remarkable  '  Proclamation '  was  issued  in 

the  'Sunday   Mirror'   of  December    14,   1879,  purporting  to 

come  from  '  India's  Mother.'     It  is  here  abridged  : — 

'  To  all  my  soldiers  in  India  my  affectionate  greeting.  Believe  that 
this  Proclamation  goeth  forth  from  Heaven  in  the  name  and  with  the  love 
of  your  Mother.  Carry  out  its  behests  like  loyal  soldiers.  The  British 
Government  is  my  Government.  The  Brahma-Samaj  is  my  Church. 
My  daughter  Queen  Victoria  have  I  ordained.  Come  direct  to  me,  with- 
out a  mediator,  as  your  Mother.  The  influence  of  the  earthly  Mother  at 
home,  of  the  Queen  Mother  at  the  head  of  the  Government,  will  raise  the 
head  of  my  Indian  children  to  their  Supreme  Mother.  I  will  give  them 
peace  and  salvation.     Soldiers,  fight  bravely  and  establish  my  dominion.' 

This  idea  of  God's  Motherhood  as  a  correlative  to  God's 
Fatherhood  is,  as  I  have  already  pointed  out,  an  essential 
characteristic  of  Hinduism  (see  Chapter  VII.  pp.  180-208). 

Mr.  Sen's  lecture  delivered  on  the  24th  of  January,  1880, 
called  '  God-vision,'  was  full  of  rhapsody  mixed  up  with 
many  fine  thoughts ;  but  that  delivered  in  the  Town  Hall, 
Calcutta,  on  the  9th  of  April,  1879,  before  at  least  a  thousand 
persons,  on  the  subject,  'India  asks,  Who  is  Christ?'  was 
pronounced  by  those  who  heard  it  to  be  a  masterpiece  of 
oratory  ^  He  not  only  entranced  his  hearers  by  an  extra- 
ordinary effort  of  eloquence  ;  he  surprised  them  by  calling 
upon    India    to    accept    Christ.      According    to    Mr.    Sen, 

^  The  Rev.  Luke  Rivington  was  my  authority.  He  was  present  with 
the  Bishop  of  Calcutta  and  a  few  other  Europeans.  Indeed  the  subject 
chosen  was  due  to  a  previous  conversation  with  Mr.  Rivington  at  a  dinner- 
party given  by  Mr.  Sen  to  him  and  a  large  number  of  thoughtful  natives. 

L  1  2 


5i6      Keshab  Chandar  Sens  Annttal  Sermon. 

Christianity  is  the  true  national  religion  of  his  fellow-country- 
men. India  is  destined  to  become  Christian,  and  cannot 
escape  her  destiny.  '  You,  my  countrymen,'  he  says,  '  cannot 
help  accepting  Christ  in  the  spirit  of  your  national  scriptures.' 
In  another  part  of  the  lecture  we  find  him  using  these 
remarkable  words  : — 

^Gentlemen,  you  cannot  deny  that  your  hearts  have  been  touched, 
conquered,  and  subjugated  by  a  superior  power.  That  power,  need  I 
tell  you  ?  is  Christ.  It  is  Christ  who  rules  British  India,  and  not  the 
British  Government.  England  has  sent  out  a  tremendous  moral  force 
in  the  life  and  character  of  that  mighty  prophet  to  conquer  and  hold 
this  vast  empire.  None  but  Jesus,  none  but  Jesus,  none  but  Jesus, 
ever  deserved  this  bright,  this  precious  diadem,  India,  and  Jesus  shall 
have  it.' 

It  is  evident,  however,  that  Mr.  Sen  intends  Christ  to  be 
accepted  by  his  fellow-countrymen  as  the  greatest  of  all 
Asiatic  saints  and  not  in  the  character  ascribed  to  Him  by 
the  Church  of  England.  '  Christ  comes  to  us,'  he  says,  '  as 
an  Asiatic  in  race,  as  a  Hindii  in  faith,  as  a  kinsman  and  as  a 
brother.  .  .  .  Christ  is  a  true  Yogi,  and  will  surely  help  us  to 
realize  our  national  ideal  of  a  Yogi.  ...  In  accepting  Him, 
therefore,  you  accept  the  fulfilment  of  your  national  scriptures 
and  prophets.'  This  is  all  very  striking,  but  seems  rather  | 
like  presenting  Christianity  to  the  Hindus  in  the  light  of  an 
advanced  phase  of  Hindiaism. 

A  still  more  recent  annual  sermon  delivered  by  Mr.  Sen  at 

Calcutta,  in  January,  1881,  announced  the  advent  of  a  New 

Dispensation,  which  any  one  perusing  the  discourse  will  be 

surprised  to   find,  is  a  kind   of  amalgamation  of  Hinduism, 

Muhammadanism,  and  Christianity.    Thenceforth  the  Brahma- 

Samaj   of   India  was   to   be   called    the   '  New  Dispensation 

Church.'     The  present  Bishop  of  Exeter  (the  Right  Rev.  Dr. 

Bickersteth)  was  present  on  the  occasion  and  recorded  his 

impression  of  the  address  in  a  letter  written  from  Bishop's 

Palace,  Calcutta : — 

'  This  afternoon  Keshab  Chandar  Sen  gave  his  annual  address  to  the 
Brahma-Samaj  in  the  Town  Hall.     The  huge  hall  was  crammed — I  should 


I 


The  CJmrch  of  the  New  Dispensatioii.        5 1 7 

say  3500  men  and  some  six  ladies  ;  almost  all  were  Hindus,  thoughtful, 
earnest-looking  men.  He  spoke  for  one  hour  and  forty  minutes — a  tor- 
rent of  eloquence.  He  denies  the  Godhead  of  Christ,  though,  with  this 
grave  and  grievous  lack,  nothing  in  parts  could  be  more  impassioned 
than  his  language  of  devotion  to  Christ.  He  thinks  himself  the  prophet 
of  a  "  New  Dispensation,"  as  he  calls  it,  which  is  to  affirm  the  Unity 
of  the  Godhead,  and  the  unity  of  all  earnest  creeds — Hindu,  Moslem,  and 
Christian — who  worship  God.  Of  course  it  is  a  great  advance  upon  the 
multiform  idolatry  of  this  land ;  and  again  and  again  I  said  to  myself, 
"  Ouoniam  talis  es,  utinam  noster  esses." ' 

This  New  Dispensation  was  proclaimed  on  January  26, 1881. 
Then,  on  January  i ,  1 883,  Mr.  Sen,  as  chief  apostle  of  the  Church 
of  this  Dispensation,  put  forth  another  manifesto.  I  here  give 
the  greater  portion  as  it  appeared  in  the  Indian  newspapers  of 
about  that  date  (see  '  Times  of  India  '  for  Jan.  12,  1883) : — 

'  Keshab  Chandar  Sen,  a  servant  of  God,  called  to  be  an  apostle  of  the 
Church  of  the  New  Dispensation,  which  is  in  the  holy  city  of  Calcutta, 
the  metropolis  of  Aryavarta, 

'  To  all  the  great  nations  in  the  world,  and  to  the  chief  religious  sects  in 
the  East  and  the  West, 

'To  the  followers  of  Moses,  of  Jesus,  of  Buddha,  of  Confucius,  of 
Zoroaster,  of  Mahomet,  of  Nanak,  and  the  various  branches  of  the  Hindu 
Church, 

'  Grace  be  to  you,  and  peace  everlasting. 

'  Whereas  sectarian  discord  and  strife,  schisms  and  enmities  prevail  in 
our  Father's  family,  causing  much  bitterness  and  unhappiness,  impurity 
and  unrighteousness,  and  even  war,  carnage,  and  bloodshed, 

'Whereas  this  setting  of  brother  against  brother  and  sister  against 
sister  in  the  name  of  religion  has  proved  a  fruitful  source  of  evils,  and  is 
itself  a  sin  against  God  and  man  : 

'  It  has  pleased  the  Holy  God  to  send  unto  the  world  a  message  of 
peace  and  love,  of  harmony  and  reconciliation. 

'  This  New  Dispensation  hath  He  in  boundless  mercy  vouchsafed  to  us 
in  the  East,  and  we  have  been  commanded  to  bear  witness  unto  it  among 
the  nations  of  the  earth. 

'  Thus  saith  the  Lord — Sectarianism  is  an  abomination  unto  Me,  and 
unbrotherliness  I  will  not  tolerate. 

'  I  desire  love  and  unity,  and  My  children  shall  be  of  one  heart,  even  as 
I  am  one. 

'  At  sundry  times  have  I  spoken  through  My  prophets,  and  through 
My  many  and  various  dispensations  ;  there  is  unity  in  them. 

'  Hear  ye  men,  there  is  one  music  but  many  instruments,  one  body  but 
many  limbs,  one  spirit  but  diverse  gifts,  one  blood  yet  many  nations,  one 
church  yet  many  churches. 


5i8  Death  and  Cremation  of  Keshab  Cha^idar  Sen. 

'  Blessed  are  the  peace-makers,  who  reconcile  differences  and  establish 
peace,  good-will,  and  brotherhood  in  the  name  of  the  Father. 

'These  words  hath  the  Lord  our  God  spoken  unto  us,  and  His  new 
Gospel  He  hath  revealed  unto  us — a  gospel  of  exceeding  joy. 

'  And  these  blessed  tidings  the  Loving  Father  hath  charged  me  and  my 
brother  apostles  to  declare  unto  all  the  nations  of  the  world,  that  being 
of  one  blood  they  may  also  be  of  one  faith  and  rejoice  in  one  Lord. 

'  Gather  ye  the  wisdom  of  the  East  and  the  West,  and  accept  and 
assimilate  the  examples  of  the  saints  of  all  ages. 

'Above  all,  love  one  another  and  merge  all  differences  in  universal 
brotherhood. 

'  Let  Asia,  Europe,  Africa,  and  America,  with  diverse  instruments,  praise 
the  New  Dispensation,  and  sing  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  Brother- 
hood of  Man.' 

Soon  after  this  proclamation  the  health  of  the  apostle  of  the 
*New  Dispensation,'  which  had  been  for  a  long  time  subject 
to  severe  disturbances,  began  to  decline  very  rapidly,  and, 
a  year  afterwards,  on  the  8th  of  January,  1884,  he  died. 
On  the  evening  of  that  day  his  body  was  burnt  at  the  Nim 
Tollah  burning-Ghat  on  the  Ganges,  and,  being  at  Calcutta, 
I  went  to  the  cremation. 

The  Ghat  had  no  flight  of  steps  down  to  the  river,  but 
was  simply  a  long  brick  building,  with  three  enclosing  walls, 
open  upwards  to  the  sky,  and  on  one  side  towards  the  river. 
All  cremations  took  place  on  its  stone  floor.  Nothing  was  to 
be  seen  inside  this  utterly  bare  and  dreary  structure,  except 
bodies  in  the  process  of  burning,  surrounded  here  and  there 
by  attendants  and  relations. 

The  sun  was  setting  as  I  entered  the  building,  and  a  lurid 
afterglow — like  that  observed  all  over  Europe  during  the  winter 
of  1883,  1884 — lingered  in  the  sky,  suffusing  the  river,  the 
shipping,  and  the  whole  surroundings  of  the  Ghat  with  a  weird 
unearthly  light.  Just  inside  the  entrance  were  two  pyres 
nearly  burnt  out,  but  with  embers  still  smouldering.  At  the 
farther  end  a  crowd  of  perhaps  three  hundred  people  were 
collected  ^.     These    constituted  the   principal    members  and 

■^  The  small  number  present  surprised  me.  I  looked  in  vain  for  the 
Maharaja  of  Kuch  Behar. 


Death  and  Cixination  of  Keshab  Chandar  Sen.  519 

b  friends  of  the  Brahma  community  of  which  Keshab  was 
head. 

In  their  midst  was  an  enormous  pyre  of  sandal-wood  which 
quite  concealed  the  dead  body  of  their  leader.     I  was  allowed 

I  to  stand  on  a  raised  parapet,  and  from  that  vantage-ground 
witnessed  the  first  application  of  the  lighted  torch  by  some 
near  relative.  Then  other  relatives  and  friends  brought  con- 
tributions of  sandal-wood  and  combustible  substances,  while 
others  cast  flowers,  garlands,  and  fragrant  powder  on  the 
burning  pyre,  amid  the  solemn  chanting  of  hymns  in  Grego- 
rian tones. 

'  The  mercy  of  God  alone  availeth '  (Brahma-kripa  hi  keva- 
1am),  was  the  burden  of  the  cry  of  grief  uttered  by  the 
mourners. 

Meanwhile,  the  lurid  twilight  gave  place  to  gathering  gloom. 
The  mourners  ranged  in  a  circle  round  the  pyre  swayed  to 
and  fro  as  the  flames  darted  forth  from  the  blazing  wood. 
Their  faces,  now  lighted  up  by  a  fitful  glare,  now  enveloped 
in  clouds  of  smoke,  had  a  ghastly  unearthly  look.  It  was,  in 
truth,  an  extraordinary  scene,  the  like  of  which  I  had  never 
seen  before,  and  shall  probably  never  witness  again.  Every 
detail  will  remain  indelibly  imprinted  upon  my  memory. 

A  greater  contrast  to  a  Christian  funeral  could  scarcely  be 
imagined  \  and  the  contrast  was  the  more  remarkable,  as  this 


^  It  was  equally,  however,  a  contrast  to  the  form  of  cremation  now  in 
vogue  among  orthodox  Hindus,  as  may  be  proved  by  referring  to  pp. 
295-303  of  this  volume,  as  well  as  by  perusing  the  following  account 
of  the  cremation  of  the  Hon.  Kristo-das  Pal,  which  appeared  in  the 
'  Times  of  India  Overland  Summary '  for  July  29,  1884  : — '  The  remains  of 
Kristo-das  Pal  were  cremated  at  Nim  Tollah  burning-Ghat  in  accordance 
with  the  orthodox  Hindu  custom.  A  few  moments  before  he  expired,  his 
son  poured  a  few  drops  of  Ganges  water  into  his  mouth  and  anointed  his 
forehead  with  mud  from  the  river;  placing  a  few  leaves  of  tulsl  on  the 
forehead.  The  mourners  then  chanted  the  names  of  Hindu  gods  and 
goddesses  whilst  anointing  the  corpse.  The  family  priest  also  chanted 
prayers.  After  the  deceased  had  breathed  his  last,  his  eyelids  and  lips 
were  closed  by  his  son,  who  was  chief  mourner.     The  remains  were  then 


520  Death  and  Cre7natio7i  of  Keshab  Chandar  Sen. 

was  the  Keshab  who  in  the  impassioned  address  ah'eady 
noticed,  had  called  on  India  to  accept  Christ.  I  believe  that 
a  further  religious  ceremony  (corresponding  to  the  Sraddha) 
was  performed  at  the  private  residence  of  the  deceased  man  a 
few  days  later,  but  to  this  I  was  not  invited.  Such  ceremonies 
make  it  abundantly  clear  how  wide  a  chasm  separates  the 
followers  of  Keshab,  the  enthusiastic  admirer  of  Christ,  from 
the  community  of  Christians  at  Calcutta. 

But  it  is  equally  clear  that  Keshab  was  one  of  India's 
greatest  social  and  religious  reformers,  and,  notwithstanding 
his  errors  of  judgment,  a  worthy  successor  of  Rammohun  Roy. 
Before  I  left  Calcutta  a  meeting  was  held  to  organize  some 
suitable  plan  for  perpetuating  his  memory,  and  a  large  sum 
had  been  collected  in  subscriptions.  But  I  doubt  whether 
the  time  has  yet  arrived  for  an  adequate  appreciation  of  his 
character,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  jealousies  and  disputes 
among  some  of  his  former  followers  may  impair  the  good 
effect  of  what  he  has  done  for  the  cause  of  progress. 

put  into  a  cot  and  brought  down  into  the  court-yard.  The  chief  mourner 
appHed  nine  bits  of  gold  to  the  mouth,  nostrils,  eyes,  and  head  of  the 
deceased,  and  anointed  the  body  with  otto  of  spikenard  and  otto  of 
sandal-wood.  The  corpse  was  then  dressed  in  clean  clothes,  after  which 
garlands  of  flowers  were  placed  on  it.  A  small  plant — the  sacred  tulsl — 
with  its  root  and  flowers  was  placed  on  the  head  during  this  period. 
Large  crowds  flocked  in  to  see  the  last  of  the  well-known  patriot.  At 
three  o'clock  the  cortege  proceeded  to  the  Ghat.  The  corpse  was  borne 
by  the  friends  and  relatives  of  the  deceased.  On  the  way  it  was  deposited 
opposite  the  temple  near  the  Ghat,  where  prayers  were  offered.  It  was 
then  taken  to  the  side  of  the  river,  where  the  son  anointed  it  with  Ganges 
water.  The  funeral  pyre  was  composed  partly  of  sandal-wood.  A  clean 
piece  of  cloth  was  then  put  on  the  pyre,  and  the  body  was  uncovered  up 
to  the  waist.  After  this  the  son  was  summoned  to  the  side  of  the  remains, 
when  ghee  was  placed  on  his  hand,  with  which  he  anointed  the  head  of 
the  corpse.  Ganges  water  was  again  sprinkled  on  the  body,  after  which 
the  priest  gave  the  son  two  rings  composed  apparently  of  tulsl  leaves, 
which  he  placed  round  the  forefinger  of  the  deceased.  The  priest  then 
chanted  some  invocations  in  a  low  tone,  which  the  son  repeated.  The 
body  was  then  placed  on  the  funeral  pyre  and  cremated.  During  the 
cremation  rice,  dal,  and  pice  were  distributed  to  the  poor.  The  deceased 
wished  that  the  cremation  should  not  be  attended  with  any  pomp.' 


Pratap  Chandar  Mozoonidar.  521 

It  might  indeed  have  been  thought  that  the  return  of  Mr. 
Pratap  Chandar  Mozoomdar  very  soon  after  the  death  of 
Keshab  Chandar  Sen  would  have  made  his  election  as  Mr. 
Sen's  successor,  and  as  leader  of  the  New  Dispensation 
Church,  certain.  He  had  been  travelling  round  the  world, 
but  hurried  back  on  hearing  of  Mr.  Sen's  illness.  No  one 
could  deny  that  he  was  the  one  man  intellectually  qualified 
to  succeed  the  great  Reformer,  and  he  himself  was  bent  on 
becoming  a  religious  guide,  if  not  a  ruler.  Nothing  short  of 
this  was  likely  to  satisfy  his  aspirations.  But  he  seemed  to  lack 
the  tact  needed  for  keeping  the  great  Keshab's  Samaj  to- 
gether, and  he  failed  at  first  to  bring  about  any  settlement 
of  the  unseemly  disputes  which  had  arisen  in  regard  to  the 
ownership  of  the  place  of  worship. 

On  inquiry  in  August,  1884,  I  was  told  that  he  con- 
ducted religious  services  in  his  own  house,  and  that  he  had 
started  a  Bengal!  paper  (called  the  Alok)  as  an  organ  for 
disseminating  his  own  views  and  the  doctrines  of  the  '  New 
Dispensation,'  of  which  he  still  believed  himself  to  be  the  ex- 
ponent. He  maintained  that  the  public  utterances  of  the  late 
minister  showed  that  it  was  never  his  desire  to  appropriate 
for  the  use  of  his  own  family  and  most  intimate  friends  any 
of  the  property  of  the  Samaj,  such  as  the  prayer  hall  (Mandir) 
which  was  erected  by  public  subscription. 

In  opposition  to  this  view,  the  near  relatives  and  adherents 
of  the  late  Keshab  Chandar  Sen  called  themselves  the  true 
members  of  the  Apostolic  Darbar,  and  claimed  the  Mandir  as 
their  own,  declining  to  recognize  Mr.  Mozoomdar  as  their 
leader.  They  were  for  some  time  like  a  flock  without  a  shep- 
herd, and  appeared  likely  to  lapse — as  their  leader  also  seemed 
latterly  inclined  to  do — into  many  superstitious  practices,  or 
even  into  a  form  of  Theism  nearly  approaching  Vaishnavism. 

I  have  at  present  (1891)  no  information  as  to  Mr.  Mozoom- 
dar's  exact  position ;  but  his  great  energy  and  ability,  com- 
bined with  his  oratorical  powers,  must  have  secured  for  him  a 


522  Pratap  Chandar  Mozoomdar. 

large  number  of  adherents,  and  perhaps  have  led  to  his 
organizing  a  Samaj  of  a  purer  character  than  that  of  his  pre- 
decessor Mr.  Sen.  It  may  be  interesting,  therefore,  if  I  here 
put  on  record  a  conversation  I  had  with  him,  nearly  in  the 
following  words  : — 

What  is  your  name  for  God  ? 

Brahma  is  our  chief  name,  though  this  (being  neuter)  is  rather  our 
philosophical  one.  Our  house  of  God  is  called  Brahma-mandira.  But  our 
common  name  for  God  is  Hari  (also  one  of  the  common  names  of  Vishnu), 
which  means  '  the  Taker  away  of  sin  and  evil.'  We  also  use  the  names 
Paramesvara,  '  Supreme  Lord,'  and  Paramatma,  '  Supreme  Spirit,'  and 
Parama-pita,  '  Supreme  Father,'  and  even  Parama-mata,  '  Supreme 
Mother.'  Perhaps  one  reason  for  these  last  names  may  be  that  we  can- 
not get  rid  of  the  idea  of  Purusha  and  Prakriti,  which  is  ingrained  in  the 
Hindu  mind  (see  p.  223  of  this  volume). 

Do  you  hold  that  God  created  the  world  out  of  nothing,  or  that  He 
developed  it  out  of  His  own  essence? 

We  consider  this  inquiry  too  recondite  and  too  much  beyond  the  reach 
of  our  intellects.  We  do  not  attempt  to  go  into  it.  But  we  hold  that 
God  did  not  create  the  world  all  at  once,  but  by  gradual  evolution. 
Everything  in  creation  proceeds  progressively  by  fixed  law,  and  not 
per  saltum. 

Your  late  leader,  Keshab  Chandar  Sen,  called  on  India  to  accept 
Christ ;  what  did  he  mean  by  this  ? 

We  do  accept  Christ  in  our  own  way.  We  regard  Him  as  our  supreme 
Exemplar,  our  ideal  Man.  He  was  the  Spirit  of  God  incarnate — the  ideal 
of  the  Hfe  of  God  in  man.  We  do  not  believe  this  of  any  one  else.  Moses 
was  a  good  man,  and  David  a  devoted  man  full  of  faith  and  trust  in  God. 
But  these  were  only  partially  good.  Paul  conforms  most  nearly  to  the 
Christ-hke  pattern — Christ  is  the  concentration  and  combination  of  all. 

Do  you  claim  anything  similar  for  your  late  leader,  Keshab  Chandar  Sen? 

No.  True,  he  was  a  good  and  holy  man  and  had  the  Spirit  of  God ; 
he  was  inspired,  but  not  perpetually  ;  the  Spirit  was  not  always  present  in 
him,  and  certainly  he  was  not  inspired  in  the  sense  Christ  is  thought  to 
have  been  by  Christians.  He  was  only  inspired  when  he  placed  himself 
in  a  devotional  frame  of  mind  and  gave  himself  to  earnest  prayer.  Then 
great  spiritual  impulses  were  imparted  to  him,  in  response  to  such 
prayers.  And  similar  responses  are  given  to  other  men  also.  Inspiration 
was  not  confined  to  Mr.  Keshab  Chandar  Sen,  He  had  his  allotted  place 
and  work  as  our  chief  leader,  and  we  yielded  him  allegiance.  He  was  not 
a  guide  to  any  except  to  those  brought  into  association  with  him — not  to 
all  the  world.  There  is  a  common  inspiration  given  to  each  member  of 
our  church  in  his  own  special  sphere  of  work. 

What  are  your  views  on  the  subject  of  Christ's  death  ? 

We  accept  Christ's  death  as  an  atonement  spiritually.     But  there  is  no 


Pi^atap  Chandar  Alozoomdar.  523 

mere  mechanical  and  material  application  of  Christ's  merits.  If  we  are 
to  profit  by  Christ's  death  we  must  go  through  the  same  processes.  Christ's 
death  was  the  victory  of  pain  and  suffering  over  pleasure  and  carnality. 
It  was  also  a  self-sacrifice.  It  was  God  living  and  dying  for  the  good  of 
the  world.  It  effected  a  reconciliation  between  sinful  man  and  God.  In 
this  sense  we  recognise  the  atonement.  Any  one  who  adopts  the  same 
principle  of  self-sacrifice  helps  to  effect  reconciliation  between  man  and 
God.     Christ  has  taught  us  to  die. 

Do  you  believe  in  the  resurrection  of  Christ  ? 

Not  in  His  bodily,  but  in  His  spiritual  resurrection. 

What  are  your  ideas  about  Heaven  ? 

Our  heaven  is  called  Svarga.  It  is  an  eternal  condition,  and  not  neces- 
sarily connected  with  any  particular  locality. 

We  do  not  believe  in  the  transmigration  of  souls  (metempsychosis). 

Do  you  believe  in  a  Hell  } 

Yes,  our  Hell  is  called  Naraka,  but  it  is  a  temporary  condition,  like  the 
Purgatory  of  the  Roman  Catholics.  It  is  not  necessarily  connected  with 
a  locality. 

What  do  you  hold  in  regard  to  a  personal  Spirit  of  evil  ? 

We  do  not  believe  in  a  personal  Devil,  nor  in  the  Bhijtas  and  Prctas  of 
the  Hindiis  (see  p.  241  of  this  volume).  Evil  is  negative,  and  sin  is  a 
positive  act  proceeding  from  weakness  or  disease  of  the  will. 

Do  you  keep  up  any  of  the  Hindu  domestic  ceremonies,  or  have  you 
ceremonies  of  your  own  ? 

We  have  some  domestic  ceremonies,  of  course,  which  we  call  Anush- 
thana.  They  are  performed  without  idolatry,  and  according  to  forms  of 
our  own  and  with  our  own  prayers.  Thus  we  have  Birth,  Marriage,  and 
Funeral  ceremonies.  We  have  also  Baptism  and  a  rite  called  Homa 
(using  fire  as  a  symbol).  Moreover,  we  have  a  ceremony  corresponding 
to  the  Christian  Communion,  performed  with  rice  and  milk,  which  are 
supposed  to  have  the  same  symbolical  significance  as  bread  and  wine, — 
that  is,  they  typify  union  and  assimilation  as  food  is  assimilated.  But  w^e 
do  not  consider  our  ceremonies  (anushthana)  binding  on  all.  Any  member 
of  our  church  may  retain  the  Hindu  domestic  ceremonies,  going  through 
them  as  a  matter  of  routine.  Still,  we  do  not  consider  any  one  a  strict 
Brahma  unless  he  adopts  the  Brahma  (sometimes  called  Brahmic)  cere- 
monies, and  these  strict  Brahmas  we  call  Anushthanikas. 

With  regard  to  the  question  of  Brahma  ceremonies,  it  should 
be  carefully  noted  that,  after  all,  the  Brahma-Samaj  Thcist 
who  has  not  given  up  Hindu  domestic  rites  and  caste-customs 
can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  severed  himself  from  Hinduism. 
The  mere  holding  of  Theistic  opinions  has  nothing  in  it 
opposed  to  Hinduism,  nor  even  to  Brahmanism.  I  once  asked 
a  Brahman  if  he  had  any  short  creed  which  he  could  write 


524         AnushtJiana  07^  Brahma  Ceremonies. 

down  for  me.  He  immediately  wrote  in  Sanskrit  a  few  words 
which  may  be  thus  translated  :  '  I  bow  down  before  the  One 
God,  who  is  the  only  existing  Being,  who  is  eternal,  who  is  all 
joy,  and  the  giver  of  all  joy;  who  is  all  knowledge;  who  is 
unchangeable  and  present  as  a  witness  in  all  consciences.' 

Indeed  the  foregoing  pages  of  this  volume  will  have  been 
written  in  vain  if  they  have  not  made  it  evident  that  Vaish- 
navism  and  Saivism — especially  the  former — are  in  reality 
forms  of  Theism  (pp.  54,  "]%  96,  475).  The  Vaishnavas  are 
Theists  who  worship  one  personal  God  under  the  name  of 
Vishnu.  They  maintain  that  the  idolatry  connected  with  that 
worship  is  not  a  necessary  part  of  its  essence.  Adoration  of 
images  (murti-piija)  is  allowed  as  a  help  to  weak-minded  people, 
but  the  mental  and  spiritual  form  of  devotion  (manasi  puja) 
is  repeatedly  declared  to  be  the  highest  (see  p.  1 23),  and  that 
to  which  all  lower  forms  lead  up.  If,  therefore,  a  Vaishnava 
abstains  from  idolatry  in  his  daily  worship,  and  confines  him- 
self to  spiritual  adoration,  it  may  be  contended  that  he  is  as 
good  a  Theist  as  any  member  of  a  Brahma-Samaj,  bearing 
in  mind  that  some  of  these  latter  also  worship  God  under 
one  of  the  names  of  Vishnu  (Hari).  Every  such  Vaislinava 
may  be  a  sympathizer  with  the  members  of  modern  Theistic 
societies  so  far  as  mere  monotheistic  doctrines  are  concerned. 
There  remains,  however,  the  doctrine  of  metempsychosis. 

The  crucial  test  of  pure  Theism  among  the  Hindus  lies  in 
"■"^  the  rejection  of  that  doctrine  and  of  the  old  domestic  cere- 
monies and  caste-customs.  If  a  man  adheres  to  caste,  and 
to  the  old  superstitious  and  idolatrous  methods  of  performing 
family  rites,  and  to  the  Hindu  doctrine  of  metempsychosis, 
he  cannot  be  said  to  have  joined  the  ranks  of  true  Theistic 
Reformers. 

And  in  real  fact  no  one  ought  to  be  allowed  to  register  his 
name  as  a  member  of  any  Brahma-Samaj  unless  he  has  the 
courage  of  his  opinions,  and  is  prepared  to  become  an 
Anushthanika ;  that  is  to  say,  unless  he  engages  to  shake  off 


Sp7^ead  of  Brahma  C/mrckes  in  India.       525 

all  the  fetters  of  caste,  and  perform  all  domestic  rites  and 
ceremonies  at  births,  initiation,  marriages,  deaths,  etc.,  ac- 
cording to  Brahma  (Brahmic)  rules  and  forms  ;  and  of  these 
Anushthanikas  I  believe  there  are  little  more  than  eieht 
hundred  all  told.  So  much,  then,  for  the  actual  advance  of 
pure  Theism  in  India. 

Nevertheless  it  is  matter  of  congratulation  that  many 
thousands  are  now  to  be  found  who,  though  they  do  not 
adopt  pure  Theistic  forms,  or  renounce  caste-customs,  never- 
theless sympathize  with  the  members  of  the  Brahma-Samaj 
to  the  extent  of  renouncing  idolatry. 

And  it  is  much  to  be  hoped  that  the  bitterness  of  feeling 
produced  by  constant  disputes  and  schisms  may  in  the  end 
pass  away,  and  that  the  various  bodies  of  Theists  which  the 
operation  of  our  educational  system  is  rapidly  calling  into 
existence,  may  ere  long  forget  their  petty  differences,  and 
agree  upon  some  course  of  combined  and  systematic  action 
for  the  promotion  of  social  reform.  Surely  the  present  little 
band  of  Reformers,  however  courageous,  is  not  strong  enough 
to  bear  weakening  by  internal  divisions.  A  compact  and 
serried  front  is  urgently  needed  in  the  presence  of  countless 
foes,  who  neglect  no  opportunity  of  marshalling  their  forces, 
and  uniting  in  active  co-operation  for  the  destruction  of  the 
scattered  ranks  of  their  opponents. 

Ten  years  ago  the  Census  showed  that  there  were  178 
Theistic  Churches  established  in  different  localities  throueh- 
out  India.  The  present  Census  will  no  doubt  prove  them  to 
be  now  more  numerous ;  but  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
many  of  them  have  few  registered  Anushthanika  members, 
though  they  have  numerous  sympathizers. 

The  Madras  Samaj,  founded  in  1871,  and  developed  out  of 
a  previous  Veda-Samaj,  was  well  led  by  Sridharalu  Naidu 
(under  the  Adi  Brahma-Samaj),  but  at  his  death  languished. 
It  revived  in  1879,  but  soon  split  into  two  parties,  some  siding 
with   Keshab  Chandar  Sen   and   some  with   the   Sadharana 


526      spread  of  Brahnia  Churches,     Theosophy. 

Church.  When  I  was  last  in  India  the  latter  party  was  the 
strongest,  and  had  formed  a  new  Samaj.  At  Bombay,  the 
Prarthana-Samaj,  or  '  Prayer  Society,' was  the  first  Theistic 
Church  of  Western  India.  It  was  founded  in  1867,  and  owed 
much  of  its  continued  vitality  to  the  support  of  an  enlightened 
native.  Dr.  Atmaram  Pandurang. 

Some  of  the  Samajes  follow  on  the  lines  first  laid  down  by 
Keshab  Chandar  Sen,  and  are  liberal  and  progressive.  Many 
are  more  conservative,  and  conform  to  the  pattern  of  the 
Adi  Brahma-Samaj  at  Calcutta^.  Some,  again,  take  an  in- 
dependent line,  and  call  their  creed  '  Theosophy.' 

Such  Theosophical  societies  define  '  Theosophy '  to  mean 
'  divine  wisdom  or  science,'  '  spiritual  philosophy.'  They 
hold  that  all  religions  have  elements  of  truth  which  spring 
from  the  one  Fountain  of  Truth,  and  that  Theosophy  is  the 
synthesis  of  all  religions.  Hence  pure  Brahmanism,  pure 
Buddhism,  pure  Islam,  pure  Christianity  may  be  equivalent 
to  Theosophy.  It  may  be  true  that  Theosophy  is  spreading, 
but  in  India  it  seems  to  be  little  more  than  another  name 
for  the  Vedanta  philosophy. 

Let  me  now^  describe  the  meetings  which  I  myself  attended 
(1)  of  Keshab's  Progressive  Samaj  or  New  Dispensation 
Church  at  Calcutta ;  (2)  of  the  Adi  Brahma-Samaj  at  Cal- 
cutta ;  (3)  of  the  Prarthana-Samaj  at  Bombay. 

The  meeting  of  the  Progressive  Brahma-Samaj  at  which 
I  was  present,  took  place  on  the  Sunday  previous  to  Keshab 
Chandar  Sen's  death,  when  he  was  lying  dangerously  ill.  The 
religious  service  was  conducted  by  some  relative  who  acted  as 
his  deputy.  His  Secretary,  Mr.  Pratap  Chandar  Mozoomdar, 
who,  as  already  mentioned,  had  been  on  a  tour  round  the  world, 

■^  According  to  Raj  Narain  Bose,  the  Adi  Brahma-Samaj,  though 
ge7ierally  conservative,  contains  individual  members  who  have  taken 
part  in  very  progressive  reforms,  such  as  discarding  the  thread,  the 
remarriage  of  widows,  emancipation  of  females,  etc.  The  Adi-Samaj  in 
fact  is  conservative  in  religious  reform,  basing  it  on  Vedas  and  Vedanta, 
but  leaves  social  reform  to  the  judgment  and  taste  of  individual  members. 


Form  of  Service  at  Bi^ahma-Samaj  Meetings.     527 

had  not  at  that  time  returned.  The  building  used  for  these 
services  is  situated  in  a  handsome  street  in  the  native  quarter 
of  Calcutta,  and  has  a  spire  and  an  exterior  elevation  copied 
from  our  Christian  churches;  while  its  interior  arrangements, 
though  Oriental  in  points  of  detail,  give  it  an  appearance  not 
unlike  that  of  a  plain  unadorned  dissenting  chapel.  This  is  the 
building  which  since  the  death  of  Keshab  Chandar  Sen  has 
caused  a  dispute  as  to  its  ownership,  terminating  in  a  serious 
disruption  (see  p.  520).  On  driving  up  to  the  entrance  I 
noticed  two  temporary  screens  stretching  from  the  road  to  a 
side-door.  This  was  to  enable  the  female  Brahmas  (usually 
called  Brahmikas)  to  enter  without  being  seen. 

No  doubt  it  is  a  most  unusual  circumstance  in  India  for 
the  women  of  a  family  to  meet  in  the  same  place  of  worship 
and  to  join  in  the  same  devotions  with  their  male  relatives ; 
but,  I  confess,  I  did  not  expect  to  find  the  female  members 
of  the  congregation  of  the  great  social  Reformer  immured  in 
a  gallery  with  a  wooden  screen  in  front  of  it. 

On  entering  the  Church  I  found  the  interior  nearly  full  of 
men,  almost  every  one  of  whom  wore  the  shawl  which  con- 
stitutes the  favourite  winter  costume  of  a  Bengali  Babii  drawn 
closely  around  him. 

They  began  by  repeating  a  litany  in  a  standing  attitude, 
and  I  observed  that  the  responses  of  the  congregation  were 
uttered  with  much  apparent  devotion.  The  preacher,  who 
was  also  wrapped  in  a  shawl,  sat  in  the  middle  of  a  slightly 
raised  platform  surrounded  by  a  railing.  When  the  litany 
was  concluded  he  repeated  a  prayer  in  Bengali.  Then  came 
a  hymn  sung  to  an  organ  accompaniment,  apparently  played 
with  one  finger  in  single  notes  and  in  a  minor  key,  a  kind  of 
drum-beating  time.  After  the  hymn  the  preacher  sat  down 
and  in  that  attitude  gave  us  an  exhortation  or  sermon  in  a 
very  unimpassioned  manner,  interweaving  many  quotations 
from  the  sacred  scriptures  of  India  and  other  nations,  the 
congregation  listening  with  great  attention. 


528     Form  of  Sei^ice  at  Brahma-Samaj  Meeti7igs. 

The  simple  character  of  the  service  and  the  absence  of  all 
idolatry  was  very  refreshing  after  a  recent  visit  I  had  made 
to  the  temple  of  the  goddess  Kali. 

The  services  at  the  Adi  Brahma-Samaj  were  conducted 
by  a  son  of  Debendra-nath.  The  sermon  was  preached 
from  a  raised  platform  or  altar  (Vedi) ;  and  three  singers, 
seated  in  front  of  a  kind  of  organ,  chanted  the  hymns  in 
loud  tones,  and  with  much  warmth  of  manner  and  energetic 
gesticulation. 

At  Bombay  the  Manual  used  by  the  Prarthana-Samaj  con- 
tained selections  from  the  Veda,  Upanishads,  Christian  Bible, 
Kuran,  and  Zand-Avasta.  Hymns  were  sung  with  much 
fervour  in  a  thoroughly  Hindu  fashion  to  an  accompaniment 
played  on  the  Vina  or  Indian  lute,  and  prayers  were  said, 
consisting  chiefly  of  invocations  of  the  Supreme  Being,  with 
praise  and  adoration  of  His  attributes,  but  without  confession 
of  guilt,  while  the  congregation  remained  seated,  though  their 
hands  were  joined  in  reverence.  After  the  prayer  an  able 
sermon  was  preached  by  Professor  Bhandarkar  (Professor 
of  Sanskrit  at  Deccan  College,  Poona)  who  took  for  his  text  a 
passage  from  the  Kathopanishad  (VI.  15),  thus  translatable  : — 
'  Man  cannot  obtain  immortality  till  all  the  knots  in  his  heart 
caused  by  ignorance  and  unbelief  are  cut  (yada  sarve  prabhi- 
dyante  hridayasya  granthayah).'  He  then  illustrated  his  text 
by  quotations  from  other  books.  For  example — a  passage 
from  Tukaram — the  most  popular  Maratha  poet :  '  There  is 
no  happiness  other  than  peace.  Therefore  preserve  peace, 
and  you  will  cross  over  to  yonder  shore.' 

What  chiefly  struck  me  at  the  Bombay  meeting  was  the 
apparent  absence  of  sympathy  or  rapport  between  the  official 
performers  of  the  services  and  the  general  congregation.  The 
hymns  were  energetically  sung  by  the  appointed  singers,  the 
prayers  earnestly  repeated,  and  the  address  solemnly  de- 
livered by  the  minister,  but  the  congregation  neither  stood 
nor  knelt,  and  seemed  to  take  no  really  cordial  part  in  the 


Vedic   Theism,     Dayana^ida  Sarasvaii.        529 

proceedings.  It  is  true  that  a  sitting  posture  at  prayer  is 
customary,  and  by  no  means  intended  to  imply  irreverence  ; 
yet  I  came  away  persuaded  that  the  Prarthana-Samaj  of 
Bombay,  in  spite  of  honest  strivings  after  a  pure  soul-stirring 
Theism,  is  still  chilled  and  numbed  by  the  lingering  influence 
of  Vedantic  Pantheism,  which  it  is  unable  wholly  to  shake  off. 
And  this,  I  believe,  is  true  of  many  of  the  Churches  of  Western 
India  which  number  many  learned  and  philosophical  men 
among  their  members — men  who  have  little  sympathy  with 
the  Vaishnava  tendencies  of  the  Bengali  Brahmas. 

Before  concluding  this  sketch  of  modern  Hindu  Theism, 
I    should    note   that    occasional    Reformers    still    arise   who 
make  efforts  to  found  a  purely  Indian  Theism  on  the  doc- 
trines supposed  to  be  contained  in  the  hymns  of  the  Veda. 
A  movement  for  the  diffusion  of  this  kind  of  Vedic  Theism 
was    not    long   ago   inaugurated    by  a   remarkable    Gujarat! 
Brahman,  named  Dayananda  SarasvatT,  who  called  his  new 
church  the  Arya-Samaj.    I  made  his  acquaintance  at  Bombay 
in  1876,  and  was  much  struck  by  his  fine  countenance  and 
figure.     There  I  heard  him  preach  an  eloquent  discourse  on 
the  religious  development  of  the  Aryan  race.     He  began  by 
repeating  a  hymn  to  Varuna  (see  p.  15)  preceded  by  the  sylla- 
ble Om  (p.  10),  prolating  the  vowel  in  deep  sonorous  tones. 
Just  before  I  reached  India  in  the  autumn  of  1883  he  died 
suddenly  (some  say  by  poison)  at  Ajmere  during  the  Divali 
festival.     In  the  spring  of  1884  I  visited  Ajmere,  and  saw 
the  place  of  his  cremation.      I   found    that,  although   after 
his  death  vast  numbers  declared  their  sympathy  with  him, 
their   admiration   of  his    character   and    their  willingness  to 
subscribe    large    sums   to   perpetuate   his    memory   and    his 
teaching,  yet  that,  while  alive,  he  had  many  bitter  enemies 
among  the  Brahmans ;    for   he  was    a   strong   opponent   of 
idolatry  as  well  as  of  all  forms  of  Polytheism.    The  peculiarity 
of  his  teaching  was  that  he  contended  that  the  four  collections 
of  Vedic  hymns  (Mantras),  as  distinct  from  the  Brahmanas 

M  m 


530        Vedic  Theism.     Dayananda  Sarasvati. 

and  Upanishads  (pp.  8,  21,  26),  are  the  only  true  non-human 
(a-paurusheya)  revelation,  and  that  the  hymns  to  Agni,  Indra, 
and  Surya  are  to  One  God  under  different  names.  In 
his  printed  creed  he  declared  that  he  was  not  an  inde- 
pendent thinker  (naharn  svatantrah),  but  a  follower  of  the 
Veda  ;  that  the  four  Sarnhita  texts  of  the  Vedas — including 
the  Isa  Upanishad — are  to  be  received  as  a  primary  autho- 
rity in  all  matters  relating  to  human  conduct ;  that  the  other 
Upanishads,  the  Brahmanas,  beginning  with  the  Satapatha  ; 
the  six  Aiigas  or  limbs  of  the  Veda,  beginning  with  Siksha ; 
the  four  Upa-vedas ;  the  six  Darsanas  or  Schools  of  Philo- 
sophy, and  the  11 30  schools  or  branches^  (sakhas)  of  Vedic 
teaching  are  to  be  accepted  as  secondary  authority  in  ex- 
pounding the  meaning  of  the  Vedic  texts,  and  that  adoration, 
prayer,  and  devotion  are  to  be  offered  to  One  God  only, 
abstracted  from  all  idea  of  shape  and  form,  and  without  any 
second,  as  set  forth  in  the  Vedas. 

In  one  of  my  interviews  with  him,  I  asked  him  for  his  defini- 
tion of  religion,  he  replied  in  Sanskrit : — '  Religion  (Dharmah) 
is  a  true  and  just  view  (nyayah),  and  the  abandonment  of  all 
prejudice  and  partiality  (pakshapata-rahityam) — that  is  to 
say,  it  is  an  impartial  inquiry  into  the  truth  by  means  of  the 
senses  and  the  two  other  instruments  of  knowledge  (pramana), 
reason,  and  revelation.' 

Dayananda's  teaching,  however,  included  the  doctrine  of 
metempsychosis  (punar-janma),  which  it  would  be  dif^cult  to 
found  on  Vedic  authority.  Of  course,  both  this  and  all  his 
more  peculiar  doctrines  are  repudiated  by  the  various  Brahma 
Samajes,  and  even  by  the  Adi  Samaj  of  Calcutta.  Nor 
would  Dayananda  himself  have  admitted  an  identity  of  teach- 
ing with  the  Brahma  Thelstic  movement.  Nevertheless  he 
has  done  undoubted  good  by  his  uncompromising  opposition 

■^  Of  these  there  are  one  thousand  for  the  Sama-veda,  one  hundred  for 
the  Yajur-veda,  twenty-one  for  the  Rig-veda,  and  nine  for  the  Atharva- 
veda.     See  Patanjali's  Mahabhashya  I.  i.  i. 


Vedic   Theism.     Dayananda  Sarasvati.        531 

to  idolatry  and  to  the  later  developments  of  Hinduism,  in- 
cluding the  whole  circle  of  Puranic  mythology.  He  was  also 
a  Social  Reformer  and  often  preached  against  child-mar- 
riages. He  left  a  will  (svTkara-patra),  written  in  Hindi,  and 
by  that  constituted  what  he  called  a  Paropakarini  Sabha — 
that  is  to  say,  a  Society,  or  more  properly  a  Committee,  con- 
sisting of  twenty-three  members  who  are  bound  to  assist  each 
other  (the  Maharana  of  Udaypur  being  President).  The  duty  of 
this  Committee  is  (i)  to  publish  and  disseminate  the  Veda  and 
Vedangas ;  (2)  to  send  missionaries  to  different  countries  and  by 
their  means  persuade  every  one  to  accept  truth  and  abandon 
error ;  (3)  to  educate  poor  people  in  India  (Aryavarta)  in  the 
principles  of  the  Arya-Samaj,  as  founded  by  himself.  He 
also  left  money  to  be  spent  in  promoting  these  objects. 

And  let  us  not  be  slow  to  acknowledge  the  good  results 
likely  to  flow  from  all  this  agitation  in  Indian  religious 
thought — all  this  upheaval  of  old  ideas,  all  this  activity  and 
movement  in  Indian  religious  life.  Still  less  let  us  regard 
with  distrust  the  efforts  of  these  modern  Theistic  Reformers, 
as  if  they  were  unfavourable  to  the  progress  of  Christian 
truth.  We  may  be  quite  sure  that  men  like  Debendra-nath 
Tagore,  and  the  other  leaders  of  the  chief  Brahma-Samaj 
or  Theistic  churches,  are  doing  good  work  in  a  Christian  self- 
sacrificing  spirit,  though  they  may  fall  into  many  errors. 
And  we  shall  do  well  not  to  be  too  censorious  and  critical 
in  our  animadversions  on  their  opinions  and  practices. 

Rather  let  us  hold  out  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  to 
these  noble-minded  Patriots  ;  for,  indeed^  they  need  every 
encouragement  in  their  almost  hopeless  struggle  with  their 
country's  worst  enemies,  Ignorance,  Prejudice,  and  Super- 
stition, in  whose  train  may  generally  be  found  Pride,  Un- 
truthfulness, Selfishness,  and  Immorality.  Intense  darkness 
still  broods  over  the  land  ;  let  Christianity  thankfully  wel- 
come and  wisely  make  use  of  every  gleam  and  glimmer  of 
true  light,  from  whatever  quarter  it  may  shine. 

M  m  2 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

Examples  of  the  Moral  Precepts  of  Brahmanism 

and  Hinduism. 

In  treating  of  Indian  morality  it  is  usual  to  affirm  that 
there   is    no   connexion   between    a    Hindu's  creed   and   his 
moral  conduct.     This  is  scarcely  correct,  because  an  essential 
part  of  his  creed  is  the  doctrine  of  metempsychosis,  which 
teaches  that  a  man  may,  on  dying,  return  to  earth  in  higher 
or  lower  forms  of  existence  according  to  the   merit  or  de- 
merit of  his  acts — after  passing  through  intermediate  periods 
of  bliss  or  torment  in  temporary  heavens  or  temporary  hells 
(see  pp.   232,  291-293).     A  belief  in  such  a   doctrine  is  of 
course  likely  to  have  a  powerful  effect  in  impelling  a  man 
to  good  actions  and   deterring  him   from   evil.     Every  man 
is  likely  to  control  his  appetites,  if,  through  indulging  them 
to  excess,  he  may  be  born  as  an  unclean  animal  in  his  next 
birth  ;   and  every  man  is  careful  not  to  steal,  if  theft   may 
lead  to  his  being  born  as  a  rat ;  and  to  abstain  from  murder, 
if  the  killing  of  his  neighbour  may  lead  to  his  own  degra- 
dation in  his  next  life  to  the  condition  of  some  noxious  brute 
or  reptile.     Constantly  in  the  sacred  books   of  the  Hindus 
morality  is  summed  up  in  three  precepts,  '  good  thoughts,' 
'  good    words,'    '  good  deeds,'   and   these   are  enjoined   upon 
every  man  ;    but  no  motive  is  put  before  him,  except  the 
dread    of  the   evil    consequences   which    bad   thoughts,    bad 
words   and  bad  deeds  will  certainly  entail,  not  only  in  this 
life  but   in   many   subsequent  states   of   existence.     See    pp. 
52,  SZ' 


Mo7^al  Precepts  of  Brahmanisin  and  Hinduism,     533 

For  no  Hindu  is  a  believer  in  the  possibility  of  obtaining 
any  supernatural  external  aid  which  may  help  him  to  lead 
a  moral  Hfe.  He  is  no  believer  in  any  divine  spring  or 
source  of  power,  outside  himself,  which  may  act  like  a  purify- 
ing, energizing  force  upon  his  character,  and  make  his  obedience 
to  the  laws  of  morality  not  only  a  duty,  but  a  delight. 

With  regard  to  the  mere  letter  of  the  Hindu  moral  code 
it  is  admitted  that  the  noble  precepts  scattered  throughout 
the  sacred  literature  of  Brahmanism  and  Hinduism  often 
rise  to  the  level  of  Christian  teaching,  and  present  a  picture 
which,  although  it  is  here  and  there  disfigured  by  dark  spots 
and  blemishes,  cannot  but  produce  a  favourable  impression 
on  every  candid  critic  (p.  52). 

The  present  chapter  will  be  devoted  to  the  exhibiting  of 
a  few  samples  of  the  best  of  these  precepts  which  I  have 
selected  from  different  works,  beginning  with  the  '  Laws  of 
Manu.'  As  the  originals  are  in  verse,  the  translations  are  also 
metrical,  and  as  nearly  literal  as  possible  ^. 

Precepts  from  Maim.     General  Precepts. 

With  pain  the  mother  to  her  child  gives  birth, 

With  pain  the  father  rears  him  ;    as  he  grows 

He  heaps  up  cares  and  troubles  for  his  parents  ; 

Incurring  thus  a  debt  he  ne'er  can  pay. 

Though  he  should  strive  through  centuries  of  time  (ll.  227). 

Think  constantly,  O  son,  how  thou  mayest  please 

Thy  father,  mother,  teacher — these  obey. 

By  deep  devotion  seek  thy  debt  to  pay. 

This  is  thy  highest  duty  and  religion  (ll.  228). 

Even  though  wronged,  treat  not  with  disrespect 
Thy  father,  mother,  teacher,  elder  brother  (ll.  226). 

^  These  translations  are  my  own,  and  will  be  found  scattered  in  some 
of  my  other  works,  especially  '  Indian  Wisdom,'  now  out  of  print. 


534    Moral  Precepts  of  Brahmanisin  mid  Hinduism, 

From  poison  thou  mayest  take  the  food  of  life, 
The  purest  gold  from  lumps  of  impure  earth, 
Examples  of  good  conduct  from  a  foe, 
Sweet  speech  and  gentleness  from  e'en  a  child, 
Something  from  all ;    from  men  of  low  degree 
Lessons  of  wisdom,  if  thou  humble  be  (ll.  238,  239). 

Wound  not  another,  though  by  him  provoked. 

Do  no  one  injury  by  thought  or  deed. 

Utter  no  word  to  pain  thy  fellow-creatures  (ll.  161). 

Say  what  is  true,  speak  not  agreeable  falsehood  (iv.  138). 

Treat  no  one  with  disdain^,  with  patience  bear 

Reviling  language ;   with  an  angry  man 

Be  never  angry ;   blessings  give  for  curses  (vi.  47,  48). 

E'en  as  a  driver  checks  his  restive  steeds. 

Do  thou,  if  thou  art  wise,  restrain  thy  passions, 

Which,  running  wild,  will  hurry  thee  away  (ll.  88). 

When  asked,  give  something,  though  a  very  trifle. 

Ungrudgingly  and  with  a  cheerful  heart, 

According  to  thy  substance ;    only  see 

That  he  to  whom  thou  givest  worthy  be  (iv.  227,  228). 

Pride  not  thyself  on  thy  religious  works. 

Give  to  the  poor^  but  talk  not  of  thy  gifts, 

By  pride  religious  merit  melts  away, 

The  merit  of  thy  alms  by  ostentation  (iv.  236,  237). 

None  sees  us,  say  the  sinful  in  their  hearts ; 

Yes,  the  gods  see  them,  and  the  omniscient  Spirit 

Within  their  breasts.     Thou  thinkest,  O  good  friend, 


^  In  IV.  135  the  householder  is  especially  warned  against  treating  with 
contempt  a  Brahman  well  versed  in  the  Veda,  a  Kshatriya,  and  a  serpent, 
because  (says  Kulluka)  the  first  has  the  power  of  destroying  him  by  his 
unseen  power  of  magical  texts  and  spells,  the  other  two  by  their  seen 
power  {drishta-saktya).  Cf.  the  passages  relative  to  the  power  of  the 
Brahmans  at  pp.  201,  202. 


Moral  Precepts  of  Brahmaiiisin  and  Hmdidsm.     535 

'  I  am  alone,'  but  there  resides  within  thee 

A  Being  who  inspects  thy  every  act, 

Knows  all  thy  goodness  and  thy  wickedness  (vill.  85,  91). 

The  soul  is  its  own  witness  ;   yea,  the  soul 

Itself  is  its  own  refuge  ;   grieve  thou  not, 

O  man,  thy  soul,  the  great  internal  Witness  (vill.  84). 

The  Firmament,  the  Earth,  the  Sea,  the  Moon, 
The  Sun,  the  Fire,  the  Wind,  the  Night,  and  both 
The  sacred  Twilights^,  and  the  Judge  of  souls ^, 
The  god  of  Justice,  and  the  Heart  itself — 
All  constantly  survey  the  acts  of  men  (vill.  86). 

When  thou  hast  sinned,  think  not  to  hide  thy  guilt 
Under  a  cloak  of  penance  and  austerity  (IV.  198). 

No  study  of  the  Veda  nor  oblation. 

No  gift  of  alms,  nor  round  of  strict  observance 

Can  lead  the  inwardly  depraved  to  heaven  (ll.  97). 

If  with  the  great  Divinity,  who  dwells 

Within  thy  breast,  thou  hast  no  controversy. 

Go  not  to  Ganges'  water  to  be  cleansed, 

Nor  make  a  pilgrimage  to  Kuru's  fields  (vill.  92). 

Iniquity  once  practised,  like  a  seed, 

Fails  not  to  yield  its  fruit  to  him  who  wrought  it, 

If  not  to  him,  yet  to  his  sons  and  grandsons  (iv.  173J. 

Contentment  is  the  root  of  happiness, 

And  discontent  the  root  of  misery. 

Wouldst  thou  be  happy,  be  thou  moderate  (iv.  12). 

Honour  thy  food,  receive  it  thankfully, 
Eat  it  contentedly  and  joyfully, 
Ne'er  hold  it  in  contempt  ;   avoid  excess, 
For  gluttony  is  hateful,  injures  health, 

^  See  the  account  of  the  Sandhyas,  p.  401.  ^  Yama,  see  p.  289. 


536    Moral  Pi^ecepts  of  B7^ak7nanis7n  and  Hmduism. 

May  lead  to  death,  and  surely  bars  the  road 
To  holy  merit  and  celestial  bliss  (il.  54,  57). 

Shrink  thou  from  worldly  honour  as  from  poison, 
Seek  rather  scorn  ;   the  scorn'd  may  sleep  in  peace, 
In  peace  awake;    the  scorner  perishes  (ll.  162,  163). 

Daily  perform  thy  own  appointed  work 

Unweariedly  ;   and  to  obtain  a  friend — 

A  sure  companion  to  the  future  world — 

Collect  a  store  of  virtue  like  the  ants 

Who  garner  up  their  treasures  into  heaps  ; 

For  neither  father,  mother,  wife,  nor  son, 

Nor  kinsman,  will  remain  beside  thee  then, 

When  thou  art  passing  to  that  other  home — 

Thy  virtue  will  thy  only  comrade  be  (iv.  238,  239). 

Single  is  every  living  creature  born, 

Single  he  passes  to  another  world. 

Single  he  eats  the  fruit  of  evil  deeds. 

Single,  the  fruit  of  good  ;    and  when  he  leaves 

His  body  like  a  log  or  heap  of  clay 

Upon  the  ground,  his  kinsmen  walk  away  ; 

Virtue  alone  stays  by  him  at  the  tomb. 

And  bears  him  through  the  dreary  trackless  gloom. 

(IV.  240-242)  ^ 

Thou  canst  not  gather  what  thou  dost  not  sow ; 
As  thou  dost  plant  the  tree  so  will  it  grow  (ix.  40). 

Depend  not  on  another,  rather  lean 

Upon  thyself;    trust  to  thine  own  exertions. 

Subjection  to  another's  will  gives  pain  ; 

True  happiness  consists  in  self-reliance  (iv.  160). 


■^  Dr.  Muir  has  pointed  out  that  the  expression  tavias  tarati  dustarain^ 
'he  crosses  the  gloom  difficult  to  be  passed,'  may  be  taken  from  Atharva- 
veda  IX.  5.  i,  tirtva  tanidrisi  bahudhd  mahdnti. 


Moral  Precepts  of  Brakmanism  and  Hinditism,     537 

Strive  to  complete  the  task  thou  hast  commenced ; 

Wearied,  renew  thy  efforts  once  again  ; 

Again  fatigued,  once  more  the  work  begin, 

So  shalt  thou  earn  success  and  fortune  win  (ix.  300). 

Be  courteous  to  thy  guest  who  visits  thee  ; 

Offer  a  seat,  bed,  water,  food  enough, 

According  to  thy  substance,  hospitably ; 

Naught  taking  for  thyself  till  he  be  served  ; 

Homage  to  guests  brings  wealth,  fame,  life,  and  heaven. 

(ill.  106,  IV.  29). 

Though  thou  mayst  suffer  for  thy  righteous  acts, 
Ne'er  give  thy  mind  to  aught  but  honest  gain  (iv.  171). 

So  act  in  thy  brief  passage  through  this  world 
That  thy  apparel,  speech,  and  inner  store 
Of  knowledge  be  adapted  to  thy  age, 
Thy  occupation,  means,  and  parentage  (iv.  18). 

According  to  a  man's  sincerity 

In  penitent  confession  of  his  crime, 

And  detestation  of  the  evil  deed, 

Shall  he  be  pardoned  and  his  soul  released 

From  taint  of  guilt,  like  serpent  from  its  skin  (xi.  227,  228). 

If  he  do  wrong,  'tis  not  enough  to  say 
I  will  not  sin  again  ;   release  from  guilt 
Depends  on  true  contrition,  which  consists 
In  actual  abstinence  from  sinful  deeds  (xi.  230). 

Revolving  in  his  mind  the  certainty 

Of  retribution  in  a  future  state, 

Let  him  be  pure  in  thought,  in  word,  in  deed  ^  (xi.  231). 

By  free  confession,  penitence,  and  penance, 
By  daily  repetition  of  the  Veda  ^, 


^  Here  is  another  example  of  Manu's  triple  division  of  '  thought,  word, 
and  deed.'     The  same  triple  division  is  frequent  in  Buddhistic  writings. 
^  Khydpatiena^  a7iictdpe7ia^  tapasCi^  adliyayetia  ba. 


538    Moral  Precepts  of  Brahinanis7n  and  Hinduism. 

By  the  five  holy  acts^  by  giving  alms, 

By  patience,  and  by  bearing  injuries. 

The  greatest  sinner  may  obtain  release  (xi.  227,  245). 

The  man  who  keeps  his  senses  in  control, 

His  speech,  heart,  actions  pure  and  ever  guarded, 

Gains  all  the  fruit  of  holy  study  ;   he 

Needs  neither  penance  nor  austerity  (ll.  160). 

Contentment,  patience  under  injury, 

Self-subjugation,  honesty,  restraint 

Of  all  the  sensual  organs,  purity, 

Devotion,  knowledge  of  the  Deity  ^ 

Veracity,  and  abstinence  from  anger. 

These  form  the  tenfold  summary  of  duty  (vi.  92). 

Long  not  for  death,  nor  hanker  after  life ; 

Calmly  expect  thy  own  appointed  time. 

E'en  as  a  servant  reckons  on  his  hire  (iv.  45). 

This  mansion  of  the  soul,  composed  of  earth. 

Subject  to  sorrow  and  decrepitude, 

Inhabited  by  sicknesses  and  pains. 

Bound  by  the  bonds  of  ignorance  and  darkness, 

Let  a  wise  man  with  cheerfulness  abandon  (vi.  77). 

Quitting  this  body,  he  resembles  merely 
A  bird  that  leaves  a  tree.     Thus  is  he  freed 
.    From  the  fell  monster  of  an  evil  world  ^  (vi.  78). 

Whate'er  the  act  a  man  commits,  whate'er 
His  state  of  mind,  of  that  the  recompense 
Must  he  receive  in  corresponding  body  (xil.  81). 

Action  of  every  kind,  whether  of  mind 

Or  speech  or  body,  must  bear  fruit,  entailing 


^  That  is,  the  five  Maha-yajnas  ;  see  p,  411. 

^   Vidya,  '  knowledge  of  the  supreme  Spirit.' — Kulluka. 

^  Kricchrdd  grUhat = samsara-kashtdd grahad  iva. 


Moral  P7'ecepts  of  BraJimanism  and  Hindiiism.     539 

Fresh  births  through  multifarious  conditions, 

In  highest,  mean,  and  lowest  transmigrations  (xil.  3). 

This  universal  Soul  is  all  the  gods. 

Is  all  the  worlds,  and  is  the  only  source 

Of  all  the  actions  of  embodied  spirits  (xil.  119). 

He  is  their  ruler,  brighter  than  pure  gold, 

Subtler  than  atoms,  imperceptible, 

Except  by  minds  abstracted,  all-pervading, 

Investing  all  with  rudiments  of  matter, 

Causing  all  beings  to  revolve  like  wheels 

In  regular  and  constant  revolution 

Through  birth  and  growth,  decay  and  dissolution. 

(xil.  122,  124). 

Duties  of  Women  and  Wives. 

In  childhood  must  a  father  guard  his  daughter ; 

In  youth  the  husband  shields  his  wife ;   in  age 

A  mother  is  protected  by  her  sons — 

Ne'er  should  a  woman  lean  upon  herself  (v.  148,  IX.  3). 

A  faithful  wife  who  wishes  to  attain 

The  heaven  of  her  lord,  must  serve  him  here 

As  if  he  were  a  god,  and  ne'er  do  aught 

To  pain  him,  whatsoever  be  his  state, 

And  even  though  devoid  of  every  virtue  (v.  154,  156). 

Be  it  her  duty  to  preserve  with  care 

Her  husband's  substance  ;    let  her  too  be  trusted 

With  its  expenditure,  with  management 

Of  household  property  and  furniture. 

Of  cooking  and  purveying  daily  food. 

Let  her  be  ever  cheerful,  skilled  in  all 

Domestic  work,  and  not  too  free  in  spending  (v.  150). 

Then  only  is  a  man  a  perfect  man 

When  he  is  three — himself,  his  wife,  his  son — 


540    Moral  Precepts  of  Brahmanism  and  Hinduism, 

For  thus  have  learned  men  the  law  declared, 

'  A  husband  is  one  person  with  his  wife '  (ix.  45). 

Fidelity  till  death,  this  is  the  sum 

Of  mutual  duties  for  a  married  pair  (ix.  loi). 

And  if  the  wife  survives,  let  her  remain 

Constant  and  true,  nor  sully  her  fair  fame 

E'en  by  the  utterance  of  another's  name  (v.  157). 

Duties  of  Kings. 

The  Lord  of  all  in  pity  to  our  needs 

Created  kings,  to  rule  and  guard  us  here  ; 

Without  a  king  this  world  would  rock  with  fear  (vil.  3). 

A  king,  e'en  though  a  child,  must  not  be  treated 
As  if  he  were  a  mortal ;    rather  he 
Is  a  divinity  in  human  shape  (vil.  8). 

Dread  of  the  rod  alone  restrains  the  bad, 

Controls  the  good,  and  makes  a  nation  happy  (vil.  15). 

The  king  must  therefore  punish  fearlessly ; 

Else  would  the  strong  oppress  the  weak,  the  bad 

Would  wrong  the  good,  and  pierce  them  as  with  iron  ^  ; 

The  crow  would  eat  the  consecrated  rice, 

The  dog  the  burnt  oblation  ;    ownership 

And  rights  of  property  would  be  subverted  ; 

All  ranks  and  classes  would  become  confused, 

All  barriers  and  bridges  broken  down. 

And  all  the  world  turned  wrong  side  uppermost. 

(vil.  20,  21,  24). 

But  let  the  monarch,  ere  he  wield  his  rod. 

Consider  place  and  time,  the  written  law 

Of  justice,  and  the  measure  of  his  strength   (vil.  16). 

^  The  literal  translation  of  the  text  here  is  '  the  stronger  would  roast 
the  weaker  like  fish  on  a  spit'  {siile  matsydn  ivctpakshyan  dttrbaldn 
balavattarah). 

i 


I 


^        Moj^al  Precepts  of  Brahinanisni  a7id  Hindfiisin.     54 1 

When  Goodness,  wounded  by  Iniquity, 

Comes  to  a  court  of  justice,  and  the  judge 

Extracts  not  tenderly  the  pointed  dart, 

That  very  shaft  shall  pierce  him  to  the  heart  (vill.  12). 

Let  him  with  full  deliberation  weigh 
The  evidence,  the  place,  the  mode,  the  time, 
The  facts,  the  truth,  and  his  own  frame  of  mind, 
Firmly  adhering  to  the  rules  of  law  (vill.  45). 

The  court  must  not  be  entered  by  a  witness, 

Unless  he  speaks  the  truth  without  reserve  ; 

For  equally  does  he  commit  a  crime. 

Who  tells  not  all  the  facts,  or  tells  them  falsely  (vill.  13). 

A  witness  who  gives  evidence  with  truth 
Shall  be  absolved   from  every  sin,  and  gain 
Exalted  glory  here  and  bliss  above  (vill.  81,  83). 

Headlong  in  utter  darkness  shall  the  wretch 

Fall  into  hell,  who  in  a  court  of  justice 

Answers  a  single  question  falsely ;    he 

Shall  be  tormented  through  a  hundred  births  (vill.  82,  94). 

And  all  the  merit  of  his  virtuous  acts 

Shall  be  transferred  to  dogs.     Therefore  be  true, 

Speak  the  whole  truth  without  equivocation  (vill.  90,  loi). 

Let  no  considerate  witness  take  an  oath 

Lightly,  or  in  a  trifling  matter  ;    he 

Who  does  so  shall  incur  eternal  ruin  (vm.  in). 

He  who  by  firmness  gains  the  mastery 

Over  his  words,  his  mind,  and  his  whole  body, 

Is  justly  called  a  triple-governor^  (xil.  10). 

^  His  title  in  Sanskrit  is  Tri-damlin.  It  is  noticeable  that  the  Indian 
ascetic,  who  is  described  by  Arrian  (VII.  2)  as  exciting  the  wonder  of 
Alexander  the  Great  by  his  Kaprepin,  is  named  AcivbapLs,  probably  from 
the  same  root  as  dancia  {da?n,  '  to  subdue,'  in  Intens.).  By  others  he  is 
called  Mandanis  (root  mand?). 


542     Moral  Precepts  of  Brahmanism  mid  Hinduism. 

Exerting  thus  a  threefold  self-command 
Towards  himself  and  every  living  creature, 
Subduing  lust  and  wrath,  he  may  aspire 
To  that  perfection  which  the  good  desire  (xil.  ii). 


Examples  of  Precepts  from  tJie  Epic  Poems. 

To  carry  out  an  enterprise  in  words 
Is  easy;  to  accomplish  it  by  acts 
Is  the  sole  test  of  man's  capacity. 

Ramayana  (ed.  Gorresio)  IV.  Ixvii.  lo. 

Where'er  we  walk,  Death  marches  at  our  side ; 
Where'er  we  sit,  Death  seats  himself  beside  us  ; 
However  far  we  journey,  Death  continues 
Our  fellow-pilgrim  and  goes  with  us  home. 
Men  take  delight  in  each  returning  dawn, 
And  with  admiring  gaze,  behold  the  glow 
Of  sunset.     Every  season,  as  it  comes. 
Fills  them  with  gladness,  yet  they  never  reck 
That  each  recurring  season,  every  day 
Fragment  by  fragment  bears  their  life  away. 
As  drifting  logs  of  wood  may  haply  meet 
On  Ocean's  waters,  surging  to  and  fro, 
And  having  met,  drift  once  again  apart ; 
So  fleeting  is  a  man's  association 
With  wife  and  children^,  relatives  and  wealth, 
So  surely  must  a  time  of  parting  come. 

Ramayana  (ed.  Bombay)  II.  cv.  24-27. 

Wliate'er  the  work  a  man  performs. 
The  most  effective  aid  to  its  completion — 
The  most  prolific  source  of  true  success — 
Is  energy  without  despondency. 

Ramayana  (ed.  Bombay)  v.  xii.  11. 

Time  is  awake  while  mortals  are  asleep, 


Moral  Precepts  of  Brak7nanis7Jt  and  Hinduism.     54 


-1 


None  can  elude  its  grasp  or  curb  its  course, 
It  passes  unrestrained  o'er  all  alike. 

Maha-bharata  I.  243. 

Thou  thinkest :    I  am  single  and  alone — 
Perceiving  not  the  great  eternal  Sage 
Who  dwells  within  thy  breast.     Whatever  wrong 
Is  done  by  thee,  he  sees  and  notes  it  all. 

Maha-bharata  I.  3015. 

Heaven,   Earth,   and   Sea,   Sun,   Moon,   and   Wind,   and 

Fire, 
Day,  Night,  the  Twilights,  and  the  Judge  of  Souls, 
The  god  of  Justice  and  the  Heart  itself. 
All  see  and  note  the  conduct  of  a  man. 

Maha-bharata  I.  3017. 

A  wife  is  half  the  man,  his  truest  friend. 
Source  of  his  virtue,  pleasure,  wealth — the  root 
Whence  springs  the  line  of  his  posterity. 

Maha-bharata  I.  3028. 

An  evil-minded  man  is  quick  to  see 
His  neighbour's  faults,  though  small  as  mustard-seed  ; 
But  when  he  turns  his  eyes  towards  his  own, 
Though  large  as  Bilva  ^  fruit,  he  none  descries. 

Maha-bharata  I.  3069. 

If  Truth  and  thousands  of  Horse-sacrifices 
Were  weighed  together.  Truth  would  weigh  the  most  -. 

Maha-bharata  I.  3095. 

Death  follows  life  by  an  unerring  law  ; 
Why  grieve  for  that  which  is  inevitable  ? 

Maha-bharata  I.  6144. 


^  This  is  the  Aegle  Marmelos  {Bel)  or  Bengal  Quince,  bearing  a  large 
fruit.     It  is  esteemed  sacred  to  Maha-deva.     Compare  St.  Matthew  vii. 

3j  4. 

-  Hitopadesa  IV.  135. 


544     Moral  Pi^ecepts  of  Bralmianism  and  Hinduism, 

Conquer  a  man  who  never  gives  by  gifts  ; 
Subdue  untruthful  men  by  truthfulness  ; 
Vanquish  an  angry  man  by  gentleness  ; 
And  overcome  the  evil  man  by  goodness^. 

Maha-bharata  III.  13253. 

Triple  restraint  of  thought  and  word  and  deed, 

Strict  vow  of  silence,  coil  of  matted  hair, 

Close  shaven  head,  garments  of  skin  or  bark, 

Keeping  of  fasts,  ablutions,  maintenance 

Of  sacrificial  fires,  a  hermit's  life, 

Emaciation — these  are  all  in  vain. 

Unless  the  inward  soul  be  free  from  stain. 

Maha-bharata  III.  13445- 

To  injure  none  by  thought  or  word  or  deed, 
To  give  to  others,  and  be  kind  to  all — 
This  is  the  constant  duty  of  the  good. 
High-minded  men  delight  in  doing  good, 
Without  a  thought  of  their  own  interest ; 
When  they  confer  a  benefit  on  others. 
They  reckon  not  on  favours  in  return  ^. 

Maha-bharata  ill.  16782,  16796, 

Two  persons  will  hereafter  be  exalted 

Above  the  heavens — the  man  with  boundless  power 

Who  yet  forbears  to  use  it  indiscreetly, 

And  he  who  is  not  rich  and  yet  can  give^. 

Maha-bharata  V.  1028. 

Sufficient  wealth,  unbroken  health,  a  friend, 
A  wife  of  gentle  speech,  a  docile  son. 


^  See  Rom.  xii.  21.  Compare  the  Pali  Rajovada  Jataka  (Fausboll's 
Ten  Jatakas,  p.  5),  Akkodhena  jine  kodham,  Asadlmm  sadJnmd  jine, 
Jine  kadariyani  danena,  Sa^dejia  alika-vddinam.  See  also  Dhamma- 
pada  223. 

-  Compare  St.  Luke  vi.  35.  ^  Compare  St.  Mark  xii.  41-44. 


Moral  Precepts  of  Brahmanisni  and  Hinduism.     545 

And  learning  that  subserves  some  useful  end — 
These  are  a  living  man's  six  greatest  blessings. 

Maha-bharata  v.  1057. 

Good  words,  good  deeds,  and  beautiful  expressions 
A  wise  man  ever  culls  from  every  quarter, 
E'en  as  a  gleaner  gathers  ears  of  corn. 

Maha-bharata  V.  1 1 26. 

To  curb  the  tongue  and  moderate  the  speech. 
Is  held  to  be  the  hardest  of  all  tasks  ^. 
The  words  of  him  who  talks  too  volubly 
Have  neither  substance  nor  variety. 

Maha-bharata  V.  11 70. 

Darts,  barbed  arrows,  iron-headed  spears, 
However  deep  they  penetrate  the  flesh, 
May  be  extracted  ;    but  a  cutting  speech, 
That  pierces,  like  a  javelin,  to  the  heart, 
None  can  remove  ;    it  lies  and  rankles  there. 

Maha-bharata  V.  11 73. 

Bear  railing  words  with  patience,  never  meet 
An  angry  man  with  anger,  nor  return 
Reviling  for  reviling,  smite  not  him 
Who  smites  thee ;   let  thy  speech  and  acts  be  gentle. 

Maha-bharata  v.  1270,  9972. 

If  thou  art  wise,  seek  ease  and  happiness 

In  deeds  of  virtue  and  of  usefulness  ; 

And  ever  act  in  such  a  way  by  day 

That  in  the  night  thy  sleep  may  tranquil  be ; 

And  so  comport  thyself  when  thou  art  young, 

That  when  thou  art  grown  old,  thine  age  may  pass 

In  calm  serenity.     So  ply  thy  task 

^  St.  James  iii.  8. 
N  n 


546     Moral  Pixcepts  of  BraJwianism  and  Hmditism. 

Throughout  thy  life,  that  when  thy  days  are  ended, 
Thou  may'st  enjoy  eternal  bliss  hereafter. 

Maha-bharata  V,  1248. 

Reflect  that  health  is  transient,  death  impends, 
Ne'er  in  thy  day  of  youthful  strength  do  aught 
To  grieve  thy  conscience,  lest  when  weakness  comes, 
And  thou  art  on  a  bed  of  sickness  laid, 
Fear  and  remorse  augment  thy  sufferings. 

Maha-bharata  V.  1474. 

Do  naught  to  others  which  if  done  to  thee 
Would  cause  thee  pain  ;    this  is  the  sum  of  duty. 

Maha-bharata  V.  15 17. 

A  king  must  first  subdue  himself,  and  then 
Vanquish  his  enemies.     How  can  a  prince 
Who  cannot  rule  himself,  enthral  his  foes  ? 
To  curb  the  senses,  is  to  conquer  self. 

Maha-bharata  XII.  2599. 

Who  in  this  world  is  able  to  distincruish 
The  virtuous  from  the  wicked,  both  alike 
The  fruitful  earth  supports,  on  both  alike 
The  sun  pours  down  his  beams,  on  both  alike 
Refreshing  breezes  blow,  and  both  alike 
The  waters  purify  ?     Not  so  hereafter — 
Then  shall  the  good  be  severed  from  the  bad  ; 
Then  in  a  region  bright  with  golden  lustre — 
Centre  of  light  and  immortality — 
The  righteous  after  death  shall  dwell  in  bliss  ^. 
Then  a  terrific  hell  awaits  the  wicked — 
Profound  abyss  of  utter  misery — 
Into  the  depths  of  which  bad  men  shall  fall 
Headlong,  and  mourn  their  doom  for  countless  years. 

Maha-bharata  Xll.  2798. 

^  Compare  St.  Matthew  xiii.  43,  xxv.  46. 


Moral  Precepts  of  Bralnnanisvi  and  Hindrtisin.     547 

Enjoy  thou  the  prosperity  of  others, 
Although  thyself  unprosperous  ;    noble  men 
Take  pleasure  in  their  neighbour's  happiness. 

Maha-bharata  XII.  3880. 

Even  to  foes  who  visit  us  as  guests 
Due  hospitality  should  be  displayed  ; 
The  tree  screens  with  its  leaves,  the  man  who  fells  it  ^ 

Maha-bharata  XII.  5528. 

What  need  has  he  who  subjugates  himself 
To  live  secluded  in  a  hermit's  cell  ? 
Where'er  resides  the  self-subduing  sage, 
That  place  to  him  is  like  a  hermitage. 

Maha-bharata  XII.  5961. 

Let  none  reject  the  meanest  suppliant 
Or  send  him  empty-handed  from  his  door. 
A  gift  bestowed  on  outcasts  or  on  dogs 
Is  never  thrown  away  or  unrequited. 

Maha-bharata  XITI.  3212. 

Time  passes,  and  the  man  who  older  grows 
Finds  hair  and  teeth  and  eyes  grow  ever  older. 
One  thing  alone  within  him  ne'er  grows  old — 
The  thirst  for  riches  and  the  love  of  gold. 

Maha-bharata  XIII.  3676,  368^. 

This  is  the  sum  of  all  true  righteousness — 
Treat  others,  as  thou  would'st  thyself  be  treated. 
Do  nothing  to  thy  neighbour,  which  hereafter 
Thou  would'st  not  have  thy  neighbour  do  to  thee. 
In  causing  pleasure,  or  in  giving  pain, 
In  doing  good,  or  injury  to  others. 


^  This  verse  occurs  in  Hitopadesa  I.  60.  Cf.  Rom.  xii.  20.  Professor 
H.  H.Wilson  was  induced  to  commence  the  study  of  Sanskrit  by  reading 
somewhere  that  this  sentiment  was  to  be  met  with  in  Sanskrit  Uterature. 

N  n  2 


548    Moral  Precepts  of  Brahmanism  and  Hindttism. 

In  granting,  or  refusing  a  request, 

A  man  obtains  a  proper  rule  of  action 

By  looking  on  his  neighbour  as  himself^. 

Maha-bharata  XIII.  5571. 

Before  infirmities  creep  o'er  thy  flesh  ; 
Before  decay  impairs  thy  strength  and  mars 
The  beauty  of  thy  limbs  ;    before  the  Ender, 
Whose  charioteer  is  sickness,  hastes  towards  thee, 
Breaks  up  thy  fragile  frame  and  ends  thy  life^, 
Lay  up  the  only  treasure  ;    do  good  deeds  ; 
Practise  sobriety  and  self-control ; 
Amass  that  wealth  which  thieves  cannot  abstract. 
Nor  tyrants  seize,  which  follows  thee  at  death, 
Which  never  wastes  away,  nor  is  corrupted  ^. 

Maha-bharata  xill.  12084. 

Heaven's  gate  is  very  narrow  and  minute  ^, 
It  cannot  be  perceived  by  foolish  men, 
Blinded  by  vain  illusions  of  the  world. 
E'en  the  clear-sighted  who  discern  the  way, 
And  seek  to  enter,  find  the  portal  barred 
And  hard  to  be  unlocked.     Its  massive  bolts 
Are  pride  and  passion,  avarice  and  lust. 

Maha-bharata  XIV.  2784. 

Just  heaven  is  not  so  pleased  with  costly  gifts. 

Offered  in  hope  of  future  recompense, 

As  with  the  merest  trifle  set  apart 

From  honest  gains,  and  sanctified  by  faith  ^ 

Maha-bharata  xiv.  2788. 


^  Compare  St.  Matthew  xxii.  39,  St.  Luke  vi.  31. 

^  Compare  Eccles.  xii.  i. 

^  Compare  St.  Matthew  vi.  19,  Prov.  xxiii.  4,  5. 

^  Compare  St.  Matthew  vii.  14. 

^Compare  St.  Matthew  vi.  1-4,  St.  Mark  xii.  43,  44. 


Aforal  Precepts  of  Bi^aJwianism  and  Hinduisin.     549 

Examples  of  Precepts  from  Bhartri-Jiari. 

Blinded  by  self-conceit  and  knowing  nothing, 

Like  elephant  infatuate  with  passion, 

I  thought  within  myself,  I  all  things  knew ; 

But  when  by  slow  degrees  I  somewhat  learnt, 

By  aid  of  wise  preceptors,  my  conceit, 

Like  some  disease,  passed  off;    and  now  I  live 

In  the  plain  sense  of  what  a  fool  I  am  (ll.  8). 

The  attribute  most  noble  of  the  hand 
Is  readiness  in  giving  ;    of  the  head, 
Bending  before  a  teacher ;    of  the  mouth, 
Veracious  speaking  ;    of  a  victor's  arms, 
Undaunted  valour  ;   of  the  inner  heart, 
Pureness  the  most  unsullied ;   of  the  ears. 
Delight  in  hearing  and  receiving  truth — 
These  are  adornments  of  high-minded  men 
Better  than  all  the  majesty  of  Empire  (ll.  ^^. 

Now  for  a  little  while  a  child,  and  now 

An  amorous  youth  ;    then  for  a  season  turned 

Into  the  wealthy  householder  ;    then  stripped 

Of  all  his  riches,  with  decrepit  limbs 

And  wrinkled  frame,  man  creeps  towards  the  end 

Of  life's  erratic  course  ;    and,  like  an  actor, 

Passes  behind  Death's  curtain  out  of  view^  (iTI.  51). 

Examples  from  the  KirdtdrjimJya  of  BJidravi. 

Those  who  wish  well  towards  their  friends  disdain 
To  please  them  by  fair  words  which  are  not  true  (l.  2). 

Better  to  have  a  great  man  for  one's  foe 
Than  court  association  with  the  low  (l.  8). 

^  The  parallel  in  Shakespeare  need  scarcely  be  suggested. 


550     Moral  Precepts  of  Brahmanisvi  ajid  Hindiiisni. 

In  matters  difficult  and  dark,  concealed 
By  doubt  and  disagreement  of  opinion, 
The  Veda,  handed  down  by  holy  men. 
Explained  with  clearness,  and  well  put  in  practice, 
Like  a  bright  lamp  throws  light  upon  the  way, 
Guiding  the  prudent  lest  they  go  astray  (ll.  33). 

Would'st  thou  be  eminent,  all  passion  shun. 
Drive  wrath  away  by  wisdom ;    e'en  the  sun 
Ascends  not  to  display  his  fullest  light 
Till  he  has  chased  away  the  mists  of  night  (ll.  '>fi\ 

The  noble-minded  dedicate  themselves 

To  the  promotion  of  the  happiness 

Of  others — e'en  of  those  who  injure  them. 

True  happiness  consists  in  making  happy  (vil.  13,  28). 

Let  not  a  little  fault  in  him  who  does 

An  act  of  kindness,  minish  aught  its  value  (vil.  15). 

Youth's  glories  are  as  transient  as  the  shadow 

Of  an  autumnal  cloud ;    and  sensual  joys. 

Though  pleasant  at  the  moment,  end  in  pain  (xi.  12). 

Riches  and  pleasure  are  the  root  of  evil; 
Hold  them  not  dear,  encourage  not  their  growth  ; 
They  are  aggressors  hard  to  be  subdued, 
Destroyers  of  all  knowledge  and  of  truth  (xi.  20). 

The  enemies  which  rise  within  the  body, 
Hard  to  be  overcome — thy  evil  passions — 
Should  manfully  be  fought  ;    who  conquers  these 
Is  equal  to  the  conqueror  of  worlds  (xi.  32). 

The  friendship  of  the  bad  is  like  the  shade 
Of  some  precipitous  bank  with  crumbling  sides, 
Which  falling  buries  him  who  sits  beneath  (xi.  ^^. 

The  natural  hostility  of  beasts 

Is  laid  aside  when  flying  from  pursuers  ; 


Mo7^al  Precepts  of  Brahmanisin  and  Hindfiism,     55 

So  also  when  calamities  impend 

The  enmity  of  rivals  has  an  end  (XII.  46). 


Examples  of  Precepts  from  the  Sisupala-badha  of  MdgJia. 

He  who  by  virtue  of  his  rank,  his  actions, 
And  qualities,  effects  no  useful  purpose, 
Is  like  a  chance-invented  word  ;   his  birth 
Is  useless,  for  he  merely  bears  a  name  (47). 

A  man  of  feeble  character  resembles 

A  reed  that  bends  with  every  gust  of  wind  (50). 

Two  only  sources  of  success  are  known — 
Wisdom  and  effort ;    make  them  both  thine  own 
If  thou  would'st  rise  and  haply  gain  a  throne  (76). 

Science  is  like  a  couch  to  sapient  men  ; 
Reclining  there,  they  never  feel  fatigue  (77). 

A  monarch's  weapon  is  his  intellect ; 

His  minister  and  servants  are  his  limbs  ; 

Close  secresy  of  counsel  is  his  armour ; 

Spies  are  his  eyes ;   ambassadors,  his  mouth  (82). 

That  energy  which  veils  itself  in  mildness 

Is  most  effective  of  its  object ;    so 

The  lamp  that  burns  most  brightly  owes  its  force 

To  oil  drawn  upwards  by  a  hidden  wick  (85). 

Wise  men  rest  not  on  destiny  alone, 

Nor  yet  on  manly  effort,  but  on  both  (86). 

Weak  persons  gain  their  object  when  allied 
With  strong  associates ;    the  rivulet 
Reaches  the  ocean  by  the  river's  aid  (100). 

A  good  man's  intellect  is  piercing,  yet 
Inflicts  no  wound  ;    his  actions  are  deliberate, 
Yet  bold  ;    his  heart  is  warm,  but  never  burns  ; 
His  speech  is  eloquent,  yet  ever  true  (109). 


552    Moral  Precepts  of  Brahmanism  and  Hindinsm. 

Examples  of  Precepts  from  the  Pahca-tantra. 

Praise  not  the  goodness  of  the  grateful  man 
Who  acts  with  kindness  to  his  benefactors. 
He  who  does  good  to  those  who  do  him  wrong 
Alone  deserves  the  epithet  of  good  (l.  277). 

Hear  thou  a  summary  of  righteousness, 

And  ponder  well  the  maxim  :    Never  do 

To  other  persons  what  would  pain  thyself  (ill.  104). 

The  little-minded  ask :    Belongs  this  man 
To  our  own  family  ?     The  noble-hearted 
Regard  the  human  race  as  all  akin  (v.  38). 

Examples  of  Preeepts  from  the  Hitopadesa  or  book  of 

''friendly  adviee.' 

A  man  of  truest  wisdom  will  resign 

His  wealth,  and  e'en  his  life,  for  good  of  others  ; 

Better  abandon  life  in  a  good  cause. 

When  death  in  any  case  is  sure  to  happen  (l.  45). 

He  has  all  wealth  who  has  a  mind  contented. 

To  one  whose  foot  is  covered  with  a  shoe 

The  earth  appears  all  carpeted  with  leather  (l.  152). 

Strive  not  too  anxiously  for  a  subsistence. 

Thy  Maker  will  provide  thee  sustenance  ; 

No  sooner  is  a  human  being  born 

Than  milk  for  his  support  streams  from  the  breast 

(I.  190). 

He  by  whose  hand  the  swans  were  painted  white, 
And  parrots  green,  and  peacocks  many-hued. 
Will  make  provision  for  thy  maintenance  ^  (l.  191). 

^  Compare  St.  Matthew  vi.  26. 


Moral  Precepts  of  Bi^ahmanisin  and  Hindiiisin.     553 

How  can  true  happiness  proceed  from  wealth, 

Which  in  its  acquisition  causes  pain ; 

In  loss,  affliction;    in  abundance,  folly  (l.  192)? 

Whoever,  quitting  certainties,  pursues 

Uncertain  things,  may  lose  his  certainties  (l.  227). 

By  drops  of  water  falling  one  by  one. 

Little  by  little,  may  a  jar  be  filled  ; 

Such  is  the  law  of  all  accumulations 

Of  money,  knowledge,  and  religious  merit  (ll.  jo). 

That  man  is  sapient  who  knows  how  to  suit 

His  words  to  each  occasion,  his  kind  acts 

To  each  man's  worth,  his  anger  to  his  power  (ll.  48). 

If  glass  be  used  to  decorate  a  crown, 

While  gems  are  taken  to  bedeck  a  foot, 

'Tis  not  that  any  fault  lies  in  the  gem. 

But  in  the  want  of  knowledge  of  the  setter  ^  (ll.  72). 

A  man  may  on  affliction's  touchstone  learn 

The  worth  of  his  own  kindred,  wife,  and  servants  ; 

Also  of  his  own  mind  and  character  (ll.  79). 

A  feverish  display  of  over-zeal 

At  the  first  outset,  is  an  obstacle 

To  all  success  ;   water,  however  cold, 

Will  penetrate  the  ground  by  slow  degrees  (ill.  48). 

E'en  as  a  traveller,  meeting  with  the  shade 

Of  some  o'erhanging  tree,  awhile  reposes, 

Then  leaves  its  shelter  to  pursue  his  way, 

So  men  meet  friends,  then  part  with  them  for  ever. 

^  '  Is  such  a  thing  as  an  emerald  made  worse  than  it  was,  if  it  is  not 
praised? '  Marcus  Aurehus.     Farrar's  '  Seekers  after  God,'  p.  306. 


554    Moral  Precepts  of  Bralnnanism  and  Hmduism. 

Thou  art  thyself  a  stream  whose  sacred  ford 
Is  self-restraint,  whose  water  is  veracity, 
Whose  bank  is  virtue,  and  whose  waves  are  love  ; 
Here  practise  thy  ablutions  ;    by  mere  water 
The  inner  man  can  ne'er  be  purified  (iv.  90). 

It  must  not,  of  course,  be  inferred  from  a  perusal  of  the 
above  selection  of  examples  that  all  the  moral  precepts  of 
the  Hindus  are  all  equally  unexceptionable.  It  would  be 
easy  to  give  specimens  of  a  very  different  character,  and  I 
here  subjoin  a  prose  translation  of  two  verses  of  a  less  favour- 
able type  from  the  code  of  Manu. 

^  In  certain  cases  a  man  stating  a  case  falsely  from  a  pious 
motive,  even  though  he  knows  the  truths  is  not  excluded  from 
heaven  ;  such  a  statement  they  call  divine  speech. 

'Whenever  the  death  of  a  Brahman,  Kshatriya,  Vaisya  or 
Sudra  may  result  from  speaking  the  truth,  then  an  untruth 
may  be  told  ;  for  falsehood  in  this  case  is  preferable  to  truth 
(viii.  103,  104.     Compare  p.  o^ofi^  note  i,  of  this  volume).' 

I  could  easily  multiply  examples  of  a  far  more  objectionable 
character.  Nay,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  declare  my  conviction 
that  the  gems  of  truth,  which  I  have  carefully  and  with  much 
trouble  unearthed  from  the  sacred  literature  of  the  Hindus 
and  exhibited  in  the  foregoing  pages,  are  generally  so  buried 
under  a  superincumbent  mass  of  erroneous  teaching  or  so  set 
in  a  false  framework  of  fable  and  fiction,  as  to  be  practically 
of  little  or  no  value  as  rules  of  life,  or  as  guides  to  the  per- 
formance of  a  man's  duty  towards  God,  his  neighbour,  and 
himself 


CHAPTER     XXII. 

Supplementary  \ 

The  Worship  of  Brahma  at  Piishkara,  with  some 
Account  of  the  Sara-say  yet  or  '  Arrozuy -bed'  form  of 
self  mortification  (tapasya) . 

We  have  seen  that  Brahmanism  has  no  Creator  in  our 
sense.  The  personal  god  Brahma  (mascuHne)  who  is  called 
'  the  Creator,'  is  himself  evolved  out  of  the  one  impersonal 
self-existent  Being,  Brahma  (neuter).  The  personal  Brahma 
then  becomes  the  Evolver  of  the  Universe,  while  Vishnu  is 
associated  with  him  as  its  Maintainer,  and  Siva  as  its  Dis- 
solver.  These  three  gods  constitute  the  well-known  Hindu 
Triad  (Tri-murti,  pp.  44,  45).  How  then  has  the  worship  of 
the  first  fallen  into  comparative  desuetude  ? 

According  to  the  Abbe  Dubois  in  his  interesting  work  on 
the  religions  of  India  (English  translation,  p.  430)  a  legend  is 
current  that  the  god  Brahma  indulged  an  incestuous  passion 
for  Sarasvati,  who,  being  really  his  daughter,  afterw^ards 
became  his  wife.  He  states  that  the  god's  supposed  violation 
of  the  most  sacred  laws  of  nature  is  the  true  cause  of  his 
being  without  any  temples  and  ceremonies  in  India.  Else- 
W'here  he  relates  another  legend  that  the  absence  of  temples 
dedicated  to  Brahma  arose  from  a  curse  pronounced  upon 
him  by  a  holy  man,  whom  he  had  treated  with  irreverence. 
To  say,  however,  that  Brahma  is  wholly  without  temples  is, 
as   I   shall   show,  inaccurate.     Rodriguez    in    his  exhaustive 

^  Supplementary  notes  collected  during  my  Indian  travels  in  1884. 


556         Neglect  of  the    Worship  of  Brahma. 

'  Hindu  Pantheon'  (published  at  Madras  in  1841)  affirms  that 
Brahma  is  never  adopted  by  any  Hindu  as  his  guardian  deity, 
and,  like  Dubois,  repeats  the  legend  of  Brahma's  unnatural 
passion  for  his  daughter;  assigning  the  neglect  of  the  god's 
worship  to  this  cause.  Furthermore  he  adds  a  legend  from 
the  Skanda-purana,  in  which  it  is  declared  that  Brahma  once 
had  five  heads,  but  that  one  was  cut  off  by  the  god  Siva 
inflamed  with  anger  because  Brahma  boasted  that  he  was  the 
greater  god  of  the  two.  Others  again  explain  the  neglect  of 
Brahma's  worship  by  asserting  that  his  only  office  is  to  create, 
and  that  having  once  created  men  and  endowed  them  with 
life  he  has  no  further  benefit  to  confer  upon  them,  while  men, 
on  the  other  hand;  have  nothing  to  gain  by  propitiating  him. 
Probably  the  origin  of  these  fanciful  notions  is  to  be  traced  to 
some  of  the  Puranas,  or  possibly  to  the  Upapuranas  and 
Tantras ;  but  it  seems  scarcely  worth  while  to  ransack  these 
immense  repositories  of  myths  in  the  hope  of  discovering  the 
source  of  a  few  grotesque  legends  ;  and  the  less  so  as  I  hold  that 
the  true  reason  for  the  rarity  of  Brahma's  temples  is  to  be 
sought  for  in  the  fact  that,  according  to  orthodox  Brahmanism, 
the  functions  of  Brahma,  Vishnu  and  Siva  are  interchangeable, 
and  that  both  Vishnu  and  Siva  may  be  identified  with 
Brahma,  or  be  worshipped  as  Brahma.  This  has  been  already 
pointed  out  (p.  45),  and  the  remarkable  verse  in  Kalidasa's 
Kumara-sambhava  which  expresses  the  doctrine,  may  be 
repeated  here  : — 


J 


In  those  three  Persons  the  one  God  was  shown 
Each  first  in  place,  each  last — not  one  alone ; 
Of  Siva,  Vishnu,  Brahma,  each  may  be 
First,  second,  third  among  the  blessed  Thread 


Others  declare  that  Brahma's  inferiority  is  indicated  by  the 
legend  which  makes  him  spring  from  Vishnu's  navel  (see  p.  (yd). 

^  Translated  by  Griffith.     The  Sanskrit  words  are  as  follow  : — 
'  Ekaiva  murtir  bibhide  tridha  sa  samanyam  esham  prathamavaratvam 
Vishnor  Haras  tasya  Harih  kadacid  Vedhas  tayos  tavapi  Dhatur  adyau.' 


Neglect  of  the    Worship  of  Brahma.         557 

It  is  certainly  incorrect  to  compare  (as  some  have  done) 
the  Hindu  doctrine  of  a  Triad  with  the  Christian  dogma  of  a 
Unity  in  Trinity  and  a  Trinity  in  Unity.  For  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  Brahma,  Vishnu  and  Siva  are  all  three  held 
to  be  subordinate  deities,  and  that  all  three  have  celestial  bodies 
(antecedent  to  their  earthly  incarnations),  and  that  all  three 
are  believed  to  be  corporeal  manifestations  of  the  one  sole 
self-existent,  bodiless,  impersonal  Essence  of  the  Universe,  and 
destined  to  be  reabsorbed  into  that  Essence.  Their  coequality 
and  interaction  as  personal  manifestations  of  the  one  Self- 
existent  God  is  nobly  symbolized  in  the  caves  of  Elephanta 
at  Bombay,  where  may  be  seen  sculptured  out  of  the  rock, 
three  majestic  heads  springing  out  of  one  body.  Such  repre- 
sentations, however^  are  rare  in  other  parts  of  India,  and  the 
intelligent  traveller  who  judges  of  the  HindQ  religion  by  what 
meets  the  eye  finds  that  he  may  generally  regard  the  apparent 
medley  of  Indian  divinities  as  forms  of  the  two  chief  gods 
Vishnu  and  Siva  with  their  wives.  He  would  see  little  or  no 
evidence  of  any  worship  paid  to  the  male  god  Brahma. 

Indeed,  so  far  as  I  was  able  to  ascertain  I  could  only  hear 
of  two  temples  dedicated  directly  and  primarily  to  Brahma, 
amid  the  vast  number  which  may  be  observed  dedicated 
to  forms  of  Vishnu,  Siva,  or  to  their  wives  or  offspring.  And 
this  is  the  more  remarkable  as  certain  localities  are  held 
to  be  consecrated  through  a  sacrifice  supposed  to  have  been 
performed  by  Brahma  in  the  neighbourhood  ^.  Moreover 
among  the  various  idols  and  symbols  scattered  throughout 
India,  those  of  Vishnu  and  Siva  are  by  far  the  most  abundant 
and  often  imply  that  these  gods  are  worshipped  as  Brahma, 
or  are  identified  with  him  in  his  character  of  Evolver  of  the 
Universe  ^,  whereas  the  image  of  Brahma  with  his  four  faces 

^  The  remarkable  myth  of  Brahma  offering  himself  up  as  a  victim  in 
the  form  of  Purusha  rests  on  a  hymn  of  the  Rig-veda  (X.  90). 

^  Images  of  Vishnu  with  Brahma  in  the  act  of  being  evolved  out  of  his 
navel  are  common  enough,  and,  as  I  have  stated  further  on,  the  Liiiga 
with  four  faces  carved  round  it  is  by  no  means  uncommon. 


558       The    Worship  of  Brahma  at  Pushkara. 

looking  in  all  directions  ^,  though  carved  and  sold  by 
image-vendors,  and  even  found  in  houses  or  in  the  precincts 
of  Saiva  and  Vaishnava  temples,  do  not  imply  that  he  combines 
in  his  own  person  all  the  functions  of  the  Triad. 

Of  course  the  substitution  of  a  kind  of  ditheism  for  tritheistic 
ideas  is  quite  in  harmony  with  the  dualism  which  I  have  already 
described  as  an  essential  element  in  Hindu  philosophy. 

It  is  exactly  what  every  student  of  the  Sankhya  and  Vedanta 
aphorisms  would  be  led  to  expect  (p.  o^"^).  But  the  general 
falling  off  in  the  direct  worship  of  Brahma  is  nevertheless  a 
point  of  great  interest  in  the  development  of  Indian  religious 
thought,  and  I  therefore  determined,  when  last  travelling  in 
India,  to  make  a  detour  with  the  object  of  accomplishing  a 
journey  to  Pushkara  (Pokhar),  where  the  most  celebrated  of 
the  two  temples  of  Brahma  now  stands. 

Pushkara,  I  should  state  at  the  outset,  is  one  of  the  most 
sacred  Tirthas  in  all  India.  It  is  said  that  Brahma  having 
once  performed  a  particular  sacrifice  (yajiia)  there,  the  waters 
of  the  small  lake  near  the  present  town  were  thereby  so 
sanctified  that  they  ever  afterwards  became  a  potent  specific 
for  the  removal  of  every  kind  of  guilt.  The  greatest  sinner 
has  only  to  bathe  in  them  to  be  at  once  purified  and  rendered 
fit  for  admission  to  Brahma  s  heaven  (Brahma-loka)  ^. 

In  the  Tirtha-yatra-parva  of  the  Maha-bharata  (Vana-parva, 
sec.  82)  the  precedence  over  all  other  places  of  pilgrimage  is 
given  to  Pushkara: — 'Any  one  who  sojourns  there,'  so  it 
affirms,  '  becomes  equal  to  the  God  of  gods  (deva-devasya).  It 
was  there  that  the  gods,  Daityas  and  Brahmarshis,  having  per- 
formed self-mortifying  austerities  (tapas  taptva)  accumulated 


^  And,  as  some  say,  symbolizing  the  four  Vedas.  In  Kumara-sambhava 
(II.  3)  Brahma  is  called  Vag-Isa,  'The  lord  of  speech  or  of  word  ;  '  but 
his  epithet  is  Sarvato-mukha,  '  looking  in  all  directions.' 

^  I  need  not  repeat  here  that  Brahma,  Vishnu  and  Siva  each  has  his 
own  special  heaven  (see  pp.  54,  291).  The  Krishna  form  of  Vishnu  also 
has  a  heaven  of  his  own. 


The    Woj'ship  of  Brahvui  at  Pushkara.      559 

vast  merit  and  attained  to  the  rank  of  deities.  Men  of  self-con- 
trol are  cleansed  from  their  sins  by  ever  thinking  of  Pushkara. 
The  great  Brahma  (pitamahah),  who  has  the  lotus  for  his  seat 
(Kamalasanah),  dwelt  with  great  delight  at  this  Tlrtha.'  No 
wonder,  then,  that  the  little  lake  is  lined  with  bathing  Ghats, 
and  according  to  Sir  W.  W.  Hunter's  '  Imperial  Gazetteer,' 
surrounded  with  houses  belonging  to  most  of  the  Rajput 
princes.  It  is  stated  that  no  living  thing  is  allowed  to  be  put 
to  death  within  the  precincts  of  the  town,  though  how  this 
rule  can  be  enforced  seems  difficult  to  understand,  considering 
that,  at  the  great  fair  held  there  in  October  and  November, 
at  least  100,000  pilgrims  throng  the  neighbourhood. 

It  was  with  the  assistance  of  Mr.  L.  Saunders,  whose  guest 
I  was  when  he  was  collector  at  Ajmere  in  Rajputana,  that  I 
made  an  expedition  from  Ajmere  to  Pushkara  (popularly 
called  Pokhar),  on  February  22,  1884.  The  distance  was  only 
about  seven  m.iles  from  Mr.  Saunders'  house,  and  he  arranged 
that  I  should  be  accompanied  by  an  intelligent,  well-educated 
Brahman  Pandit  who  knew  the  country  thoroughly,  and 
would  be  able  to  point  out  every  object  which  was  likely  to 
interest  me. 

The  road,  like  most  of  the  roads  made  by  Anglo-Indian 
engineers,  seemed  to  me  admirably  constructed,  and  as 
pleasant  to  travel  on  as  the  best  macadamized  road  in 
England.  Soon  after  leaving  the  town  of  Ajmere  it  passes 
through  a  deep  cutting  in  the  hills,  and  then  emerges  on 
rather  a  wild  country.  I  noticed  here  and  there  in  the 
adjoining  fields  traps  for  catching  tigers,  leopards,  and  other 
less  formidable  beasts  of  prey,  while  occasional  rude  paint- 
ings, images,  and  shrines  by  the  road-side  warned  us  to  be  on 
our  guard  against  prowling  demons,  especially  those  most 
spiteful  of  all  evil  spirits — the  spirits  of  recently  deceased 
human  beings  who,  through  some  failure  in  the  due  per- 
formance of  their  funeral  rites,  were  believed  to  rove  about 
and  haunt  the   neighbourhood.     It  was  hinted  to  me  that 


560  '  Arroivy -bed'  form  of  self-torture, 

some  of  these  malignant  and  unrestful  spirits  were  in  the  habit 
of  making  themselves  troublesome  to  any  travellers  or  passers 
by  who  might  neglect  to  propitiate  them  by  offerings. 

When  we  had  accomplished  about  half  of  our  journey  and 
were  approaching  Pushkara  we  came  upon  a  very  interesting 
anthropological  curiosity.  This  was  a  Vairag!  or  Vaishnava 
ascetic,  whose  appearance  would  certainly  have  shocked  any 
one  fresh  from  London  Society  and  inclined  to  be  a  stickler 
for  the  proprieties  of  life.  His  demeanour  seemed  to  be  that  of 
a  human  being,  who,  though  just  alive  himself,  seemed  to  be 
supremely  indifferent  to  the  existence  of  everything  else  in 
creation,  including  demons  and  beasts  of  prey.  He  had,  how- 
ever, erected  for  his  own  protection  close  to  the  road  a  rough 
covering  consisting  of  a  mat  supported  on  four  poles,  open  to 
all  the  winds  of  heaven.  Like  other  ascetics  of  his  type  still 
to  be  seen  in  India,  he  was  not  altogether  an  inviting  object 
to  be  looked  upon  by  any  one  at  all  fastidious  in  regard  to  the 
realities  of  human  anatomy,  for  he  was  absolutely  nude  with 
the  exception  of  the  smallest  conceivable  patch  of  cloth,  three 
or  four  inches  square.  Nor  was  he  a  very  promising  object 
of  investigation  to  any  one,  who,  like  myself,  was  bent  on 
extracting  information  from  every  possible  source ;  for  he  was 
under  a  vow  of  silence  (mauna-vrata)  which  was  supposed  to 
be  inviolable  for  at  least  six  years.  Yet,  for  all  that,  he  made 
a  kind  of  mumbling  sound  through  his  closed  lips,  and  tried 
to  make  himself  intelligible  to  us  by  signs,  when,  descending 
from  our  vehicle,  we  approached  his  hermitage  to  examine  his 
condition  and  surroundings  more  closely. 

An  inscription  written  in  rude  characters  indicated  his 
name — Khaki  Jhana-das.  Round  his  neck  was  a  rosary 
(japa-mala)  consisting  of  eighteen  large  rough  TulasI  beads 
(see  p.  67).  He  was  seated  in  the  usual  way  on  the  ground, 
but  close  to  him  on  his  right  hand  was  his  only  bed — an  iron 
framework  resting  on  four  short  legs,  and  unprovided  with 
mattress  or  coverlet,  but  studded  instead  with  rows  of  iron 


'  A  rrowy-bed '  form  of  self-torture.  561 

spikes,  somewhat  blunted  at  the  points,  while  at  the  pillow- 
end  there  was  a  spiky  head-rest.  This  remarkable  couch  was 
called  by  my  Brahman  companion  the  devotee's  Kantaka- 
sayya,  '  bed  of  thorns,'  though  I  noticed  that  it  had  an  in- 
scription in  Sanskrit  letters  designating  it  as  '  a  bed  of  arrows  ' 
(Bana-sayya).  This  convinced  me  that  it  was  intended  to 
represent  Bhishma's  Sara-sayya  or  '  arrowy  bed '  described  in 
the  Maha-bharata  (Bhishma-parva  and  Anusasana-parva  7732), 
and,  on  my  mentioning  this  to  my  companion,  the  Vairagi 
gave  a  grunt  of  assent  and  approval,  evidently  pleased  with 
my  acquaintance  with  the  story  of  Bhishma. 

I  should  observe  that,  resting  on  the  spiky  bed,  was  a 
wooden  stand  on  which  were  deposited  (i)  the  black  stone 
(Sala-grama)  of  Vishnu,  (2)  the  white  stone  (Bana-liiiga)  of 
Siva,  and  (3)  the  red  stone  of  Ganesa  (see  pp.  69,  70,  412). 
I  noticed  no  symbol  of  the  divine  mother  (generally  identified 
with  Siva's  consort)  nor  of  the  Sun,  which,  together  with  the 
three  just  named,  usually  represent  a  Pentarchy  of  divinities 
worshipped  at  the  Pancayatana  ceremony  (see  pp.  410-416). 

It  was  a  great  satisfaction  to  me  that  I  had  at  length  met 
with  a  genuine  example  of  the  spiky-bed  form  of  self- 
mortification  (tapas) ;  for  during  my  numerous  travels  in 
different  parts  of  India  I  had  hitherto  sought  for  one  in  vain, 
and  had  begun  to  doubt  the  truth  of  the  story  told  in  a 
paper  read  before  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal  in  1792 
(see  the  fifth  volume  of  the  Asiatic  Researches),  relative  to 
a  Brahman  ascetic  at  Benares,  who  is  depicted  as  actually 
lying  naked  day  and  night  on  one  of  these  spiky  couches 
which  he  is  described  as  having  used  for  thirty-five  years. 
That  man's  name  was  Parama  SvatantrT  Prakasananda.  He 
had  travelled  much  as  a  devotee  through  many  countries, 
and  part  of  his  process  of  self-mortification^  during  winter, 
consisted  in  placing  himself  beneath  a  perforated  pot  full 
of  water  which  fell  drop  by  drop  on  his  head,  and,  during 
summer,  in  reclining  between  four  blazing  fires  with  the  rays 

O  o 


562  '  Arrowy -bed'  form  of  self-torture, 

of  the  burning  sun  beating  down  upon  him  from  above. 
Questioned  as  to  his  reason  for  punishing  himself  by  such 
severe  forms  of  self-torture  (tapasya),  he  repudiated  the  idea 
of  resorting  to  what  we  call  '  penance '  as  an  atonement  for 
the  commission  of  sin  or  of  any  special  crime.  The  simple 
reason  he  gave  was  that  since  a  celebrated  Rishi  or  holy 
man  named  Agni-varna  had  undergone  the  spiky-bed  form 
of  austerity  in  the  Satya-yuga  or  first  age  of  the  world,  and 
since  the  demon  Ravana  had  done  the  same  for  ten  thousand 
years  in  the  Treta  or  second  age  of  the  world,  and  since 
Bhlshma  had  done  the  same  in  the  Dvapara  or  third  age, 
it  had  been  assigned  to  him  as  a  peculiar  privilege  to  go 
through  similar  austerities  in  the  present  age  of  the  world. 
Of  course,  as  we  have  already  shown  (see  pp.  72,  87),  the 
efficacy  of  bodily  mortification  is  an  essential  element  in  the 
Hindu  creed,  and  the  ostensible  motive  of  all  self-torture  is 
either  to  accumulate  merit,  or  to  acquire  supernatural  power, 
or  to  achieve  complete  absorption  of  individual  personality 
in  the  one  eternal  Essence  of  the  Universe. 

The  story  of  Bhishma's  arrowy  couch  is  one  of  those  ex- 
travagant figments,  occurring  here  and  there  in  Indian  sacred 
literature, which  has  hitherto  been  passed  over  or  little  noticed 
by  European  writers  on  Hinduism.  Nor  indeed  is  it  easy  to 
disentangle  this  remarkable  episode  of  the  Maha-bharata  from 
the  tedious  succession  of  legendary  stories  with  which  it  is 
interwoven  ;  although  it  constitutes  an  important  link  in  the 
continuity  of  the  leading  narrative.  It  will  be  sufficient  to 
note  here  that  the  Bhlshma-parva  of  that  immense  Epic  poem 
relates  how  the  two  armies  of  the  Pandavas  and  Kauravas 
met  on  Kuru-kshetra — a  vast  plain  north-west  of  Delhi ;  the 
Kauravas  (or  Kurus)  being  commanded  by  Bhishma.  Long 
tedious  descriptions  of  the  battles  which  ensued  are  closed 
wdth  an  account  of  the  terrific  duel  between  Bhlshma  and 
Arjuna — the  bravest  of  the  Pandavas.  In  the  end  Arjuna 
transfixed   Bhishma  with   innumerable  arrows,  so  that  there 


BhisJnnas  Arrowy  Bed,  56 


-> 


was  not  a  space  of  two  fingers'  breadth  left  unpierced  on  the 
surface  of  his  body.  Then  BhTshma  fell  from  his  chariot,  but 
the  countless  arrows  which  had  penetrated  his  frame  pre- 
vented it  from  touching  the  ground,  so  that  instead  of  lying 
prostrate  it  remained  suspended,  and,  as  it  were,  reclining  on 
an  arrowy  couch  (sara-talpe  sayana).  In  that  condition  the 
old  warrior  continued  alive  and  conscious.  The  story  goes 
on  to  relate  that  he  had  been  endowed  with  the  supernatural 
power  of  fixing  the  time  of  his  own  death,  and  that,  although 
pierced  through  and  through  and  grievously  wounded,  he 
resolved  not  to  die,  but  to  remain  alive  till  the  sun  had 
entered  its  northern  course  in  the  heavens.  All  the  warriors 
on  both  sides  thereupon  ceased  fighting  that  they  might  view 
this  wonderful  sight.  As  he  lay  on  his  arrowy  bed  his  head 
hanging  down,  he  begged  for  a  pillow ;  whereupon  the  chiefs 
brought  all  kinds  of  soft  supports,  which  Bhishma  rejected. 
Arjuna  then  made  a  pillow  for  his  head  with  three  sharp 
arrows,  which  BhTshma  approved.  Soon  after  this  he  asked 
for  water,  and  Arjuna  thereupon  struck  the  ground  with  an 
arrow,  causing  a  pure  spring  to  burst  forth.  This  so  refreshed 
Bhishma  that  he  remained  alive  on  the  field  of  battle  for 
fifty-eight  days  and  nights,  pouring  forth  words  of  wisdom 
for  the  benefit  of  the  listening  warriors,  and  enunciating  many 
excellent  moral  precepts  and  sage  counsels  on  social  and 
political  subjects^.  When  the  time  came  for  him  to  die,  the 
arrows  suddenly  and  of  their  own  accord  left  his  body,  his 
skull  divided,  and  his  spirit,  bright  as  a  meteor,  ascended 
through  the  top  of  his  head  (see  p.  291)  to  the  skies. 

Doubtless  the  voluntary  bodily  suffering  undergone  by 
Bhishma  for  so  long  a  period,  pierced  and  agonized  by  sharp 
arrows,  was  the  supposed  efficient  cause  of  the  divine  know- 
ledge of  which  he  became  possessed  and  which  he  was  able 
to  impart  to  others  in  his  long  series  of  discourses. 

■^  These  precepts  are  all  collected  in  the  Santi  and  Anuiasana  Parv'as  of 
the  Maha-bharata,  two  of  the  longest  books  in  that  vast  thesaurus  of 
Hindu  legendary  tradition.     Compare  p.  546  of  this  volume. 

O  0  1 


564  Bhishmas  Arrowy  Bed, 

A  picture  of  the  old  warrior  sage,  lying  in  a  moribund  con- 
dition on  his  arrowy  bed,  is  given  in  the  Bombay  edition  of 
the  Maha-bharata  \  and  always  interested  me,  whenever  I  had 
occasion  to  refer  to  its  pages.  Here  then  I  had  at  last  acci- 
dentally come  across  a  living  specimen  of  a  'holy  man  '  intent 
on  practising  a  similar  method  of  obtaining  divine  knowledge 
and  union  with  the  Deity  ;  and  that,  too,  under  our  own 
matter-of-fact  work-a-day  rule,  and  notwithstanding  the  ex- 
pected collapse  of  superstition  under  the  pressure  of  steam, 
electricity,  and  generally  advancing  civilization  and  education. 

Of  course  my  interest  in  the  example  before  me  led  me  to 
scrutinize  his  condition  and  habits  rather  critically,  and  in  the 
absence  of  all  power  of  cross-questioning  this  utterly  apathetic 
ascetic  under  a  vow  of  silence,  I  confess  that  I  soon  began  to 
feel  somewhat  sceptical  as  to  his  sincerity,  or  at  least  as  to 
the  fact  of  his  torturing  himself  by  too  close  a  contact  with 
his  spiky  bed.  To  test  therefore  the  reality  of  his  self- 
imposed  bodily  suffering,  as  well  as  his  freedom  from  all 
worldly  desires  and  consequent  right  to  the  title  of  VairagT, 
I  offered  him  half  a  rupee  if  he  would  rise  from  the  ground 
and  lie  on  the  spikes  for  a  few  minutes  ;  but  he  declined  either 
to  gratify  my  curiosity  or  to  satisfy  my  doubts,  pointing  to  his 
pebble-gods,  and  making  signs  to  intimate  that  they  were 
asleep  on  the  spiky  bed  and  could  not  be  disturbed  without 
impiety. 

Perhaps  it  was  unfair  to  place  an  uncharitable  construction 
on  his  excuses,  without  first  paying  him  a  nocturnal  visit. 
Possibly  his  vow  debarred  him  from  taking  a  recumbent 
posture  except  at  night,  and  he  might  not  improbably  have 
been  found  at  a  later  hour,  reposing  on  his  bed  of  thorns 
under  the  protection  of  his  then  wakeful  and  vigilant  gods. 
Or  possibly  my  silvery   offering  was   not  liberal  enough  to 


^  I  saw  one   also  in  the  Comte  de  Gubernatis'  Indian   Museum  at 
Florence. 


The   Worship  of  Brahiita  at  Pttshkara.       565 

be  tempting,  yet  I  noticed  that  he  evinced  no  particular 
contempt  for  money  doles  tendered  in  the  form  of  metal  of 
the  baser  kind.  He  had  a  Tulasi  shrub  in  front  of  him,  and 
even  during  our  short  sojourn  near  his  hermitage  two  or  three 
passers  by  approached  him,  bowed  their  heads  reverently 
before  the  divinity  supposed  to  be  embodied  in  the  '  holy  man,' 
and  offered  him  one  or  two  pice  which  he  accepted  without 
demur,  while  giving  in  return  one  or  two  leaves  of  the  sacred 
plant  to  be  preserved  by  the  recipients  as  preservatives  against 
evil.  We,  too,  were  honoured  by  the  gift  of  a  few  leaves 
presented  to  us  quite  gratuitously,  but  evidently  only  intended 
as  a  parting  memento,  or  as  a  token  that  the  prolongation  of 
our  visit  would  be  unwelcome. 

On  our  reaching  the  outskirts  of  the  town  of  Pushkara,  my 
companion  pointed  out  on  the  right  of  the  road  a  celebrated 
Varaha-mandira — that  is — a  temple  of  Vishnu  in  his  Boar- 
incarnation.  It  was  a  striking  structure^,  built  on  an  elevation, 
and  approached  by  a  long  flight  of  steps.  I  ascended,  and 
was  allowed  to  inspect  the  image  of  the  god  represented  here 
in  his  boar-form  and  in  tlie  act  of  destroying  the  demon 
Hiranyaksha  (see  p.  109).  Willingly  would  I  have  lingered 
and  taken  note  of  all  the  surroundings  had  not  my  presence 
attracted  a  number  of  temple-attendants  who  began  to  crowd 
round  us  and  clamour  for  fees  in  an  excited  m.anner. 

It  was  with  difficulty  that  we  escaped  to  our  carriage  and 
proceeded  on  our  way  to  the  town.  Before  entering  the  main 
street,  I  noticed  a  temple  dedicated  to  Siva  (Maha-deva), 
which,  like  the  other  temples,  was  raised  above  the  level  of 
the  road.  On  ascending  the  steps  leading  to  the  shrine,  I 
found  the  usual  image  of  a  bull  (Nandi)  looking  into  it  and 
the  usual  liiiga  of  Siva  in  the  sanctuary,  but  with  four  human 
faces  carved  round  it.  This  was  to  show  that  Siva  was  wor- 
shipped there  as  identified  with  Brahma.  I  saw  a  similar 
four-faced  liiiga  in  a  shrine  between  Jaipur  and  Ambar. 

With   reference  to  this  point,  I   may  observe  that  in  the 


566      The   Worship  of  Brahma  at  Pushkara. 

Sauptika  Parva  (770)  of  the  Maha-bharata  there  is  a  curious 
account  of  the  subordinate  part  which  Brahma  instigated  Siva 
to  take  in  the  creation  of  the  world,  and  of  the  delay  caused 
by  the  preparatory  course  of  austerity  which  Siva  thought  it 
necessary  to  perform  immersed  in  water.  In  the  Siva-purana, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  god  Siva  is  described  as  the  direct 
author  of  creation,  and  the  linga  is  asserted  to  be  the  source 
of  the  whole  visible  universe. 

But  to  return  to  Pushkara,  no  sooner  did  we  enter  the  town 
and  reach  the  margin  of  the  sacred  waters  than  a  crowd  of 
Brahman  Harpies  surrounded  us,  intent  on  exacting  money- 
fees.  It  was  useless  maintaining  that  the  shore  of  the  lake 
was  open  to  the  public  ;  the  mob  was  not  to  be  reasoned  with, 
and  the  demeanour  of  a  few  individuals  close  to  us  became  so 
threatening  that  I  unwisely  tendered  two  or  three  rupees  as  a 
peace-offering.  My  proffered  coins  were  instantly  snatched 
by  those  nearest  to  us,  and  snatched  at  again  by  others  who 
considered  that  they  had  a  right  to  a  share  in  my  gifts.  Then 
a  free  fight  ensued — no  mere  good-natured  scramble  between 
a  few  idlers,  but  the  fierce  struggle  of  a  mass  of  half-frantic 
human  beings,  each  grappling  the  other  in  savage  embrace, 
and  all  vociferating  together,  while  they  surged  hither  and 
thither  in  remarkable  contrast  to  the  peaceful  surface  of  the 
lake.  Happily  under  cover  of  the  confusion  caused  by  this 
battle-royal,  we  effected  a  retreat,  congratulating  ourselves  that 
our  garments  had  not  been  torn  off  our  backs  in  the  melee. 

Of  course  the  chief  object  of  my  journey  was  the  all  but 
unique  temple  of  the  god  Brahma.  The  first  impression 
made  on  me  by  this  structure  was  one  of  surprise  at  its 
massiveness.  It  is  erected  on  an  elevated  piece  of  ground  at 
the  further  end  of  the  town  in  full  view  of  the  picturesque 
temple  of  Savitrl  which  crowns  the  sugar-loaf  peak  of  a  hill  in 
the  Aravali  range  close  at  hand.  No  doubt  Savitri,  or  Gayatri 
(pp.  19;  403;  406)  is  there  personified  and  worshipped  in 
connexion  with  the  god  Brahma  as  his  wife.     The  temple  of 


The   Worship  of  Brahma  at  Pushkara,       567 

Brahma  itself  is  approached  by  successive  flights  of  solid 
stone  steps,  and  has  rather  the  appearance  of  a  small  fortress 
with  loop-holed  bastions.  The  present  structure  is  said  to  be 
of  no  great  antiquity,  and  is  believed  to  be  not  much  older 
than  the  present  century.  I  ascended  the  steps  along  with 
my  Brahman  companion,  and  passing  through  the  portal 
entered  a  spacious  court-yard  surrounded  by  cloisters.  This 
cloistered  quadrangle  constitutes  the  precincts  of  the  temple. 
Looking  back  I  noticed  above  the  entrance  gate  a  covered 
place  for  the  temple-musicians,  and  just  below  an  image  of  a 
goose-like  bird  (Sanskrit,  hansa)  carved  in  the  stone-work — 
this  animal  being  the  vehicle  or  symbol  of  the  god  Brahma 
(see  pp.  104,  3  ;  328). 

In  the  centre  of  the  quadrangle  was  the  actual  shrine  of 
Brahma — an  isolated  temple  of  some  architectural  pretensions, 
with  columns  supporting  a  roof  on  which  was  a  low  central 
dome  and  the  usual  pyramidal  tapering  tower  rising  above  the 
sanctuary,  where  Brahma's  image  is  enshrined.  In  front  of 
the  entrance  was  the  inevitable  bell.  I  was  allowed  to  look 
through  the  well-carved  wooden  gates  at  the  image  which 
was  clearly  visible  in  its  sanctuary  at  the  end  of  the  vista  of 
open  columns.  I  observed  that  it  had  four  black  faces,  each 
one  of  which  was  supposed  to  be  directed  towards  one  of  the 
four  quarters  of  the  compass.  In  point  of  fact,  however,  three 
of  the  faces  were  made  to  look  at  the  observer,  each  face 
having  two  great  staring  glass  eyes.  Covering  the  four-faced 
head  was  a  broad  red  turban,  and  over  that  were  hanging  five 
umbrella-shaped  ornaments.  I  noticed  that  the  image  was 
dressed  in  red  clothes  with  flaps  of  coloured  cloth  hanging 
round  the  waist.  On  one  side  of  the  god's  image  was  that  of 
his  wife  worshipped  here  as  Gayatri  or  Savitrl  (p.  19)^,  and 
behind  both  was  the  image  of  Kama-dhenu — the  sacred  cow 

■^  The  Gayatri  or  most  sacred  verse  of  the  Veda  is  personified  and 
sometimes  identified  with  SarasvatI  and  called  the  Mother  of  the  four 
Vedas.    She  is  also  regarded  as  the  daughter  of  Prajapati  (Brahma). 


568       The    Worship  of  Brahma  at  Pushkara. 

granting  all  desires.  On  the  marble  floor  in  front  of  the 
shrine  was  the  carved  representation  of  a  tortoise, — significant, 
no  doubt,  of  Brahma's  connexion  with  Vishnu  (p.  108),  out  of 
whose  navel  he  is  fabled  to  have  sprung,  seated  on  a  lotus. 

In  the  court-yard  surrounding  the  inner  temple  and  in  front 
of  it  on  one  side  was  a  small  shrine  dedicated  to  the  liriga  of 
Siva,  which  here — as  in  the  instances  already  mentioned — ^ 
really  represents  Brahma.  It  consists  of  a  dwarf  stone  column 
with  four  faces  carved  round  it,  while  underneath  is  the  usual 
female  symbol  (yoni).  Near  it  is  a  shrine  of  Vishnu — doubt- 
less here  identified  with  Brahma.  Again,  there  is  a  shrine 
close  at  hand  dedicated  to  the  Ardha-narl  form  of  Siva,  and 
another  to  Dattatreya,  regarded  as  an  incarnation  of  Brahma, 
Vishnu  and  Siva  united  in  one  person  (see  p.  267).  Else- 
where in  the  precincts,  I  noticed  images  of  Indra  and  Kuvera, 
both  riding  on  elephants,  and  of  course,  here,  supposed  to  be 
subservient  to  the  god  of  the  temple.  I  ought  to  mention, 
that  reclining  lazily  on  the  ground  in  the  cloisters  of  the 
quadrangle  were  two  devotees,  of  the  Parama-hansa  class. 
One  of  these  was  a  sleek  stalwart  youth,  who  looked  as  if 
he  lived  well  and  was  daily  fed  on  the  fat  of  the  land.  Both 
devotees  were  supposed  to  be  wholly  devoted  to  the  contem- 
plation of  Brahma  (here  manifested  as  Brahma),  and  to  do 
nothing  else  whatever.  I  could  not  help  addressing  them 
and  suggesting  that  the  god  Brahma  would  be  more  honoured 
by  their  doing  some  useful  work  for  the  good  of  his  creatures. 

Several  sacred  trees  were  growing  in  the  court-yard  of  the 
temple — for  instance,  a  Pipal  tree  (see  p.  '^'^^S)^  two  Banian 
trees  (Vata),  a  Nim,  an  Asoka,  an  Amalaki,  and  the  sacred 
TulasT  (Tulsi)  shrub.  In  one  spot  I  noticed  a  Sam!  tree 
married  to  a  Banian  (see  p.  2)?)^' 

With  regard  to  the  other  temple  of  Brahma,  which  is  said 
to  be  the  only  other  temple  existing  in  India,  and  to  which  I 
believe  I  was  the  first  to  draw  attention  in  a  note  to  the  first 
edition  of  my  Manual  of  Hinduism  (p.  90),  it  is  to  be  found 


Accoimt  of  a  Maharani  s  Cremation.  569 

near  Tdar  (or  Edar),  but  I  was  unable  to  make  an  expedition 
to  this  place. 

Mr.  G.  P.  Taylor,  a  missionary,  having  observed  my  note, 
made  inquiries  of  a  friend  living  in  the  Idar  state,  which  is 
situated  about  sixty  miles  N.  E.  of  Ahmedabad,  and  not 
very  far  S.  of  Mount  Abu,  and  ascertained  the  following 
particulars  : — 

This  second  temple  dedicated  to  Brahma  is  not  in  the 
town  of  Idar  itself,  but  about  fifteen  miles  distant,  on  a  plain 
called  Brahma-khed  (Brahma-kshetra).  It  is  constructed  of 
white  sandstone  and  bricks  covered  with  cement.  It  is  seven 
feet  long,  thirty  broad,  and  thirty-six  high,  and  is  traditionally 
believed  to  have  been  built  by  Brahma's  reputed  son,  Bhrigu 
— probably  the  identical  personage  who  gave  his  name  to 
Broach  (Bhrigu-kaccha).  Though  not  so  celebrated  as  the 
Pushkara  temple,  it  is  nevertheless  held  in  high  esteem  and 
much  resorted  to  by  pilgrims  and  others  at  certain  seasons  of 
the  year. 


A7i  Accozmt  of  the  late  Mahdrdni  of  NtMeas  Cre- 
mation and  the  stibsequent  Funeral  and  Sraddha 
Ceremonies  as  performed  by  her  Son,  Kshitlsa 
Cha7idra  Ray  a,  Maharaja  of  Nuddea. 

The  young  Maharaja  of  Nuddea  paid  me  a  visit  whilst 
I  was  Lord  Ripon's  guest  at  Government  House,  Calcutta, 
in  the  early  part  of  the  year  1884,  attended  by  his  English 
tutor  ;  and  knowing  that  I  was  interested  in  the  religious 
ceremonies  of  the  Hindias,  gave  me  an  account  of  the  cre- 
mation of  his  mother,  written  by  himself.  I  here  give  it 
nearly  in  his  own  words  : — 

'On  the  evening  of  Dec.  26,  1883,  my  mother  died  at 
Krishna-nagar  (Krishnagar),  in  the  Nuddea  district  (Bengal). 
Some  Brahmans  were  at  once  called  in  to  remove  the  dead 


570         Account  of  a  Makaram  s  Cremation. 

body  to  Nuddea,  that  they  might  burn  it  near  the  Ganges.  Hav- 
ing wrapped  the  body  up  in  the  bedding  on  which  she  died,  we 
fastened  it  with  strings,  and  put  a  small  piece  of  iron  in  the 
wrappings.  The  dead  body  was  then  laid  on  a  charpoy,  and 
covered  with  a  curtain.  This  was  carried  by  Brahmans  only. 
Soon  after  midnight  we  started  for  Nuddea,  arriving  there 
early  on  the  morning  of  the  27th.  Having  collected  wood, 
ghee,  earthen  vessels,  etc.,  we  summoned  our  priests,  and  the 
Pandit  Braja-nath  Vidya-ratna,  the  chief  expounder  of  Smriti 
— who  all  lived  at  Nuddea.  Then  the  man  who  makes  arrange- 
ments for  cremation,  called  '  Ganga-putra'  (p.  347),  enclosed 
a  space  near  the  Ganges  with  a  long  sheet,  there  being  an 
opening  only  on  the  river  side.  As  a  boat  was  passing  at  the 
time  we  ordered  it  to  the  other  side.  Removing  the  curtain 
we  took  the  body  off  the  charpoy,  and  laid  it  on  the  bank, 
covered  only  with  a  simple  white  cloth.  The  feet  up  to  the 
ankle  were  immersed  in  the  water,  the  rest  of  the  body  was 
on  the  dry  land.  The  priest  then  repeated  some  texts  (Man- 
tras), corrected  from  time  to  time  by  the  chief  Pandit.  The 
deceased  meanwhile  was  supposed  to  be  assisted  by  this  cere- 
mony in  crossing  the  river  BaitaranI  (Vaitarani),  the  river 
supposed  by  all  good  Hindus  to  lie  between  this  world  and 
the  next  (see  p.  297  of  this  volume). 

'  I  then  plunged  into  the  Ganges,  and  on  coming  out  boiled 
a  mixture  of  rice,  sesamum,  plantain,  and  ghee,  which  I  took 
near  the  dead  body  of  my  mother.  Then  dividing  the  mix- 
ture into  two  parts,  and  repeating  some  Mantras,  I  threw  it 
into  the  river.  This  ceremony  is  called  the  giving  of  Pinda 
(Pinda-dana,  see  pp.  285,  293) — that  is  to  say,  presenting  the 
dead  with  an  oblation  of  food.  Then  I  bathed  again,  and 
rubbed  some  ghee,  etc.  on  my  deceased  mother's  head,  and 
threw  some  water  over  the  body.  I  then  re-covered  the  face. 
Next,  we  removed  the  body  to  a  pile  of  wood  about  two  feet 
high,  called  a  Chelu,  within  the  enclosure.  Then  laying  the 
body  on  this  pile,  I  uncovered  the  face,  and  with  a  torch  in 


Accottnt  of  a  Maharani  s  Cremation.  571 

my  right  hand  burned  the  hair,  but  my  back  was  turned,  and 
I  was  not  allowed  to  see  the  face.  The  whole  pile  was  then 
set  on  fire,  and  soon  after  I  threw  seven  pieces  of  sandal-wood 
into  the  flames,  repeating  a  Mantra.  Some  two  hours  after- 
wards I  took  a  sharp-pointed  bamboo,  and  piercing  the  back- 
bone which  is  never  totally  consumed,  placed  it  in  the  water. 
This  concluded  the  actual  ceremony  of  cremation. 

'  Then  after  a  substitute  had  dipped  ten  times  in  the  river  for 
me,  and,  instead  of  my  dipping,  had  touched  me  ten  times,  I 
prepared  my  breakfast  with  my  own  hands,  and  after  taking 
it  returned  to  my  home  at  Krishna-nagar  on  the  evening  of 
December  27.  For  the  twelve  days  during  which  the  mourn- 
ing lasts  the  use  of  all  luxurious  food — such  as  fish  or  flesh, — of 
good  clothes,  of  beds,  of  chairs,  of  shoes,  and  of  an  umbrella,  is 
forbidden  to  the  nearest  surviving  relative  ;  but  in  my  case,  I 
being  an  adopted  son,  the  prohibition  only  took  effect  for  five 
days,  during  which  period  I  slept — wrapped  up  in  a  blanket 
on  the  floor,  and  ate  no  rich  food,  nor  used  luxurious  oils  when 
bathing. 

'  On  the  morning  of  the  28th,  or  second  day,  the  priest  and 
the  chief  Pandit  came  from  Nuddea,  and  we  went  to  a  neigh- 
bouring tank,  and  boiled  some  simple  food,  such  as  ghee,  sesa- 
mum,  rice,  and  plantain  ;  dividing  it  into  eight  portions,  we 
threw  each  portion  into  the  river,  repeating  a  Mantra. 

'  Thus  altogether  ten  portions  had  been  given  as  food  for 
the  deceased  during  ten  days  (see  p.  293  of  this  volume).  I 
then  shaved  my  hair  off,  the  other  relatives  shaving  their 
moustache  only.  Next  I  cooked  my  simple  food  of  rice 
and  ghee  (Havishya).  On  the  third  day,  or  December  the 
29th,  the  first  thing  I  did  was  to  bathe  in  the  tank,  using  no 
towel,  soap,  or  luxurious  oils.  I  then  put  on  my  simple 
clothing,  consisting  of  a  white  sheet  known  as  Kacha,  which 
was  the  only  clothing  I  was  allowed  to  wear  during  the  five 
days  prescribed  for  the  period  of  mourning,  called  the  Asanca. 
I  then  went  to  a  room  and  dedicated  fruit,  money,  a  bed,  rice, 


572        Account  of  a  Maharams  Cremation, 

shoes,  and  umbrellas  to  Vishnu,  in  the  presence  of  the  Priest, 
the  Guru,  and  other  Brahmans.  These  offerings  were  then 
distributed  amongst  the  Brahmans  who  were  present.  This 
is  called  the  Tri-ratra  or  '  Three-night  ceremony,'  after  which 
the  spirit  of  the  deceased,  having  been  judged  (see  p.  "292  of 
this  volume),  is  sent  to  its  own  place.  A  short  time  after  the 
performance  of  this  rite  I  again  went  to  the  tank,  and  cooked 
and  dedicated  a  Pinda,  or  funeral  cake,  to  Vishnu.  I  also 
dedicated  to  him  a  bull-calf  marked  on  one  side  with  the  Tri- 
sula  or  Trident,  and  on  the  other  with  the  Cakra  or  Circle, 
and  four  young  heifers,  which  were  all  let  loose,  and  allowed 
to  roam  where  they  pleased.  These  ceremonies  over  I 
breakfasted. 

*  On  the  fourth  day  I  was  not  called  upon  to  do  anything. 
On  the  fifth  day  I  fixed  a  wooden  pole,  with  the  image  of  a 
bull  in  a  small  shrine  on  its  summit,  in  the  ground  a  few  yards 
from  the  house.  After  walking  round  it  seven  times  I  went 
to  the  tank  and  bathed,  being  now  allowed  to  use  soap,  towels, 
and  fragrant  oils.  I  then  breakfasted  for  the  first  time  after 
my  mother's  death  on  fish  and  the  flesh  of  kid  ;  and  from 
this  day  was  again  allowed  to  use  fine  clothes,  chairs,  shoes, 
beds,  and  umbrellas,  first  presenting  some  Brahman  with  one 
of  each. 

'  On  January  5,  or  the  tenth  day,  I  dedicated  to  Vishnu  a 
large  number  of  shoes,  umbrellas,  beds,  brass  and  silver  cook- 
ing utensils,  copper,  silver,  and  gold  coin,  lampstands  of  silver 
and  brass,  carpets,  shawls,  and  clothes.  After  the  dedication 
the  things  were  distributed  amongst  the  Pandits,  Brahmans, 
and  relatives  present.  In  the  evening  we  entertained  them  \ 
all  at  a  feast,  to  the  number  of  about  one  thousand ;  and 
during  the  night  some  thirteen  thousand  poor  were  fed  with 
rice  and  sweetmeats,  and  each  man,  woman,  and  child  received 
four  annas  {  =  6d.).  On  January  7,  or  the  twelfth  day,  the 
Sraddha  ceremonies  were  concluded  by  another  feast  given 
to  some  five  hundred  relatives  and  Brahmans.' 


Account  of  a  Maharajcis  Deva-puja.         573 

An  Accotmt  of  the  daily  Deva-puja  peifo7'7ned  by 
the  Maharaja  of  Dholpur. 

When  (in  1884)  I  was  the  guest  of  General  Dennehy  at 
the  Residency,  Dhol-pur,  the  youthful  Maharaja  (named  Rana 
Nihal  Sinh) — whose  education  the  General  was  then  ably 
superintending — very  obligingly  performed  his  usual  diurnal 
Deva-puja,  or  '  worship  of  the  gods,'  in  my  presence. 

The  ceremony  took  place  in  one  of  the  courts  of  his  palace, 
under  a  Mandapa  or  open  hall  leading  to  a  shrine  of  Vishnu, 
worshipped  as  Narasinha.  A  square  piece  of  ground  was 
marked  out  and  consecrated  on  the  floor,  and  in  the 
centre  of  the  ground  so  prepared  was  a  small  rectangular 
silver  platform  or  low  stand  on  legs,  and  in  the  centre  of  this 
again  a  little  round  platter  with  a  silver  cup  containing  several 
Bana-liiigas,  Sala-gramas,  etc.  (see  pp.  69,  392,  412).  On  the 
right  of  this  was  a  little  white  conch-shell  resting  on  a  small 
silver  stand,  on  the  left  a  silver  bell,  and  at  the  opposite  corner 
a  cocoa-nut.  All  around  on  the  ground  were  arranged  sacri- 
ficial implements,  sacred  vessels,  cups,  lotas,  and  flowers.  On 
one  side  of  the  prepared  ground  and  close  to  the  silver  stand 
sat  the  Maharaja,  with  his  legs  folded  under  him  in  the  usual 
manner,  having  the  sacred  vessels  and  implements  in  front 
of  him  within  easy  reach  of  his  hands.  Behind  him  sat  his 
domestic  priest  (Purohit)  ready  to  give  him  directions  for  the 
due  performance  of  the  ceremonial,  and  on  one  side  of  the 
prepared  ground  sat  a  row  of  four  Brahmans  who  took  part 
in  the  muttering  of  prayers,  the  repetition  of  texts  and  chant- 
ing. Not  far  off,  on  an  elevated  step,  was  the  altar  (vedi)  for 
the  Homa  or  sacrifice  to  fire.  This  altar  was  made  of  clay 
well  plastered  with  cow-dung,  but  only  rising  a  few  inches 
from  the  ground.  It  was  of  an  oblong  form,  with  a  Svastika 
(p.  91,  note  1)  or  auspicious  mark  in  the  centre.  It  was  also 
consecrated  by  water  scattered  on  its  surface  with  Kusa  grass. 


574         Account  of  a  Maharaja! s  Deva-puja. 

On  it  was  kindled  the  sacred  fire  which  was  fed  with  Samidh 
or  fuel,  composed  of  pieces  of  wood  of  six  different  kinds 
(Palasa,  SamI,  Khadira,  Asvattha,  Udumbara,  etc.),  and  was 
made  to  blaze  up  by  ghee  poured  on  the  wood  with  sacrificial 
ladles  (Sruva,  darvi). 

At  the  commencement  of  the  Deva-puja  a  piece  of  silk  was 
bound  round  the  Maharaja's  arm,  with  repetition  of  bene- 
dictory formulas,  to  protect  him  from  the  evil  influence  of 
demons  always  on  the  watch  to  counteract  the  good  effect  of 
religious  ceremonies.     This  is  called  Raksha-bandhana. 

Much  of  the  detail  of  the  ceremonial  resembled  that  of  the 
Paiicayatana-puja,  described  at  p.  410  of  this  volume.  The 
Maharaja,  under  the  direction  of  his  Purohit,  performed  the 
usual  acts  of  worship  by  the  offering  of  flowers  (pushpa),  by 
placing  garlands  of  yellow  flowers  round  the  sacred  vessels,  by 
the  burning  of  incense  (dhupa),  by  the  waving  of  lights  (dlpa), 
by  oblations  of  rice-grains  etc.  (naivedya),  by  offering  a  cloth 
(vastra)  placed  on  the  central  stand,  by  the  pouring  of  water 
with  a  little  spoon  into  his  own  hand,  or  into  a  boat-shaped 
vessel,  by  repeatedly  sprinkling  the  Bana-lingas  etc.  with  water 
taken  out  of  the  larger  sacred  water-vessel  (Kalasa),  by  again 
pouring  water  into  the  Kalasa,  and  by  putting  yellow  flowers 
into  it,  and  by  again  pouring  out  water  with  these  flowers. 

It  seemed  to  me  that  the  most  important  part  of  the 
ceremonial  consisted  in  the  constant  sprinkling  and  pouring 
out  of  water  and  scattering  of  rice-grains.  Some  of  the  latter 
the  Rana  threw  behind  his  head,  while  during  the  entire  cere- 
mony the  Purohit  and  Brahmans  recited  texts,  muttered 
prayers,  and  chanted  verses.  There  was  also  a  hymn  to  Siva 
(Siva-stotra),  with  repetition  of  some  of  his  1008  names  (see 
pp.  81, 106),  preceded  by  adoration  of  the  nine  planets  (p.  344) 
represented  by  nine  areca  nuts  placed  in  rice  and  arranged  in 
order  on  the  ground.  The  repetitions  were  concluded  by  the 
exclamation,  '  Om  phat,'  and  by  clapping  of  hands. 

How  far  the  young  Rana  himself  believed  in  the  efficacy  of 


Accoimt  of  Kalis  Temple  at  Vindhyadal.       575 

these  ceremonies,  I  cannot  undertake  to  say,  but  he  went 
through  them  with  an  evident  desire  to  fulfil  every  minute 
requirement  of  the  ritual  in  a  careful  and  reverential  manner. 

An  Account  of  the   Temple  of  Kail  at  Vindhyacal. 

When  I  was  at  Mirzapur  in  the  spring  of  1884,  I  visited  the 
neighbouring  temple  of  Kali  (about  five  miles  distant),  wor- 
shipped under  the  name  of  Vindhyacala-vasinI  (popularly 
Vindhyacal),  '  dweller  on  the  Vindhya  mountains.'  This  was 
the  form  of  the  goddess  to  which  the  Thags  were  supposed 
to  offer  up  their  victims,  and  here  was  the  particular  shrine 
to  which  they  made  pilgrimages  from  all  parts  of  the  country. 
It  is  still  one  of  the  most  popular  temples  in  India,  and  on 
the  day  of  my  visit  at  least  a  thousand  worshippers  were  col- 
lected in  the  precincts.  There  is  a  small  central  temple  with 
a  low  roof,  on  which  several  flags  were  kept  flying.  As  it  was 
the  time  of  dai'sana — i.  e.  homage  paid  to  the  idol  by  viewing 
it  when  dressed  and  decorated — the  surging,  struggling  crowd 
passed  in  through  a  narrow  door  on  one  side,  and  out  at 
an  equally  narrow  exit  on  the  other,  amidst  a  deafening  din 
of  yelling,  shouting,  and  tolling  of  bells.  I  was  informed  that 
between  the  hours  of  12  and  3  in  the  day,  and  of  12  and  5  at 
night,  the  goddess  is  put  to  sleep  on  a  silver  bed,  and  the 
shrine  is  then  closed. 

The  temple  has  a  space  round  it  for  pradakshina  (p.  68,  2) 
or  reverential  circumambulation.  and  round  this  again  is  an 
open  area,  on  three  sides  of  which  are  rows  of  shrines  to 
various  deities  behind  finely  carved  screens.  I  noticed  an 
image  of  SarasvatI  in  a  particularly  beautiful  shrine,  behind 
an  exquisitely  carved  lace-like  stone  screen.  Near  this  was 
the  place  for  sacrificing  goats.  The  priests  seemed  to  take 
especial  pleasure  in  chopping  off  the  heads  of  as  many  goats 
as  possible  while  I  was  examining  the  shrines,  perhaps  to  make 
atonement  for  the  pollution  caused  by  my  presence.     The 


576  Account  of  the  Santals. 

animals  were  then  flayed,  and  dogs  came  and  licked  up  the 
blood. 

Close  to  the  exit  of  the  temple  the  Homa  sacrifice  to  fire 
was  being  performed  by  a  number  of  Brahmans  seated  in  a 
semi-circle  round  it.  I  observed  two  or  three  women  at  one 
end  of  the  semi-circle.  All  were  engaged  in  putting  ghee 
into  the  fire  with  wooden  ladles  and  then  scattering  grain, 
camphor,  and  sawdust  of  sandal-wood  on  the  flames,  the 
Brahmans  chanting  texts  (see  p.  367). 

What  struck  me  as  most  curious  in  the  conduct  of  the  crowd 
was  that  some  of  the  worshippers  before  leaving  the  temple 
left  an  impress  of  their  hands — dipped  in  some  dark  colouring 
matter — on  the  exterior  wall,  close  to  the  entrance.  I  was 
told  that  this  was  intended  as  the  record  of  a  vow,  binding 
the  worshipper,  if  he  obtained  some  particular  boon  which  he 
had  prayed  for,  to  sacrifice  a  goat  to  the  goddess.  When  the 
boon  was  obtained,  and  the  vow  fulfilled,  the  mark  on  the 
wall  was  to  be  effaced. 

Account  of  the  Cttstoins  and  Religiotts  Tenets 

of  the  Santals. 

One  of  my  objects  in  travelling  through  India  in  1883-1884, 
was  to  gain  a  better  knowledge  of  the  Jains  and  of  the  points 
of  difference  which  distinguish  Jainism  from  Buddhism.  I 
therefore  determined  to  visit  Parasnath,  which  is  perhaps  the 
most  sacred  of  all  the  hills  dedicated  to  Jaina  saints.  At  any 
rate  numerous  Jaina  temples  crown  the  table-land  on  the  sum- 
mit, and  are  daily  visited  by  hundreds  of  Jaina  pilgrims  from 
all  parts  of  India. 

Yet  this  pilgrim-frequented  mountain,  rising,  as  it  does, 
about  4.500  feet  above  the  sea,  is  surrounded  by  tiger-haunted 
jungles,  and  is  by  no  means  easy  of  access.  My  ascent  of  it 
is  briefly  described  in  my  work  on  Buddhism  (p.  509)  and  I 
propose  referring  to  it  more  particularly  in  another  work. 

As  my  way  led  me  through  a  tract  of  country  inhabited  by 


Accotmt  of  the  Santals,  577 

the  Santals,  I  availed  myself  of  the  opportunity  to  make  my- 
self acquainted  with  some  of  the  customs  of  that  aboriginal 
race — a  race  generally  classified  under  what  is  usually  called 
the  Kolarian  group  of  aborigines. 

I  had  received  an  invitation  to  stay  with  Mr.  Stevenson,  an 
energetic  missionary  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  who  had 
laboured  for  many  years  among  the  Santals  and  at  that  time 
had  fixed  his  residence  at  Pachamba  ^  about  three  miles  from 
Girldi — a  station  of  the  narrow  guage  railway  leading  from 
Madhupur — and  about  200  miles  north-west  of  Calcutta. 

The  whole  of  the  plain  extending  for  thirty  miles  between 
Giridi  and  the  Parasnath  range,  forms  part  of  the  District 
officially  known  as  the  Santal  Parganas.  According  to  the 
Imperial  Gazetteer  this  district,  which  is  under  the  Lieutenant 
Governorship  of  Bengal,  has  an  area  of  5,488  square  miles  and 
a  population  (at  the  last  census)  of  1,259,287  souls  inhabiting 
9,872  villages. 

Colonel  Dalton  considers,  that  there  were  in  1872  about 
200,000  Santals,  and  the  same  authority  states,  that  they 
form  about  one-third  of  the  total  number  of  the  aboriginal 
races  of  Bengal  ^. 

On  the  28th  of  January,  1884,  I  started  wath  Mr.  Stevenson 
from  Pachamba  with  the  view  of  gaining  some  knowledge  of 
these  people  and  with  the  special  object  of  observing  the 
relation  between  their  usages  and  those  of  Hindiaism. 

We  drove  through  a  pleasant  undulating  country,  passing 

■^  Mr.  Stevenson  died  of  cholera  at  Pachamba  three  years  ago,  to  the 
great  grief  of  those  among  whom  he  laboured  and  of  all  who  knew  him  ; 
but  his  influence  still  lives  in  Santalia.  In  1887  he  published  a  little 
pamphlet  containing  a  brief  history  of  the  Scotch  Mission  to  the  Santals, 
and  of  Santal  customs,  and  this  I  have  consulted.  Most  of  the  infor- 
mation, however,  embodied  in  this  part  of  my  book  was  gathered  from 
his  own  lips.  Much  has  been  written  on  the  same  subject  by  Colonel 
Dalton,  Sir  W.  W.  Hunter,  and  others.  According  to  Mr.  Stevenson 
the  name  Santal  should  properly  be  spelt  Saoiital. 

2  The  whole  number  of  Santals  amounted  in  Mr.  Stevenson's  time  to 
about  a  million,  and  of  these  about  8,000  were  Christians. 

Pp 


578  Accoimt  of  the  Santals. 

many  villages  and  rice-fields,  till  we  came  to  what  appeared  to 
be  a  good  typical  example  of  a  Santal  village-community.  The 
village — called,  I  believe,  Chamarkho — lay  about  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  from  the  road,  and  to  reach  it,  we  had  to  leave  our 
carriage  and  follow  a  well-beaten  path  across  a  paddy-field 
bordered  here  and  there  by  palm-trees.  We  found  the  primi- 
tive inhabitants  quite  as  unprepared  for  our  visit,  as  we  had 
hoped  to  find  them.  No  head-man  made  his  appearance  for 
some  time  after  our  arrival,  and  few  human  beings,  except 
children,  were  at  first  visible.  I  noticed  that  the  huts  and 
homesteads  which  constituted  the  village  were  not  grouped 
together  in  an  irregular  cluster,  as  is  usual  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts of  India,  but  were  arranged  in  one  long  straight  line, 
protected  on  both  sides  by  a  high  thick  fence,  made  of  boughs 
of  trees  wattled  together  and  strengthened  by  thick  sticks, 
while  here  and  there  the  monotony  of  the  line  of  fencing  was 
broken  by  the  stems  of  living  palms  and  tamarind  trees,  and 
castor-oil  plants.  The  fence  ran  parallel  on  one  side  with  the 
homesteads,  but  so  as  to  leave  an  intervening  space,  which 
formed  a  kind  of  long  straight  street.  Each  homestead,  too,  was 
surrounded  by  a  similar  protection^  enclosing  a  kind  of  separate 
compound.  Of  course  the  usual  troop  of  village  dogs  and 
yelping  curs  surrounded  us,  and  had  to  be  kept  off  by  the  free  \ 
use  of  our  sticks.  Their  barking,  however,  had  the  effect  of 
rousing  some  of  the  villagers,  who  approached  us  and  greeted 
Mr.  Stevenson  with  exclamations  of  pleasure^  appearing  to 
recognize  him  as  an  old  friend  and  benefactor,  and  talking 
familiarly  with  him  in  their  own  peculiar  speech.  Parentheti- 
cally I  may  remark  that  the  Santal  language  offers  to  scholars 
an  interesting  example  of  the  Kolarian  family,  and  those  philo- 
logists who  have  investigated  it  have  shewn  that  it  contains 
some  remarkable  curiosities  of  complex  grammatical  structure 
and  idiom.  All  the  difficulties  and  intricacies  of  the  dialect 
had  been  mastered  by  my  companion,  Mr.  Stevenson,  and 
another  excellent  missionary  (Mr.  Campbell),  who  had  heard 


Account  of  the  Santals,  579 

of  our  expedition  and  joined  us.  Both  missionaries  spoke 
to  the  natives  with  as  much  ease  and  fluency  as  if  SantalT  was 
as  familiar  to  them  as  their  own  mother-tongue.  I  noticed 
that  the  Santal  men  were  branded  or  tattooed  on  three  places 
on  the  left  arm  under  the  elbow.  Such  marks  are  supposed 
to  act  as  charms  against  evil  influences.  The  women  have 
the  arms  and  chest  tattooed  in  the  same  way  and  for  the  same 
purpose.  They  chattered  as  unconstraincdly  as  the  men,  and 
seemed  to  enjoy  quite  as  much  freedom  and  liberty  of  action. 
It  was  not  long  before  the  head-man,  called  ManjhT,  appeared 
— a  venerable  old  gentleman  who  welcomed  us  to  the  village 
in  the  name  of  all  the  inhabitants. 

We  found  the  main-street  not  particularly  clean,  but  enter- 
ing one  of  the  compounds  at  the  invitation  of  its  smiling 
owners,  we  observed  a  marked  contrast  to  the  state  of  the 
street  in  the  well-swept  floors  and  great  tidiness  and  good 
order  of  all  the  interior  arrangements  of  the  homestead.  On 
the  left  of  us  was  a  buffalo-shed,  and  near  it  a  shed  for  cooking 
and  another  for  other  domestic  purposes.  On  our  right  was 
the  dwelling-place  of  the  family,  consisting  of  a  large  shed 
with  a  thatched  roof  and  walls  made  of  mud-cement  and 
floors  smeared  with  mud.  The  one  door-way  was  so  low,  that 
we  had  to  stoop  on  entering.  Creeping  inside  we  noticed  that 
the  dimly-lighted  apartment  had  a  vacant  space  in  the  middle 
with  a  solitary  piece  of  furniture  in  the  shape  of  a  small  char- 
poy,  barely  big  enough  for  the  father  and  mother  to  lie  upon, 
while  the  children  slept  on  the  floor.  All  around  the  wall 
were  about  fourteen  huge  bee-hive  shaped  receptacles  for 
stored  grain  bound  round  and  round  with  straw  bands.  We 
noticed  also  a  weaving-loom,  some  gourds  for  holding  water, 
some  native-made  umbrellas  and  a  collection  of  bows  and 
arrows. 

As  to  wardrobe,  nothing  of  the  kind  was  visible.  Nor  was 
it  needed,  since  the  only  dress  of  the  men  is  a  strip  of  cloth, 
while   a   single    Sari   satisfies   the  women^  though  this  one 

P  p  2 


580  Accoimt  of  the  Santals. 

article  of  dress  may  consist  of  a  strip  of  calico,  five  or  six 
yards  long.  The  women,  however,  have  very  heavy  brass 
ornaments  on  their  neck,  arms,  ancles  and  toes,  besides  curious 
brass  finger-rings  ;  the  whole  collection  of  ornaments  often 
weighing  sixteen  pounds.  We  observed  that  the  girls  and 
women  were  generally  tolerably  clean  and  always  bright  and 
cheerful ;  but  the  men  were  dirty,  rough  and  unkempt,  with 
long  locks  of  dark  hair  hanging  down  over  their  shoulders. 
As  to  the  children,  they  ran  about  innocent  of  all  clothing,  and 
to  all  appearances  utterly  untended  and  uncared  for,  in  the 
full  enjoyment  of  unmitigated  dirt.  Each  child,  too,  held  in 
its  hand  a  stick  of  sugar-cane,  the  continued  sucking  of  which 
was  not  conducive  to  its  facial  cleanliness. 

And  I  may  mention  here  that  throughout  India  there  exists 
a  superstition  according  to  which  it  is  unlucky  to  wash 
children  until  they  reach  a  certain  age,  or  until  they  have 
been  taken  to  some  far  distant  temple,  to  the  deity  of  which 
they  have  been  dedicated  at  their  birth. 

I  was  informed  that  Santal  parents  exercise  little  or  no 
control  over  their  offspring,  and  for  no  other  reason  than  a 
rooted  dislike  to  trouble  of  any  kind.  Girls  are  not  generally 
married  till  fourteen  or  even  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  of  age, 
betrothal  taking  place  three  or  four  days  previously.  It  is 
important  to  choose  a  lucky  day  for  both  betrothal  and  wed- 
ding. This  is  done  by  observing  omens,  and  strange  to  say, 
the  sight  of  a  dead  body  is  considered  auspicious.  Santal 
wives,  however,  must  always  be  purchased,  and  the  price  of 
a  bride  ranges  from  five  to  sixteen  rupees.  With  regard  to 
intermarriage  there  are  no  distinctions  of  caste  among  the 
Santals,  but  there  are  differences  of  tribe  ;  each  tribe  forming 
a  kind  of  separate  caste.  A  curious  custom  prevails  of  not 
permitting  a  youth  to  take  a  wife  of  the  same  tribe  as  himself 

Emerging  from  the  homestead,  which  served  as  a  fair  sample 
of  Santal  family-life,  we  proceeded  to  the  centre  of  the  village, 
where  in  an  open  space  was  a  small  shed  roofed  over  with 


Account  of  the  Santals.  581 

circular  tiles  and  supported  by  four  posts  and  a  central  pole. 
Its  clay  floor,  smeared  with  cow-dung,  was  raised  about  two 
feet  from  the  ground,  and  on  one  side  of  the  central  pole  were 
ranged  what  resembled  three  thick  nine-pins,  roughly  moulded 
out  of  clay  and  made  somewhat  thicker  in  the  centre.  The 
whole  Santal  community  firmly  believe  that  these  are  tenanted 
by  the  spirits  of  the  last  three  head-men  (Manjhl)  of  the  village, 
and  the  simple  shed-like  shrine  which  contains  them  is  there- 
fore called  the  ManjhT-than  or  abode  of  the  Manjhls.  To  these 
clay  representatives  of  their  dead  chiefs  daily  offerings  are 
made,  and  it  struck  me  that  Africa  itself  could  not  afford  a 
better  illustration  of  genuine  fetish-worship.  '  They  cleared  the 
jungle  for  us,  they  w^atched  over  the  cultivation  of  our  fields, 
and  it  is  now  our  turn  to  support  them  by  our  offerings.' 
Such  was  the  explanation  given  by  the  villagers  themselves. 

Further  on  we  came  upon  the  village- weaver.  His  loom 
was  of  the  simplest  construction.  A  hole  dug  in  the  ground 
served  as  a  receptacle  for  his  legs  and  a  quantit}/  of  branches 
formed  a  roof  over  his  head.  Half  hidden  in  that  well-like 
cavity  he  sat  patiently  at  work  to  supply  the  wants  of  his 
fellow-villagers.  We  were  told,  that  a  hard-working  man  could 
weave  five  yards  a  day  of  a  kind  of  rough  unbleached  cloth. 

Before  leaving  the  street  we  were  invited  to  witness  a 
Santal  dance.  Three  young  men  stood  in  a  row  holding 
drums  (tom-toms),  two  of  which  were  beaten  with  the  hand 
and  one  with  sticks.  Then  a  row  of  eight  girls  filed  out  of 
their  dwellings  looking  bright  and  modest.  These  clasped 
hands  together,  each  girl  bending  her  fingers  upwards  through 
the  fingers  of  the  next  girl  and  turning  the  other  palm  towards 
us.  In  this  way  they  made  a  quiet  movement  backwards  and 
forwards,  advancing  and  retiring  with  joined  hands  to  the  sound 
of  the  drums  or  occasionally  moving  sideways  and  singing  a 
low  quaint  melody.  The  effect  was  simple  and  the  com- 
bination of  dance  and  song  was  on  the  whole  pleasing  and 
attractive.      It  seems  that  dancing,  singing  and  feasting  to- 


582  Account  of  the  Santals, 

gether  make  up  a  considerable  portion  of  the  every-day  life 
of  every  Santal  community. 

Passing  out  of  the  street  we  noticed  that  the  village  was 
surrounded  with  well-cultivated  paddy  fields.  Here  and  there 
flocks  and  herds  were  grazing  and  nowhere  could  we  detect 
any  signs  of  poverty.  Yet  Santal  men  are  decidedly  lazy,  and 
in  the  winter  do  very  little  work  beyond  using  their  bows  and 
arrows  in  hunting  for  game.  When  the  rain  comes  they  may 
be  seen  exerting  themselves  a  little  to  turn  up  the  soil.  But 
even  then  the  women  have  to  make  up  for  the  laziness  of  the 
men.  They  not  only  cook  for  the  family,  but  are  expected 
to  work  in  the  fields,  reap  the  harvest  and  carry  the  grain  on 
their  heads  for  storing  at  home. 

Just  outside  the  village  was  the  sacred  grove,  which  always 
consists  of  Sal-trees — tall  stately  trees,  not  unlike  poplars. 
Under  a  cluster  of  three  of  these  trees  planted  close  together 
(compare  p.  332)  we  noticed  rude  erections  consisting  of  four 
poles  with  three  crossing  at  the  top  to  keep  the  structures 
together.  It  is  in  these  that  the  six  great  Bongas  or  Demon- 
Spirits  named  Jaherera,  Monreko,  Turuiko,  Marang  Buru, 
Gosaeera  and  Pergana  Bonga  are  believed  to  reside.  Of  these 
six  Marang  Buru  is  thought  to  have  most  power  over  human 
beings.  Indeed^  although  the  Santals  believe  in  the  existence 
of  one  Supreme  God,  they  consider  that  He  need  not  be 
worshipped  since  He  has  no  dealings  with  His  creatures  except 
through  the  great  demon-spirit  Marang  Buru,  who  alone  re- 
quires any  real  adoration  and  propitiation.  He  is  a  supreme 
Being  it  is  true,  but  He  resides  too  far  away  in  the  inac- 
cessible orb  of  the  Sun  ;  He  is  even  identified  with  the  Sun, 
and  the  Sun  is  therefore  saluted  every  morning  (compare 
pp.  62,  406),  and  a  festival  held  in  his  honour  at  intervals  of 
three,  five,  seven  or  ten  years. 

Yet  it  is  certain  that  Heliolatry  is  not  a  real  element  in 
the  religion  of  the  Santals.  Such  religion  as  they  possess 
consists  rather  in   Demonolatry — that  is,  in  the  worship  of 


Account  of  the  Santals,  583 

demon-spirits  (Bongas)  combined  with  ancestor-worship.  In 
this  respect  the  aboriginal  tribes  closely  resemble  the  great 
majority  of  the  unlettered  and  ignorant  Hindus  of  the  mixed 
Aryan  race  who  live  around  them. 

Yet  it  should  be  noted  that  the  worship  of  a  man's  own 
deceased  ancestors  is  thought  to  be  a  duty  which  is  not  so 
obligatory  on  a  Santal  as  the  homage  due  to  the  departed 
spirits  of  the  head-men  of  his  own  village  ;  for  his  belief  is  that 
the  interests  of  the  community  ought  to  take  precedence  of 
those  of  the  family. 

As  to  the  worship  of  demons  and  spirits,  it  is  not,  of  course, 
limited  to  Marang  Burn  or  to  any  of  the  six  enumerated 
above  ;  for  demon-spirits  are  innumerable.  They  haunt  the 
air,  pervade  the  waters,  ride  on  the  winds,  and  are  to  be  found 
everywhere,  being  particularly  fond  of  residing  in  trees  and 
sometimes  dwelling  in  animals  and  even  in  men.  They  in- 
fluence for  good  or  evil  all  the  affairs  and  events  of  life ;  and 
if  they  are  not  well  supplied  with  food  and  offerings,  they 
become  very  spiteful  and  vindictive,  causing  diseases,  pro- 
ducing storms  and  blighting  crops  ^ 

These  demon-spirits,  however,  are  not  represented  by  images 
(compare  pp.  243  ;  249).  We  have  already  seen  that  rude 
nine-pins  like  lumps  of  clay  are  set  up  in  roughly  constructed 
shrines,  as  representatives  of  the  spirits  of  the  head-men. 
In  contradistinction  to  these  clay  fetishes,  lumps  of  quartz, 
smeared  with  red  paint,  are  deposited  under  trees  to  represent 
the  demon-spirits  (Bongas)  dwelling  in  the  sacred  groves. 
Several  feasts  are  held  in  honour  of  the  demon-spirits,  but  the 
chief  festival  of  the  year  is  that  called  Soharai  at  the  begin- 


^  They  will  apparently  take  possession  of  hysterical  persons,  who,  when 
so  possessed,  jump  and  run  about,  writhe  and  contort  their  limbs,  or  speak 
in  the  name  of  some  demon,  perhaps,  to  some  terrified  villager,  or  calling 
out  and  saying  : — '  I  am  come  to  eat  your  wife,  if  you  do  not  wish  her 
to  be  killed  (by  some  disease)  you  must  give  a  goat  to  propitiate  the 
demon.' 


584  Account  of  the  Santals, 

ning  of  January.  Mr.  Stevenson  describes  it  as  a  kind  of 
harvest  festival,  which  lasts  for  four  or  five  days  in  each 
village  ;  but  as  the  period  of  its  celebration  varies  in  different 
places,  every  community  invites  the  other  to  its  own  feast, 
and  in  this  way  the  feasting  may  be  prolonged  for  a  month. 
There  is  much  drinking  of  strong  liquor,  distilled  from  Mahwa 
flowers,  the  method  of  distilling  which  is  supposed  to  have 
been  revealed  by  the  chief  demon,  Marang  Burn. 

In  fact,  a  Santal  has  no  idea  of  any  form  of  worship  except 
that  of  propitiating  an  irascible  being  by  offerings  of  food  and 
sacrifices  of  fowls  and  other  animals,  of  which  the  worshippers 
partake  themselves.  His  religion  is  one  of  much  eating  and 
drinking  and  carousing.  He  has  no  conception  of  sin  in  the 
Christian  sense ;  nor  would  he  dream  of  asking  pardon  for 
any  error,  except  that  of  omitting  to  make  a  sufficient  number 
of  oblations.  No  act  of  immorality,  according  to  his  ideas, 
can  possibly  offend  a  Bonga.  If  a  villager  sins  against  a 
fellow-villager,  a  money  compensation  to  the  person  sinned 
against  expiates  all  the  guilt. 

Then  each  family  has  its  own  special  Bonga  belonging  to 
the  household  which  must  be  propitiated  every  day,  and  is 
on  special  occasions  very  exacting.  If,  after  receiving  his  due 
mead  of  offerings  and  invocations,  he  does  nothing  for  the 
fulfilment  of  the  wishes  of  the  family,  he  is  abused  in  decidedly 
strong  and  vituperative  language  ^. 

Then  Bongas  often  dwell  in  ferocious  animals,  such  as 
tigers  and  leopards,  and  when  a  Bonga  occupies  human 
beings  or  otherwise  harmless  animals,  it  may  make  them 
fierce  and  dangerous. 

When  we  were  passing  through  the  Santal  district,  we  were 
gravely  warned  to   beware  of  an  elephant  which  had   been 


^  For  instance  : — '  I  gave  you  a  goat  and  you  ought  to  be  ashamed  of 
yourself,  you  are  a  brute  (or  some  equivalent  expression)  for  not  having 
cured  my  son.' 


Account  of  the  Santals.  585 

selected  by  a  Bonga  for  its  habitation,  and  had  killed  several 
people  who  had  before  found  it  tractable  and  good-tempered. 

In  regard  to  death-ceremonies,  I  was  informed  that  the 
occasion  of  a  death  among  the  Santals  is  always  made  an 
excuse  for  a  feast.  Then  after  the  corpse  is  cremated,  five 
small  bones  or  pieces  of  bone  are  searched  for  am.ong  the 
ashes.  If  portions  of  the  skull  or  collar-bone  can  be  found 
they  are  preferred  to  any  other  fragments^.  These  are  care- 
fully placed  in  an  earthen  lota,  and  are  either  preserved  in 
the  house  of  the  nearest  relative  or  are  buried  under  a  tree 
until  an  opportunity  occurs  of  making  a  pilgrimage  to  the 
river  Damodar^,  which  is  the  sacred  river  of  the  Santals.  In 
due  course  of  time  the  nearest  relative  carries  these  pieces  of 
bone  to  the  sacred  stream^  taking  with  him  some  bread  for 
offerings.  Next  he  erects  three  rude  altars  on  the  bank,  and 
entering  the  water,  first  immerses  his  own  body  and  then 
scatters  the  bony  fragments  on  the  stream,  allowing  the 
current  to  bear  them  away. 

Finally  he  makes  three  offerings  of  bread  on  the  altars — one 
to  Marang  Burn,  calling  on  that  spirit  to  introduce  his  relative 
to  the  world  of  spirits  ;  another  to  the  spirits  of  his  ancestors, 
inviting  them  to  receive  the  recently  deceased  man ;  and  a 
third  to  the  spirit  of  the  dead  man  himself,  at  the  same  time 
expressing  a  hope  that  every  possible  steps  have  been  taken 
for  the  furtherance  of  his  welfare  in  the  other  world. 

These  strange  superstitions,  as  well  as  those  previously 
described,  point  to  a  close  connexion  with  Hinduism,  and 
testify  to  the  fact  of  a  constant  interaction  and  interfusion 
of  religious  ideas  between  Aryan  and  Non-Aryan  races 
(see  pp.  274-312). 

It  is  this  interaction  between  Brahmanical  pantheism  and 
the  pre-existing  cults  and  superstitions,  not  only  of  aboriginal 

^  Compare  the  funeral  ceremony  witnessed  by  me  at  Bombay,  described 
in  my  work  '  Modern  India  and  the  Indians '  (Triibner  and  Co.),  p.  97. 
^  Damodara  is  a  name  of  Krishna  and  also  of  a  river  in  Bengal. 


586  Conclusion. 

races,  but  of  Dravidians  and  Buddhists,  that  has  led  to  the 
production  of  the  composite  and  complex  religious  system 
which,  from  the  absence  of  any  one  founder  or  supreme  Head, 
and  from  the  want  of  a  general  name  applied  to  it  by  the 
Hindus  themselves,  we  have  been  obliged  to  designate  by  the 
double  title — '  Brahmanism  and  Hinduism  ' — a  system  which, 
as  I  have  explained  in  the  Preface  to  this  volume,  is  really 
no  system,  but  rather  a  vast  mosaic,  inlaid  with  every  variety 
of  idea  which  the  human  mind,  unaided  by  any  true  super- 
natural inspiration,  is  able  to  conceive  and  elaborate  for  itself. 

And  the  reader  who  looks  back  on  the  foregoing  pages 
will,  I  think,  bear  me  out  when  I  assert  that  I  have  had  no 
light  task  in  endeavouring  to  bring  some  kind  of  order  out 
of  a  chaotic  confusion  of  creeds,  traditions  and  usages,  over- 
laid with  some  of  the  worst  superstitions  which  have  ever 
degraded  the  human  race  at  any  time  or  in  any  country. 

We  may  speak  of  this  complicated  system  as  peculiar  to 
India  and  the  Indians,  but  in  real  fact  the  pantheistic  ideas  on 
which  it  rests  and  its  cardinal  doctrines  of  Self-evolution, 
self-evolved  righteousness,  and  self-created  new-births,  belong 
quite  as  much  to  other  nations,  and  are  the  spontaneous  pro- 
duct of  every  human  thinker's  inborn  faculties  and  instincts, 
when  they  work  naturally. 

Our  conviction  is  that  Hinduism  will  ultimately  crumble  to 
pieces  when  brought  more  fully  into  contact  with  the  truths 
of  Christianity.  But  it  may  be  predicted  that,  as  long  as 
human  nature  and  the  human  mind  remain  what  they  are,  so 
long  will  this  subjectively  evolved  creed,  though  its  doctrines 
and  its  gods  may  be  called  by  other  names,  continue  to  prevail 
in  various  parts  of  the  world,  and  its  more  philosophic  phases 
continue  to  commend  themselves  to  those  who  deny  that  there 
is  any  other  source  of  authority  in  religion  than  a  man's  own 
innate  personal  intuitions,  and  any  other  external  revelation 
than  the  book  of  Nature. 


INDEX. 


Observe — In  the  following  Index  the  numbers  indicate  the  pages.  When  more  than  one 
page  is  given  the  numbers  are  separated  by  semicolons.  A  unit  separated  from  a  pre- 
ceding number  by  a  comma  indicates  the  number  of  a  foot-note. 


Abbe  Dubois,  555. 
Abhisheka,  68. 
Abhisheka-patra  (vessel\4l2. 
Abstinence  (total),  195. 
Abu  (Mount),  349. 
Acamana,  144;  401;  407. 
A(^amaniya,  415. 
Acarya  (worship    of),    lOI  ; 

116;   117. 
Acarya-tarpana,  410. 
A-(5it,  120. 
Activity,  36. 

Acts  (live  Sakta),  192-196. 
Adam\Mr.  W.),  485. 
Adbhuta-brahmana,  398. 
Adhika-masa,  433. 
Adhishthana-deha,  28;  293,1. 
Adhyapaka,  515. 
Adibrahma-Samaj,  493 ;  526. 
Adi-Granth,  i6l ;   169. 
Aditi,  15  ;   182  ;   223. 
Aditya,  75. 
Adityas,  10. 

A-dvaita,  122  ;  139  ;  142. 
Advaita-drohinah,  86. 
Afghanistan,  4. 
Agama,  185;   (Sacred  Books 

of  the  Saivas),  89. 
Agama-prakasa,  94  ;   189,  I. 
Agastya,  421. 
Age  (Dvapara),  III  ;  (Kali), 

114;   163;     (Satya),  109; 

(Treta),  no. 
Ages  (four\  433. 
Agha-marshana,  404. 
Aghora-panthI,  87  ;  94. 
Aghoil,  87;  94. 
Agnayl,  14  ;  182. 
Agni,  5;  9;   10;   15. 
Agnihotri-Brahnians,  50. 
Agni-Narayana,  50. 
Agnishtoma,  368. 
Agra,  175;  (Fort),  272. 


Ahain-kara,  31;  32. 

Ahi,  320. 

Ahmedabad,  149. 

Ahobala,  129. 

Ahuti  (offerings),  425. 

Air,  20  ;  30. 

Airavata,  109. 

Aitareya-brahmana,  21 ;  24; 
102. 

Ajagava,  81. 

Ajmere,  529  ;  559. 

Ajnana,  35. 

Ajya,  367. 

Akali,  175. 

Akasa  (ether),  30. 

Akbar  (Emperor),  318. 

Akhay  Kumar  Datta,  492. 

Akshatah,  420. 

Akshaya-vata  (tree),  337. 

Alchemy  (Sakta  idea  of),  206. 

Allbag,  392. 

Allahabad  (camp-meeting  at), 
136. 

All  Souls'  day,  275,  3. 

Alopi  (shrine  of),  226. 

Amalaki,  339  ;  568. 

Amar-das,  164. 

Amaru-Sataka,  56,  2. 

Amba  (mother),  222. 

Ammans  (mothers),  228. 

Amrita,  108. 

Amrita-sar  (tank),  165  ;  (tem- 
ple at),  175  ;  (town),  166. 

Amrita-vapuh,  106,  I. 

Amritsar.     See  Amrita-sar. 

Amulet,  204 ;  468. 

An-adhyaya,  433. 

Anala,  82. 

Ananda,  34. 

Ananda-giri,  59. 

Ananda-tiriha,  130. 

An-anta,  323. 

Anantesvar,  130. 


Anaryan,  388,  I. 

Aiiavalopana,  356. 

Ancestor-worship,  72  ;   274. 

Andhaka,  81. 

Aiiga,  164. 

Angada,  164. 

Angarakha,  395. 

Anger  (personified),  404,  i. 

Aiigirasa,  407. 

Angushtha-niatra,  291. 

Animal-life     (sacredness    of), 

118;  316/ 
Animal-marriages,  327. 
Animal- sacrifice,     13;     369; 

393. 

Animal-worship,  72  ;   313, 

Animals  (sacred),  327;  328. 
Animishah,  106,  i. 
Animism,  339  ;  340. 
Ankana    branding),  132. 
Anna-prasana,  353;  358. 
Anna-purna,  87,  2  ;  439. 
Ansa,  142. 
Ansa-rupinl,  187. 
Antar-vedi,  282. 
Antaryamin,  123. 
Anthropomorphism,  7. 
Antyeshti,  22  ;  394;  532. 
Anumana,  39. 
An-upalabdhi,  39.  i. 
Anuradha-pura,  338. 
Anusasana-parvan,  78  ;    105. 
Anushthanika,  524. 
Amistarani,  282,  I. 
Apah  (water),  30. 
Apam-napat,  346. 
Apa-smfira,  441. 
Ap-linga,  446. 
Apsaras,  237  ;  238. 
Arani,  9;  364;  368. 
Arddha-mandapa,  447. 
Ardha-nari,  85. 
Ardha-narisa,  225. 


588 


Index. 


Arghya,404;  415. 

Argh3'a-daaa,  404, 

Arishta,  193. 

Aristotle,  105,  i. 

Arjun,  164;   165  ;  (tomb  of), 

174;   175- 
Arjiina,  63  ;   271  ;   272. 

Arka  (tree),  338. 

Arrack,  193. 

Arrows  (five,  of  Love\  200. 

Arrowy  bed,  560  ;  561. 

Artha,  38S. 

Arthapatti,  39,  I. 

Arti,  94. 

Arts  (Indian),  462  ;  468. 

Aruna,  I04,  3. 

Arya,  4. 

Arya-dharma,  20  ;   53  ;  55. 

Aryaman,  5. 

Aryans,  223  ;  244  ;  (early  re- 

_  ligion  of),  II. 

Arya-Samaj,  529. 

Aryavarta,  517  ;  531. 

Asana,  415. 

Asapura,  227. 

Asauda,  288  ;  57 r. 

Ascetics  (Aghora-panthi),  87 ; 
(Akasa  -  mukhin),  87  ; 
(Kapalka),  88  ;  Liiiga- 
vat),  88;  (SaiVa),  86-88; 
(Urdhva-bahu),  87 ;  (at 
Benares),  87,  2  ;  (at  Bom- 
bay), 91  ;  (at  Gaya),  87, 
2  ;  (Dandin),  87. 

Asclepias  Acida,  12. 

Ashes  (application  of),  400; 
(act  of  taking  up\  420. 

Asiatic  (Journal) ,  43  2  ;  5 1 1 ,  i . 

Asoka  (^tree"),  338. 

Asrama,  154. 

Asramas  (four\  362. 

Association  (Reform),  506. 

Asthi-saficaya,  284;  300;  302. 

Asthi-vilaya-tirtham  (at  Na- 
sik),  301. 

Astrologer     (family),      372  ; 

_  (village),  457. 

Asura,  235;   236;   237. 

Asvalayana,  281  ;  356  ;  358. 

Asva-medha,  8  ;    24;   329. 

Asvattha  (tree),  83  ;  335. 

Asvavatara,  114. 

Asvins,  9;   271  ;  341. 

Atala,  102,  I. 

Atharva-veda,  8  ;  9;  15;  21; 
182,  2  ;   238. 

Ati-kricchra  (fas:),  427. 

Atithi-pujana,  423,  i. 

Ativahika,  28. 

Atman   (or  Atma),  20  ;   26  ; 


27;  31,  2;  33;  34;  37; 
_  85  ;  95,  2  ;  xxi. 
Atmaram  Pandurang     (Dr.), 

_  526. 

Atmlya-Sabha  (society),  482. 
Atmosphere,  5. 
AuM,  44. 

Aurangzib  (Emperor),  166  ; 
168  ;    477  ;    (mosque   of), 

4.37- 
Aurdhva-dehikam,  293,  I. 

Aushadham,  106. 

Avadana,  368. 

Avahana     (invocation),     19  ; 

415;  418. 

Avatara,  47  ;  62  ;  63  ;  97. 

Avayava,  39. 

A-vyakta,  30. 

Axe  (Rama  with),  lio. 

Ayatana,  413. 

Ayenar,  209;  218-220;  245. 

Ayenar-appan,  2x8. 

Ayodhya  (Oudh),  no. 

Babar  (Emperor),  161. 
Babylonia,  313. 
Bicchus  (Indian),  12. 
Badava-mukhah,  106. 
Badrinath,  55,  i. 
Bagala  (or  Vagala),  I18. 
Bahadur  Shah,  168. 
Baitarani.     See  Vaitaranl. 
Bala-ji,  267. 
Balak-das,  i  79. 
Bala-Krishna,  136. 
Rala-rama,   112;   II3  ;   195; 

270 ;  323- 

Bali  (sacrifice),  25  ;  393- 

Bali  (tyrant-demon),  104,  2  ; 
no;  233. 

Bali-gayatri,  20l. 

Bali-harana  (ceremony),  329  ; 
394;  418;  421. 

Balini,  1S8. 

Balkh,  4. 

Bam-i-dunya,  3. 

Bana,  104,  2. 

Bana-linga,  69;  392;  412; 
561. 

Bauaras,  434,  I. 

Banerjea  (Dr.  K.  M.),  121  ; 
123;  322,  I. 

Banyan,  337. 

Baptism  (self),  403. 

Barber  (vdlage),  459  ;  (pro- 
fessional), 374. 

Barth  (A.),  19 ;   211,  i. 

Basaba,  88  ;   (purana),  88. 

Basil  (holy),  333. 

Bathing  (religious),  393  ;  399. 

Baval  or  Babul  (tree),  399,  i. 


Bazaars  (Indian),  463. 
Beaconsfield,Lord  (late),  88,2. 
Beatification,  41  ;   118;  234. 
BedarajT,  227. 
Bell  (adoration  oO,  414- 
Benares,    50;      272;     434; 

(Sraddha  at),  308. 
Bentinck  (Lord  W.),  490. 
Beral,  227. 

Berkeley,  33,  l;   132. 
Betrothal  (ceremony  of),  377- 
Bhadrotsab,  504. 
Bhagat,  87,  I ;    (Sikh  saints), 

162  ;  169. 
Bhagavad-glta,  63,   2;   116; 

235- 
Bhagavata-purana,  45  ;   116  ; 

141. 

Bhairava,  82  ;  85. 
Bhairavi,  188. 
Bhakta,  87,  I. 
Bhakta-mala,  1 47. 
Bhakti,  97. 
Bhakti-marga,  63. 
Bhakti-sutras,  63,  2  ;  97. 
Bhandara  (of  a  Bhuta),  248. 
Bhandarkar  (Prof.),  121,  I  ; 

528. 
Bharata,  47. 
Bharatavarshiya         Brahma- 

Samaj,  502, 
Bha>karacarya   (astronomer), 

146  ;  202. 
Bhasma-dharana,  399. 
Bhat,  169. 
Bhava,  85. 
Bhavani,  79. 
Bhikshu,  53;  55;  362. 
Bhikshukas,  386 
Bhima,  271  ;  272  ;  322. 
Bhishma,  561-564. 
Bhog,  170. 
Bhogavati,  322. 
Bhojana-vidhi,  423. 
Bhrigu,  45  ;  46;  52,  I  ;  264. 
Bhrlgu-pata  (suicide),  349. 
Bhringi,  441. 
Bhroach,  337  ;  569. 
Bhumya,  243. 
Bhur,  9 ;   102,  i  ;  403. 
Bhuta,  82  ;  241. 
Bhuta-bhavana,  83. 
Bhuta-puja,  71. 
B  mta-sthan,  249. 
Bhuta-suddhi,  197. 
Bhiita-yajna,  42 1. 
Bhuvah,  9. 
Bhuvanesvara  (temple  of),  68, 

3;  93- 

Bhuvaiiesvari,  188. 

Bhuvar,  102,  I  ;  234;  403. 


Index. 


589 


Bible  (Hindu"),  8  ;  Cof  noniis- 

tic       Brahmanism'),      52  ; 

(Saiva),  73;  (Sakta),  184; 

(Sikh),    158;    161  ;    165; 

(Vaislinava),      it6  ;       (of 

tenth  Guru),  167. 
Bickersteth  (Bishop),  516. 
Blja,  197-202. 
Ril  (leaves),  90. 
Bilva  (Vilva-tree),  336. 
Birbhum,  332. 
Bird  (Garuda),  104  ;  327. 
Birds  (of  ill-omen),  329  ;  398. 
Birdvvood  (Sir  George),  460. 
Birth-record,  372. 
Blacksmith  (village),  459. 
Blessedness  (stages  of),  10. 
Bliss  (pure),  34 ;   (method  of 

obtaining),     444 ;     (three 

conditions  of),  118. 
Boar,  109. 

Bodh-gaya.  /S'^eBuddha-Gaya. 
Body  (causal),    35;    (gross), 

28;  35;   (subtle),  28;  35. 
Bombay     (burning -ground), 

284;  302. 
Bone  -  gathering     ceremony, 

284^  300  ;  302. 
Bose  (Ananda  Mohan),  513  ; 

(Raj    Narilin),  478;   494; 

496;  500;    511,   2;   514: 

526,    I  ;     (S.    C),     295  ; 

306;  307;  429. 
Bo-tree  (Bodhi-druma),  33S, 
Bow     (miraculous),     109 ; 

(Vishnu's),  104. 
Brahma,  2;  3;   21;  25;  34; 

35 ;  43 ;  409- 

Brahma,  2  ;  3  ;   102,  I. 

Brahma,  31,  2;  36;  44; 
48  ;  65  ;  66,  i ;  95  ;  (wor- 
ship of),  555-569. 

BrahmacarT,  55;  84;  151  ; 
362. 

Brahmadi-staniba,  44,  I. 

Brahma-dvish,  237. 

Brahma-karma-pustaka,  401. 

Brahma-loka,  54 ;   291. 

Brahman  (the  God),  21  ;   26. 

Brahman.     See  Brahmans. 

Brahma-dharma,  494. 

Brahmanas,  21;  52;  (story 
in),  356  ;  (doctrine  of), 
140. 

Brahmanhood     (two    badges 

of)'  374- 
Brahmanism,   2;   3;   19-55; 

97;  (four  phases  of),  21  ; 

(fundamental  doctrine  of), 

20;    21;    (mythological), 

41-51  ;  (nomistic),  51-53; 


(pantheism  of),  224;  (phi- 
losophical), 25-41;  (ritual- 
istic), 21-24;  (theory  of), 
180. 

Brahmans,  2  ;  53  ;  (acts  and 
duties  of),  393;  394;  (A- 
yengar),  129;  (god  of), 
84  ;  (Mantra-sastris),  199  ; 
(race),  353 ;  (two  classes 
oO,  386;  (Vaidik),  386; 
(Vedic),  50 ;  (wife  of),  394. 

Brahmanyah,  106,  I. 

Brahma-randhram,  291. 

Br.ihma-Sabha,  486. 

Brahma-Samaj,  491-529 ;  (of 
hidia),  502-526;  (schism 
in),  510;   (festivals),  504. 

Brahma-sambandha,  1 36. 

Brahma-vid,  84. 

Brahma-yajiia,  393  ;  408. 

Brahmiya-Samaj,  486. 

Brahmopasana,  493. 

Brahmotsava  (festival),  510. 

Branding  (cereniony  of),  129  ; 
(Madhva),  132  ;   133. 

Brands  (Saiva),  67  ;  (Ten- 
galai),  127;  (Vaishnava), 
67;   118. 

Breath  (exercise),  402. 

Brihad-aranyaka  Upanishad, 
26  ;   29 ;   182. 

Brihas-pati,  215. 

Brishotsarga.^'f'eVrishotsarga. 

Broach.     See  Bhroach. 

Buddha,  42;  58;  64;   114; 

338. 
Buddha-Gaya,  272  ;  338. 
Buddhi,  27;  31  ;  32  ;  215,  2. 
Buddhisni,  3;  41;  58;  97;  1 14. 
Buddhists,  3. 

Buffalo  (Yama's),  I04,  3. 
Bull  (Siva's),  104,  3. 
Burial-ground,  94. 
Burnell,    Dr.    (late),    13,    I  ; 

52,  i;  56,  I  ;  62,  I  ;   247. 
Burning-ground,    279;   284; 

302. 
Butter  (clarified),  6. 

C'aitanya  (life  of),  138;  139; 

140;  142  ;_476;  515. 
C'aitanya-daritamrita,  1 44. 
C'akra,  103. 

C'akravartI  (Nilambar),  138. 
Caldwell  (Bishop),  251. 
Camp-meeting,  261. 
C'amparanya  (forest),  134. 
C'amunda,  18S,  I  ;    228. 
Candalas,  422. 
C'andana  (sandal),  144  ;  308  ; 

415- 


C'andrn,  108. 

C'andrayana-vrata  (fast), 427. 

C'aranamrita,  137. 

Car-festival('Jagan-nath),447. 

Carpenter  (M iss  Mary),47S. I . 

Carpenter  (village),  459. 

Cashmere,  I  ;  4. 

Caste  (institution  of),  17; 
18;  53;  128,  I  ;  (in  rela- 
tion to  trades  and  indus- 
tries), 452-474;  487,  I  ; 
(abolition  of,  among  Sikhs), 
167  ;  (definition  of),  471  ; 
(kingly  and  military),  98  ; 
no;  (subordination  of), 
139  ;  (temporary  suppres- 
sion of),  192,  I  ;  (tyranny 
of),  298  ;    472  ;    (equality 

°0'  377 ;  (abolition  of), 
499. 

Cat  (sacred),  328.  ' 

Cat-hold  theory,  125. 

C'aturmasya  (sacrifice),  368. 

C'aturthi-karma,  354. 

C'aula,  353  ;  359. 

Cause  (material),  119. 

Caves  (Buddhistic),  271. 

Census,  452  ;  525. 

Ceremonies  (at  Linga  Shrine), 
89-91  ;  (domestic),  52  ; 
(funeral  and  Sraddha),  288; 
(over  a  corpse),  297  ; 
(Saiva),  89-94  ;  (name- 
giving),  370;  (Sakta),  192- 
196  ;  (.Sraddha),  284  ; 
(Tambila),  248. 

Ceylon,  245;  313. 

Chamar,  179. 

Chanda-pur,  323. 

C'handas,  7. 

C'handogya  Upanishad,    26  ; 

34- 
Chapal,  148. 

Charms,  197-202  ;   254. 

C'hathI  (goddess),  229. 

Chatisgarh,  179. 

Chatterjea    (Nagendra-nath), 

478. 
Child-marriages,   385  ;    387  ; 

500. 
Child-widows,  3S8. 
Children's  attire,  397. 
China,  313. 
C'hinna-mastaka,  188. 
Christianity,  3,  and  Vaishna- 

vism  (compared),  119. 
Churel  (demon),  229. 
Circles  (holy),  196. 
Ciicumambulation,    68,      2 ; 

145;   334;   348;  415- 
C'it,  34;   120. 


590 


Index, 


C'it-pavan     (tribe     of   Brah- 
mans),  271,  I  ;  311. 

C'itra-gupta,  292  ;  425. 

C'itrahuti,  425. 

C'itra-kuta,  147;   349. 

C'itrinT  (woman),  389. 

C'itta-vritti-nirodha,  4^^. 

Class  (Smarta),  95  ;  (Saivas), 
95  ;   (Vaishnava),  95. 

Classes  (four  distinct),  53  ; 
(three  principal  Hindu),  95. 

Cleanliness,  88. 

Club  fMusala),  I12  ;  (Vish- 
nu's), 103;   104. 

Coiling-folk,  324. 

Colebrooke,  417,  2. 

Collet  (MissS.  G.),  475,  I. 

Colombo,  247. 

Commerce  (Indian  and  Euro- 
pean compared),  454. 

Conch-shell,  92  ;  103  ;  104  ; 
109;  412  ;  413. 

Conjivaram  =  Kanjivaram. 

Continuity  (law  of),  330. 

Converts  (Christian),  i. 

Cooking  (of  food),  128  ;  423. 

Council  (village),  456. 

Courtezans  (Indian),  451. 

Cow  (of  plenty),  108;  (sa- 
crednessof),  172;  (worship 
of),  317;  318. 

Cowell    (Prof.),    119;    122; 

123;   133- 
Cowherdesses,  136. 

Cowman  (village),  459. 

Cows  (sacrificed),  195. 

Creation  (description  of),  13. 

Creator,  45. 

Creed  (Aryan),  53  ;  (Brah- 
man), 523;  (Hindu),  37; 
(of  modern  Theism),  503. 

Cremation,  281;  299;  518; 
519,  I  ;  569-572. 

Crocodiles  (sacred),  328. 

Crosses  (sacred),  90. 

Crows  (sacred),  329. 

C'udel  (demon),  229. 

Dadu,  178;   268. 
Dadu-panthi,  178. 
Daityas,  233  ;  238. 
Daiva,  235. 

Daivika  (Sraddha),  305. 
Dakini,  189. 
Daksha  (sage),  82. 
Dakshiria  (gilt),  308. 
Dakshina-margi,  185. 
Damaru,  81. 
Damdama,  168. 
Danavas,  233  ;   238. 
JDancing  (religious),  141;  451; 


(demoniacal),    246  ;    247  ; 
248. 
Danda,  xxi  note. 
Danda-dhara,  290. 
Dandin  (Saiva  ascetic),  87- 
Dara-ganj,  323. 
Darbar  Sahib,  1 75. 
Darbha  Sraddha,  306. 
Darkness  (indifference),  31. 
Darsana,  61,  I  ;   152. 
Daruni  ratrih,  204. 
Darvi  (spoon),  420. 
Dasa  (slave),  358. 
Dasa-hara  (festival),  329. 
Dasa-nami  Dandins,  87. 
Dasangula,  414,  i. 
Dasa-ratha,  1 10. 
Dasya,  141. 
Dasyus,  237. 

Datta  (Akhay  Kumar),  492. 
Dattatreya,  205 ;    267. 
Dawn,  9  ;   (goddess),  182. 
Dawns  (personified),  407. 
Dayabhaga,  286,  I. 
Dayananda    Sarasvati,    529- 

531- 

Dead  (the  condition  of),  274. 

Death,  274  ;  (present  Hindu 

creed  regarding),  291. 
Debendra-nath  Tagore,  491  ; 

498;  514;  531- 
Dehii,  265. 

Deification,  258 ;  (Chinese), 
262  ;  (local),  263. 

Deities  (favourite  presiding), 
50;  (tutelary),  209-229. 

Demon-dancing,  246  ;   247. 

Demon  and  devil  (not  con- 
vertible terms),  231. 

Demon-festivals,  247. 

Demon-host  (lord  of),  215  ; 
218;   (three  classes),  241. 

Demon-kings  (seven),  236. 

Demonophobia,  210. 

Demons  (character  of),  234; 
(corporeal  organization  ot), 
235  ;  (destroyed  by  Vish- 
nu), 104,  2  ;  (numbers  of), 
234;  (orders  of  j,  213;  (two 
great  divisions  of),  236. 

Demon-shrines,  243. 

Demon-worship,  71  ;  230- 
256. 

Dennehy  (General),  534. 

Dervishes,  141,  i. 

Deshmukh  (Gopal  Hari),  94, 
2  ;  189,  I  ;  200,  2  ;  208  ; 
311;  401,  2. 

Destroying-god,  9. 

Dev  (deva,  god),  272,  I. 

Deva-cakra,  196. 


Deva-dasT,  451. 
Devaki,  ill;  112;   113, 
Deva-puja,  394;  411  ;  573. 
Devas,  4. 

Devata-pujana,  394,  i. 
Deva-tarpana,  409. 
DevayanI,  194,  i  ;  214. 
Devi,  185. 

Devil   and   demon    (not  con- 
vertible terms),  231. 
Devil-dancing,  246;  247;  248. 
Devil-region,  245. 
Devil-worship,  244;   251. 
Devotee  (at  Bombay),  92. 
Dhan,  117. 
Dhanna,  169. 
Dhanus,  109. 
Dhanush-koti,  444;  445. 
Dhanvantari,  108;  422. 
Dharma,  290 ;  388. 
Dharma-raja,  290. 
Dharma-sala  (clergy  asylum), 

153. 

Dharma-sastra,  51. 

Dharma-tattva,  510,  I  ;  513. 
Dher,  249  ;   250. 
Dhol-pur  (ceremony  at),  573. 
Dhoti,  395. 
Dhrita-rashtra,  322. 
Dhiimavati,  188. 
Dhundhi-raja,  218,  I. 
Dhundhiraj   Vinayak    Sudas, 

39  2- 

Dhupa,  415. 

Dhurjati,  83. 

Diagrams  (mystical),  203. 

Dig-ambara,  83. 

Digby  (Mr.),  480. 

Diksha,  61  ;   117  ;   191. 

Dinanath,  155. 

Dining  (ceremony  of),  423. 

Dipa,  415. 

Directory  (Theistic),  494. 

Disintegration  (act  of),  74;  75. 

Dissolver,  44. 

Diti,  182. 

Divah  (festival),  432;   529. 

Dnyanesvara,  266. 

Dnyano-ba,  266. 

Doctrine  (Vedanta),  53 ; 
(Hindu,  various  phases  of), 
71  ;  72  ;  (four  principles 
of  theistic),  495. 

Dog  (sacred),  328. 

Dog-demon,  243. 

Dogs  (watch),  289. 

Dola-yatra  (festival),  430. 


V 


Ancient 


Domestic       rules 

Hindu),  353. 
Domestic    worship    (Hindu), 

352. 


Index, 


591 


Drakshii,  192. 
DrJikshHramesvara,  446,  5. 
Draupadi,  271. 
Draupadi- Amman,  271. 
Driivana-bana,  200. 
Dravidians,  244. 
Dravya,  40. 
Dress   (of  Indian  household), 

395- 
DrishadvatI  (river),  51. 

Drishti-dosha,  12S. 

Drisyam,  119. 

Dualism,  37. 

Duality  (in  the  divine  unity), 

29  ;     (doctrine    of),    1 30  ; 

131  ;   (first  dawn  of),  181  ; 

(enunciated),  182  ;   183. 
Dubois,  202,  I. 

Duff  (Dr.),  316;  485. 
Durga,    72  ;    188,   I  ;    185  ; 

197;   19^- 
Durga-puja,  197;   198  ;  431. 

Dilrva  (grass),  338. 

Duryodhana,  322. 

Duties  (six  daily),  158,  1. 

Dvaita,  130. 

Dvapara  (age),  ill  ;  433. 

Dvaraka-nath    Tagore,   482  ; 

485. 
Dvarika,  55,  i  ;  113;  400,  2. 

Dvi-ja,  361. 

Dwarf,  no. 

Dyaus  (heaven),  182. 

Dyaus,    Zeus     (worship    of), 

223. 

Dyaus-pitar,  Jupiter  (worship 

'of},_223. 

Dynasties  (warrior),  43, 
Dyu  (or  Dyaus),  8. 
Dyupitar,  4. 

Ear  (sacredness  of),  405,  2. 
Ear-boring,  360 ;  376. 
Early    Ideas     (by    Anaryan), 

388,  I. 
Earth    (Prithivl    or    Bhumi), 

30;   182. 
Earth-spirit,  243. 
Egypt,  313. 

Ekam-eva-advitlyam,  34. 
Ekamranatha,  446. 
Ekoddishtam  (Sraddha),  305. 
Elements  (five  subtle),  30. 
Elephant    (Indra's),    104,   3; 

(mythical),  108. 
Elephanta  (caves  of),  74»  i  '■> 

82;  85,  I  ;   236,  I. 
Elephant-worship,  328. 
Ella-amman,  228. 
Ellora     (caves    of),    84,     2  ; 

(temple  at),  71,  i. 


Entity,  2 ;   29. 

Entities  (tri-unity  of),  34. 

Envelopes    (three    corporeal), 

35. 
Epicureans  of  India,  135. 

Epithets  (of  Siva  and  Vishnu), 
105  ;   106;   107;   239. 

Eras  (four  Hindu),  433. 

Ether  (Akasa),  30. 

Evil  eye,  253  ;   254. 

Evil  (impersonations  of),  238. 

Involution  (doctrine  of),  43. 

Existence,  34. 

Exercisers  (^professional),  241 ; 
246. 

P'air  (religious),  429. 
Faith  (doctrine  of),  63, 1 ;  97. 
Fakirs,  87,  I. 
Family-religion  (Hindu),  352; 

370- 
Fasting    (Hindu    powers    of), 

426. 

Fasts  (special  Hindu),  427. 

Fatihah,  403. 

Fergusson  (Mr.),  313;   330. 

Festival  (Purnima),  151  ;  152. 

Festivals  (of  the  left-hand 
worshippers),  204 ;  (time 
oO,  431  ;  (special),  428  ; 
(Brahma-Samaj),  504. 

Fetishism,  340 ;   341. 

Fever-gayatri,  201. 

Fig-tree  (sacred),  9  ;   399. 

Figures  (twenty-four  mysti- 
cal), 406. 

Fingers  (consecration  of),  405. 

Fire,  10;  20;  (god  of),  420  ; 
(Tejas  or  Jyotis),  30. 

Fire-god,  9;   15. 

Fires  (sacred),  281  ;  282. 

Fire-worship,  2  ;   346  ;  364. 

Fish,  107;  (sacred),  328; 
(Varuna's"),  104,  3. 

Fish-gayatri,  201. 

Flood,  107. 

Food  (secrecy  in  preparation 
of),  128. 

Fortune-tellers,  202. 

Foulkes  (Mr.),  440,  3. 

P'ree-will  (doctrine  of),  125. 

Fruits  (sacred),  339. 

Funeral  (and  Sraddha  cere- 
monies compared),  285  ; 
(ceremonies),  278  ;  (cere- 
monies in  Vedic  times), 
279;  (Hindii),  276  ;  (of  a 
child),  287. 

Funeral-pile,  299. 

Funerals  (expense  of),  278. 

Furniss  (Rev.  J.),  232,  3. 


Gadil,  103. 

Gadada,  150. 

Gadi  (chair),  135. 

Gana,  85. 

Gana-pati,  77  ;   211. 

Ganapatim  gananam,  413. 

Ganapatyas,  59. 

Ganas,  79- 

Gandaki  (river),  69  ;   347. 

Gandha,  66  ;  415. 

Gandharvas,  237  ;   238. 

Gandiva,  272. 

Ganesa,  48;   62;    79;    392; 

(temple),    440  ;      (worship 

of),  211-217. 
Ganesa      and     Subrahmaiiya 

(contrasted),  215. 
Ganesa  -  caturthi       (festival), 

431. 
Ganga-putra,  347  ;   570. 

Gangashtaka,  399. 

Ganges,  80  ;   295  ;  347. 

Garbha  (sanctuary),  445. 

Garbhadhana,  353  ;  354. 

Garbha-griham,  440. 

Gargya,  407. 

Garpagari,  241. 

Garuda  (vehicle),  65  ;  (bird), 

104;   288  ;   321  ;  327. 
Garuda-purana,    288  ;     293  ; 

298;   301. 
Gati  (refuge),  260. 
Gaudi,  193. 
Gauri,  80,  2. 
Gautama,  42. 
Gautamlya  (Tantra),  207. 
Gay  a,  8 1  ;  309. 
Gayatrl,     19  ;     342  ;     403  ; 

(translation  of),   19;   361: 

(upadesa),  362. 
Gayatri-japa,  406. 
Gayatri  Mantras,  20o;   201. 
Gayawals,  310. 
Gems  (magical),  46S. 
Genesis  (viii.  21),  12,  I. 
Ghana  (recitation),  409. 
Ghanta  (bell),  144. 
Ghanta-mandapa,  447- 
Ghanta-mudra,  414. 
Ghasl-das,  179. 
Ghat     (at     Benares).     435  ; 

(NimTollah),  518;  519,  1. 
Ghataka,  377. 

Ghose  (Pratapa-dandra),  197. 
Girgaum  House,  381. 
Girls  (dancing  1,450;  (Indian). 

.^87. 
Girnar  (hill),  349. 
Gita-govinda,  114;   146. 
Gobhila,  354,  i. 
Godavari,  295. 


592 


Index. 


Goddess-worship,  180—196. 

Gods  (ancient  Vedic),  182; 
(animal  attendants  of),  104, 
3;  (Brahman),  44;  (five 
Hindu),  392  ;  (number  of), 
417,  l;  (offerings  to  all 
the),  420  ;  (structure  of 
the  bodies  of),  28  ;  (wor- 
ship of  the),  411. 

Gokuia,  113. 

Golden  temple,  436. 

Goloka,  T18  ;  291, 

Gomeda  (gem),  468. 

Go-mukha,  348. 

Gomukhl  (bag),  92  ;  406. 

Goodness,  36. 

Gopal  Hari  Deshmukh,  94, 
2  ;   189,  I ;   200,  2  ;  208. 

Gopatha-brahmana,  21. 

GopT-candana,  67  ;  400,  2. 

Gopis  (cowherdesses),  1 13; 
136. 

Gorakhpur,  158. 

Goreh  (Rev.  Nehemiah),  373, 
l;  422,  2;   536. 

Gosains,  87;   135  ;   142. 

Gosainji,_l35, 

Goshthl-Sraddha,  305. 

Gospel  (St.  John's),  419,  2. 

Gotroccara  (ceremony),  407. 

Gough  (Prof.),  37,  I ;  119; 
122;  130;  131  ;  133. 

Govardhana  (mountain),  113. 

Govind  (bible  of),  167;  (cha- 
racter of),  168;  (shrine  of), 
175;  176. 

Govinda,  405. 

Govind-Sinh,  164;  166;  167. 

Grace  (before  dinner),  424. 

Grain  (parched),  192  ;   193. 

Grama-devata,  209. 

Grant  (Sir  A.),  265. 

Granth  or  Grantha  (bible  of 
Sikhs),  158;  165;  (ar- 
rangement of),  170;  (pas- 
sages from),  171  ;  (teach- 
ing of),  172;  (worship  of), 
172  ;   177. 

Graphic,  255,  I. 

(jrasses  (sacred),  338. 

Greece,  313. 

Grihastha  (householder),  138 ; 
150;  362;  386. 

Grihinl,  397. 

Grihyat;ni,  365. 

Grihya-Sutras,  28 1. 

Groves  (sacred),  332. 

Guhyah,  106,  I. 

Gujarat,  113  ;   225. 

Gunas,  30  ;  31  ;  36  ;    163. 

Gupta  (protected),  358, 


Guru,  352;  (derivation  of), 
161  ;   (Vaishnava),  142. 

Guru-mukhl  (alphabet),  164; 
170. 

Gurus,  61  ;  (ten  chief  Sikh), 
164. 

Haas  (Dr.),  363,  i. 

Hadakai,  227. 

Hair  (cutting  off  the),  359; 
(the  pride  of  women),  375. 

Hansa,  104,  3. 

Han  Tan  Hien,  262. 

Hanuman,  48;  lli;  326; 
445  ;  (temple  of),  65,  2  ; 
(worship  of),  220-222. 

Hapta  Hendu,  7. 

Hara,  82. 

Hare  (David),  491,  I. 

Har-Govind,  164. 

Hari  (name),  522;  (temple), 
175;   176;  (bol),  297. 

Hari-das,  142. 

Haridra-Ganapati,  2 1 7. 

Hari-Hara,  65. 

Hari-jana,  269. 

Hari-Krishna,  269. 

Haris-candra,  24. 

Hari-vansa  (chap,  clxxxi),  d^. 

Har-Kisan,  164. 

Har-Rai,  164. 

Hastini,  389. 

Hang's  Rig-veda,  102. 

Haya-gardabhih,  107. 

Head-coverings,  395. 

Headman  (duties  of),  456. 

Heaven,  22  ;  23  ;  232  ; 
(Dyaus),  182  ;  (Indra's), 
13;  49;  (Krishna's),  118; 
(Vaishnava),  70  ;  (Vish- 
nu's), 118;  (Saiva),  70; 
(five  heavens),  102  ;  403. 

Heaven's  gate,  449. 

Heber  (Bishop),  149. 

Hell  (twenty-one),  127,  I  ; 
232. 

Heramba,  218. 

Hercules  (Indian),  112. 

Hermaphrodite,  183. 

Hero-worship,  71  ;   257-273. 

Hetu,  39. 

Hills  (sacred),  349. 

Himalaya,  4. 

Hindu  Religious  Sects,  160,  I. 

Hindu-I,  170. 

Hinduism,  2  ;  3  ;  54-72  ; 
(compared  to  banian-tree), 
98  ;  (Sakta  form  of),  180  ; 
186  ;  (Theism  of),  224. 

Hindus  (naturally  religious), 
100  ;  (as  they  are),  296,  I. 


Hingraj,  227. 

Hiouen  Thsang,  337. 

Hiranya-garbha,  14  ;  35  ;  44. 

Hiranya-kasipu  (tyrant),  109. 

Hiranyaksha  (demon),  109. 

Hiranya-Sraddha,  306. 

History  (absence  of),  38. 

Holi  (festival),  430. 

Homa  (ceremony),  299;  394; 
(sacrifice),  367;  576. 

Homage  (acts  of),  415. 

Homa-sala,  365  ;  411. 

Hongi,  273,  I. 

Horoscope,  372  ;   373. 

Horse  (high-eared),  108. 

Horse-sacrifice,  8  ;   24;  329. 

Horses  (clay),  219;   220. 

House  (arrangement  of),  391. 

Householder's  wife,  397. 

Hrishikesa,  405. 

Human  life  (three  great  ob- 
jects of),  388. 

Hunter's  Annals  of  Rural 
Bengal,  332,  1. 

Hutasani  (festival),  430. 

Hymn  (creation),  404. 

Hymns,  7  ;  8  ;  (to  the  Vedic 
triad),  15  ;  16;  (character 
of  Vedic),  18. 

Hymn-veda,  8. 

Ida,  5. 

Idar  (temple),  569. 

Idol-crown,  449. 

Idols,  123;   (artificial),  70. 

Ikshu,  193. 

Illecchida     Nema     (festival), 

247. 
Illusion,  27;   36;   37;  41. 
Images  (sanctity  of),  69. 
Implements        (agricultural), 

456  ;      (five    destructive), 

418;   (for  shaving),  459. 
Inca,  273,  I. 
Incarnation   (Hindu    doctrine 

of),  62  ;  63. 
Incarnations  (Vishnu's),  107- 

116;   115;   315- 
Incense,  415. 
India's  Mother,  513. 
Indian  Antiquary,  265. 
Indian  Mirror,  509;  512;  513. 
Indian  Wisdom,  13;   112. 
Indifference,  36. 
Indische  Studien,  363,  i. 
Indra,  9  ;   10;   12  ;    16  ;  63; 

271. 
Indrani,  14  ;   182  :   188, 
Indriya-sparsa      (ceremony), 

406. 
Influenza,  227. 


Index. 


59. 


Initiation,  117  ;  360;   377. 
Instruments   (musical),    145  ; 

381  ;  450. 
Interchangeableness  (of  Indian 

religious  beliefs),  159. 
Isa  (or  Isana),  85. 
Isa  Upanishad,  26. 
Ishtah,  106,  I. 
Ishta-devata,  xiv  ;  370;  435. 
Islam,  3. 

Islands  (seven  circular),  232,1. 
Isopanishad,  487,  I. 
Isvara,  35  ;  85  ;  89;   119. 
Itihasa,  41  ;  (verses),  287. 

Jada,  132. 
Jagad-amba,  185. 
Jagan-mata,  185. 
Jagannath  (temple  of),  59,  I  ; 

139;  447;   (car  of),  118. 
Jagannath-purl,  55,  i;  447. 
Jag-jlvan-das,  179. 
Jahangir  (Emperor),  166. 
Jaimini,  198. 
Jalesvara,  201, 
Jamadagni,  no;  421. 
Jambukesvara     (Siva),    445 ; 

(temple),  446. 
Jambu-tree,  445. 
Janah  (heaven),  102,  I  ;  403. 
Janamejaya,  321. 
Janam-sakhi,  162, 
Janar  (heaven),  403. 
Jaiigamas,  88. 
Janilri,  182. 
Janma-patra,  372. 
Janmashtami,  113,  2. 
Jap-ji,  170. 
Japu,  170. 

Jata  (recitation),  409. 
Jata-karman,  353  ;  357. 
Jatavedas,  420. 
Jati  (Jat),  caste,  471. 
Jati-mala,  207,  I- 
Jaya-deva  (poet),  146. 
Jetalpur,  149. 
Jew^el      (miraculous),      108; 

(Vishnu's),  104. 
Jewelry  (Indian),  396  ;  466. 
Jiva  (or  Jivatman),  26  ;  27  ; 

28. 
Jivan-mukti,  206. 
Jivatman,  37  ;  40, 
Jiian-marga,  63. 
Jnana  (knowledge),  27  ;  140. 
Jnana-prakasa,  179. 
Jnana-vapT,  437. 
Jnanesvara,  266. 
Jneyam,  49. 

John  (St.,  Gospel,  i.  l),  419,2. 
Journal  (Asiatic), 432;  511,  i. 


Jupiter,  4. 

Jvara,  201. 

Jyotisha    (Jyoshi,    or  JoshI), 

372. 
Jyotishtoma,  32;  368. 

Kablr,    99,    I  ;     148  ;     169; 

476  ;  (life  of),  158  ;  (say- 
ings and  precepts  of),  160  ; 
(twelve  disciples  of),  178. 

Kabir-panthis,  160. 

Kabir-Var  (tree),  337. 

Kaca,  194,  I. 

Kadambarl,  193. 

Kadru,  233;  322. 

Kah,  106,  I. 

Kailasa,  70  ;  78  ;  84  ;  103  ; 
291 ;  447. 

Kaira,  269. 

Kaka-bali  (ceremony),  329  ; 
421. 

Kalahasta,  441. 

Kalansa-rupini,  187. 

Kala-ratri,  204. 

Kala-rupini,  187. 

Kalas  (of  Moon),  343. 

Kalasa   (vessel),  412;    413; 

513- 

Kali  (age),  52  ;  1 14. 

Kali  (goddess),  25  ;  79  ;  187  ; 

393  ;  (description  of),  189  ; 

(worship  of),  185. 
Kall-caturdasI,  204. 
Kalidasa^  45  ;  333,  i. 
Kali  Ghat  (temple),  431. 
Kali-puja  (festival),  431. 
Kaliya  (serpent),  113. 
Kali-yuga    (age),   60;    163; 

398 ;  433. 

Kalka,  227. 

Kalkatti,  250. 

Kalki,  114. 

Kalkin,  1 14. 

Kalkuda,  250. 

Kallurti,  250. 

Kallyata  (festival),  247. 

Kalmucks,  313. 

Kalpa  (age),  82. 

Kalpa-druma,  332. 

Kama,  388. 

Kamac^T,  228. 

Kama-deva,  ,83  ;   114;    I15; 

200;  447. 
Kama-dhenu,  108;  318. 
Kamiikhya  (Tantra),  207. 
Kamalatmika,  188. 
Kamandalu,  xxi,  note. 
Kamya  (Sraddha),  305. 
Kanara,  250. 
Kaiici-puram(  =  Kanjivaram), 

119. 

Q  q 


Kanjivaram,  124;  446. 
Kansa,  104,  2  ;   in  ;  113, 
Kantaka  (a  thorn),  191,  I. 
Kanthi  (rosary),  117;    135. 
Kantimati  (Parvati),  447. 
Kapiila,  367. 
Kapjilika,  59. 
Kapardin,  77. 
Kiirakal,  250. 
Kiirana-sarira,  35  ;  36. 
Kara-nyasa,  405. 
Karma  (works),  140. 
Karma-marga,  63. 
Karma-nasa  (river),  348. 
Karman,  22. 

Karmaiiga  (Sraddha),  305. 
Karna,  273. 
Karta,  89. 
Karttika-purnima     (festival), 

432. 
Karttikeya,  48  ;   211  ;  213. 
Karya,  89. 
Kashmir,  312  ;  313. 
Kasi,  434. 
Kasyapa,  104,3;  233;  322; 

421. 
Kasyapa  (sage),  123,  I. 
Katak,  139. 
Katerl,  228. 
Katha  Upanishad,  26. 
Kathopanishad,  121,  I  ;    528. 
Katwa,  179. 
Kaula  (Upanishad),  185. 
KaulesI,  188. 
KaumodakI,  103. 
Kaupinesvara,  50. 
Kaustubha,  104  ;   108. 
Kavacas  (or  Amulets),  204. 
Kaveri  (river),  119  ;  347. 
Kayastha  (caste),  292,  I. 
Kedarnath,  56. 
Kerala  (Malabar),  55. 
Kesanta,  353  ;  359. 
Keshab    Chandar   Sen,   496  ; 

497;     499;     505;     510; 
512-523;  525  ;  526. 

Ketu,  344. 

Khadira,  367;  535. 

Khalsa,  167. 

Khande-Rao,  266. 

Khando-ba,  266. 

Khatijana,  328. 

Kharjuri,  192. 

Khatvaiiga,  81. 

Khela,  163. 

Khodiyar   (shrine   of),     225  ; 

226. 

Kim,  106,  I. 

Kimidins,  237. 

Kimpurushas,  238. 

King  (deification  of),  259. 


594 


Index. 


Kinnaras,  238. 
Kirata,  84. 
Kirtana,  264. 
Kistna  (river),  348. 
Kitchen  (Indian),  128. 
Knowledge      (salvation     by), 

63- 

Koli,  193. 

Kolla  (festival),  249. 

Konarak,  343. 

Kookas.    See  Kukas. 

Krama  (recitation),  84;  409. 

Kravyad,  237. 

Krishna,  47  ;  98;  111-114; 
116;  259;  (worship  of), 
144;  145;  447;  (life  of), 
112  ;  (miracles  of),  113  ; 
(repetition  of  name  of), 
143  [  (sons  of),  114. 

Krishna  (Kistna),  295  ;  348. 

Krishna-das,  144. 

Krishna-deva,  134. 

Krishna-janmashtami,  430. 

Krishna-nagar,  569. 

Kristo-das  Pal,  519,  I. 

Krita  (age),  433. 

Krita-jna,  329. 

Krittikas  (six),  213. 

Kshatriyas,  53  ;  (god  of  the), 
84. 

Kshaura  (shaving),  312;  353; 

359- 
Kubera,  238;   268. 

Kuber-bhaktas,  269. 
Kuch  Behar  (Maharaja,  mar- 
riage of),  512  ;   518,  I. 
Kukas  (sect  of  Sikhs),  268. 
Kularnava  (Tantra),  207. 
Kulluka,  184. 
Kulumandl-amman,  228. 
Kumara,  214. 
Kumara-sambhava,  45. 
Kumbhaka,  402. 
Kumbha-Konam,  348. 
Kunda,  417. 
Kufikuma,  91. 
Kunte  (Mr.  M.  M.),  366,  2. 
Kunti,  271. 
Kupa-kacchapa,  329. 
Kupa-manduka,  329. 
Kiirma,  108. 
Kurma-purana,  74- 
Kurukulya,  188,  I. 
Kusa,  48, 1 ;  (grass),296;  338. 
Kush  (Hindu),  3. 
Kuvera,  59;  79;  238. 

Laghima,  427. 
Lahana,  164. 
Lake-temple,  165. 
Lakshmana,  47. 


Lakshmi,  14;  103;  108; 
182. 

Lakshml-Narayana  (temple 
of),  151;   184. 

Lamps  (feast  of),  432  ;  529. 

Lares  (Indian),  392. 

Lares,  425,  1, 

Larvae,  274,  I. 

Laukikagni,  287. 

Lava,  48,  I. 

Law-books  and  Law  Schools, 
51;  52;  2S6,  I. 

Leader  (religious),  10 1. 

Leaves  (Bilva),  68;  90;  (as 
plates),  461. 

Lecture  (by  Keshab),  515. 

Left-hand  worshippers,  185. 

Lemures,  274,  I. 

Lila  (sport),  43;   138. 

Linga  (body),  28  ;  (phallus), 
33;  68;  70;  83;  90; 
447;  (typical),  224;  (num- 
ber of),    78,    I  ;    (worship 

.of),  439;  440;  567;  568. 
Lingaits,  88. 

Linga-purana,  65  ;   74. 

Liiiga-sarira,  35  ;  297. 

Liquor       (spirituous),     108  ; 

112;   193;   194. 

Liquors  (twelve  Sakta),  192. 

Lithuania,  313. 

Loango  (king  of),  273,  I. 

Lokas  (seven),  102,  I. 

Lotus-flower,  103;  338. 

Love  (god  of),  83. 

Lubbock  (Sir  John),  273,  I  ; 

313;  330;  340;  372,  I- 
Luther  (Martin),  138;  139  ; 
162. 

Lyall  (Sir  A.),  262. 

Macdonald  (Rev.  K.),  478, 1. 
Machinery,  470. 
Madagascar  (bishop  of),  274, 

3- 
Madhava,  405. 

Madhu,  104,  2. 

Madhuka,  193. 

Madhurya,  1 41. 

Madhva,  96  ;  130  ;  476. 

Madhvika  (plant),  193. 

Madhyahna-sandhya,  407. 

Madras  (Missionary  Record), 
179. 

Madura  (temple  of),  58,  I  ; 
65  ;  79, 1  ;  442 ;  (town), 
182,  2  ;  219  ;  228;  272. 

Madya,  192. 

Magar,  158. 

Maghotsab,  504. 

Mahah  (heaven),  102,  I ;  403. 


Mahabalesvar,     216;     217; 

348- 
Maha-bharata,  41 :  47  ;  63  ; 

116;    232, J  ;    241  ;  271- 

273;  292;  321;  389. 

Mahabhashya,  198  ;  419,  2  ; 

519.1- 
Maha-bhuta,  31,  2. 

Maha-cakra,  196. 

Maha-deva,  78  ;  '^^. 
Maha-devI  (manifestations  of), 

186. 
Maha-Ganapati,  2  i  7. 
Maha-kala,  82. 
Maha-krodhah,  107. 
Maha-lakshmi,  385. 
Maha-mandapa,  447- 
Maha-matris,  188. 
Maha-mayah,  106. 
Maha-nirvana  (Tantra),  207. 
Mahant,  87,  I. 
Maha-pralaya,  179. 
Mahar  (heaven),  403. 
Maharaja     (title    of),    135; 

(homage  to),  136  ;  137. 
Maha-ratri,  204. 
Maha  -  Siva  -  ratri     (festival), 

430. 
Mahatala,  102,  I. 
Maha-tapah,  83. 
Mahatma,  xii,  I. 
Mahatmya,  433. 
Maha-vidya  (ten),  187. 
Mahayajiia  (five),  411. 
Maha-yogI,  83. 
Mahidhara,  405. 
Mahisha,  104,  3. 
Mahishasur  (demon),  431. 
Maine  (Sir  Henry),  507. 
Maintenance,  74 ;  75. 
Maireya,  193. 
Maithuna,  192. 
Ma-karas  (five),  192,  2. 
Makara-sankranti,  428. 
Mallari,  266. 
Mallasura,  266. 
Malwa,  168. 

Man  (divine  and  human),  235. 
Manas,  27;   31  ;  32;  40. 
Manasi-piija,  524. 
Milnavas,  51. 
Mandapa,  440. 
Mandara  (mountain),  108. 
Mandir   (or  Mandira),    151,- 

392;  411  ;  513. 
Manes,  274,  I. 
Mangalor  (district),  247. 
Maiigal  SinhRamgharia,  175- 
Mango  (tree),  446. 
Mani-karnika,  308  ;  438. 
Mani-pur,  322,  2;  329,  I. 


Index, 


595 


Man-lion,  109. 
Mansa,  192. 

Mantra,  7  ;     8  ;     (importance 
of),    61  ;     (Silkta),    197  ; 
(eight  -  syllabled),       297  ; 
(number  of  Mantras),  199  ; 
(efficacy  of),  199  ;  transla- 
tions of),  200  ;   197-202. 
Mantra-pushpa,  415. 
Mantra-sastri      (power     of), 
201  ;      202 ;     (decline     of 
power  of),  20S. 
Mantra-vid,  84. 
Manu,     30;    52,     i;     107; 
(Book  I.  5),  30  ;    (1.  49), 
331;     (II.  60),  406;  (III. 
68),  418,  3;  (III.  70.81), 
421;    (III.   84-93),  417; 
(III.  237),  285;  (IV.  21), 
421;    (IV.  26),  368;  (IV. 
I73),287,  i;(IV.88-9o), 
232;    (V.  68),  287;    (VI. 
10),  368;    (VI.  20),  428; 
(Seventh),  237  ;  (VII.  41), 
241;   (IX.  96),  334;  387; 
(IX.  317.  319),  260;    (X. 
75),    394,    i;     (XI.    84), 
260;  (XI.  2 16),  428;  (XI. 
243.  244),  235  ;  (code  of), 
51  ;  52  ;   (doctrine  of),  53  ; 
(teaching  of),  129. 
Manushya-yajfia,  423,  I. 
Man-worship,  71 ;   273,  I. 
Manyu,  404,  I. 
Maraki,  227. 
Margah,  106. 
Mari-amman,  226  ;   228. 
Marjana     (sprinkling),    403  ; 

404. 
Marjara-nyaya,  125. 
Mark  (sectarial),  66  ;  (nilma), 
66  ;  (pundra),  66  ;  (tilaka), 
66;  (tri-pundra),  66;  (ur- 
dhva-pundra),    67 ;      (SrT- 
vatsa),    103;     113;    Svas- 
tika),    104,    I  ;     (sacred), 
400. 
Markandeya,  441. 
Markata-nyaya,  125. 
MarkI,  227. 

Markings  (religious),  400. 
Marks    (Saiva),   66;  (Vaish- 
nava),    66;     1 18;     (Ten- 
galai),  126;     (Vada-galai), 
126  ;  (Madhva),  133. 
Marriage-act,  508. 
Marriage-ceremonies  (ancient 
form  of),  354;    363;    (re- 
form in),  500  ;  507  ;  (ex- 
pense of),  379  ;  (modern), 
379  ;    (in  Brahma-Samai), 


501;    (marriage  of  trees), 

335- 
Marriage-hymn,  363,  I, 

Marriages  (early),  362  ;  385. 
Mars  (Hindu),  212. 
Marshman  (Dr.),  484,  I. 
Miirudayi,  228. 
Maruta,  221. 
Maruts,  9. 

Mata  (religious  sect),  61,  I. 
Mata  (mother),   106  ;  (wor- 
ship), 222. 
Matangi,  188. 
Matara,  182. 
Match-maker     (professional), 

377- 
Matha  (monastery),  55  ;  1 29. 

Mathura,  I13  ;  375. 

Matri    (or  Mother    forms   of 

Siva's  wife),  188;  188,  I. 

Matrika,  188. 

Matrika-bheda  Tantra,  193. 

Matris,  or  Mothers,  223. 

Matsya,  107  ;   192. 

Maya,  35;  37;  44;  §5;  120. 
Maya-did-yoga,  37, 1. 

Men-eaters,  237. 
Metempsychosis,      18;     26; 

27;   41;   53;    57;    60; 
115  ;    173;     316;    331  ; 

339- 
Midnapur  Samaj,  494. 

Milton,  386. 

Mimansa  (Sutra),  26. 

Minaci  (goddess),  58, 1 ;  228  ; 
442. 

Miuakshi,  58,  I  ;  228  ;  442. 

Minakshi-sundaresvara     (pa- 
goda), 442,  I. 

Minos  (Hindu),  290. 

Mira-bai,  268. 

Miracles,  266. 

Misra  (Jagannath),  1 38. 

Missionary  Conference,  5 1 2,1. 

Mitakshara  (law-book),  52  ; 
286,  I. 

Mitchell  (Dr.  Murray),  265. 

Mithra,  406. 

Mitra,  5  ;  9  ;  10  ;    406. 

Mitra     (Dr.    Rajendra  -  lala), 
282,  I. 

Mitropasthana,  406. 

Modelling  (art  of),  469. 

Model-wife,  389. 

Moha-ratri,  204. 

Mohini,  ()^,  i . 

Monasteries  (founded  by  San- 
kara),  55. 

Monkeys     (veneration     of)  ; 
222  ;  326. 

Monkey-temple,  327. 

Q  q  2 


Monkey-theory,  125. 
Monotheism,  ii  ;   17. 
Months  (lunar),  432. 
Moon,  108. 
Moon-worship,  343. 
Morning     Sandhya     Service, 

401. 
Moses,  515;  517. 
Mothers   (number  of),    225  ; 

(shrines  of),  226  ;  (special), 

227;     228;     (Tantrikas), 

229;  245. 
Mother-worship,    188  ;   222- 

229. 
Mountain-worship,  349. 
Mourning  (time  of),  306,  3. 
Mozoomdar  (Mr.  P.  C),  496, 

I ;   509;    510.  I ;  514; 
515;  521-523;  526. 

Mricchakatika  (drama),  77,1. 
Mudra,    204  ;    406  ;  (double 

meaning  of),  192,  2. 
Muir  (Dr.  John),  182,  2  ;  237, 

I ;  414, 1. 

Muir's  Texts,  366. 
Mukunda,  318. 
Mula  (root),  107. 
Mundaka     Upanishad,      26; 

120. 
Munich  (church  at),  229, 1. 
Mura,  104.  2. 
Muralis,  266. 
Murti-pilja,  524, 
Musala  (club),  1 1 2. 
Muslin  (Indian),  465. 
Mystical  formulae,  197. 

Nabhaji,  147. 

Nach  (girls),  381  ;  382;  451. 

Naches,  430, 

Nadiya,  1 38. 

Naga  (serpents),    233  ;   237  ; 

321-326^ 
Naga-kanya,  233. 
Naga-pafi^anu,  323  ;  40. 
Naga-pratishtha,  324. 
Naga-shrines,  323. 
Nagendra-nath,  478. 
Nag-loka,  322. 
Nagpur,  323. 
Nahusha.  241. 
Naimittika  (Sriiddha),  305. 
Naivedya  (food),  144;  415. 
Nakshatra,  345;  (name), 372; 

(constellation),  373,  I. 
Nakula,  271  ;   272. 
Nala,  235. 
Nalayira,  125. 
Namakand  Camak,  416. 
Nama-karana,    132;       353; 

358 ;  370- 


596 


Index. 


Nama-kirtana,  141. 

Nama-safikirtana,  105. 

Namaskara,  415. 

Namdev,  169. 

Name  (importance  of),  358  ; 
(for  sorcery),  372  ;  (name- 
giving),  358;  370;  371. 

Names  (special),  35S ;  (of 
Vishnu  andSiva),  105-107. 

Nanak  (life  and  teaching  of), 
161  ;   162  ;  163  ;  476. 

Nanda  (herdsman),  113. 

Nandaka,  104. 

Nandi  (bull),  8 1  ;  440. 

Napita  (barber),  374  ;  459. 

Nara-bali  (human  sacriiice), 
190. 

Narain  Bose,  478.     See  Bose. 

Nara-sinha,  109. 

Narayana,  62,  I  ;   102. 

Narbada    (river),    69 ;    347  ; 

348' 
Nariad  (temples  of),  269. 

Narikela,  192. 

Narmada,  295. 

Narmada-sankar,  371?  !• 

Nasik,  272  ;   301. 

Natesvara,  84. 

Nathubhai   (Sir   Mangaldas), 

381. 
Nature-worship,  2  ;  4 ;  5  ;  72. 
Navanita-Ganapati,  218. 
Nava-ratra  (festival),  431. 
Nayars  (aborigines),  271,  2. 
Nayika  (forms  of  Siva's  wife), 

188. 
Necklace  (thread),  35. 
Nectar-gayatrl,  201. 
Neta  (guide),  106,  I. 
New  Dispensation,  516;  517; 

526. 
Nicholson  (General),  260. 
Nigamana,  39  ;   185. 
Nikkal  Sen  (worshippers),  2 60. 
Ninibarka  (miracle  of),  146. 
Nimitta-inana,  397. 
Nim    ToUah    (Ghat),   518 ; 

5i9>  I- 
Nirguna,  31,  i;   36,  i  ;  121. 

Nirnaya-sindhu,  303  ;   305. 

Nirvana,  106. 

Nirvapa,  367. 

Nisacarah,  106. 

Nishkramana,  353  ;  358. 

Nitya  (Sraddha),  305. 

Nityananda,  T39  ;  142. 

Niviti,  379  ;  410. 

Noah,  107. 

Non-duality  (doctrine  of),  86. 

Non-entity,  29. 

Notary  (village),  456. 


Nritya-priyah,  84. 
Nuddea  (cremation  at),  569, 
Numismatic  Chronicle,  1 04, 1 . 
Nyasa  (ceremony),  204;  405; 

413. 
Nyaya  (Sutra),  26. 

Objects    (worship   of),    339 ; 

349- 
Oblations  (to  fire),  365  ;  366  ; 

367. 

Obstacles  (lord  of),  216. 

Odyssey  (Homer's),  274,  I. 

Offerings,  6;  (at  dinner),  425. 

Oil  (festival),  442. 

Om,  10  ;  44  ;  357  ;  402  ; 
449. 

Omens,  320 ;  397. 

Ophiolatry,  319. 

Origin  of  Civilization  (Lub- 
bock's), 273,1;  313. 

Orissa,  447. 

Ornaments  (eight  kinds),  396. 

Oudh  (Ayodhya),  no;  (prin- 
ces of),  113,  I. 

Oxus  (river),  3. 

Pachamba  (village),  577. 

Pada  (recitation),  409. 

Padartha-tritayam,  1 19. 

Padma,  103. 

Padmini,  389. 

Padya,  415. 

Pagri,  396,  2, 

Pahul,  167. 

Paishtl,  193. 

Pala,  151. 

Panasa,  192. 

Pancajana  (demon),  103,  2. 

PahcakosI  (Benares),  218,  i  ; 

435. 
Pahcanana,  79. 
Panca-patra,  xxi,  note. 
Panca-prayaga,  367. 
Paficasuna,  418. 
Pahcayatana(ceremony),4lo- 

416. 
PanchSyat,  456. 
Pandavas,  112  ;   271. 
Pandharpur,  50;   263;   264. 
Panditah,  84. 
Pandit  (lady),  389. 
Pandu,  271  ;  (princes),  322. 
Pandu-lene,  272. 
Pandya  (kingdom),  58,  I. 
Panini,    84;     184,1;    329; 

5I9»  I- 

Pan  jab,  7. 

Panjiirli,  250. 
Pannagas,  238. 


Pan-supari,  137. 
Pantheism,  2;  7;   II  ;  17. 
Papa  (demerit),  292. 
Paradise  (temporary),  118. 
Parali,  268. 
Parama-hansa,  87. 
Paramarthika,  38. 
Paramatman,  37;  xii,  I. 
Paramesvara,    35  ;    36  ;    44  ; 

45 ;  50- 

Parasara  (code  of),  51  ;    52  ; 

394.  I- 
Parasu-rama,  no  ;   270. 

Parijata,  108  ;  332. 

Parikrama  (of  a  river),  349. 

Parinama,  269. 

Parrot  (Kama's),  104,  3. 

Partha-sarathi,  107. 

Parvana  (Sraddha),  305. 

Parvati  (goddess),  46  ;  47  ; 
446  ;  (will  of),  65  ;  (differ- 
ent names  of),  79- 

Pasa  (fetter),  81  ;  89. 

Pasin,  290. 

Passion  (or  activity),  31. 

Pasu  (an  animal),  89  ;   191. 

Pasupata,    59. 

Pasupati  (Siva),  85  ;  89. 

Patala,   102,    I  ;    233;  322  ; 

323. 
Patanjali,  198  ;  419,  2. 

Pathas  (five  Veda),  409. 

Pati,  89. 

Patiala  (Maharaja),  467. 

Patna,  166  ;  (temple  at),  174. 

Patrimony,  286. 

Pauranika,  25. 

Pavamana  (hymns),  368. 

Pavana,  221. 

Pavitram,  106. 

Peacock  (Skanda's),  104,  3. 

Pebbles  (sacred),  69  ;  349. 

Penance  (six  courses  of),  87. 

Penates  (Indian),  392. 

People  (social  condition),  18. 

Permagudy,  219. 

Persia,  313. 

Peterborough  (Bishop),2  75,2. 

Phalgu-Sraddha,  312. 

Phallus,  68,  I.     iSe^  Linga. 

Phenta,  396. 

Philosophy     (Vedanta),    33  ; 

85;   (Sankhya),  30  ;  85. 

Phoenicia,  313. 

Pictures(on  temple  walls), 441. 

Pidari,  228, 

Pilgrimages,  311  ;  348;  349; 

,434;  444;  570- 
Pinaka,  81. 

Pindas,  293;  298-310. 

Pips,  148  ;  169. 


Index. 


597 


Pipal    or    Pippala-tree,     83 ; 

334;  335;  336. 
Pisacas,    82  ;      237  ;      241  ; 

242. 
Pita,  106  ;  182  ;  244. 
Pitara,  182. 

Pitri  (departed  ancestors),  lo. 
Pitri-loka,  28. 
Pitri-paksha,  329;  431. 
Pitri-tarpana,  394,  i  ;  410. 
Pitrya,  410,  I. 
Planet-worship,  344. 
Plant-marriages,  334. 
Plants  (sacred),  338. 
Plant-worship,  72  ;  330  ;  332. 
Plateau  (Pamir),  3. 
Plates  (of  leaves),  424;   461. 
Pliny,  330,  I. 
Plough  (Indian),  456. 
Pluto  (Hindu),  290. 
Poems  (heroic),  42. 
Poison  (deadly),  109. 
Polyandry,  271. 
Polygamy  (forbidden),  500. 
Polytheism,  7;   11  ;  17. 
Pomla  (caste),  229. 
Pongal  (festival),  429. 
Poona  (temple  at),  144. 
Population  (Hindu),  2. 
Potter  (village),  460  ;  xxii. 
Prabhus,  142. 
PracInavitT,  378  ;  410. 
Pradakshina     (worship     by), 

68,  2;  145;  348;  415. 
Pradhana,  30. 
Pradyumna,  II4;   I16. 
Prahlada,  109. 
Praja-pati,    35;    237;    341  ; 

355- 
Prakriti,  30;    31  ;    32;    36; 

85;   223. 
Prama,  27. 
Pramana  (four),  39. 
Pramanam,  106,  i. 
Pramathas,  238. 
Prana,  35. 
Pranah,  106. 
Pranava,  402. 
Pranayama,  402. 
Prarthana  (prayer),  19. 
Prarthana-Samaj  (manual  of), 

526;  528;  529. 
Prasada    (sacred    food),    69  ; 

94;   145;   168;  447. 
Pratah-sandhya,  401. 
Pratapa-candra  Ghosha,  197. 
Prathama-grantha,  179. 
Pratibhasika,  38. 
Pratijna,  39. 
Pratisbtha,  70. 
Pratyaksha,  39. 


Prayaga,_375. 
Prayagwal  (priests),  375. 
Prayasditta,  41  ;  367. 
Prayer  (eight-syllabled),  136. 
Prayers  (for  the  dead),  275. 
Preta,  241 ;  242. 
Preta-sarira,  28. 
Priests,  386  ;  457. 
Primitive    Culture    (Tylor's), 

.274, 2 ;  3i3_;  314- 

Princes  (Rajputana),  113,  i  ; 

(Oudh),     113,    I  ;     (Pan- 

dava),  271  ;  272. 
Principles  (triad  of),  1 19. 
Pritha,  271. 
Prithivi,  8;   30;   182. 
Priya-krit,  lo67i. 
Proclamation  (Keshab's),5i5. 
Profession  (choice  of),  386. 
Progressive  Samaj,  526. 
Prosonno  Kumar  Tagore,  485. 
Prosperity  (temple  of),  385. 
Pudkala,  219. 
Pujari  (priest),  249. 
Pulastya,  192. 
Puliyar,  211  ;   217. 
Pulney  Hills,  214,  2  ;  349. 
Pumsavana,  353  ;   355. 
Pundalika(or  Pundarika),  263. 
Pundra,  66  ;   67  ;    118;  400. 
Punishment     (future),     295 ; 

(of  school-boys),  458. 
Punya  (merit),  292. 
Pura,  81. 
Puraka,  402. 
Puranas,  63  ;  99. 
PuranT,  219, 

Purgatories  ^temporary),  232, 
Puri,  142 ;  447. 
Purity    (or    goodness),     31  ; 

(age  of),  114. 
Purna-prajna,  130. 
Piirna  sakti,  187. 
Purnima  (festival),  151  ;  152. 
Puro-dasa,  367. 
Purohita  (priests),  352  ;   386; 

457- 
Purusha,  31  ;   33  ;    34  ;    35  ; 

(division  of),  415. 
Purusha-hymn  (or  sukta),  1 7 ; 

23;  33;  414. 
Purusha-kara,  125, 
Purva-mimansa,  198. 
Pushan,  9. 

Pushkara  (Pokhar),  558. 
Pushpa  (flowers),  144;  415. 
Pushti-marga,  134. 
Pushty-artha  (Sraddha),  305. 
Put  (hell),  287. 
Piitatma,  106. 
Put-tra,  287;  355. 

Qq3 


Race  (great  Aryan),  3  ;  (Ana- 

rya)_,    19;    (Dasyu),    19; 

(Dravidian),  3  ;  19  ;  (Ko- 

larian),  3;    (lunar)_,    112; 

(Naga),2.^3;(Non-Aryan), 

3;   (Nishada),  19;  (pasto- 
ral), 3;   (Serpent),  321. 
Radha,  113. 
Radha-Krishmu,  184. 
Rag  (or  Ragas),  170  ;  (Asa), 

1 70 ;  (Gauri),  1 70 ;  (Majh), 

170. 
Rahu,  344. 
Rain-god,  9;  12  ;   16. 
Rain-worship,  2. 
Raja-cakra,  196. 
Rajanya,  415. 
Rajas,  i\;  36. 
Rajendralala  Mitra  (Dr.),  93; 

108,    2  ;     193  ;     194,    I  ; 

195,  3;   282,  I. 
Rajo-guna,  45. 
Rajput_(tribe),  233,  I. 
Rajputana,  1 1 3 ;  559 ;  (princes 

of),  113,  I. 
Rakshasas,  237  ;  244. 
Ram  (Agni's  vehicle),  104,  3. 
Rama,  47  ;  62,1;  98;  iii; 

220;   259;  445  ;  462. 
Rama-candra,     no;     220; 

270, 
Rama-lila,  431. 
Ramanand,    169  ;     (disciples 

of),  148. 
Ramananda-Svami,  149. 
Rama-navami  (festival),  430. 
Ramanuja  (doctrine  of),  1 19 j 

120;   121  ;  476. 
Ramayana,  41 ;  42  ;  47 ;  1 1 1 ; 

116  ;     148  ;     220  ;    328  ; 

329;  (of  TulsT-das),  116. 
Rambha,  108. 
Ram-das,  164  ;  165  ;  268. 
Ramesvara  (island),  443. 
Ram  Kant  Roy,  478. 
Rammohun  Roy,  475-490. 
Ramnad,  444. 
Rain-singh,  26S. 
Ran-chor,  152. 
Raujit  Sinh  (tomb  of),  1 74; 

177. 
Rasatala,  102,  I. 
Rasesvara-darsana,  206,  I. 
Rat  (Ganesa's),  104,  3. 
Rati,  447. 

Raurava  (hell),  127,  I. 
Ravana  (tyrant-demon),  110; 

220;  238;  445. 
Ravi,  162. 
Ravi-das,  148  ;   169. 
Reasoning  (^logical),  39. 


598 


Index. 


Recaka,  402. 

Redeemer  (universal  belief 
in),  114. 

Reformation  (Hindu),  477. 

Reformers  (Vaishnava),  476  ; 
(advanced  Indian),  505. 

Reforms  (religious),  496. 

Regions  (seven  lower),  102, 
1  ;  232  ;  233  ;  (seven  up- 
per), 232  ;  233. 

Reintegration,  74 ;   75. 

Religio-Philosophical  Journal, 
256. 

Religion  (social  equality  in), 
64;  (Hindu  daily),  351  ; 
(in  modern  family-life), 370. 

Religious  Truth,  510,  i. 

Remarriage  of  widows,  472  ; 
500;  508. 

Reproach  (terms  of),  329. 

Reproducer,  44. 

Revati,  112. 

Reva  (river),  347. 

Ric  (hymn),  415. 

Rice,  6 ;  (^consecration  of), 
419. 

Riddhi,  215. 

Right-hand  worshippers,  185. 

Rig-veda,  8  ;  12;  13;  14; 
21  ;  281  ;  (I.  25),  407; 
(I.  34.  II),  10;  (I.  45.  2), 
10;  (I.  72.  6),  418;  (I. 
114.  8).  421  ;  (I.  164.  20), 
120;  (I.  164.  46),  51 ;  (H. 
23.  I),  216  ;  (HI.  59), 
406  ;  (HI.  62.  10),  403  ; 
(IV.  5.  5),  28r,  i;  (IV. 
51.  II),  407;  (IV.  58.  3), 
419;  (V.  4.  5).  418;  (V. 
4.  9),  420;  (VI.  20.  2), 
320;    (VII.   89.  i),  280; 

(VII.  99.  7,  100. 7),  416; 

(Vn.  104.  3),  281,  l; 
(VIII.  58.  2),  51;  (IX.  73. 
8),  281,  I  ;  (X.  9),  403; 
(X.  10),  289;  (X.  14.  9), 
282;  (X.  14.  7.  10,283; 
(X.  17.  3),  299;  (X.  18. 
3),  283;  (X.  18.  8),  280; 
(X.  71.  2),  182,  2  ;  (X. 
85)^  363;  (X.  85.  5),  343; 
(X.  86),  222,  I  ;  (X.  88. 

II).  341 ;  (X.  90),  23; 

414;  (X.  121.  10),  424; 

(X,  129),  29. 
Ripon  (Lord),  569. 
Rishis,  2  ;   7 ;   (seven),  107. 
Rishi-tarpana,  410. 
Rita,  404. 
Rite  (Agnishtoma),  22  ;  (Ap- 

toryama),      22  ;      (Asva- 


medha),  22  ;  (Branding), 
132;  133;  (Funeral),  274; 
(Jyotishtoma),  22  ;  (Va- 
japeya),  22,  194;  (Dedi- 
cation),117;  (purificatory), 
157;  3.=i3;  (sacrificial),  22; 
367;  (Sikh, baptismal), 167; 
(VaitaraDi),  297  ;  (Sautra- 
mani),  194. 

River-god,  182. 

River-goddess,  182. 

Rivers  (sacred),  295  ;  347  ; 
(trinity  of),  347. 

Rivington  (Rev.  Luke), 5 15,1. 

Rocks  (sacred),  349. 

Roer,  183. 

Rohini,  113. 

Rosary,  67  ;  135  ;  406  ; 
(Vaishnava),  67  ;  II7  ; 
(Saiva),67;  82;  (of asce- 
tic), 92. 

Rudra,  9  ;  3^ ;  75 ;  7^ ;  77 ! 

82  ;  85  ;  (h).-mns),  416. 

Rudraksha  (tree),  67  ;  (ber- 
ries), 82. 

Rudras  (eleven),  10. 

Rudra-Siva,  44 ;   75. 

Rudra-yamala  (Tantra),  207. 

Rukmaka  (fire),  419. 

Rukmini.  1 14. 

Rules  (of  life),  51  ;   281. 

Sabala,  289  ;  422. 

Sabarniati,  347. 

Sabda  (or  aptopadesa),  39, 

Sabha-mandapa  (assembly 
hall),  153. 

Sacerdotalism  (Hindu),  352. 

Sacrifice  (meaning  of),  12; 
13,  I  ;  (foreshadowing  of), 
17;  (efficacy  of),  22;  23; 
(Brahmanical),  22  ;  23  ; 
(human),  24;  166;  (ani- 
mal), 24. 

Sacrificial-rites,  367. 

Sada-Siva,  83. 

Sadharana    (Brahma-Samaj), 

513;  '514- 
Sadhus  (holy  men),  87,1;  150. 
Sadyo-jata,  400. 
SatTron,  91. 

Saguna,  31,  i  ;   36,  i ;   121. 
Sahadeva,  271  ;   272. 
Sahajananda,  148;  149;  268. 
Sahishnuh,  106,  I. 
Saint-worship,  257-273. 
Sainya,  407. 
Saira,  193. 

Saiva   (worshippers   of  Siva), 
.    59;  60;  73;  96. 
Saiva-darsana,  89. 


Saivism,  71  ;  73~94  '■>  (preva- 
lency  of),  244  ;  (compared 
with  Vaishmvism),  64. 

SakaJ^era),  433. 

Sakha  (of  the  Veda),  530, 
and  note. 

Sakhya,  141. 

Sakinis,  189. 

Sakshi,  106,  I. 

Sakshin  (witness),  218,  I, 

Sakshi- Vinayaka,  218,  1. 

Saktas,  59  ;  140. 

Sakti,  33;  62;   187;  392. 

Sakti-sangama  (Tantra),  207. 

Saktism,  71  ;  180-196  ;  (de- 
finition of),  180;  (theory 
of), 181;  (licentiousness  of), 
190  ;  (initiation  into),  191. 

Sal  (tree),  582. 

Salagrama,    46  ;    69  ;    296  ; 

.335;  392;  4' 2;  561- 
Salivahana,  433. 

Sallvatlsvara,  446,  5. 

Salokya,  41  ;   71  ;   118. 

Salutation  (at  Sandhya),  536. 

Samadh  (tomb),  179. 

Samadhi,  48  ;   261. 

Samajes  (various),  494;  (com- 
pared), 509. 

Saman  (hymn),  415. 

Samanodakas,  286. 

Samarpana,  117  ;   137. 

Samavartana,  353  ;  362  ;  379. 

Sama-veda,  8  ;   21. 

Sambhu,  83. 

Sarnhita  (recitation),  409. 

Sarnhiias  (of  the  Veda),  8. 

Sami  (tree),  338  ;  535. 

Samidh  (fuel),  367. 

Samipya,  41  ;   71  ;   118. 

Sarnjna,  341. 

Sammohana,  200. 

Sampradaya,  61  ;  62. 

Sainvat  (era),  433. 

Sarnvatsara-karah,  106. 

Samya,  30. 

San  (era),  433. 

Sanaka,  422. 

Sanat-kumara  (Tantra),  207. 

Sandal,  144;  415,  I. 

Sandansa,  232. 

Sandhya  (morning),  40 1  ; 
(mid-day),  407 ;  (even- 
ing) ,_407- 

Sandhya-japa,  394,  i. 

Sandilya,  63,  2  ;  97. 
Sandipana,  200. 
Sankalpa,  23 ;   27. 
Sankara,  55;  56;  83;  (doc- 
trine of),  120. 
Sankaracarya,  53  ;  59. 


Index, 


599 


Sankara-Narayana,  65. 
Saiikara-vijaya,   59  ;   67,    2  ; 

86  ;  217;  236;  342. 
Saiikha  (shell),  65  ;  92  ;  103  ; 

109  ;   299. 
Sankhini,  389, 
Sankhya  (Sutra),  26. 
Sanklrtana,  1 41. 
Sankrant  (festival),  428. 
Sannyasi,  53;  55;  87;  129; 

261J  362;  375;  xxi. 
Sanskaras  (twelve),  353. 
Sanskrit  Texts  (Muir's),  182, 

2;   237,  I. 
Sanskrita  (language),  4. 
Santals    and    Saiitalia,    576- 

585- 
Santana-Ganapati,  218. 
Santa-Ram,  269. 
Santi,  141  ;  346. 
Santi-da,  106,  i. 
Santi-parvan  (13140),  66. 
Sapindana  (Sraddha),  305. 
Sapindas,  286. 
Sapta-padI,  364  ;   3S0,  3. 
Sapta  Sindhu,  7. 
Sarada-tilaka  (Tantra),  207. 
Saranam,  106,  I. 
Saraiigl,  38 1. 
Sara-sayya,  561. 
Sarasvat,  182. 
SarasvatI  (goddess),  14;  47; 

182;  211;   536  ;  (worship 

oO»  429;  (river),  51. 
Sarayu,  347. 

Sarcostema  Viminalis,  12. 
Sari,  396. 

Sarlraka-bhiishya,  121. 
Sarnian  (prosperity),  358. 
Sarnga,  104. 
Sarsa,  268. 
Sarshti,  205. 
Sarupya,  41  ;   71  ;   118. 
Sarva,  85. 

Sarva-bhuta-hara,  82. 
Sarva-darsana-saiigraha,  1 19; 

121,    I  ;     122  ;     124,    I  ; 

131 ;  133- 

Sarvah,  106,  i. 

Sasta,  218. 

Sastris  (Pandits),  386. 

Sat,  34. 

Satani  (school^,  125,  I. 

Satapana,  200. 

Satapatha-brahmana,  21;  24 ; 

29  ;    182. 
Satarudriya,  76  ;  79  ;  328. 
Sat!,  79;   261  ;  279,  I  ;  299; 

4S1. 
SatnamT,  178  ;   179. 
Satru-ghna,  47. 


Sattara,  267  ;   268. 
Sattra,  368. 
Sattva,  31  ;  36. 
Sattva-guna,  45  ;  412,  2. 
Saturnalia  (Hindu),  430. 
Satya,   102,   i  ;    (age),   109  ; 

114;  433- 
Satyah,  106  ;  403. 

Sauras,  5,9  ;  342. 

Saura-sukta,  342. 

Savam  [isaucam,  288. 

Savana,  369. 

Savitri,  9;    75  ;   341;   361  ; 

403- 

Sayam-sandhya,  407. 

Sayana,  78,  2  ;  419,  2. 

Sayana-Madhava,  56, 

Sayujya,  41  ;  71  ;   118. 

Sayujya-mukti,  196. 

Scape-goat,  227. 

Schiidel-haus,  275,  i. 

Schoolmaster  (village),  458. 

Schools  (village),  458. 

Scriptures  (Huidu),  408. 

Sea  (of  milk,  &c.),  108. 

Sect  (Hindu),  60;  (Bhatta), 
86  ;  (C'aitanya),  13S-I45  ; 
(Ganapatya),  217;  (Jan- 
gama),  86  ;  (Madhva), 
129-134;  (Nimbaditya), 
146  ;  (Nimbarka),  146  ; 
(Pasupata),86;  89;  (Ram- 
ilnuja),  1 19-129  ;  (Rlima- 
nanda),  147;  (Raudra),  86  ; 
(Saiva),  86-89;  (Sikh), 
161-178;  (Smarta),  95; 
(Svami-Narayana),  I48- 
158;  (ofKablr),  158-161; 
(Vaishnava),  116-161. 

Sectarianism  (Hindu),  60  ; 
(Saiva),  86-89;  (Vaish- 
nava), 116-160. 

Sen  (Keshab  Chandar),  496  ; 
497;  510;  512-523;  525; 
526. _ 

Sen  (Ram  Comul),  497. 

Serpent,  80;  105  ;  (Kaliya), 
113  ;  (demons),  233  ; 
(temple),  323  ;  (worship), 
313;  319-326. 

Services  (religious),  392. 

Sesamum  (seed),  296. 

Sesha  (serpent-god),  59  ;  63  ; 
105;   112 ;    232, I  ;    321; 

323;   332,  1. 
Setuh,  106,  1. 
Seven    (steps),    364;     (seas), 

108  ;  (worlds),  403. 
Shadvinsa-brahmana,  398. 
Shakespeare,  386. 
Shamanism,  246. 


Shanilrs  (religion  of),  251. 
Shan-mata-sthapaka,  59. 
Shashthi  (goddess),  229  ;  328. 
Shat  kariiiani,  394,  1. 
Shaving  (religious),  127;  359; 

374;    (of  corpse),  297. 
Sherring  (Mr.),  437,  i. 
Shodasi,  188. 
Shoemaker  (village),  460. 
Shoes,  396. 
Shrines     (celebrated),      139; 

434-451  ;   (demon),  249. 
Siddha  (perfect  onesj,  191. 
Siddhi,  215. 
Sights     (inauspicious),     397  ; 

(auspicious),  398. 
Sikandar  Shah  Lodi,  158. 
Sikh  (sect),  161-178. 
Sikha,  374. 
Sikha-bandhana,  400. 
Sikshii-patrT  (translated),  155. 
Simantonnayana,  353  ;   357. 
Sindiira  (vermilion),  221. 
Singing  (religious),  I4I  ;  264; 

.    527;  528. 

Sipivishta,  416. 

Sipping  water,  144;  401. 

Siras-dheda,  201. 

Sin  Rag,  170. 

Sisu-pjila,  143  ;   259,  I. 

Sua,  48,  1  ;   220  ;  445. 

Sitala  Devi,  228. 

Sitalji-saptami  (festival),  430. 

Sita-Ramau,  184. 

Siva,  3  ;  45  ;  46  ;  47  ;  54  ; 
56;  62  ;  65  ;  66 ;  67  ; 
68  ;  69  ;  (supremacy  of), 
74  ;  (symbol  of),  78  ; 
(names  of),  78  ;  82  ;  106  ; 
(description  of),  78  ;  79  ; 
(names  of  attendants  of), 
79,  I ;  (five  faces  of),  79, 
3  ;  (eyes  of),  80  ;  (weapons 
of),  81  ;  (five  chief  char- 
acters of),  81-86;  (repre- 
sentation of),  82;  (feminine 
counterpart),  83  ;  (eight 
material  forms  of),  85  ; 
(miracles),  85  ;  (eight  prin- 
cipal manifestations),  85  ; 
(female  energy),  187;  (con- 
tradictory qualities),  186  ; 
(incarnation),  266. 

Sivii-ji,  265. 

Sivanjlth  Sastri  (Pandit),  514. 

Siva-purana,  74  ;   78. 

Siva-rat,  90, 

Siva-rjitri,  204  ;  428. 

Siva-stotra,  535. 

Siva-sutras,  84,  I. 

Skanda,  48 ;  62;   79;   214. 


6oo 


Index, 


Skanda-purana,  74. 
Skull  (cracking),  299. 
Sky,  5  ;  9  ;  20. 
Sky-god,  15. 

Sleeman  (Col),  331.  3;  335. 
Small-pox  (goddess  of),  227. 
Smarta  Brahmans,  55  ;  95. 
Smarta-karman,  365. 
Smasana,  203  ;  281. 
Smasana-vasin,  82. 
Smriti,  53. 
Smriti-karman,  52. 
Smriti-sastra,  51. 
Snake-chiefs,  233. 
Snake-stones,  325. 
Snake-superstitions,  324. 
Snake- worship,  319. 
Snana     (bathing),    394,    I  ; 

399;  415-. 
Societies  (Theistic),  485-520. 

Socrates,  515. 

So-daru,  170. 

Sohila,  170. 

Soma  (moon),  343. 
\  Soma-god,  12. 
NSoma-juice,  25  ;  369. 
/Soma  (plant),  6  ;  8  ;  12  ;  332. 
\Soma-sacrifice,  25  ;  368;  392. 

Son  (importance  of),  355. 

Sons  (of  the  Ganges),  347. 

So-purkhu,  170. 

Sorcerer  (story  of  a),  299. 

Soul  (restless  state  of),  2771  !• 

Sound  (eternity  of),  198. 

Spell-Veda,  8. 

Spiky  bed,  561. 

Spirit  (Supreme),  14;  (bodily 
coverings  of),  26  ;  27  ; 
(mode  of  worshipping),  49  ; 
50  ;  (disembodied),  291  ; 
292  ;  (embodied),  293. 

Spirit-worship,  71  ;  230-256. 

Sraddha  (ceremonies),  276 ; 
303;  (object  of),  304; 
(twelve  Sraddhas),  305  ; 
(payment  for),  307  ;  (time 
and  place  of),  308  ;  (spe- 
cial), 308  ;  310  ;  311  ; 
(expense  of),  278  ;  312. 

Sramana,  58. 

Srauta-karman,  365  ;  368. 

Sri,  103. 

SrI-cakra,  196  ;   203. 

Sridharalu  Naidu,  525. 

Sringa-giri,  55. 

Sri-phala,  299. 

Sri-raiigam,  119;  (temple  of), 
70,  I  ;  447-451. 

Srishti-sthiti-laya,  44. 

Sruti,  7. 

Sruti-karman,  52. 


Stages  (four,  of  Brahman's 
life),  362. 

Stambhana,  200. 

Statue  (Jain),  250. 

Stephen  (Sir  Fitzjames),  507. 

Sthanu,  83. 

Sthiila-sarira,  28  ;  35. 

Sthuna  (column),  280. 

Stones,  272  ;  (irve),  349  ; 
411  ;  (five  methods  of  ar- 
rangement of),  412. 

Storm -god,  9. 

Stri  Parambattur,  119. 

Stuti  (praise),  19. 

Styx  (Hindii),  297. 

Subrahmanya,  48  ;  21 1-2 18; 
323  ;  (contrasted  with 
Ganesa),  215. 

Sudarsana,  103  ;  133  ;  xxi. 

Suddhy-artha  (Sraddha),  305. 

Sudra,  53  ;  415  ;  (god  of 
the),  84;  212. 

Sugriva  (king),  221. 

Suhrid,  106,  I. 

Sukh-nidhan,  160. 

Suklah  (name  of  Siva),  107. 

Sukra,  194,  i. 

Sukshma,  123. 

Sukshma-sarira,  28. 

Sulabh  Samachar,  510,  I. 

Sun,   10;    20;     104;    365  ; 

^    (titles  of),  341. 

Sunahsepa,  24. 

Sundaresvara,  442. 

Sun-god,  9  ;   10  ;  16. 

Sun-temples,  342. 

Sun-worship,  2  ;  5  ;  341. 

Sun-worshippers,  62  ;  342. 

Superstition,  210;  230;  344; 

370. 
Sura    (wine-goddess),     108  ; 

19a ;  195- 

Surabhi,  108  ;  318. 
Sur-das  (poet),  147;   169. 
Surya,  9;  16;  75;  341  ;  392. 
Surya-Narayana,  342,  i. 
Surya-sukta,  342. 
Siirya-sukta,  343  ;  363,  note. 
Sutala,  102,  I, 
Sutra  (aphorism),  26. 
Sutratman,  35. 
Suttee  (for  Sati).     See  Sati. 
Svadha,  304. 
Svadhyaya,  394,  i. 
Svami.    See  Dayananda. 
Svami-Narayana  (sect),  148  ; 

268  ;  (manual),  155. 
Sva-pada,  329. 
Svar,  9  ;   102,  I  ;  403. 
Svarga,  13  ;  49;  71  ;  118. 
Svarna-Ganapati,  218. 


Svastika  (mark),  90,  2;  104, 

I ;  573. 

Svayam-bhu,  30  ;  69. 
Sveta,  80,  2. 

Svetasvatara  Upanishad,  419. 
Swan  (Brahma's),  104,  3. 
Sword  (Vishnu's),  104. 
Swords  (sacred),  175. 
Syama,  187;  289;  422. 
Syama-rahasya  (Tantra),  207. 
Symbols  (of  Siva),  67  ;  239  ; 

(of  Vishnu),    127;     239; 

(sanctity  of),  69. 


Tabla  (tom-toms),  381. 

Tacitus,  330. 

Tagore(Debendra-nath),49i; 
498;  514;  53i;(Dvaraka- 
nath),  482  ;  485  ;  491  ; 
(Prosonno  Kumar),  485. 

Tailotsava  (festival),  442. 

Taittiriya    Aranyaka,   400  ; 

403- 
Taittiriya-brahmana,23;  195, 

3. 
Taittiriya-samhita  (VI.  4.  10. 

I).  237- 
Taj  at  Agra,  175  ;  176. 

Takshaka,  233 ;  323. 

Talatala,  102,  I. 

Tali  (toddy),  192. 

Talismans,  197-202  ;  204 ; 
254. 

Talvandi,  162. 

Tamas,  31  ;  36. 

Tamatoa  (king),  273,  I. 

Tambila  (ceremony),  248, 

Tamo-guna,  45;  412,  2. 

Tamraparni  (river),  324. 

Tandava  (dance),  85. 

Tandya-brahmana,  21  ;  23. 

Tanjore,  66,  2  ;  439. 

Tanka,  193. 

Tanmatra,  30;  31,  2. 

Tantra  (Matrika-bheda),  193. 

Tantras,  63  ;  85  ;  184;  (ex- 
tracts from),  189;  (Vaish- 
nava),  207;  (authorship  and 
character  of),  205  ;  206. 

Tantra-sara,  200,  I. 

Tantrikas,  25. 

Tanus  (eight),  85. 

Tapah  or  Tapar  (heaven), 
102,  I  ;  403. 

Tapana,  86. 

Tapas,  72  ;  87. 

Tapasvi,  83. 

Tapta-kumbha,  232. 

Tapta-loha,  232. 

Tapti  (river),  347. 


Index. 


60 1 


Tara,  187. 
Taraka-mantra,  297. 
Tarpana    (ceremony),    394; 

409. 
Tattva,  106. 

Tattva-bodhini-patrika,  509. 
Tattva-bodhinl-sabha,  492. 
Tattva-muktavali,  122. 
Teachers  (Vaishnava),  86. 
Teeth-cleaning  (religious  act), 

376;  399- 

Teg-Bahadur,  164  ;   166. 

Tejas  (fire),  30. 

Temple  (golden),  175  ;  176  ; 
436  ;  (of  Vishnu-pada), 
309;  (of  Ganesa),  217. 

Temples      (description      of), 

434-451- 
Temple  (Sir  Richard),  467. 

Ten-galai,  125-127. 

Tennyson,  3S6. 

Thag.     See  Thug. 

Thana  (temples  of),  50. 

Thanush-kodi,  445. 

Theism,  7  ;  (introduced  into 
India),  475  ;  (forms  of), 
524;  (modern  Hindu),  492. 

Theistic  Annual,  510,  i. 

Theistic  Church  (first  Hindii), 
486. 

Theistic  Churches  (number 
00,517. 

Theistic  Society,  493. 

Theistic  Quarterly  Review, 
510,  I. 

Theists  (Vaishnava),  179. 

Theosophy,  526;  xii,  i. 

Thomas  (Mr.  Edw.),  104,  1. 

Thread  (Brahmanical),  84 ; 
360;  361;  378;  409. 

Threefold  pains  of  life,  97. 

Thug  (thag),  260  ;  575. 

Tibet,  3  ;  313. 

Tiger  (Durga's),  104,  3. 

Tilaka,  66  ;  67  ;  118  ;  400. 

Tinnevelly,  272;  (Saiva  tem- 
ple), 446. 

Tirtha  (water),  145. 

Tirtha-kaka,  329. 

Tirumell  Nayak,  443. 

Todas  (aborigines),  271,  2. 

Tonsure,      359;     (modern), 

375- 
Torment  (regions  of),  293, 

Tortoise,  108  ;  328. 

Totemism,  314. 

Towns  (Indian),  462. 

Trade  (Indian),  453. 

Trade-castes,  454. 

Tradition  (Brahmanical),  53. 

Transfiguration,  206. 


Transmigration,      24;       52; 
235.    6Ve  Metempsychosis. 
Travancore  (king  of),  468. 
Tree  (celestial),  108. 
Tree    and   Serpent  Worship, 

Trees  (sacred),  338  ;  (Siva's 
association  with),  446. 

Tree-worship,  72  ;  330;  332. 

Treta  (age),  no;  433. 

Triad(sacrcd),5;9;44;45; 
49;  74;  (of  Principles), 
119;   (Vaishnava),  142. 

Tribe  (Yadava),  112;  (Raj- 
put), 233,  I. 

Trichinopoly,  ^o,  i;  119; 
(temples),  217;  445  ;  447  ; 
(Vaishnava      temple      at), 

447- 
Tri-dandin,  541,  I. 

Trikona,  45. 

Tri-murti,  45  ;  74. 

Trinity  (Hindu,  wrongly  call- 
ed), 44;  (contrasted  with 
Christian  Trinity),  49. 

Tri-pati,  267. 

Tripura,  81. 

Tripuril,  188. 

Tripurasura  (demon),  432. 

Tritheism,  1 1. 

Tri-vikrama,  365  ;  405. 

Trumpp  (Prof.),  161 ;  164  ; 
169;  170,  I. 

Tryiiyusham,  421. 

Tukaram  or  Tuka-rilma, 
264;   265 ;  528. 

Tulasi  or  Tulsl  (shrub),  46  ; 
67  ;  296  ;  (healing  qualities 
oO»  333;  (worship  of),  333. 

Tulsi-das  (poet),  147  ;   I48. 

Tuiiga-bhadra,  347. 

Turbans,  396. 

Turlya,35.    ^ 

Tutelary  deities,  71- 

Ty!or(E.  B.),  274,  2;  313; 

314;  330- 

Uccaih-sravas,  108;  329. 
Uc<^hishta-Ganapati,  218. 
Udaharana,  39. 
Udasa,  154. 
Uddisa  (Tantra),  207. 
Udumbara,  535. 
Udupi,  130. 
Ugra,  76;  85. 
Ujjh!  Puliyar,  2 1 7. 
Ulupl,  233,  I  ;   322. 
Uma,  79;  229. 
Untai,  227. 
Upacara.  413. 
Upadana,  119. 


Upadiina-karana,  120. 

Upadesa  (knowledge),  191. 

Upamana,  39. 

Upanaya,  39. 

Upanayana  (ceremony),  353  ; 

3^^o;  377- 
Upanishad  (Kaula),  185. 

Upanishads,   26  ;  (philosophy 

oO>  37.  I. 
Upasana  (meditation),  19. 

Upasthana     (service),     406 ; 

(prayer),  407  ;  (act),  420. 

Upavastra,  415. 

Upavlta,  378. 

Upaviti,  409. 

Upaya  (means),  125. 

Urdhva-bahu,  88  ;  439. 

Urdhva-deha,  293,  I. 

Urdhva-pundra,  67  ;   118. 

Urvasi  (nymph),  333,  I. 

Ushas,  5  ;  9  ;   182. 

Utsava-murti,  447- 

Utsava-vigraha,  449. 

Uttariya,  395. 

Vada-galai,  125-127. 

Vagala  or  Bagala,  188. 

Vag-dana,  377. 

Vaghoba,  328, 

Vahana,  104,  3. 

Vaidika  Upadesa,  362. 

Vaidyah,  106. 

Vaikuntha,  70;  102  ;  118; 
124  ;  142  ;  291  ;  (terres- 
trial counterpart  of),  448. 

Vairagi,  87;  561. 

Vairagya,  48  ;  510. 

Vaiseshika  (Sutra),  26. 

Vaishnavas,  59;  60;  95-160. 

Vaishnavism,  71  ;  (general 
characteristics),  95-106 ; 
(compared  with  Saivism), 
64  ;  (with  Christianity), 
119. 

Vaisvadeva  (ceremony),  394; 
416. 

Vaisvadeva-balikarmani,  417, 
2. 

Vaisvanara,  35. 

Vaisya,  53;  415;  (god  of 
the),  84. 

VaitaranI,  290;   297;  570. 

Vajasaneyi-sanihitii,  76. 

Vajra,  81. 

Vallabha  or  Vallabhadarya 
(life  00,134;  135;  (teach- 
ing oO,  476;  (Maharajas), 

335- 
Valli-amman,  214. 

Valmiki,  196. 

Vama-margis,  185. 


WORKS  BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR. 
Modern  India  and  the  Indians  :  A  Series  of  Impressions,  Notes, 

and  Essays.     Fifth  Edition,  with  index.     Trlibner  &  Co.      1890. 

'  Professor  Monier  Williams  not  only  deserves  the  thanks  of  every  Englishman  for  this  able 
contribution  to  the  study  of  Modern  India — a  subject  with  which  we  should  be  specially  familiar 
— but  he  deserves  the  thanks  of  every  Indian,  Parsee,  or  Hindoo  Buddhist  and  Moslem,  for  his 
clear  exposition  of  their  manners,  their  creeds,  and  their  necessities.  We  await  with  interest  the 
promised  Essays  on  Modern  Indian  religious  life.' — The  Times^  April  19,  1878. 

Hindtdsm.     A  Manual  published  by  the  Society  for  Promoting 

Christian  Knowledge.     Eleventh  thousand.     25.  dd. 

The  Study  of  Sanskrit  hi  relation  to  Missionary  Work  in  India. 

Williams  &  Norgate.      1861. 

Sanskrit -English  Dictionary.     Published  at  the  University  Press, 

Oxford.     Henry  Frowde,  Amen  Corner,  E.C.      1888.    £0^  14s.  6d. 

'This  is  a  most  laboriously  and  carefully  constructed  and  excellent  work,  which  no  student 
of  Sanskrit  can  do  without.' — W.  D.  Whitney,  Professor  of  Sanskrit  and  Comparative  Philology 
in  Yale  College  (from  the  Harvard  College  Courant). 

'  The  Boden  Professor's  labour  of  years,  and  the  assistance  of  his  coadjutors,  have  brought 
forth  abundantly,  and  a  grand  work  has  been  accomplished.  It  presents  a  great  help  and  a  great 
incentive  to  Sanskrit  study,  and  it  will  lend  a  vigorous  impulse  to  that  movement  which  is  now 
working  to  give  Sanskrit  its  due  position  in  the  curriculum  of  our  Universities.' — Saturday 
Review,  September  28,  1872. 

*  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  meanings  of  the  words  have  been  admirably  arranged,  and 
that  a  great  amount  of  labour,  and  that  of  the  most  useful  kind,  has  been  bestowed  on  the  work.' 
— Academy,  July  15,  1873. 

English-Sanskrit  Dictionary.     At  the  India  Office.     £'^  y. 

'  I  received  a  copy  of  Professor  Monier  Williams'  Dictionary  at  a  time  when  I  was  about  to 
commence  a  translation  into  Sanskf  it  of  portions  of  the  Old  Testament.  I  have  used  it  daily  for 
the  last  seven  years,  and  the  more  I  have  consulted  it  the  more  excellent  I  have  found  it.  I  feel 
bound  to  say  that  he  appears  to  have  succeeded,  not  only  beyond  my  previous  ideas  of  what 
was  likely,  but  also  of  what  was  feasible,  to  be  accomplished  at  the  present  time.  The  Pundits 
whom  I  employ  have  likewise  expressed  their  unqualified  admiration  of  the  labour  and  erudition 
which  his  volume  displays.  The  Rev.  J.  Parsons  of  Benares,  who  has  been  engaged  for  some 
years  past  in  preparing  a  new  Hindee  version  of  the  New  Testament,  has  likewise  derived 
material  assistance  from  Professor  M.  W.'s  work.  Indian  missionaries  generally  owe  him  a  large 
debt  of  gratitude.' — J.  Wenger,  Missionary  of  Calcutta,  translator  of  the  Sanskrit  Bible,  of  the 
Bengali  Bible,  editor  of  Dr.  Yates'  Sanskrit  Dictionary,  etc. 

Practical  Sanskrit  Grammar.     Fourth   Edition.     At  the  Uni- 
versity Press,  Oxford.     Henry  Frowde,  Amen  Corner,  E.C.     1877. 

'  I  am  accustomed  to  recommend  this  Grammar  to  any  one  who  takes  up  the  study  of 
Sanskrit  by  himself,  without  a  teacher,  because  it  is  more  intelligible  and  easily  managed.' — 
W.  D.  Whitney  (from  the  Harvard  College  Courant). 

Sanskrit  Manual  with  Exercises :  to  which  is  added  a  vocabulary 

by  Professor  Gough.     W.  H.  Allen  &  Co.,  13  Waterloo  Place.    i8mo.    75.  6d. 

Vikramorvasl.     A  Sanskrit  Drama.     Stephen  Austin,  Hertford. 
Story  of  Nala  :  A  Sanskrit  Poem.     The  Sanskrit  Text,  with  full 

Vocabulary  and  an   improved  version   of  Dean   Milman's  Translation.     Uni- 
versity Press,  Oxford,  and  Amen  Corner,  E.C.     Second  Edition. 

Application  of  the  Roman  Alphabet  to  the  Languages  of  India. 

Longmans. 

Practical  Hindus  tarn  Grammar.     Longmans. 

Easy  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Hindustd^it.     Longmans. 

Hindustmii  Primer.     Longmans. 

Bdgh  0  Bahdr.     Text  in  Roman  characters.     Longmans.     '^ 


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