Hinduism in Europe and America

Hinduism in Europe
and America

Elizabeth A. Reed, A.M.

Author of " Hindu Literature, or the Ancient Books of India,*

" Persian Literature, Ancient and Modern," " Primitive

Buddhism, Its Origin and Teachings," etc.

G. P. Putnam's Sons

New York and London

Cbe fmfcfierbocfeet press

1914

COPYRIGHT, 1914

BY
ELIZABETH A. REED

Ube ftnicfterbocfter |>re«8,

FOREWORD

IT INDUISM long remained on its native soil,
but during the last few years, classes have
been organised in Great Britain, and on the Conti-
nent, as well as in America, for the propagation of
misleading representations concerning its doc-
trines, and the gathering in of foreign coin.

In this expurgated system which is offered
at first, many have become interested without
investigating the foundation upon which it stands.
No doubts need be entertained concerning the
real teachings of Hinduism by those who have
access to the invaluable series of "The Sacred
Books of the East/' prepared under the editorial
care of Professor F. Max Miiller and pub-
lished under the auspices of England's greatest
University. We have here translations of un-
doubted integrity, but the great cost of the
work places it beyond the reach of many
libraries, and not only this but the vast amount of
literature therein contained presents to the ordi-
nary student a most discouraging prospect.

Hi

iv Foreword

We can well understand that only an enthusias-
tic specialist would be willing to devote years of
his life to the examination of these thousands of
pages of exaggerated statements, and abstruse
theories, but common prudence should prevent
any one from embracing a fad without making
some rational inquiry into its true character.

In order to facilitate such investigation, there
is need of smaller volumes giving the results of
careful work along these lines — volumes which
may be quickly read, and are free from technical
terms, so that they may be easily understood.
This condensed information is especially needed
by young men and women, for they will be obliged
to meet in their own land the problems of the
Orient. Indeed the time is already here when
extensive information and constant vigilance are
needed, as recent arrests in our large cities for the
immoral teachings and criminal practices of the
cult, only partially reveal the extent to which
the insidious emissaries of the East have already
penetrated our body politic.

When heathen temples are rearing their braz-
en domes in some of our cities, and these are
built with the money of American women, sure-
ly it is time to furnish them with some scien-
tific data concerning the real purpose of the

Foreword v

system into which they are being so adroitly
drawn.

In an earlier and larger work the author has
given the historical facts connected with the age
and the doctrines of the old manuscripts, together
with somewhat copious extracts from their con-
tents; these things will not therefore be repeated
here, only very brief expositions being presented
with the chronological framework necessary to a
connected and accurate outline of the subject.

The object of this little book is to present within
the smallest possible compass a correct view of
this corrupt cult and also to call attention to the
authoritative statements of standard Hindu works
upon those points which are most frequently mis-
represented and lauded by irresponsible writers
and speakers.

E. A. R.
CHICAGO, 1914.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I

PAGE

HINDUISM : A COMPOSITE SYSTEM i

Land of Contrasts. Vedaism. Traces of Monothe-
ism. Brahmanism. Caste. Transmigration of
Souls.

CHAPTER II
BUDDHISM: A PROTEST AGAINST BRAHMANISM . 26

Long Series of Buddhas. Birth of Gautama. Great
Renunciation. System of Philosophy. Me-
tempsychosis. Jataka Book. Buddha's HelL
Atheism and Later Polytheism. Death of
Buddha. Nirvana. Number of Adherents.
Expulsion from India.

CHAPTER III
DEVELOPMENT OF HINDUISM .... 50

Combination of Theories. Burning of Widows.
The Yoga Philosophy. Brahma. Shiva. Cere-
monies. The Tantras. Kali, Wife of Shiva.
Modern Devotees.

CHAPTER IV
MODERN HINDUISM 72

Phases of Idolatry. Temples of Shiva. Shrine of
Kali. Temples of Vishnu. Demons and Devils.
Hanuman, the Monkey God. Serpent Wor-
ship. Other Sacred Animals. Deified Trees and
Plants. Position of Widows. Pandita Ramabai.
vii

viii Contents

CHAPTER V

PAGE

PRESENT CONDITIONS 92

Vaishnavism. Ten Incarnations. Bala-raraa.
Krishna Vasudeva. Wives of Krishna. Death
of the God.

CHAPTER VI

PRESENT CONDITIONS — Continued . . .113
Modern Krishna Worship. Hindu Gurus. The
Gossains. European and American Fanatics.

CHAPTER VII
IMITATIONS OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY . . 134

The Work of Translators. Imposition upon Wilford.
Teachers of Hinduism. Adam and Eve.
Story of the Flood. Abraham and Isaac. The
Gita-govinda.

CHAPTER VIII
IMITATIONS OF THE GOSPELS . . . .153

Modern Productions. King Herod. The Trans-
figuration. The Crucifixion. Vivekananda.

CHAPTER IX
HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY . . . .173

The Historic Christ. Alleged Life in India. Con-
trasts. Non-Christian Bibles. The Triumphant
Christ.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 193

INDEX 197

Hinduism in Europe and America

Hinduism in Europe and
America

CHAPTER I
HINDUISM: A COMPOSITE SYSTEM

Land of Contrasts. Vedaism. Traces of Monotheism. Brah-
manism. Caste. Transmigration of Souls.

1 NDIA is a land of striking contrasts ; great salt
* marshes stretch away for weary miles beyond
the fertile valleys where wild bees hang their comb
to the rocks and the tiger hides in the jungle.
Vast deserts reach across the empire, but there are
also luxurious forests where the teak and banyan
flourish and the fragrant sandalwood still awaits
the coming of the axe men — where much of the
undergrowth is covered with vines which burden
the air with the fragrance of their blossoms.
Arid wastes lie parching beneath the pitiless sun,
but not far away the almond and pomegranate

2. •-'.;•• Hinduism

spread their flowery banners upon the air and
ripen their fruits in the long summer time.

Among her people there is want and woe, side
by side with wealth and luxury ; the gaunt shadow
of famine is thrown across the multitude, while
petty kings are resplendent with pearls and dia-
monds. Low caste victims die of hunger and
disease within a stone's throw of the palaces of the
rajas who are all unmindful of their sufferings,
even a drink of water being often denied them
because it would ruin the fountain if any of its
contents were polluted by their touch.

The contrasts in their literature are fully as
great as in the land and its people. In the songs
of the Vedas, and also in the great epics which
constitute one grand division in their world of
letters, we find poetry of a high order, while much
of their later productions is necessarily either ig-
nored by the translators, or given in footnotes of
Latin, or even in the original Sanskrit.

The sacred Ganges is fabled to have fallen
from the blue fields of heaven, coming down to
earth from the divine feet of Vishnu. As the Nile
is deified in Egyptian mythology, so also this river
is called a goddess. One of her sources is found in
a cave of ice and she is praised as Ganga, the
daughter of Himavat — Lord of the Mountain of

Hinduism : A Composite System 3

snow ; but the river itself is polluted beyond recog-
nition by thousands of devotees. So also the
primitive adoration of mountain and storm has
been lost in a multitude of opposing theories, and
the unclean worship of idols representing gods of
evil repute.

Although the term Hinduism may, in a general
way, be applied to all the faiths and philosophies
of that people, it is more properly used to denote
the manifold phases resulting from a combination
of the earlier creeds of India. It may be likened
to a great banyan tree sending its roots down into
any soil and drawing sustenance from all possible
sources. It has, however, no unity of design,
having borrowed from every available cult and
adopted something from all of them,.

It has accepted to a certain extent the fetishism
of the Negrito aborigines; it has encouraged the
adoration of the fish and the boar, of the various
deities and their wives, and even stones and trees.
It brings oblations to the serpents in the mountain
caves as well as to the ocean billows that beat
against these rocky foundations.

While no one can become a Hindu who is not
thus born, any one can be admitted into the lower
ranks of Hinduism. Among the natives all
comers are welcome who will bow to the rules of

4 Hinduism

caste, and admit the supremacy of the priests, by
bringing offerings to their feet.

Anglo-Saxon admirers are admitted into the
outer circle upon still simpler conditions — all that
is required of them is the adoration of the priest-
hood, and liberal cash offerings for their support.

Vedaism. The primitive faith of the Hindu
Aryans is represented in the Rig-veda, which is the
earliest form of Hindu literature, and is no excep-
tion to the rule that the first literary product of
any people, after simple records, is found in the
form of verse. The Vedas furnish no chronology
— not a single date in all of these productions
by which any event, or series of events, may be
assigned to a proper place in the world's history.
Hence the Hindu imagination runs wild in figures
as in everything else, and they gravely assign
"millions of years " to the age of any of their
books which may be under discussion. Indeed it
has been claimed that the songs of the Rig-veda
"must have been written before the flood because
there is no mention of the flood therein"!

Whereupon Prof. F. Max Miiller wittily replied:
"If all the books which make no mention of the
flood were written before it, what a mass of ante-
diluvian literature we must have!"

Hinduism : A Composite System 5

The concensus of opinion among the most
eminent Orientalists however assigns the compo-
sition of the earliest of these hymns to the period
between 1 500 B.C. and i ooo B.C. There is a reserva-
tion however to the effect that later researches may
show that they belong to a more modern period.

These sons of the southland watched the heavens
for signs of the long-needed rain, and they sang
of Indra the storm god driving his tawny steeds
across the darkened sky, and using the lightnings
for his arrows when he forced the unwilling cloud
to give up its treasures.

They felt the terrible power of the tropical sun,
and sought to appease his wrath -by songs of praise
— by bringing oblations to him as soon as he came
out of the chambers of the east, with draperies of
crimson and purple. They called him by various
names; he might be Surya, Aditya, or Mitra, but
as his golden chariot rolled across the heavens,
they fancied they saw the milk-white horses of the
sun.

They witnessed the use and the havoc of fire
and sang of Agni, who was represented by the
flashing lightnings, and also by the clear flame
upon the hearthstone. He was the guardian of
the home, the minister of the sacrifice, and was
often invoked as the creator of all things.

6 Hinduism

The all-encircling firmament was called Varuna,
who was not only the god of the sky but also the sky
itself. He knows the pathway of the birds through
the blue ether, and the trackless course of the ships
upon the wide ocean, for he is also the Neptune
of the Hindus who rides upon the waters, or hides
in the caves on the shores of the seas. He fills the
halls of night with his presence and draws near to
his worshipper with the cooling touch of evening.

The Maruts or Rudras were, like Indra, the gods
of wind and storm. They were praised as " shak-
ers of the earth" and besought to tear in pieces
whatever fiends might attack the people. They
were termed " worshipful and wise" and were
supposed to dash through the heavens on chariots
drawn by dappled deer.

These Aryan singers called Yama the king of
death, he was supposed to be the first of men
who died, and he guides the spirits of other men
to their destination in heaven or hell. In later
mythology he is also represented as the judge of
the dead, but not in the Vedas.

The most enchanting of these early deities is
Ushas, the fair goddess of the morning, who comes
out of the east leading the white horses of the
sun. Wearing her garments of silver and tinted
pearl, she becomes in Sanskrit poetry "the mother

Hinduism : A Composite System 7

of the mornings" and the infant days begin their
journey amidst the clouds that float around her feet.

Thus it will be seen that this early faith was a
simple nature worship, and was free from the later
pollutions of Hinduism.

It is clear that the Rig-veda gives no support
to the offensive ceremonies and customs for which
it has been claimed it was the early authority.
Although the Vedic writings may contain germs
of the later systems, they furnish no support for
the theory that after death the souls of men must
pass through millions of the bodies of lower animals
and even find a place in sticks and stones. There
is no hint of wedding children in their cradles, or
giving a child of eight or nine years of age to an
old man — there is no suggestion of the barbarous
practice of burning living women on the dead
bodies of their husbands. Neither is there any
foundation here for the later usage of human
sacrifice. These and other things which are, if
possible, worse, are found only in the degradation
of the earlier worship.

Beginning with the adoration of the sun and stars,
the creeds of the Hindus sank lower and lower until
we come to the Puranas of the Middle Ages, when
licentiousness becomes a feature of public worship,
and even the conduct of Krishna is eulogised.

8 Hinduism

Far better than modern idolatry was the primi-
tive worship of mountain and sky — of starry
heights and ocean billows. Better than the ser-
pent and demon worship of to-day were the
libations poured out to the storm king as he swept
through the heavens on the wings of the wind.
Better than human sacrifice on the altars of blood-
thirsty Kali were the hymns to the fair goddess
of the morning as she comes through the gates of
pearl as "the leader of the days" and marshals her
host in golden splendour before the children of
men.

Traces of Monotheism. In all of the old mythol-
ogies, the farther we venture back into the past,
the fewer the gods become, until we approach that
sublime monotheism which was first revealed to
the children of men, and India is no exception
to the rule. One of the early hymns contains
the following beautiful sentiment concerning the
mystery of creation:

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

darkness,

Only the Existent One breathed calmly, self contained,
Naught else but He was there, — naught else, above,

beyond.1

1 Sir Monier Monier-Williams's trans, of Mandala, x., 129.

Hinduism : A Composite System 9

In order to briefly state the leading dogma of an
early faith we cannot do better than to give its
own formula in three words as stated by its own
philosophers: "Ekam eva advitiyam" — "There is
but one Being without a second." Nothing really
exists but one universal Spirit called Brahman.
And whatever appears to exist separately from
that Spirit is mere illusion.

This, according to the orthodox Hindu, is the
only true Veda. This is the uncompromising
creed of true Brahmanism. This, at least accord-
ing to the belief of the generality of educated
Hindus, is the only true knowledge to which the
Veda leads.1 Again in the beautiful hymn to
"The Golden Child," we find the same sentiment
as in many other places.

The God to whom we shall offer sacrifice,

He through whom the sky is bright and the earth firm,

He through whom the heaven was stablished —

Nay, the highest heaven —

He who measured out the light in the air ;

Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?2

Only a few of the hymns, however, seem to con-
tain the simple thought of One Divine Self- Existent
Being, and even in these, the idea of one God

1 Williams, Hinduism, p. ii.

a Max Muller's prose trans. Rig-veda, x., 121.

io Hinduism

prevalent in all nature is somewhat uncertain
and undefined. The celebrated "Purusha-sukta,"
one of the most modern hymns of the Rig-veda,
serves to illustrate the gradual sliding of monothe-
ism into pantheism:

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. *

But while the gods of the Veda were few in
number, and the oblations to them were compara-
tively simple, they were continually multiplied
during the passing years, until millions of deities
now command the adoration, and the money, of
the hapless Hindu.

In the valley of the Euphrates we find the same
conditions. In relation to the early monotheism
of Assyria, it is claimed that Hea was one of the
names of the God of Abraham, for Hea is another
form of El, and the followers of Hea were evidently
monotheistic. 2

1 Williams's trans, of Mandala, x., 90.

3 Rassam, Trans. Vic. Inst., vol. xiii., pp. 190-214. See also

Vol. XXV., p. I2O.

Hinduism: A Composite System n

This early form of worship, however, was soon
corrupted, and ere long the Assyrians counted
three hundred spirits of heaven and six hundred of
earth.

In Egypt we find similar historical records.
Many eminent Egyptologists claim that the earliest
monuments show the primitive religion of the
Nile Valley to have been monotheism. It appears
that when the Egyptians moved into the country,
a thousand years before Menes, they had only one
god who was Nu. Surely, this name is closely
akin to Anu who is described upon the tablets as
the supreme God of ancient Accad.

Maspero and some others take exception to the
monotheistic theory but all agree that few deities
are mentioned in the beginning of monumental
history, and that they steadily increase until they
become almost numberless. Dr. W. M. Flinders
Petrie says: "Wherever we can trace polytheism
back to its earliest stages, we find that it results
from combinations of monotheism/'1

That the people of Egypt were once worshippers
of the true God is evident from the prophecy of
Isaiah: "And the Lord shall smite Egypt and heal
it, and they shall return, even to the Lord and he

1 Petrie, Rel. of An. Egypt, p. 4.

12 Hinduism

shall heal them."1 The Hebrew word which is
here rendered "return" is translated by the same
word, or its equivalents, eight hundred and fifteen
times in the Old Testament, so there is no room for
philological discussion on this point.

Prof. F. Max Miiller says: ''Polytheism must
everywhere have been preceded by a more or less
conscious monotheism. In no language does the
plural come before the singular." The eminent
Orientalist shows, however, how easy it was
for the early peoples to multiply their deities
by having various names for the One God. "As
long as these names were remembered as mere
attributes of one and the same Divine Power,
there was as yet no polytheism, though no doubt
every new name threatened to obscure more and
more the primitive intuition of God."2

Among the early families of China the same
great principle prevailed. Dr. James Legge, late
professor of Chinese language and literature in
Oxford University, was the most accomplished
Chinese scholar in Europe, and he went back to a
period five thousand years ago, before the time
when their earliest books were written, and found
the old character which meant God to the primitive
peoples of China. He says: "Ti was to the

1 Isa. xix., 32. » Chips, vol. i., 348-354.

Hinduism: A Composite System 13

Chinese fathers, I believe, exactly what God was
to our fathers, whenever they took the Great
Name upon their lips."1

Dr. Legge also gives us the primitive Chinese
word for heaven as found in their earliest archives.
One of the words also found among these ancient
characters represents what we call prayer, or the
communion of man with God.

The old inscriptions of South Arabia tell the
same story. Dr. Fritz Hommel, a leading pro-
fessor in the University of Munich, has ana-
lysed the names of the early families of this
country, and has accumulated a vast amount
of evidence to show that the primitive peoples of
South Arabia were not only believers in the
One God, but that they also believed that He was
gracious and merciful to those who came to
Him in sincerity and truth — that He forgave
sinners and rewarded the righteous. Speaking
of the polytheism of South Arabia, Hommel says:

This would seem to indicate that there must have
been a time in the history of Arabia when these gods
... a number of whom were certainly imported from
the outside — did not receive worship, and when some
higher form of devotion of a type which reminds one

1 Dr. Legge, Religions of China, p. ii.

14 Hinduism

of what we are told about Melchizedek in the Old
Testament must have prevailed.1

Brahman in Sanskrit, originally meant Power, the
same as El. It resisted for a long time the mytho-
logical contagion, but at last it yielded like all the
other names of God. . . . This primitive intuition of
God, and the ineradicable feeling of dependence on
God could only have been the result of a primitive
revelation in the truest sense of that word.2

Brahmanism. Whatever remnants of primeval
monotheism may have been found during the
Vedic period were transformed under the reign
of the Brahmans into pantheism — the doctrine
that "He is, Himself, this very universe." The
Brahmanic period is placed from 800 to 500 B.C.
And during all this time it maintained a strong
hold over the people, although it was itself under-
going considerable changes.

The one point, however, which was never yielded
was the absolute necessity of sustaining with
liberal offerings an exacting priesthood. These
men introduced complicated rites which could be
performed only by themselves, and for which they
must be richly rewarded, hence the people were
loaded down with ceremonies on every possible

1 Hommel, An. Heb. Tradition, p. 80.

a Max Muller, Chips, vol. i.f pp. 354-355.

Hinduism: A Composite System 15

occasion, the whole course of a single service often
lasting for months and sometimes for years.

The literature of the period is found in the series
of Brahmanas, the oldest of which may have been
written seven or eight centuries before Christ.
This collection of books forms the second division
of the Veda, and they are intended as guides in the
performance of complicated ceremonials. Julius
Eggeling, the faithful translator of a portion of them,
says : ' ' For wearisome prolixity of exposition, char-
acterised by dogmatic assertion, and a flimsy
symbolism, rather than by serious reasoning, these
works are perhaps not equalled anywhere." Many
pages are devoted to the washing of the spoons, and
to the particular method of laying the sacred grass
upon the altar for the numerous periodical obla-
tions, and for sacrifices in general. Still, they repre-
sent the history of the period when the priests had
succeeded in transforming the primitive worship
of the powers of nature into a highly artificial sys-
tem conducted very largely for their own benefit.

Caste. During the Brahmanic period the rules
of caste were brought into vigorous operation and
indeed Bhattacharya admits that "caste had its
origin in Brahmanical legislation."1 The priests

1 Bhatt., Hindu Castes and Sects, p. 4.

16 Hinduism

found their first authority for it in one of the latest
hymns of the Rig-veda — a hymn which appears
to have been inserted in the collection by the
Brahmans themselves. This celebrated Purusha
hymn contains the following stanza:

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? And what his thighs and feet?

The Brahman was his mouth, the kingly soldier

Was made his arms, the husbandman his thighs,

The servile Sudra issued from his feet. r

Hence the divine order of caste is represented as
follows:

First, the Brahman, who is supposed to issue
from the mouth of the god. Every priest is a
Brahman but every Brahman is not a priest.
They are simply a caste divided into clergy
and laity. A Brahman, like a poet, "is born
and not made," hence a man of foreign birth
can no more become a Brahman than he can
become a Chinaman. Their sacred books have
no welcome for converts, quite the contrary.
The sole function of the "converts" on American

1 Williams's trans.

Hinduism: A Composite System 17

or European soil is the contribution of money to a
cause which constantly demands more. Therefore
when a Frenchwoman can make her living in
America by pretending to be, not only a Hindu
but even a Swami, it is time for her devotees to
investigate the subject in some sane way.

The second in the order of caste is "the kingly
soldier" who issued from the arms of Brahma.
To this all warriors and kings belonged, hence the
supremacy of the priests over the rulers was estab-
lished at an early day. They pose as "advisers"
it is true, but their mandates were often accom-
panied by threats of curses if they were disobeyed.

The third in order was the husbandman who
comes from the thighs of the god, and these, as well
as the two castes above them, claim to be "twice
born."

The Sudra or servile class is only "once born,"
and they form the lowest rank; but even they are
particular about maintaining their proper position.
The man who dresses hair will not clean clothes,
neither can a table waiter be hired to carry an
umbrella.

Besides these grand divisions, as they may be
called, there are many sub-castes which are too
numerous to specify. These minor divisions have
obtained in many ways. They may have origin-

i8 Hinduism

ated in mixed marriages ; for instance, a Brahman
could have four wives, and could marry a woman
belonging to any one of the three lower castes
and her children would be the beginning of another
class of beings.

We have also an almost endless number of
what may be called trade-castes, resulting chiefly
from associations of men engaged in the same
occupation ; these are being constantly created and
in them the exclusiveness and restrictions in regard
to social intercourse and intermarriage are en-
forced more strictly than even in the original
pure castes of early times. Many of these seem
to resemble trade unions and have numerous sub-
castes under them. For instance in the North-
West, the writer caste has twelve subdivisions,
and none of them can intermarry except with the
highest of the twelve divisions, and similarly the
carpenter caste has seven sub-castes none of whom
can eat together.

There is even a thief caste and a murder caste.
When a death occurs no man should be carried
to the burning-ground except by his own caste-fel-
lows. The arbitrary rules have multiplied almost
endlessly among the many divisions, still they af-
fect a man chiefly in the four matters of marriage,
food, professional occupation, and funeral rites.

Hinduism : A Composite System 19

The gross tyranny of the Brahmans is admitted
even by the native scholars. Lala Baijnath, the
ex-Chief Justice of Indore, in his address before
the International Congress of Orientalists, made the
following assertion :

Next to his slavish adherence to astrology which form
such a prominent feature in the Hindu's daily life, is
his desire to serve the Brahmans. Everything good
must be given to a Brahman — fresh fruit for the first
time in season, new corn, milk of a cow which has
calved for the first time, and many other things are
given to the Brahmans in every Hindu household be-
fore any one of the family ventures to touch them. *

Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya, President of the
College of Pandits and author of Commentaries
on Hindu Law, says :

The more orthodox Sudras carry their veneration for
the priestly class to such an extent, that they will not
cross the shadow of a Brahman, and it is not unusual
for them to be under a vow not to eat of any food in
the morning before drinking of the water in which
the toe of a Brahman has been dipped .... When
a Sudra writes a letter to a Brahman, it must begin
by declaring that the writer makes a hundred million
obeisances at the lotus feet of the addressee.2

All of the higher classes agree in abstaining from
animal food, the eating of which, although formerly

1 Baijnath, Trans. Ninth International Congress of Orientalists,
vol. i., p. 142. 2 Bhatt., Hindu Castes and Sects, pp. 20-21.

20 Hinduism

permitted on certain occasions, is now regarded as
an offence which is almost a crime. Even to sit
in the presence of an Anglo-Saxon who is eating
beef is not only sinful, but they claim it produces
feelings of disgust far greater than those which an
Englishman or an American would feel in sitting
beside a Chinaman who was enjoying a feast of
boiled rats!

And yet, when Dr. John Henry Barrows, late
President of Oberlin College, invited Vivekananda
to lunch in Chicago a few years ago, the Hindu
astonished his host by ordering roast beef!

Every orthodox Hindu is fully persuaded that
water if taken from the filthiest stream, provided
it is a sacred river, and used for drinking purposes,
or applied to his body, will purify his soul. Con-
sequently, he will eagerly drink it, whereas the
purest water is supposed to cause external and
internal taint, if it should be accepted from a
person of lower caste. Not only this but it pollutes
the whole of a well belonging to those of higher
caste, if one of the lower caste presumes to drink
water which has come from this sacred fountain.

Transmigration of Souls. This doctrine, which
apparently originated in Egypt, took early root in
Indian soil, and has long been a cardinal doctrine

Hinduism: A Composite System 21

of both Brahmanism and Hinduism. It is en-
thusiastically taught in the first Upanishad of the
series,1 is carried through several of them, and
afterward more fully developed in the Code of
Manu.

The theory provides an easy explanation of all
the inequalities of position, fortune, or even tal-
ent, as the rich, the noble, or the mentally
brilliant are supposed to be enjoying the benefits
of merit accumulated in former lives, while the
poor and the diseased are suffering the penalties
of sins committed in former bodies. It is said that
a thievish Brahman was once driven out of a man's
orchard and severely beaten, whereupon the victim
philosophically remarked to a friend: "It is all
right — in a former birth, this man was my donkey,
and I was very cruel to him. He has now repaid
me for many a blow!" The fact that very few
claim to remember any former birth seems to
furnish little or no objection to the theory, as it is
supposed that memory is lost at each and every
death.

The faith of millions of people in India, for
nearly two thousand years, has been built largely

1 The Upanishads are the third grand division of the Vedas,
and the earliest of these philosophical works may have been
written as early as 600 B.C.

22 Hinduism

upon the dogma that each being must pass through
8,400,000 lives, which is the natural lot of all souls.
These forms through which all must pass are
supposed to consist of 2,300,000 quadrupeds,
900,000 aquatic animals, 1,000,000 feathered
animals, 1,100,000 creeping animals, 1,700,000
immovable forms such as trees and stones, i ,400-
ooo human beings, and although there is no gradual
rise in position it is only in this last form that final
emancipation may be gained.

It is on account of this peculiar faith that every
animal and insect is sacred in India, as even a fly
or a flea might contain the soul of a priest or of a
near relative. It is said that some of the Hindu
visitors to the World's Congresses in Chicago, in
1893, became interested in the hospital idea and
went home and built a hospital — not for the suffer-
ing women and children, but for the feeding and
propagation of loathsome insects !

It is noticeable throughout the codes that sins
against caste are more severely punished in future
births than are offences against morality, but
sometimes there is a sort of poetic justice in the
penalties. For instance a man who steals grain
will be born a mouse; if he has stolen perfumery,
he becomes a muskrat; if he has purloined water
he will be reborn as a water-fowl; if he has taken

Hinduism : A Composite System 23

honey, in the next birth he will be a gadfly ; he
who has stolen meat becomes a vulture, one who
has robbed his neighbour of oil, will next make his
appearance as a cockroach, while one who has
stolen linen becomes a frog !

But these punishments are mild when compared
to the penalty for sins against caste. For in-
stance if a Brahman neglects his own appointed
caste, he will be reborn as a vomit-eating demon,
feeding also upon dead bodies and other putrid
flesh.

In all the statutes which govern social life, the
immense superiority of the priestly class is the
great central point of civil as well as ceremonial law.

A Brahman, whether learned or unlearned, is a
mighty divinity, whether consecrated, or unconse-
crated.

Let not a king although fallen into the greatest dis-
tress provoke Brahmans to anger (by taking revenue
from them), for they, if once enraged, could instantly
(by pronouncing curses) destroy him with his whole
retinue.1

The punishment for insulting a Brahman is
something terrible:

With whatever member a low-born man may injure
a superior, that very member must be mutilated. . . .

1 Manu, ix., 13-14, 317.

24 Hinduism

A once-born man insulting twice-born men with
abusive language must have his tongue cut out.
Should he mention their name and caste with insult-
ing expressions, a red-hot iron three inches long is
thrust into his mouth/'1

We can hardly imagine it possible for any be-
ings in human form to invent such horrible pun-
ishments, to be inflicted even upon the vilest
criminal, neither could a law student believe that
such enactments had ever been made if they were
not a part of the official decrees in the Code of
Manu.

This textbook was probably at first a small
collection of local enactments which were handed
down orally, perhaps, for generations, but additions
were constantly made to it, until it became a
voluminous portion of their sacred literature, and
was then as now the basis of Hindu jurisprudence.
It has secured for itself a degree of reverence second
only to that accorded to the Veda. About twenty
volumes of this enormous work are still in existence
and many of its provisions are judicious and
beneficial. The Code is, however, a strange com-
bination of civil and religious law. Besides the
infliction of terrible penalties at the hands of the
civil authorities, the criminal was often assured of

1 Manu, viii., 276-279.

Hinduism : A Composite System 25

still more awful punishments in the various forms
through which his soul must pass after leaving his
body.

Apparently believing that the subject of hell is
one in which many people must be interested, the
Hindu philosophers have elaborated it extensively.
They have provided extensive accommodations for
sinners of all classes and degrees in twenty-one
hells of various descriptions, each of which is
provided with unpronounceable names in addition
to their other horrors. The word-pictures of these
abodes of torture as given in standard Sanskrit
works are appalling beyond description, but there
is no crime so fiendish that it does not become in-
nocent, provided only the culprit be a priest who
retains his caste, and remembers a sacred text.
Hence it is said in Manu: "A Brahman by retain-
ing the Rig-veda in his memory, incurs no guilt,
though he should destroy the inhabitants of the
three worlds, and even eat food from the foulest
hands!111

1 Manu, book ii., 26.

CHAPTER II
BUDDHISM: A PROTEST AGAINST BRAHMANISM

Long Series of Buddhas. Birth of Gautama. Great Renunciation.
System of Philosophy. Metempsychosis. Jataka Book.
Buddha's Hell. Atheism and Later Polytheism. Death
of Buddha. Number of Adherents. Expulsion from India.

TT is claimed the Gautama was the last of a long
* succession of Buddhas who appear at great
intervals in the world's history in a series which
has neither beginning nor end. This endless chain,
according to their official statements, reaches
back into the past for so many kalpas1 of ages that
the eons of geologic time are lost in comparison.
Gautama, himself, enumerates only eighty-one
predecessors beginning with Dipankara, but in one
of their standard works it is said: " There are
many hundreds of thousands of kotis 2 of Buddhas,

1 According to some authorities, a kalpa is definitely stated
as two billions one hundred and sixty millions of years. While
others express its duration as follows: "Let it be supposed that
a solid rock sixteen miles high, and the same in length, and
breadth, were lightly rubbed, once in a hundred years, with a
piece of the finest cloth, and by this slight friction reduced to the
size of a mango seed — that would give you no idea of the length
of a Buddhist kalpa" (Williams, B., p. 120).

3 A koti is explained as being ten millions.
26

A Protest Against Brahmanism 27

endless like the sands of the Ganges — the incom-
parable lords!"1 When we consider that each
of these must pass through multitudes of births,
we cannot wonder that plenty of time is
required.

The Birth of Gautama. Gautama, or Gotama,
was the name given him by the family. Buddha
was not a proper name, but simply an epithet
signifying "the perfectly enlightened one," and
besides this the founder of the system has seven-
teen other titles all of which are significant of dif-
ferent qualifications, or positions. Such a mass of
myth surrounds his birth and early life, so many
dates are assigned to him, that for these and other
reasons, some critical scholars are disposed to
doubt the fact of his existence as a real being.
The native teacher Bhagwanlal R. Badshah not
only denies the existence of Gautama, but asserts
that Sakyasink, the son of Suddhodana was the
great reformer who founded Buddhism. He says
of the man whom he claims was the real founder:
"He did not want to call himself Buddha, but he
wanted to give the name of Buddhism to the new
religion he set up. As he delivered the people from

1 Sukhavati-vyhua, 4, 6. See also Lalita-Vistara, chap, i.,
p. 6.

28 Hinduism

the oppression of the Brahmans the people called
him an incarnation of God. " l

The preponderance of evidence, however, strongly
indicates that about the beginning of the fifth cen-
tury B.C. Gautama Buddha was born, about a
hundred miles from Benares. He was the son of Sud-
dhodana, who was a landowner of the tribe Sakyas,
and although certainly not a king, he may have
been a chief of his tribe. His mother's name was
Maya-devi and she was the wife of Suddhodana.

The Great Renunciation. The story of the four
visions which it is claimed led to his abandonment
of the ordinary course of life appears to belong to
the mythical traditions concerning Buddha. Ac-
cording to the Lalita-Vistara, however, the story,
briefly, is about as follows:

One day while walking in the pleasure grounds,
he saw a man who was withered and wasted by
age. He enquired as to the cause, and was told
that this was the final condition of all who were
not saved from it by an early death. Then he
returned home greatly disturbed in mind.

Going again to the park, he saw a sick man, and
learned that disease too was the common lot.

1 Badshah, Trans. Ninth Inter. Cong, of Orientalists, vol.
ii., p. 139.

A Protest Against Brahmanism 29

Again he saw a dead man, and learned that this
also was a portion of the heritage of humanity.

Still later he saw a mendicant friar and asked
what manner of man this might be, who appeared
so strangely? On being told of the great advan-
tages this man was gaining by renouncing the world,
he went a way in deep thought.

On returning home he reclined on a couch and
the women of his household brought their musical
instruments and danced and sang until he fell
asleep. Then they lay down and went to sleep
also. When he awoke they were still asleep, and
the Lalita-Vistara gives the following description
of the vision upon which he looked:

He, the Bodhisattva (or future Buddha) cast his eyes
upon the ladies; he looked at them with attention;
(he found) spme of them had their dresses in disorder ;
some of them had their tresses dishevelled; some of
them had their ornaments scattered about ; some had
their tiaras knocked off; some had their chins resting
on their shoulders, some had their mouths distorted;
some had their eyes staring; some had saliva flowing
down from their mouths; some were groaning; some
were laughing ; some were talking wildly ; some were
grinding their teeth ; some had their faces discoloured ;
some had their arms distended ; some had their faces
distorted ; some had their heads uncovered ; some had
their faces twisted on one side. . . . Beholding this
repulsive scene of the ladies lying on the ground,

30 Hinduism

the Bodhisattva realised in his mind the idea of the
cremation ground. Beholding these, that lord of be-
ings, drawing a merciful sigh, thus spoke in distress:
"Alas! How can I associate with the beings here
assembled? I must retire to asceticism."1

He is said to have arrived at supreme knowledge
after long meditation and fasting under the Bodhi
tree, or "Tree of wisdom/' which is familiarly
called the Bo-tree. This tree is, therefore, greatly
reverenced by all Buddhists, and the one under
which he is supposed to have received enlighten-
ment is continually preserved by replanting new
trees in the decayed trunk of the old one.

System of Philosophy. Four great truths are
said to have been revealed to Buddha as the first
result of his long period of meditation. These
together make what is called the " Law, or Doctrine
of the Wheel." They are:

(1) Suffering exists wherever there is life.

(2) Suffering is caused by desire.

(3) Release from suffering depends upon the
suppression of desire and the extinction of being
(Nirvana).

' Lalita-Vistara, trans, by Rajendralala Mitra, LL.D., C.I.E.,
chap. xv.f p. 275. A modern English poet has violated the Bud-
dhistic account by painting this revolting scene in very different
colours. The Buddha-karita, however, and other standard works
give vivid descriptions of the scene which is here so lightly touched.

A Protest Against Brahmanism 31

(4) Nirvana can only be obtained by following
the paths pointed out by Buddha. These paths
are eight in number, four of them — right vision,
right thoughts, right words, right actions — being
applicable to all men, the other four being reserved
for monks only.

This system was a protest against the pantheism
of Brahmanism which makes God everything and
everything God, as primitive and genuine Buddhism
was not a religion at all, but merely a philosophy,
which recognised no God, no prayer, and no priest.
It was opposed to all ecclesiastical organisation,
being simply a brotherhood of men who had re-
nounced their families, and claimed to renounce
all desire for life — men who had pledged themselves
to devote their time to the recitation of the law
and "the accumulation of merit" for the sake of
their own deliverance from the hopeless chain of
transmigration which was taught by the Brahmans.
The warfare against marriage and family life
excited the opposition of the people, and Buddha
himself very soon saw that the practical working
of his theories must also bring destitution, as the
monks were forbidden to work, but must obtain
their living by carrying from door to door a bowl
in which they received scraps of food. Lay-
brothers and lay-sisters were therefore a necessity ;

32 Hinduism

somebody must work for the support of the monks.
Married householders were made members of the
outer circle, and the formula for their admission
into the ranks was very simple, being merely a
repetition of the following words:

I go for refuge to the Buddha.
I go for refuge to the law.
I go for refuge to the Order. *

It was also understood that they should abstain
from five gross offences, but the principal test of
their loyalty was their willingness to serve the
monks.

Buddhism was a protest against Brahmanism
concerning the tyranny of caste, because it
taught that all men were equal; all men too must
suffer in their own persons-, either in this or in
future lives, the consequences of their own acts.
And as all actions, whether good or bad, lead to
repeated future existences, the great end and
object of every man must be to attain non-
existence (Nirvana) by meditation and the sup-
pression of all action.

It was also a protest against Brahmanism in
denying the existence of the soul. The second
discourse which Buddha ever delivered was at

1 Maha-vagga, i,, 7, 10.

A Protest Against Brahmanism 33

Benares on the Non-Existence of the Soul. The
belief in self or soul was accounted so distinctly a
heresy that two well-known words in Pali termin-
ology were coined to stigmatise it. And yet, in
defiance of these facts, Dharmapala stood up be-
fore an audience in Chicago and said: "I will now
read to you some Buddhistic ideas in Christian
language. " And then he proceeded to read the
parable found in Luke xii., emphasising verse 20:
"Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required
of thee. " This is only one example of their mis-
representations of their own books and creeds on
foreign soil.

Metempsychosis. As Buddhism officially and
emphatically denied the existence of the soul, it
could not in any way recognise the transmigration
of the soul. Gautama taught, however, a system
of metempsychosis wherein the character was
transferred from one being to another. Although
he admitted the existence of no God, he was
compelled to recognise an all-ruling power from
which there was no escape and he called this power
karma or karman — action. The substance of this
teaching is that the result of what a man does is
concentrated in a new sentient being — new in its
constituent parts or powers, but the same in its

34 Hinduism

essence, its being, or doing — its karma! The
theory is that as soon as a man, animal, or angel
dies, a new being is produced in a more or less
painful state of existence, according to the char-
acter or actions of the creature that died. Re-
birth as an animal clearly forms part of the oldest
Buddhistic belief and later works rightly take it
for granted. In the Dhamma-pada, which is one
of the oldest Buddhistic works and claims to re-
produce the sayings of Buddha, he is represented
as declaring:

Through countless births have I wandered, seeking
but not discovering the maker of this, my mortal
dwelling-place, and still again and again have birth
and life, and pain, returned.

But now, at length, thou art discovered, thou
builder of this house. No longer shalt thou rear a
house for me. Rafters and beams are shattered, and
with the destruction of desire, deliverance from a re-
peated life is gained at last.1

The Jataka Book. The Buddhist scriptures are
spoken of as consisting of nine divisions, and of
these, this collection forms the seventh. Although
it is briefly called the Jataka Book, its full title
is, "The Commentary on the Jatakas, " as it not
only contains the stories of previous births, but
also explanations, and a description of the cir-

1 Dhamma-pada, 153-154.

A Protest Against Brahmanism 35

cumstances under which they were told. The
date of this work, like the others, is undecided,
but T. W. Rhys Davids, the translator, says:
"The rise of our Jataka Book was due to the re-
ligious faith of the Indian Buddhists of the third
or fourth centuries before Christ," the statements
therein contained having been handed down orally
from time to time until they were committed to
writing.

In several other standard works of the sect, the
karma of Buddha is represented as having belonged,
and apparently in succession, to both men and
animals. He is represented as not only remember-
ing many of his early experiences, but also of
repeating his adventures in former births for the
instruction and entertainment of his followers, and
these are the stories, of which he is always the
hero, which are gathered in this great collection.

It is said there are five hundred and fifty differ-
ent births, concerning which tales have come down
to us, and in some "of the Buddhist temples relics
of Gautama are exhibited, such as hair, feathers,
and other fragments of animals whose forms he
formerly wore.

According to the Jataka and other standard
works, he was born once each as a fairy, a hare, a
frog, a water fowl, a carpenter, a devil dancer, a

36 Hinduism

silversmith, a gambler, a curer of snake bites, and
a dog. Twice he lived as a pig, twice as a thief,
twice as a rat, and he also repeatedly led the lives
of a jackal, a fish, a woodpecker, and a crow.
Forty- three times he was a tree-god, and twenty-
four he was a teacher, in twenty-four also he was a
courtier, and he led twenty lives as a king's son.
In three lives he was an outcast, and in three a
potter. Four times each he was born as a peacock,
a serpent, and the god Brahma; in four lives also
he was a horse, and afterwards lived in four
different bulls. In twenty-three lives he was a
nobleman, and in twenty-two a learned man.
Five times each he was born as an eagle, and as a
slave. Six times he was an elephant, and six times
a snipe. He lived eight lives as a wild duck, and
ten as a lion. In eleven births he was a deer, and
in twelve a man of property. Thirteen of his lives
were devoted to commerce, and in eighteen forms
of existence he was a monkey. "The noteworthy
point," says Sir Monier Monier- Williams, "about
the repeated births of Buddha, is that there was
no Darwinian rise from lower to higher forms, but
a mere jumble of metamorphoses."1

It is true that he is represented as being born
in the Tusita heavens the last time before he was

1 Williams, B., p. iii.

A Protest Against Brahmanism 37

born as Gautama, but, says Oldenburg, "This in
no way implies that a superhuman existence is
claimed for him. One who is a god in one exist-
ence may, in the next, be born as an animal, or he
may be born in hell."1

If he be born in hell, he is not thereby debarred
from seeking salvation; and if he be born in heaven
as a god, he must sometime leave his happy estate,
and seek for the condition of the perfect man who has
attained Nirvana, and is soon to achieve the only
consummation for which it is worth while to live — •
extinction of personal existence in Pari-nirvana.2

Although the Bodisat (or future Buddha)
passed many lives in the humble forms of the
frog, snipe, rat, serpents, monkeys, and others —
although he repeatedly lived as thieves, outcasts,
and gamblers, yet he escaped the greatest humilia-
tion to which he could have been subjected in the
eyes of the people of India in that he was never
born as a woman!

Buddha's Hell. The descriptions of hell are
very graphic and the doctrine of karma contains
no forgiveness. "Not in the heavens," says the
Dhamma-pada, "not in the midst of the sea . . .
wilt thou find a place where thou canst escape the

1 Oldenburg, B., p. 324. a Williams, B., p. 122.

38 Hinduism

force of thy evil action."1 A passage in the
Deva-duta-sutta represents Yama as pronouncing
the doom of a wicked man :

These, thy evil deeds, are not the work of others,
thou alone hast done them all; thou alone must bear
the fruit. And then the warders of hell drag him to
a place of torment, rivet him to red-hot iron, plunge
him into glowing seas of blood, torture him on heaps
of burning coals ; and he dies not, until the last residue
of his guilt has been expiated.2

Although the punishment of hell is not eternal,
its shortest duration is five hundred of the years
of hell, each day of which equals fifty years of
earth. Buddha's own description of the future
punishment of a backbiter is found in the Maha-
vagga ; a portion of it is as follows :

To the place where one is struck with iron rods, to
the iron stake with sharp edges he goes ; then there is
for him food as appropriate, resembling a red-hot ball
of iron. . . . Then he who commits sin is surely
boiled in a mixture of matter and blood; whatever
quarter he inhabits, he becomes rotten there from
coming in contact with matter and blood. . . .
There black-mottled ravens eat them who are weeping,
and dogs, jackals, great vultures, falcons, and crows
tear them.3

1 Dhamma-pada, 127.
3 Deva-duta-sutta, trans, by Oldenburg.

3 Maha-vagga Kokaliya sutta, ii., 19. The Buddha-karita
gives, if possible, a more terrible description than this, and it is

A Protest Against Brahmanism 39

Atheism and Later Polytheism. "Buddhism has
no Creator, no creation, no original germ of all
things, no soul of the world, no personal, no imper-
sonal, no supermundane, no antemundane prin-
cipal."1

The idea of a Creator is not only denied, but
Buddha claimed to find no being in the whole
universe who was his own equal.

An ascetic by the name of Upasaka came to him
to enquire of whom he had learned his philosophy,
whereupon Buddha replied as follows: "I have
no teacher; there is no one who resembles me.
In the world of gods I have no equal. I am the
most noble being in the world, the irrefutable
teacher, the sole, all-pervading Buddha."

But he did acknowledge the various gods of the
Hindu pantheon, and it will be remembered that
he claimed to have been born as a tree-god forty-
three times.

These gods or spirits were very much in the order of
precedence and were all (except Mara, the Evil One)
supposed to be passably good Buddhists. They were
not feared but patronised as a sort of fairies, usually
beneficent, though always more or less foolish and

there described as a part of the enlightenment which Buddha
attained under the Bo-tree, and this was "the true knowledge"
which was attained in the second watch. See Buddha-karita,
bk. xiv., 10, 6. * Williams, B., p. 117.

40 Hinduism

ignorant .... No exception was made in the case
of Brahma. He also was evanescent, was bound by
the chain of existence, the result of ignorance, and
could only find salvation by walking along the eight-
fold path. . . . But even if the idea of Brahma
were the same as the idea of a god, union with him
would mean merely a temporary life as an angel in
the Brahma heavens. l

The radical atheism of Buddha resulted in extrav-
agant polytheism among his followers. He taught
that man has no Father to whom he can appeal for
sympathy and aid, but the higher sentiments of
the human heart naturally reach upward, seeking
some object of veneration, and no one can set his
affections upon a system of philosophy. Hence
there are now multitudes of gods in the Buddhist
pantheon, and many of them are mentioned even as
early as the Dhamma-pada.

The Buddhism of the North became connected
with Shaivism, magic, and even with Tantrism' or
Shaktism with all its loathsome accompaniments.
Without apparently making war upon existing
faiths, it still claims that a man may be a good
Buddhist and at the same time anything else
he pleases. Not only this, but it absorbs
other creeds or assimilates some of their ideas.
For instance in Japan it has embraced Shintoism,

1 Sa. Bks. of the East, vol. xi., pp. 163-4.

A Protest Against Brahmanism 41

while in Ceylon and Burma it has included ser-
pent worship, and the adoration of demons, with
all of which, as well as with the recognition of many
a Hindu god, it is still connected. Although at
first opposed to all organisation except as a roving
band of monks, it now has an organisation similar
to that of the Roman Church with the Grand Lama
reigning as Pope. Idol worship also soon came
into vogue and during the reign of this cult in
India, the monks vied with each other in the
ingenuity with which they constructed their idols.
They were made to give out light, or flash glances
from their crystal eyes, and were also furnished
with machinery that would enable them to nod,
or reach out a hand to bless a worshipper who was
liberal with his offerings.

It is not strange that atheism should lead to
polytheism as the other extreme, and that idols
are now more abundant in Buddhist countries than
among any other idolatrous people. Even in
Chicago, at what is called their "devotion meet-
ings,'* after a very flowery and very misleading
address, incense is burned before the image of
Buddha, and men and women go through with the
various forms of obeisance before the idol.

The Death of Buddha. The official and only reli-

42 Hinduism

able story of the death of Gautama is found in the
Maha-parinibbana Suttana, or Book of the Great
Decease, which is supposed to have been written
by some of his devoted followers at a time when
reliable traditions concerning the matter were
still in circulation among the people. Very briefly,
the story is as follows:

At Pava the Blessed One stayed at the mango grove
of Kunda [pronounced Chunda] the coppersmith.
Now at the end of the night Kunda made ready in his
dwelling place sweet rice and cakes and a quantity of
dried boar's flesh.

And the Blessed One robed himself early in the
morning, and taking his bowl, went with the brethren
to the dwelling place of Kunda. And when he was
seated, he addressed the worker in metals, and said:
"As to the dried boar's flesh you have made ready,
serve me with it, Kunda; and as to the sweet rice and
cakes serve the brethren with it."

' ' Even so, Lord, " said Kunda. And the dried boar's
flesh he had made ready, he served to the Blessed One,
whilst the other food, he served to members of the Order.

Now the Blessed One addressed Kunda and said:
"Whatever dried boar's flesh is left over to thee,
Kunda, that bury in a hole. I see no one, Kunda, on
earth, nor in Mara's heaven, nor in Brahma's heaven,
no one among gods and men, by whom, when he had
eaten it, that food can be assimilated, save by the
Tathagata." "Even so, Lord!" said Kunda. And
whatever dried boar's flesh was left over, he buried
in a hole.

A Protest Against Brahmanism 43

Now when the Blessed One had eaten the food pre-
pared by Kunda, there fell upon him a dire sickness,
and sharp pain came upon him, even unto death. But
the Blessed One, mindful and self-possessed, bore it
without complaint.

He did not die at once because of his indiscretion,
and before he passed away he exonerated Kunda
from all blame in the matter:

" This is good to thee, Kunda, and gain to thee, in
that when the Tathagata had eaten his last meal
from thy provision, then he died. The offering of
food, which, when a Tathagata has eaten he attains
to supreme and perfect insight, and the offering of
food, which, when a Tathagata has eaten, he passes
away by that utter passing away in which nothing
whatever remains behind . . . these two offerings
of food are of equal fruit, and equal profit, and of
much greater fruit, and much greater profit than any
others."'

The body of Buddha was cremated, and the
remains were divided into eight parts, one of
which was assigned to each of the parties claiming
it. Over each portion of the relics a mound was
built and a feast was held.

It is probable that in this important work, which
is one of the series of The Sacred Books of the East,
we have much of history, not only because it is
one of the oldest of the Buddhist productions,

1 Maha-parinibbana Suttana, chap. iv.

44 Hinduism

but also because it records events which would
not be allowed in a work of fiction. Orientalists
have called attention to the great improbability
that the followers of Buddha should fabricate a
story to the effect that he died from eating too
much pork, in view of the fact that he had always
forbidden the killing of animals. Many animals
were held to be especially sacred because Buddha
was supposed to have lived in such forms in previ-
ous births, and he was born twice as a pig.

Nirvana. This term was not original with
Buddha as it was certainly current before his time,
and it is still common to both Brahmanism and
Buddhism, and the native authorities present so
many contradictory expositions of it, that it has
become a problem among scholars. The meaning
of the word is "extinction," "blown out," or "the
state of a blown-out flame." The Buddhist who
arrives at eternal rest is supposed to be "blown
out like the flame of a candle." But we cannot
expect such a term to be explained always in the
same way, by a system which is so elastic that it
changes front to a greater or less extent, in order
to suit the opinions of every people whom it
approaches. Buddha himself frequently spoke
of his impending death as "the final extinction

A Protest Against Brahmanism 45

of the Tathagata. " Sir Monier Monier- Williams
argues that Nirvana is not in itself necessarily the
annihilation of all existence, it is the absence of
pain and also of demerit — the absence of all
thought and all work. "It is not consciousness,
neither is it unconsciousness."1

Besides Nirvana, we have another term — Pari-
nirvana; that is, "without remains or remnants of
the elements of existence."2 This is the oblivion
to which Rhys Davids refers when he says:
"Death, utter death, with no new life to follow,
is the result of Nirvana."3 It is what Williams
calls "The extinction of personal existence in
Pari-nirvana. "

Hence, although there are various shades of
thought and definition, Oriental scholars agree
that the summum bonum of the Buddhist ambition
is the absolute nothing; the only question being
whether Nirvana itself is utter extinction, or only
a half -conscious condition which is to be succeeded
by eternal oblivion. It is true that Buddhists
seeking converts in Christian countries claim that :
"Nirvana means union and communion with God
— the absorption of the soul in the Divine essence" !
But no position can be more absurd than this in

1 Williams, Buddhism, p. 141. a Childers's Pali Dictionary.
3 Rhys Davids, B-uddhism., p. 114.

46 Hinduism

view of the fact that genuine Buddhism believes in
no God with whom union could be formed, and
no soul to be absorbed, if indeed it did recognise
a Divine Being. Max Miiller says:

Buddha himself was certainly an atheist; there-
fore if Nirvana was not, in his mind, complete annihi-
lation, still less could it have been absorption into the
Divine essence. J

True wisdom (according to Buddha) consists in
perceiving the nothingness of all things, and in the
desire to become nothing, 'to be blown out,' to
enter into Nirvana. Emancipation is obtained by
total extinction . . . if to be, is misery, then not to
be, must be felicity, and this is the highest reward that
Buddha offered to his disciples I2

Number of Adherents. It seems to have become
the fashion for some people to announce that "a
majority of the human race believe in the doctrines
of Buddha, " and others, though less thoughtless,
are giving currency to the statement that out of
the fifteen hundred millions of earth's inhabitants,
at least five hundred millions are Buddhists !

It should be remembered, however, that Bud-
dhism has virtually disappeared from India proper,
although according to the census of 1901, they
claimed more than half the population of Burma
and its borders, where the most of them in that

1 Max Muller, Chips, vol. i., p. 284. *Ibid., p. 227.

A Protest Against Brahmanism 47

region have congregated.1 Its strongest position
is in China and Japan, but in China, the principal
religion is Confucianism. The best authorities
upon this subject, including the late Dr. James
Legge, Professor of Chinese in Oxford University,
are of the opinion that there are not more than
one hundred millions of Buddhists in the world.

I should be surprised, [says Prof. Legge,] if it
were proved that there are one hundred millions of
men in this world who would write down, or direct
another to enter, their names as believers in Sakya-
muni (or Buddha) and his doctrines.2

Although the question of the truth or falsity of
any position can never be indicated by the number
of its adherents, still it is well to ascertain the
numerical strength of any people so as to be able
to estimate, to a certain extent, the influence which
they may have in the world of thought.

According to the most reliable information
which can be obtained concerning the present
status of the principal religions of the world, they
rank in point of numbers as follows: Nominal
Christianity; Confucianism; Brahmanism and
Hinduism; Buddhism; Mohammedanism; and
lastly Taoism (the system of Lao-tsze); Jainism;

1 Encyclopedia Britannica.

a Trans, Ninth International Congress of Orientalists, vol. ii.,
p. 580.

48 Hinduism

Zoroastrianism; the others being too small to be
considered in this estimate. x Thus it will be seen
that Buddhism numerically occupies the fourth
place, although its adherents are fond of de-
claring that their creed "controls the thought of
the greater portion of the world's population"!
Science however must deal with facts and not in
fanciful speculations. The incredible figures
claimed by Buddhists must have been obtained
by calculating the entire population, in every
country where the system has a foothold. Or
they may have been obtained as were the figures
of the Buddhist priests who returned to India
and told the people there, that at the "World's
Congresses" which they attended in Chicago in
1893, they "made thirty thousand converts to Bud-
dhism" ! When this story was indignantly denied
by Dr. John Henry Barrows they promptly qualified
it by saying: "Well we made one convert who was
worth as much as thirty thousand common men " !

Expulsion from India. The expulsion of Bud-
dhism from India, or rather its extinction by absorp-
tion and amalgamation, was a gradual work to
which no very definite period can be assigned.

Even in Benares, the Chinese writer Hiouen
Thasng found it flourishing side by side with

'Williams, Buddhism, p. 15.

A Protest Against Brahmanism 49

Brahmanism in the 7th century of the Christian
era. In other parts of the country there was
probably a period of Brahmanical hostility, and
in some cases, perhaps, actual persecution, but
Buddhism was drawn back by the Brahmans,
themselves, who finally pacified the followers of
Buddha by boldly claiming that he was one of
the incarnations of Vishnu! This doctrine of the
avatars was not fully developed until we come
down to the Puranas about the middle of the
Christian era. The old Brahmans, having dis-
covered the efficacy of compromise, overcame
opposition by this means and thus enticed the
seceders back into their caste system. Only a
small section of the Buddhist community resisted
all attempts at amalgamation and the successors of
these are the Jains. Jainism appears to be the
only sect in India which represents Buddhistic
ideas and this is a near relative of Buddhism if not
its actual descendant. There is no reliable proof
that any religion bearing the name of Jainism
existed before the time of Christ. And yet, an
advocate of this system, in a public address in
Chicago, in 1893, declared: "My religion was old,
when the pyramids were young!" No wonder that
Sir William Jones remarked: "The comprehensive
mind of an Indian chronologist has no limits!"

CHAPTER III

DEVELOPMENT OF HINDUISM

Combination of Theories. Burning of Widows. The Yoga
Philosophy. Brahma. Shiva. Ceremonies. The Tan-
tras. Kali, Wife of Shiva.

LJINDUISM is Brahmanism modified by the
* •* influence of Buddhism, and it appears to
have adopted nearly every doctrine of the later
cult except its atheism, its denial of the existence
of the soul, and its levelling of caste distinction.

It retained the pantheistic idea of Brahmanism :
" There is One Being and no second," but it is
supposed that the One Supreme Being amuses
himself by illusory appearances — that He is
manifested variously, as light manifests itself in
the rainbow; and all visible objects, human
beings and animals, are all emanations from Him
and will eventually be absorbed into His essence.

While Hinduism is often theistic or pantheistic,
it is always polytheistic, the various theories being
constantly interwoven into each other, and hence
more than a hundred millions of the people of

50

Development of Hinduism 51

India are bewildered with the strange tenets of a
creed which combines the teachings of monotheism
with the worship of a multitude of idols — which
declares at one time there is but one God, and
still constantly inculcates veneration for many
of the Hindu deities.

From the few gods of Vedaism, the pantheism
and polytheism of the Brahmans, and the athe-
ism of Buddha, the Hindus have evolved a sys-
tem under the rule of which their pantheon
contains three hundred and thirty million objects
of worship.

This later cult has succeeded in embracing some-
thing from most other available creeds, and in
presenting phases suited to many minds. It
proclaims belief in the efficacy of sacrifices, rites,
austerities, and penances, and these are still called
"the way of works." It also advocates faith in
multitudes of personal deities, and this is called
"the way of faith and devotion."

Burning of Widows. This horrible rite has
certainly been found in India as early as 300 B.C.,
and Raja Radhakant Deb, the great Hindu
scholar, claims that it was practised from very
remote times; it surely flourished there to a very
alarming degree during the prosperous reign of
Hinduism. At the close of the i8th century

52 Hinduism

seventy widows were burned alive with the body
of one of the rajas.

It was not practised by the Buddhists, but with
all their reverence for animal and insect life, we
have no record of any effort being made by them
to even curtail this unparalleled cruelty. They
were afraid to kill a snake or other reptile lest it
might be a new form worn by some of their ances-
tors; they were too humane to kill a flea, or more
revolting insect; but they looked indifferently on,
while women were burned to death from one gener-
ation to another.

When British rule obtained, a guarantee was
given the natives that they should have liberty of
conscience — that their religious rites should not
be disturbed. When, therefore, the officers of the
government began to protest against these brutal-
ities, the priests stoutly declared that it was a part
of their religion — that it was sanctioned by the
Veda, and the English could not touch it without
breaking their solemn pledge. When they were
asked to show European scholars the text in the
Veda which sanctioned such barbarism they an-
swered that their "holy manuscripts must not be
desecrated by the touch of an unbeliever!"

When, however, they learned that the govern-
ment was in earnest — when they were reminded

Development of Hinduism . 53

that while they were to have liberty of conscience,
they would not be allowed to commit murder in
its most cruel form, if it could be legally avoided,
—then they deigned to produce their "evidence."
Raghunandana and other doctors actually quoted
chapter and verse which they claimed to be from
the Rig-veda, and Colebrooke, one of the best
Sanskrit scholars of that period, was obliged to
translate it according to their assertions. Dr.
Horace Hay man Wilson, however, at last obtained
the manuscripts, and discovered that the docu-
ments which were too sacred to be profaned by the
hand of a foreigner had actually been violated
and falsified for the purpose of perpetuating this
horrible practice.

Prof. F. Max Muller well said :

This is perhaps the most flagrant instance of what
can be done by an unscrupulous priesthood. Here
have thousands and thousands of lives been sacrificed
and a fanatical rebellion threatened on the authority
of a manuscript which was mangled, mistranslated,
and misapplied. . . . The Rig-veda, which now
hardly one Brahman out of a hundred is able to read,
so far from enforcing the burning of living women,
shows clearly that the custom was not sanctioned
during the earliest period of Indian history.1

When the dishonesty of the priesthood was

1 F. Max Muller, Chips, vol. ii., p. 34.

54 Hinduism

exposed, Lord William Bentinck suppressed the
crime, for the Hindu dignitaries found themselves
one morning face to face with a decree which they
could not escape nor disannul. It is said, however,
that even now, living women are sometimes burned
in remote districts, and under conditions of secrecy
which prevent discovery by the King's officers.
And yet, in defiance of the historical facts, when
a self-styled "swami" in America was recently
questioned on this subject the answer was: "It
is true that some Hindu widows have preferred
to be burned on the dead bodies of their husbands,
rather than to meet with a worse fate at the hands
of the English soldiers!"

A more cunning falsehood could hardly be
devised, in view of the fact that according to the
Hindu authorities, themselves, this horrible rite
obtained for more than a thousand years before a
British soldier ever set foot on the soil of India !

The Yoga Philosophy. There are several sys-
tems of philosophy in India, but that which seems
to be most strongly advocated among moderns
is the Yoga, which was founded by Patanjali.1
It is a branch of the Sankhya, but in Europe and
America it seems to be more popular than its parent.

1 The time of Patanjali is still a debated question, but Max
Muller places him after the third century of the Christian era.

Development of Hinduism 55

The aim of Yoga is to teach the means by which
the human soul may attain complete union with
the Universal Soul. This fusion may be effected
even in the body by the constant habit of keeping
the mind in its unmodified state — a state clear
as crystal when uncoloured by contact with other
substances. The eight means of mental concen-
tration are as follows : Restraint ; religious observ-
ances; postures; breathing in a peculiar way, or in
the suppression of the breath; restraint of the
senses; steadying of the mind; contemplation; and
profound meditation, or a state of trance which
is most effectually attained by such practices as
fixing the eyes intently and incessantly on the tip
of the nose.

The Yoga system appears in fact, [says Williams],
to be a mere contrivance for getting rid of all thought,
or of concentrating the mind with the utmost intensity
upon nothing in particular.

Ordinarily it is a strange compound of exercises
consisting of forced and painful postures, twisting
and contortions of the limbs, and suppressions of the
breath undertaken apparently with no object except
to attain complete vacuity of mind '

The most unnatural and painful postures are
sometimes persisted in for years ; the variety and
intensity of the various forms of suffering which

1 Williams, Hind., pp. 200-201.

56 Hinduism

are thus self-inflicted would surpass belief if they
were not attested by trustworthy witnesses. A
Hindu priest advocating the practices of his cult
on American soil admits that insanity is sometimes
the result of the Yoga teaching. He says :

Raja-yoga is stopping the functions of the mind's
volitions. By volitions of the mind, are meant
thought currents.

By the practice of Raja-yoga, the outflow of these
thought currents can be entirely stopped and turned
inwards in one concentrated stream upon the soul.

He admonishes his devotees wishing to pursue the
course to be sure and secure the services of a
proper, and we may add, a well-paid, " guru." He
says:

An adept Yogi-guru, without whose help in every
detail of it no student can attain the highest results,
is very hard to be found. Many who now practise
it under inexperienced gurus in India meet with
early death, or develop incurable diseases, or even turn
insane !

This fact has already been illustrated by sending
back to their friends in America the hopelessly
insane who went to India to study the theories and
practices of Hinduism.

Brahma. Among the multitudinous gods of
this period, the principal deities are Brahma, Shiva,

Development of Hinduism 57

and Vishnu. The first of these is said in the Code
of Manu to have been the first male (Purusha)
and to have been produced from the Supreme Self-
existent Spirit:

And Brahma, having divided his own substance, be-
came half male and half female, and from that female
was born Virag, and from Virag was born Manu, the
second progenitor and producer of all beings.

Furthermore, he modestly (?) informs us: " The
god Brahma, having formed this system of laws
himself, taught it fully to me in the beginning!"1

In the Brahmanas, the only real entity had been
brahman in the neuter gender, when impersonal;
when he became masculine, he became the creator,
and when manifested in the higher order of men,
he was called Brahmana — the Brahmans. It is
claimed that gods and men and demons were re-
constructed from previous forms, and the bodies
which Brahma abandoned became day, night,
dawn, evening, etc.

Afterward the hairs of Brahma which were shrivelled
up fell from his head and became serpents. The
creator of the world being incensed by the loss of
his hair, created fierce beings who were denominated
goblins — they were malignant fiends, and eaters of
flesh. The divine Brahma then created birds from

1 Manu, i., ii., 32.

58 Hinduism

his own vitality, sheep from his breast, cows from his
side, horses, elephants, and other animals from his
feet, whilst from the hairs of his body grew roots and
herbs. *

This god is represented as having four faces,
and either riding upon a swan, or closely accom-
panied by that bird. At the close of the enormous
periods given as the sum of his life2 Brahma him-
self expires, and with him the other gods, when
everything in the world is resolved back into
primary matter, or primary spirit, according to
the different theories of the various philosophers.

Shiva or Siva.3 Shiva ranks as the greatest
ascetic and he is represented as sitting under a
tree, while the canopy which covers him is formed
of a serpent's head. There he remains motionless,
and immovable, as the trunk of a tree, and rooted
to the same spot for millions of years. He is the
representative Yogi, and his Hindu devotees are

1 Aitarea-brahmana, ii., 4-io.

3 One day in the life of Brahma consists of 2,160,000,000 of
years. At the end of this period, he sleeps, and then reconstructs
the world. He lives one hundred of these days, which complete
the life of Brahma.

* This name is usually written Siva, but in that case there
should be a diacritical point on the first letter, giving it the sound
of Sh. As these points have not been considered essential in
the present volume, the name is here spelled as pronounced, the
same rule being followed in the kindred appellations of Saiv-
ism, Sakti, Saktism, etc.

Development of Hinduism 59

called Yogis, who worship him as the Supreme
Being, and by the constant practice of Yoga they
hope to attain union with this deity. The gods
themselves are represented as having attained their
position through the performance of rites and sac-
rifices. In the Satapatha-brahmana it is said :

The gods lived constantly in fear of death —
The mighty Ender; so with toilsome rites
They worshipped and performed religious acts
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 seize; this shall remain thine own,
This shall become perpetually thy food."1

Shiva was developed from Rudra, one of the
storm-gods who rode in the train of Indra; as one
of the manifestations of Brahma, he became the
world-dissolver. His function of destroyer is in-
terchangeable with that of creator, in which form
he is worshipped throughout the Empire. In this
character he is represented by the reproductive
linga and it is estimated that there are more than
twenty-eight millions of these stone objects of

1 Satapatha-brahmana, Williams's trans.

60 Hinduism

worship in India.1 He is sometimes represented
as a naked ascetic with matted hair and his body
covered with ashes, while again he is wild and
jovial, fond of liquor and dancing, living in the
Himalaya Mountains with his wife in various forms
and surrounded by a group of grotesque attendants
who, like their master, are excited by drink. The
personal appearance of Shiva must be rather
striking, as it is said his throat is black and his
hair bright red; the number of his hands varies
with different authorities, some claiming that he
has four, while others insist that he has eight.

He has five faces, in one of which there is a
third eye situated in the middle of the forehead.
His garment is a tiger skin, while around his neck
are two necklaces, one of them being made of
human skulls, and the other of serpents which
twist their horrible forms around his neck and
body.

In fact he bristles everywhere with living snakes
— he wears them as ornaments on his hands, they
are bound in his long matted hair, they coil around
his feet and legs, they hang like mammoth pendants
from his ears, until he is like

Gorgon rising from the infernal lakes,

With horrors armed, and curls of hissing snakes.

1 Sir Monier Monier- Williams, Indian Wisdom, p. 325.

Development of Hinduism 61

He rides upon a white bull which is his constant
companion. Four of the Pur anas make Shiva the
Supreme God and he enjoys a fame which reaches
much farther back than that of Vishnu, the pre-
server. In the later Hindu scriptures he assumes
a multitude of functions, each of them being in-
dicated by one of his thousand and one names.
Aside from the phallic worship which is the main
feature of his dominance, to which allusion has
already been made, the most important teaching
of Shaivism is Yoga, its favourite philosophy.

Although the quotations and descriptions given
above are taken from their own standard books,
the Hindu priests in Europe and America are
declaring :

Shiva is the presiding Deity of the weal of crea-
tion, hence his name — Shiva. He is the conqueror
and destroyer of darkness. He helps his devotees to
dispel the darkness of ignorance generated in their
minds by its Tama Attribute . . . and thus uncover
its attribute of Sattwa by the illumination of which
their souls reach the state of Moksha — freedom from
the bondage of matter — and finally merge into the
Divine Essence whence it originally sprang.

Thus do they misrepresent the teaching of their
own sacred books for the sake of winning converts
and getting Anglo-Saxon gold into their possession.

62 Hinduism

Ceremonies. Dr. Rajandra-lala Mitra is the
native authority for the following description of
the services at the great Shiva temple in Orissa.
Shiva is here worshipped under the form of his
symbol, which is a large uncarved block of granite,
about eight feet long, but which is partly buried in
the ground ; the daily devotion here consists of no
less than twenty- two ceremonial acts:

(1) At the first appearance of the dawn, bells are
rung to arouse 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 by pouring water
on the symbol.

(4) The god is bathed by pouring several pitchers
full of water on the stone.

(5) He is dressed by putting clothes on the
symbol.

(6) His first breakfast is offered, consisting of
grain, sweetmeats, and curds, besides cocoanuts.

(7) Shiva has his principal breakfast, when cakes
and more substantial viands are served.

(8) A light lunch is offered.

(9) He has his regular lunch.

(10) The midday dinner is served, consisting of
curry, rice, pastry, cakes, cream, etc., while the priest
waves a many-flamed lamp and burns incense before
the stone.

(n) Strains of discordant music rouse the god
from his afternoon nap at four o'clock, the temple

Development of Hinduism 63

having been closed during the preceding hours in
order to give him an opportunity to sleep.

(12) Sweetmeats are offered.

(13) The afternoon bath is administered.

(14) He is dressed as in the morning.

(15) Another meal is served.

(16) Another bath is administered.

(17) The full dress ceremony takes place, when
costly vestments are placed upon the stone, with
yellow flowers, and p rfumery.

(18) Another offering of food is presented.

(19) After an interval of an hour, another meal.

(20) Five masks and a damaru are brought in.
The masks represent the five faces of Shiva, and the
damaru is a sort of rattle or drum, shaped like an
hour-glass. The god is supposed to use this as a
musical instrument while dancing.

(21) The waving of lights is again performed just
before bedtime.

(22) A bedstead is brought in, and Shiva is ready
for his night's rest. *

This daily performance by a corps of priests is
one form of worship, but this is comparatively
innocent, and that cannot be said of all of them,
for just as the Vaishnavas worship ten male incar-
nations of Vishnu, so the Shaktas worship ten
female manifestations of Shiva, or rather of his
Shakti or energy.

On his return from India, President Barrows of

* Rajandra-lala Mitra, vol. ii. of his work on Orissa.

64 Hinduism

Oberlin testified that mothers bring their young
daughters to the temples of Shiva and there dedi-
cate them to a life of shame in his service.

"The Shivite cult," says Bhattacharya, "is the
most common and ancient form of abomination
worship."1 See also this author's description of
the horrible rites practised by various sects of
Yoga, Aghoris, Shaktas, or Tantriks, all of which
are different forms of Shiva worship.

The Aghoris and Panthi Yogis profess to carry
to its logical sequence the Vedanta philosophy
which was so highly eulogised in America by
Vivekananda, and they claim that eating human
flesh which has reached the stage of putrefaction
will give them a knowledge of magic. There is a
Gujerati work called Agama-prakasa, the author
of which asserts that there are instances of these
devotees eating corpses which are stolen from the
Mohammedan bury ing-grounds, and that the
head of the Aghoris sect living near Siddhapur,
subsists upon scorpions, lizards, and loathesome
insects which have been left to partial decay in the
skulls of dead men. 2

The fact is [says the learned Brahman] that as
Brahmanism inculcated cleanliness and the eating of

1 Bhatt., Hindu Castes and Sects, pp. 368-9.

a Quoted by Williams, Brain, and Hind., pp. 87-94.

Development of Hinduism 65

wholesome food, the Aghoris, who formed one of the
sects setting up ' opposition shops' as it were, insisted
upon the utmost degree of filth and hoped to get alms
by horrifying the people, and not by getting their
respect. x

The British Government of course is not encour-
aging this sort of thing. For instance we have
a record of one of them by the name of Krishna
Das Babaji who was fined fifteen rupees by
Mr. Ishan Chandra Sen, Deputy Magistrate of
Berhampore, for committing a public nuisance, by
devouring part of a woman's corpse in the presence
of a company of people at a burning ghat. Some
of the Aghori-panthis claim that if, at initiation,
they refuse to eat dead men's flesh, they would be
dismissed by the guru as unfit for their calling.
Convictions and fines have made these offensive
creatures much less intrusive upon the public,
and it is believed that their numbers are happily
decreasing. "Yet many may still be found, who
believe they are propitiating Shiva, not by wor-
ship, but by feeding upon filth and offal of all
kinds."2

The Tantras. These books are listed in the
seventh division of the enumeration of the nine

1 Bhattacharya, Hindu Castes and Sects, pp. 393-394.
3 Williams, Brah. and Hind., pp. 87-94.
S

66 Hinduism

canonical scriptures and the majority are more
modern than the Pur anas, although some of them
may have been contemporaneous with a portion of
that enormous series.

They have never been fully translated into
English, but some unhappy scholar of the future
may be obliged to examine the loathsome pages
more fully than has as yet been done. The nause-
ous taste repelled even the self-sacrificing industry
of Burnouf when he found them to be as immoral
as they are absurd.

A Brahman writing from Calcutta says:

The Tantras recommending human sacrifice are ac-
cepted as authority by the Brahmans of almost all
classes throughout India. Yet in practice, the only
animals usually sacrificed by the Shakti worshippers
in Northern India re the sheep and the goat.

He might have added that the credit of nearly
putting an end to human sacrifice in India belongs
to the British Government. Nevertheless the
crime is sometimes committed in remote districts
and Crooke mentions significant instances of the
kind as having taken place during the last few
years. J

"The Tantrik and the Shivite cults being equally

' W. Crooke, B.A., of the Bengal Civil Service, Pop. Rel and
Folk-Lore of Northern India, vol. ii., p. 171.

Development of Hinduism 67

indecent, their gurus cannot ordinarily explain
their true nature.'*1

Shaktism, [says Williams], is devotion to the wives
of Shiva as impersonations of the forces of nature in
female form . . . N . It might be expected that a
creed like this would be likely to degenerate into
various forms of licentiousness on the one hand and
witchcraft on the other. But if such consequences
might be expected, the actual fact has been worse
than could be foretold by the most gloomy pessimist.
... In Shaktism we are confronted with the worst
possible results, and the most superstitious ideas,
that have disgraced and degraded the human race.
As the most conspicuous god of the Puranas is Vishnu
with his incarnations, so the most prominent deity
of the Tantras is Shiva in his manifestations, especially
in the innumerable forms of his female counterparts.

It must not be forgotten, however, that there are a
few Tantras which substitute Radha, the first wife
of Krishna, for Durga or Kali, the wife of Shiva.2

And yet this cult has been successfully introduced
into both Europe and America. In the United
States, the initiates are under the care of five gurus,
one of whom calls himself " Om, the Omnipotent, "
and flourished financially in New York until his
headquarters were closed by the police, when he was
compelled to seek his victims in other cities.

Kali, the Wife of Shiva. Some confusion has

1 Bhatt., Hind. Castes and Sects, pp. 87, 451-452.
'Williams, Brah. and Hind., pp. 189-190.

68 Hinduism

obtained on this subject from the fact that Shiva
had several wives, but the goddess who is adored
on American soil as the "Conqueress of Time and
the Door of Eternity*' is Kali, who is worshipped
in Bengal under the name of Durga, where she rides
upon a tiger, but at Calcutta and Benares she is
the veritable goddess of destruction and she is
terrible indeed. As to the personal appearance of
this deity, the following is a free translation by
Williams of two passages in the Tantras :

A Kaulika [worshipper of Kali, or Shakti] should
worship Kali who lives among dead bodies; who is
terrible and has fearful aws ; who has uncombed hair
and a glowing tongue ; who constantly drinks blood —
who has four hands, and a splendid garland formed of
the heads of the giants she has slain, and whose blood
she has drunk — who has a sword in her lotus hand —
who is fearless and awards blessings. . . .

She is black as the large clouds and has the whole
sky for her clothes. She has a string of skulls around
her neck, and her throat is besmeared with blood.
She wears earrings consisting of two dead bodies;
she has terrible teeth, and a smiling face, her form is
awful and she dwells in the burning grounds for the
consuming of corpses. *

According to Bhattacharya, this description is
exceedingly mild. He claims that the symbolism

1 Williams, Brah. and Hind, pp., 198-199.

Development of Hinduism 69

attached to this dreadful figure is vastly worse than
any picture of the idol can possibly be. He says :

The true nature of such images is not generally known,
though it is defined in unmistakable terms in the
Dhyan, or formula for contemplating the goddess
Kali. . . . What its real meaning is, cannot
possibly be explained here. Those inclined to dive
into such filth must study the ritual for Kali wor-
ship. '

This goddess who thirsts for human blood is
worshipped with the same revolting ceremonies as
when she is adored and propitiated under the name
of Durga.

Modern Devotees. Although this description of
Kali is taken from their own official text -books,
and although Hindus themselves admit that the
pen-picture is a small part of the truth, still white
women are being taught to invoke this horrible
myth as "The good mother of all the suffering
ones of earth!" If Anglo-Saxons are desirous of
invoking "Kali, Mother Kali,'* the only proper
place to do so is in her own temple at Benares,
a brief description of which will be found in the
following chapter. Let them bring their offerings
of money and flowers to this shrine where a vivid

1 Bhatt., p. 408.

70 Hinduism

representation of the goddess is reeking with the
stench of putrefying blood, and there piously
invoke "Kali, Mother Kali!"

Availing themselves of the profound ignorance
of their devotees on this subject, the gurus in
America are declaring that:

Without Durga, his Shakti (energy), Shiva is inert;
with his Shakti, he is alive and rules the universe.
. . . Durga is the highest spiritual phase of Kali —
Conqueress of Time and Door of Eternity. . . .
Her devotees, called Shaktas (Shakti worshippers),
meditate upon her as the Great Mother, and pray
to her for her grace. . . . They are helped to
Moskha, or led into the path of Krishna; this last is
the greatest of all her gifts.

An Englishwoman who is now a nun of the
Rama- Krishna order was summoned from India
to America to exercise especial supervision over a
rich woman and her money, lest some traces of
reason might be revived in her enfeebled mind.
This keeper of the diseased and infatuated woman
kept her own daughter away from the bedside of
the patient, and after her death, the cult through
its representatives made a fight in the courts for
her fortune, but were fortunately defeated. But
this Englishwoman who thus became the willing
tool of the Hindu priest not only performs her

Development of Hinduism 71

daily acts of devotion before the picture or image
of a heathen deity, but says her prayers to "Kali,
the Divine Mother!" concerning whose beauties
and glories she has written a book!

CHAPTER IV

MODERN HINDUISM

Phases of Idolatry. Temples of Shiva. Shrine of Kali. Tem-
ples of Vishnu. Demons and Devils. Hanuman, the Mon-
key God. Serpent Worship. Other Sacred Animals. Deified
Trees and Plants. Position of Widows. Panditi Ramabai.

HPHERE is no proof of the existence of idolatry
during the Vedic period, and it does not ap-
pear to have prevailed very extensively at the time
of the early compilation of the Code of Manu,
although it is there declared that the accidental
breaker of images shall repair them, and also pay a
fine. The pandits insist that there was no idolatry
in India until it was introduced by the Buddhists.
It is certain, however, that Hinduism has assigned
no limits to the ever-increasing number of its gods,
many of whom are represented by thousands of
figures, so the idol census of India can be only
guesswork. Even rough stones which are supposed
to have fallen from heaven are among the ob-
jects of adoration, and frequently have temples or
shrines built above them. Small pebbles found in

72

Modern Hinduism 73

rivers are often reverenced, and they are held to
be pervaded by the presence of deity and need no
consecration. Artificial idols, on the other hand,
are consecrated with a long ceremony called
"endowing with breath," and until this is done
they are not objects of worship.

Temples of Shiva. Benares is especially noted
as a sacred city. It is described as having been
separated from the world by the Creator and
placed upon one of the points of Shiva's trident;
consequently it is crowded with shrines and idols.
Not only this but sacred bulls jostle against the
visitor in the streets, and impudent monkeys make
free with his belongings, while everywhere images,
symbols, holy wells and trees intrude upon his
vision. There are about two thousand temples
here, in a city of something more than 200,000
inhabitants, and it is estimated that at least half
a million idols receive the adoration and the offer-
ings of the multitude. Shiva is the favourite deity
with the upper classes (as Krishna is of the others),
and among the millions of his stone symbols, many
have shrines built above them. Beside one of his
temples at Benares there is the "holy well of
knowledge" where it is said the idol voluntarily
took refuge when his house was destroyed by the

74 Hinduism

Mohammedan invaders. This well is the constant
resort of devotees who throw into its depths offer-
ings of rice and flowers, until the putrid condition
of the water makes the whole neighbourhood intol-
erable. But still a Brahman is constantly employed
in drawing up the loathsome fluid which is called
"the water of purification," and selling it to the
crowds, who gladly pay a large price and eager-
ly drink it, in order that the foul water may
cleanse their fouler souls ! x

There are said to be one thousand and eight
temples of Shiva in India (one for each of his
names), and of these the most important is the
great structure near the celebrated rock of Tri-
chinopoly which has been dedicated to him as
"The Lord of the Jambu Tree."

This shrine has many beautiful colonnades and
pillars, while in the central court there is a large
column of metal from which a flag is flung to the
breeze, and near it is the tree over which the god
is supposed to preside. In other temples he is
worshipped as "The Peerless Lord of the Mango

1 Having quite recently returned to Oxford after spending a
winter in India and China, Prof. A. H. Sayce in a personal letter
to the author says: "Hinduism has its centre at Benares, which
is a nightmare of disgusting horrors. One of the most eminent
archaeologists in India said to me : ' India has no art, no history,
and no industries of its own.' That is most true, and must re-
main true as long as Hinduism exists. "

Modern Hinduism 75

Tree"; in another as "Lord of the Vata Tree" or
banyan; in a shrine in the south of Vindhya he is
adored as "Lord of the Vineyard."

Shrine of Kali. It is also at Benares that we
find the elaborate temple which is dedicated to
Kali, the favourite wife of Shiva. Judge Henry
Austin, who has recently visited Benares, and the
famous temple of Kali, or Durga, gives a graphic
description of this place of worship as seen by an
eye-witness. He says :

It is sometimes called the Monkey Temple on ac-
count of the multitudes of repulsive monkeys that
swarm there; they have become impudent from over-
kindness and unhealthy from overeating.

Within the temple, the centre of attention is the
shrine of Kali, a bloodthirsty she-demon whose
thirst must be quenched daily. She loomed up as a
hideous black figure with distorted face and open
mouth, her tongue hanging to the waist line. About
her body, huge serpents writhed and at her throat was
a necklace of human skulls.

Idols of this engaging creature are in every village
in India, but the centre of her cult is Benares. There
in the court occur the daily sacrifices to her, which,
thanks to the British rule, no longer consist in de-
capitating young children.

Kali must now be satisfied with the blood of a goat
that is killed by the same method that the children
were. The goat is stretched forward and a priest

76 Hinduism

severs the animal's head with a single stroke of a
sharp knife, then the hot blood is smeared upon the
faces of the priests before they go into the presence
of Kali, to pour the warm blood over her malodorous
figure. Unless this is done daily, she will bring pesti-
lence and famine upon the land.

Usually the head of the goat alone is taken to the
goddess and the blood-stained priests dance about the
body chanting weird songs, while hundreds of grey
mangy monkeys chatter at them from their perches
on the porticoes, window ledges, and elsewhere. In
times of famine, the goat is not enough for Kali,
and one of the great water buffaloes is brought in and
decapitated. '

And yet, this very goddess, reeking with the stench
of decaying blood, is eulogised in Europe and Amer-
ica as "the Divine Mother"! White women are
being taught that this loathsome myth "holds
the key of the gate of Goloka, Krishna's Abode
of Love bliss "!

Temples of Vishnu. These are abundant all
over the country; the best known of them being
that of Jagan-nath at Puri in Orissa, where the
images of Krishna with those of his brother, and
sister are found. Major-General Cunningham, who
so ably conducted the Archaeological Survey of
India, has demonstrated that these three images

1 Judge Austin, New England Magazine, vol. xliii., May, p. 17*

Modern Hinduism 77

in the Jagan-nath temple were derived from the
three combined emblems of the Buddhist Trinatra.

The most elaborate shrine of Vaishnavism is
the Sri-rangam located on an island of that name
in the river Kaveri. It might be called a city
within itself as hundreds of Brahmans live there,
and multitudes of pilgrims throng the streets.
It is composed of seven great enclosures, one within
the other, the theory being that each bulwark of
massive walls includes a court of increasing sanc-
tity, until the devotees shall reach the centre where
the great idol lies in state. Every surrounding
wall has openings filled with ponderous gates,
each gateway being surmounted by a tower. The
vast structure has cost millions of dollars in con-
struction, and other millions in maintenance.

The original idol of Vishnu is supposed to be
immovable, but another image has been con-
structed and consecrated. On festal days it is
placed in an enormous car, one of which is con-
nected with every Vaishnava temple, and is
dragged through the streets by thousands of men.
The jewelry and decorations of even this secondary
figure have cost a fabulous amount of money.
The great idol crown alone is estimated at 80,000
rupees, while the breastplate, necklace, and other
ornaments are worth as much more.

78 Hinduism

Demons and Devils. These terms are by no
means interchangeable, as many demons are more
or less friendly to humanity, while devils are
always malicious. There are legions of them —
lying devils, gambling devils, thieving devils, and
so on through the list of evil spirits which lie in
wait for the weak-minded and thoughtless in
order to induce them to commit crimes. In the
south of India, demonophobia is especially preva-
lent. Every village has its own especial evil
spirits and people are always exposed to their
attacks. Fortunately, however, each community
has also its own tutelary divinities, but these must
be propitiated for their good offices, while the
devils must be placated as far as possible by offer-
ings and oblations. The ceremonies of these wor-
shippers are very long and tedious, as well as
expensive. Various forms of devil worship are,
appropriately enough, associated with that of
Shiva, his consort Kali, and their two sons.
Among the demons also there are some who are
greatly feared, one of them being called Kanara;
this is a terrible pig-faced goblin who was created,
it is said, by the curse of Shiva when he denounced
some young pigs that devastated his garden, and
they were thereupon collectively transformed into
a single malicious demon. A goodly revenue is

Modern Hinduism 79

derived by the priesthood from the sale of devil
stones, which are taken home and used as talis-
mans against evil spirits.

Hanuman, the Monkey God. Not only are the
temples of Shiva and Vishnu crowded with idols,
but even the heroes of the great epics receive their
full share of offerings. One of the most popular
of these is the monkey ally of Rama in the story
of the Rama-yana. He was called the son of the
wind and could assume any form at pleasure. He
could tear up great trees by the roots or even lift
mountains from their foundations and carry them
through the air, or handle those which the other
monkeys in Rama's army brought to him to build
the wonderful bridge at Ceylon upon which
Rama's troops crossed over to the other side. He
it was, also, who made a complete reconnoissance of
the enemy's stronghold by assuming the form of a
cat, and finally in his own form of a monkey de-
stroyed the orchards and burned the palaces of the
foe. ' He will always be a popular figure in Indian
mythology and his images are covered with red
paint — the sacred vermilion; they are numerous
in many localities.

In the great temple just outside of the town of

1 Reed's Hindu Literature, pp. 161-271.

8o Hinduism

Kaira, which is devoted to the worship of Hanu-
man, offerings of oil are constantly presented to the
god. Within his enclosure, are shrines to both
Rama and Krishna, but they occupy only subor-
dinate positions. There is also a shrine to the
goddess of smallpox, and around it a cloister
which is used as a lodging-place for travellers.
Not only are divine honours paid to Hanuman, but
all his kith and kin of the monkey tribe are held
sacred, and they are everywhere undisturbed.
They make havoc with the clothing of visitors,
and keep the temples filthy; they sometimes tear
off the roofs of the native houses, apparently merely
for amusement, but no owner would dare drive
them away, whatever damages they might do upon
the premises.

Serpent Worship. Among reptiles the snake is
the most sacred, and his immunity from injury
costs the people much loss and suffering. During
1904, nearly ten thousand head of cattle (9994)
were killed by snake bite, and the habit of walk-
ing barefoot makes the number of human vic-
tims unnecessarily large. During the same year
21,827 men, women, and children died in agony in
consequence of the attacks of these deified
reptiles. These are official figures, and of course

Modern Hinduism 81

not nearly all of the cases were reported to the
King's officers. Good authorities estimate the
total deaths from snake bite in India at 25,000
annually and some claim the number will reach
40,000.

Mr. Walhouse says:

One of the highest mountains in the South Kanara
Ghats has 'a celebrated serpent temple where great
numbers of the 'coiling folk' reside in holes and
crevices which have been made for them.

To propitiate these creatures, people who have
made vows roll along serpent fashion, and some will
even roll their bodies up to the temple from the foot of
the hill, half a mile distant. They also take home with
them portions of earth from the sacred serpent holes;
this is believed to cure leprosy if rubbed on the parts
affected; it will also cure barrenness if a little be put
into the mouth daily. Serpentine body wriggling is
also practised farther south where small snake tem-
ples are common. *

In Southern India it is a fixed article of faith that
all who have killed a snake, especially a cobra, will,
either in this life or the next, be punished with
leprosy, barrenness, or ophthalmia. Therefore it
behooves all who are thus afflicted in this life to
visit snake shrines and conciliate the serpent gods.

There is one festival in which women —

1 Walhouse, Ind. Ant. vol. vii., Feb.
6

82 Hinduism

"Wives of the Snake " — go round begging for the
Brahmans, and in a Bengal festival the men march
entwined with serpents, while the chief man has a
roc-boa round his neck, and is carried, or rides
upon a buffalo. f

Other Sacred Animals. Especial reverence is
also accorded to many other animals for various
reasons. While serpents are associated with both
Shiva and Vishnu, Brahma is attended by a goose
or swan, while the elephant belongs to Indra.
Yama rides a buffalo and Agni a ram. Kama-
deva, the god of love, is attended by a parrot,
Ganesa by a rat, and Varuna by a fish. All of
these therefore are entitled to especial consider-
ation. But the most sacred of all animals are
those of the cattle kind and especially the cow.
Each portion of her body is inhabited by some
deity and every hair is inviolable. A Brahman
told a story of a celebrated saint who was com-
pelled to commit suicide by drowning as a penalty
for accidentally swallowing the hair of a cow while
drinking her milk. And even this punishment was
not sufficient as he was obliged afterward to un-
dergo the penalty of being born a Mohammedan.

1 James Fergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 257. See
also Shakti Ceremonies in India, p. 558 seq.

Modern Hinduism 83

President Barrows of Oberlin College said that he
had seen the natives crawling on their hands and
knees through the filth of the barnyard in order to
approach a cow with proper humility, and then
kiss her tail! All excreta from a cow is hallowed,
and the ground which it touches is a consecrated
spot, while the urine is the most effective of all
holy waters and cleanses all who partake of it.

The Code of Manu, the great judicial authority,
from the decrees of which there is no appeal, says :

Eating for one day of the excrement and urine of a
cow mixed with milk, curds, and clarified butter, and
water boiled with Kusa grass, and fasting for a day
and a night, is the penance called Santapana. x

The panca-gavya penance consists in swallow-
ing the five products of the cow as given above,
without fasting, or the Kusa grass solution.
This is declared to be "a sufficient atonement for
having stolen food, a carriage, bed, chair, roots,
flowers, or fruits. " 2 This is said to be the penance
which Vivekananda had to undergo on his return
to India, after feasting luxuriously on American
beef. Of course the killing of a cow is criminal,
and Manu decrees that "the guilty man shall
make atonement by attending upon a herd of
cattle, guarding them from all injury, following

1 Manu, bk. xi., 212. * Bk xi., 165.

84 Hinduism

them night and day in all weathers for three
months, and swallowing the dust which is raised
by their feet."1 Images of cows are sold in the
bazars and bought as objects of reverence. The
letting loose of a bull properly stamped with
the symbol of Shiva, in sacred cities, like Gaya
and Benares, so that the stray animal may be
tended and fed by the populace, is a highly meri-
torious act.

Deified Trees and Plants. Not only animals,
but many trees and plants are supposed to be
permeated with divinity. Perhaps the tulasi,
or holy basil is the most revered. It is sacred to
Vishnu and prayers are often offered to it, as if
it were itself a goddess. Women perform many
"meritorious acts" by walking around this shrub,
which is carefully cultivated. As animals, espe-
cially monkeys, are sometimes made to go through
the marriage ceremony, so also the wedding of the
tulasi to the idol of Krishna takes place once
every year, in the month Kartik, in nearly every
Hindu family. The bilva (&gle marmelos),
sometimes called the wood apple, is dedicated to
Shiva, its triple leaves being constantly placed
upon his symbol. The banyan tree, which mul-

"Manu, bk. xi., 108-115.

Modern Hinduism 85

tiplies itself by sending its branches downward, is
sacred to Kala, or Time; this and the pipal, or
pipalla, are supposed to represent immortality.
The pipal (Ficus religiosa), sometimes called the
bo-tree is the one under which Buddha finally at-
tained to that state of mind called "perfect en-
lightenment." And this is regarded with especial
sanctity by his followers. Tradition says that
Gautama once directed Ananda to break off a
branch of the tree under which he attained to
Buddhahood, and plant it in the garden. "He
who worships it," said Gautama, "will receive the
same reward as if he worshipped me. " Whether
this be true or not, the Brahmans insist that he
struggled hard to be worshipped as a god. They
say: "He put an end to the old dynasty of kings,
not for giving liberty to the people, but only to
step into the throne himself, under a new name. " r
This tree must however have been highly rever-
enced in India before Buddha's time for it was
regarded as being occupied by Brahma, and it is
now sometimes invested with the sacred thread
as if it were a real person. All the ceremonies
of the Upanayana are then performed over it.
The pipal is necessarily banished from the business
districts however, as the Hindu is afraid to tell a
' Bhatt., p. 543.

86 Hinduism

lie under the shade of its branches. The arka
plant is sacred to Surya, the sun, and the shami,
or acacia is a goddess on her own account, and
is supposed to contain fire. The superstition
regarding trees has a wonderfully good effect
upon the forestry of the country, because the
natives are not only afraid to destroy any of
the sacred trees or shrubs, but the planting
of others adds greatly to the " merit" of the indi-
vidual thus occupied.

Position of Widows. Even under the best cir-
cumstances we cannot expect the position of wo-
man to be a very exalted one, in a country where
the wife is declared to be "the marital property1'
of her husband and is therefore classed with
"female camels, slave girls, she goats, and ewes.*'1

Marriages being concluded in many cases without
the consent of either party, there is little chance
for conjugal affection, but it is nevertheless true
that a wife may sometimes be found who has little
cause for complaint, except in the absence of free-
dom of thought and action; and she scarcely
misses these, having been always accustomed to a
condition of bondage. But however comfortable
she may have been during her married life, every-

1 See Manu, bk. iv., 48-51.

Modern Hinduism 87

thing is changed in case she happens to survive
her husband. It is understood that her widow-
hood is the penalty visited upon her for some fear-
ful crime which she committed in a former birth,
and her so-called friends consider it their duty to
add what they can to her sufferings.

There is hardly a class of living beings whose
wretched condition appeals more strongly to the
humane man or woman than the widows of India.
Very few people in Europe or America have even
the remotest idea of the miseries which the Hindu
woman must endure after the death of her husband.
Manu, the great lawgiver whose rules are inviola-
ble, enjoins the following duties upon her: "Let
her emaciate her body by living voluntarily upon
pure flowers, and fruits, but let her not, when her
lord is dead, even pronounce the name of another
man . " I Perhaps even Manu would have hesitated
about making such a decree had he known it
would be the source of such indescribable suf-
fering to millions of human beings. Devendra
N. Das, an accomplished native scholar, writes
on this subject as follows :

The widow who has no parents has to pass her whole
life under the roof of her father-in-law, and then she
knows no comfort whatever. She has to meet from

1 Manu, bk. v., 767.

88 Hinduism

her late husband's relations only unkind looks and
unjust reproaches. She has to work like a slave, and
for the reward of all her drudgery, she receives only
hatred and abhorrence from her mother-in-law and
her sisters-in-law. If there is disorder in the domestic
arrangements of the family, the widow is blamed and
cursed for it. . . . Even death cannot save a
widow from indignities, for when a wife dies, she is
burned in the clothes she had on, but a widow's
corpse is covered with a coarse white cloth, and there
is little ceremony at her funeral ....

"The English have abolished Sati [suttee] but alas!
neither the English nor the angels know what goes on
in our houses, and the Hindus not only do not care,
but think it good!"

Such were the words of a widow, and well she might
exclaim "neither the English nor the angels know,''
for Hindu as I am, I can vouch for her statement that
very few Hindus have a fair knowledge of the actual
sufferings of the widows among them, and fewer still
care to know of the evils and horrors of the barbarous
custom which victimises their own sisters and daughters
in so ruthless a manner; nay, on the contrary, the
majority of orthodox Hindus consider the practice
good and salutary. x

Pandita Ramabai. This brave woman is still
striving to take care of her large family of child-
widows, and she pathetically laments the enforced
and constant humiliation of the womanhood of her

1 Devendra N. Das, Nineteenth Century, vol. xx., pp. 364-
373-

Modern Hinduism 89

country. She claims that the Aryan Hindus did
indeed honour women and quotes some of the
early precepts of the infallible Code in support of
her position. But it must be remembered that
the compilation of the Code of Manu has covered
many years, and it would appear that this is the
only explanation of the contradictory decrees and
declarations there found concerning the treatment
to be accorded to woman.
For instance Manu declares :

Women must be honoured and adorned by their
fathers, brothers, husbands, and brothers-in-law, who
desire their own welfare. Where women are honoured
the gods are pleased, but where they are not honoured,
no sacred rite yields reward. *

But elsewhere and in a later volume it is said :

Though destitute of virtue, or seeking pleasure else-
where, or devoid of good qualities, yet a husband must
be constantly worshipped as a god by a faithful wife.2

This and many other decrees of a similar nature
made this educated Hindu woman say:

Those who diligently and impartially read Sanskrit
literature in the original cannot fail to recognise the
lawgiver Manu as one of those hundreds who have
done their best to make woman a hateful being in
the world's eye .... She is forbidden to read the

1 Manu, bk. iii., 55-56. a Manu, bk. ix., 154.

90 Hinduism

(Hindu) sacred scriptures, she has no right to pro-
nounce a single syllable out of them. . . . She,
the loving mother of the nation, the devoted wife,
the tender sister and affectionate daughter, is never
fit for independence, and is "as impure as falsehood
itself." I can say, honestly and truthfully, that
I have never read any sacred book in Sanskrit litera-
ture, without meeting this kind of hateful sentiment
about women. True they contain, here and there,
a kind word about them, but such words seem to me
a heartless mockery after having charged them, as a
class, with crime and evil deeds. Profane literature
is by no means less severe or more respectful towards
women. z

Pandita is anxious to come to the United States
again, and raise her voice against the deceptions
which are being practised here by the Hindu
priests. In a letter intended for publication she
says:

What has shocked me most has been the report that
there are women in America who are confessedly
studying and adopting the philosophy of the Hindus.

As I was born and educated in this philosophy,
having taken my degree of Pandita in it, I am ac-
quainted with both its literature, and its influence on
my people, and I want to bear witness against its
degradation .... It is all very nice to read pretty
translations where much that is degrading has been
expurgated, but the original is quite another thing.

1 Pandita Ramabai, High Caste Hindu Woman, pp. 81-82.

Modern Hinduism 91

Not only this, but she calls attention to the en-
forced position of woman under the influence of
such teaching. She says of the Hindu woman :

After rising early and attending to the cares of her
house, her next duty is to put her head on the sacred
feet of her husband and worship him. . . . The
philosophy of India teaches that there are five sinless
lies, and among them are the lies told to women. If
American women think they would like such phi-
losophy, India is the best place for the study of the
results of Hinduism.

CHAPTER V

PRESENT CONDITIONS

Vaishnavism. Ten Incarnations. Bala-Rama. Krishna Vasu-
deva. Wives of Krishna. Death of the God.

A S the followers of Shiva centralised their creed
•** into a system known as Shaivism, so also
the doctrine of the later sect is called Vaishna-
vism. These schools were stimulated into activ-
ity by the Brahmans, who needed new forces in
order to conquer Buddhism. During the Middle
Ages when the Puranas were written there was
fierce rivalry between the adherents of Shiva and
Vishnu; now, however, it is asserted that any
one can be a worshipper of either without ignoring
the other, and hence they dwell together in com-
parative peace.

Vaishnavism is sometimes a form of monotheism
with Vishnu as supreme, especially as he is re-
presented in the later incarnations of Rama and
Krishna. But like other forms of Hinduism it is
most elastic in its ideas, being quite capable of

92

Present Conditions 93

adaptation to almost any other creed when it
seems politic to do so. It has no formal confession
of faith, but it has a series of eighteen Puranas,
some of which extol one god, and some another,
and each of these books may be used as an authority
for almost any one of their theories.

The later system includes Brahmanism by
claiming: "There is one Being and no second/'
and also their oft -repeated assertion that there are
many deities, or many forms of one. Like Shaiv-
ism it enjoins asceticism and austerities, even while
like Shaktism or Tantrism it gives unbridled rein
to self-indulgence. Like Buddhism it preaches
liberty, equality, and fraternity, especially endors-
ing the humane treatment of all animals and
reptiles, on the ground that either of them may be
a new form which is being worn by a dead priest,
or a departed relative. Like Buddhism, too, it
fails to include in its humane category the women
and children of India.

Vaishnavism even looks upon Christianity with
some degree of condescension while winning Anglo-
Saxon funds — sometimes claiming that it is a
development of their own religion which is suited
to Europeans and Americans! Their halls in
the United States are decorated with mottoes
indicating that Christianity and Vaishnavism

94 Hinduism

are virtually one and the same thing! We have
a Vishnu in the early songs, but there he is merely
a secondary representation of solar energy. The
Hindus themselves admit that Vishnu as a deity
is a comparatively modern creation, although
Prof. Bhandarkar, Vice-Chancellor of the Bombay
University, claims: "The ten Incarnations of
Vishnu had become quite an ordinary article of
belief in A. D. 1014, and Buddha had been admitted
into the popular pantheon.*'1 It was centuries
later than this, however, before the Vishnu Pu-
rana was written, according to the best Ori-
ental scholars.

Ten Incarnations. The idea of this divinity was
expanded and spread into various ramifications.
He is represented as having undergone nine differ-
ent avatars, or descents, and is expected to undergo
the tenth in future. In the Bhagavata-purana,
these are multiplied into twenty-two, while in
some of the others there are twenty-four or even
twenty-eight, but the number commonly received
is the original ten.

Bhagwanlal R. Badshah admits: "This doc-
trine may have been originally started to check

1 Prof. Bhandarkar, Trans. Ninth Internal. Congress of Orien-
talists, vol. i., p. 426.

Present Conditions 95

the progress of Buddhism, and to reorganise
Brahmanism. " ' It is true there were older
legends of the fish and some other forms in the
combination, but all scholars, both Hindu and
Anglo-Saxon, admit that the ten incarnations were
not developed until the Puranic period, and they
were then as now in the following order :

(1) Matsya, the Fish. In this shape, Vishnu
saved Manu from the deluge. This legend is
found in several of the sacred books and will be
considered later.

(2) Kurma, the Tortoise. In this form Vishnu
went down into the ocean to recover the lost
nectar of the gods, and other valuables which had
been lost in the flood. In this beautiful legend
the gods are represented as having been conquered
in battle by demons, and robbed of their strength,
whereupon Vishnu gave orders to have the ocean
churned into a nectar for the gods, declaring that
this would restore their power and enable them to
destroy their enemies. The gods were therefore
ordered to collect all plants and herbs, and cast
them into the sea, taking the mountain Mandara
for a churning stick, and Vasuki the serpent for a
rope, while Vishnu himself in the form of a colossal
tortoise became a resting place for the mountain.

1 Badshah, Ninth Internal. Cong, of Orientalists, vol. i., p. 134.

96 Hinduism

Then they churned the ocean until they produced
the ambrosial food of immortality.

(3) Varaha, the Boar. Vishnu descended in the
shape of an enormous boar to deliver the world
from the power of the golden-eyed demon. The
Vishnu-purana describes this animal as being one
thousand yojanas, or forty-five hundred miles, in
height, and ten yojanas, or forty-five miles, in
breadth.

He had the colour of a dark cloud ; his roar was like
thunder; his bulk, vast as a mountain; his tusks white,
sharp, and fearful. Fire flashed from his eyes like
lightning, and he was radiant as the sun. His
shoulders were round, fat, and large, and he strode
along like a powerful lion.1

Only a few years since one of the finest literary
men in India began a paper with an invocation
to "The Heavenly Boar!" Scholars have called
attention to the fact that the first three incarna-
tions of Vishnu were all connected with the tradi-
tion of a universal deluge.

(4) Nara-Sinha, the Man-Lion. This was the
form chosen by Vishnu in which to deliver the
world from the tyranny of an evil spirit who had
obtained from Brahma a promise that he should
not be slain either by a god, a man, or an animal.

1 Vishnu-purana, Wilson's trans., p. 31.

Present Conditions 97

(5) Vamana, the Dwarf. This character was as-
sumed to deprive the demon Bali of the dominion
of the three worlds. Vishnu presented himself
as a very diminutive man, and solicited as much
land as he could step over in three paces. When
this request was granted he strode over heaven,
and earth, but in compassion to the demon he left
hell in his possession.

(6) Parsu-Rama, or Bala-Rama. Rama with the
axe. In this character, Vishnu is said to have
cleared the earth of the military class twenty-
one times.

(7) Rama-Chandra. This was the hero of the
beautiful story of the Ramayana, one of the two
great Hindu epics. This colossal poem is so sa-
cred that

Whoever reads or hears the Ramayana will be freed
from all sin. Those who read or hear it for the sake
of riches will certainly acquire wealth. . . . The
Ramayana heals diseases, removes all fear of enemies,
compensates for the loss of wealth or fame, prevents
loss of life, and secures all that is desired.

(8) Krishna — the Dark God. The younger
brother of Bala-Rama, the strong Rama, has
sometimes been called the eighth avatar instead
of Krishna, but in later times the younger brother
appears to have supplanted him.

7

98 Hinduism

(9) Buddha. According to the Brahmans,
Vishnu assumed this form to delude the demons
into neglecting the worship of the gods and thus
expose themselves to punishment.

(10) Kalki or Kalkin. This is the future mani-
festation when the god will come forth on a white
horse with a drawn sword in his hand, for the
final destruction of the world. This last picture
from the Vishnu-purana may have been drawn
from the book of Revelation. J

In his paper before the Congress of Orientalists
held in London, B. R. Badshah claims that this
incarnation represents the British Government.
He says:

This prophecy has now already been fulfilled. This
age of art and inventions has reference to the British
rule in India. Kalki is described as riding a white
horse: a white horse means a white-skinned race. . . .
There are grounds for this exposition, as the people of
India twenty years ago were speaking of the British
Government as a Rama-raja, that is a godly govern-
ment. As deifications are comparisons, this com-
parison will soon be sanctioned universally as a
deification. 2

Rama. The gallant hero of the Ramayana who
was the seventh avatar of Vishnu was given the

1 Rev. xix., 11-16. 2 Trans., vol. i p. 139.

Present Conditions 99

additional name of Chandra when he was placed
among the incarnations.

The ten-headed demon Ravanna had secured a
promise from Brahma that he should not be slain
by either gods, demons, or genii. This assur-
ance had been gained by long austerities on the
part of the demon, who had stood upon his head
in the midst of five fires for ten thousand
years. After obtaining the coveted promise, his
conduct became so outrageous that the other
gods came to Vishnu praying that he might de-
liver them from this mighty power for evil. The
great Vishnu was gracious to his noble petitioners
and answered:

Be no longer alarmed: your foe shall fall at my feet.
Ravanna in his pride of power did not ask Brahma
to preserve him from men or monkeys, for he deemed
them beneath his notice. But I will take advantage
of this omission and cause his destruction by the very
means which he despises. I will myself be born as
Rama, you shall assist me by assuming the form of
monkeys, and together we will overthrow this terrible
enemy of gods and men.

Afterward, Ravanna carried off by force Sita, the
lovely bride of the banished prince, and was
followed long by the frantic husband, before he
met with a host of monkeys under the leadership
of Hanuman. Making an alliance with the

ioo Hinduism

quadrumana, he continued the pursuit until the
enemy was overtaken in his own city, which was
conquered and burned, the demon slain, and the
lovely bride restored to her victorious husband,
who carried her back to his recovered kingdom and
throne. x

This incarnation is one of the most popular
among the many objects of Vishnu worship. The
mere utterance of the name of Rama is equal in
religious merit to the giving of a hundred orna-
mented cows to a Brahman, or the performance
of an Ashva-medha, besides being much cheaper
than either.

A follower of Rama enjoys happiness in this
world, and in the next is absorbed into Rama in
the heaven of Vishnu. His devotees will still
sit for days and nights together, upon the bank of
the sacred Ganges, or beneath the stately pipal
trees, repeating in low monotonous tones: "Ram,
Ram, Rama." The mere utterance of the words,
without any conception of their meaning, will
secure a birth into a higher life, and if a bird or
an animal should be so fortunate as to overhear
the tones, they too will speedily be born into a
more joyful state of existence.

Every year the Ramlila festival, held in many

'Reed's Hindu Literature pp. 153-271

Present 'Conditions 101

places, commemorates Rama's adventures. The
great poem has been set to music and is sung with
much enthusiasm. In Benares the Maharaja
celebrates the annual festival with great pomp.
In Delhi, more than eighty-five thousand people
according to native authorities accompany the
procession as it passes through the principal bazars
at night.

Bala-Rama. It is claimed by followers of Krishna
that this older brother is an incarnation of the
thousand-headed serpent Shesha who supports
the earth upon his numerous heads, and earth-
quakes are caused by the movement of some
one of them. He is sometimes called the Indian
Hercules because he wields a ponderous club
besides a ploughshare. The two brothers be-
longed to the tribe of Yadavas, who were cowherds
and made their living from cattle by driving them
from one locality to another, selling milk, butter,
and curds. While they were yet children, their
tribe came near a grove of palm trees where lived
a terrible demon by the name of Dehunuka.

The lads were attracted by the sight of ripe
fruit on the trees and wandered near the spot where
the demon was feasting on the flesh of a deer, but
all unconscious of his presence they shook the

102 Hinduism

tree and brought down some fruit. Hearing the
noise the malignant fiend left his feast, and assum-
ing the form of a wild ass, he rushed upon the
intruders and gave the older boy a terrific kick
in the breast; undaunted by the blow, however,
the powerful Bala-Rama seized his foe by the heels,
and swung him around until he was dead, then
tossed him into the top of a large palm tree, thus
shaking off great quantities of fruit.

The other demons in the grove assumed the
same form and rushed upon the boys, to avenge
the death of their leader. But Bala-Rama with the
help of Krishna treated them all in the same way,
and when they were through, the trees were laden
with wild asses and the ground was covered with
fruit on which the cowherds feasted for many a day. l

Krishna Vasudeva. The son of Vasudeva who
was the eighth child of the wife Devaki is the
famous deity who was finally given a place as the
eighth incarnation of Vishnu, although he belongs
to a later period than the early avatars; the Hin-
dus themselves claim that he appeared in the end
of the third age of the world. The name means
"black/* or " dark coloured, " and is so common in

1 Vishnu- purana, Wilson's Trans., p. 517. The story is told
in much the same way in some of the other Puranas.

Present Conditions 103

India that it would appear to be given to every
child who is unusually dark.

The earliest mention of the name is in the
Rig-veda, where Indra is praised for having slain
the wives of one Krishna; afterward the same
god is said to have killed fifty thousand Krishnas,
all of whom were black demons. There is also
an early legend to the effect that a demon named
Krishna, the black, advanced with ten thousand
of his followers to the banks of the Ansumati River,
where he (or they) committed fearful depredations,
until he was defeated by Indra and stripped of his
black skin.

In the Maha-bharata the name is given to a
woman, but in this case there is a diacritical point
on the final letter, which gives it the feminine form.
It is then applied to the Princess Draupadi, who
married five brothers, becoming the wife of each
of them the same day.

Some details of a Krishna are found in the Maha-
bharata, but they do not belong to the plot and
have the appearance of being interpolations. The
Krishna here mentioned is not the hero of the epic
but appears as a chieftain who takes the part of
the real heroes, and in more than one instance he
advises dishonourable warfare. Krishna appears
as a god in the Bhagavad-gita, a long philosophical

104 Hinduism

discourse which is now found in the Maha-bharata,
but the consensus of opinion among Oriental
scholars is to the effect that it really belongs to a
more modern period. It is to the Puranas of the
Middle Ages that we have to look for the details
of the life of this deity, and the stories are there
given with great fulness of description and extrava-
gant eulogy.

There, as elsewhere, he is said to be the eighth
child of his mother, and the Vishnu-pur ana volun-
teers the further statement that the first six of these
children were the offspring of a demon by the name
of Hiranyakasipu. I His father, Vasudeva, was a
cowherd, but not a chieftain of his tribe. It is
claimed that the mission of Krishna was the
destruction of Kansa, the tyrant king, who tried
to forestall him by killing the babe ; but he was
saved by his father, who carried him away in the
night and exchanged him for another child; the
boy was therefore brought up by his foster parents,
Nanda, and his wife, Yasoda.

Many of his childish exploits are given in the
Puranas, and the pictures of the boy-thief stealing
butter and curds and carrying off the garments of
the bathers are still very attractive to his wor-
shippers. He is represented as the hero of many

1 Vishnu-purana, Wilson's trans., p. 498.

Present Conditions 105

adventures; it is said that while he was still a
youth, the cowherds were planning to offer an
elaborate sacrifice to Indra, and Krishna dissuaded
them from doing so. He claimed that they ought
to pay their homage to the spirits of the mountains
as they were in greater need of protection from
them than from the god of storms. These spirits
are hostile demons who wander whither they will,
and if displeased with those who inhabit the forest,
they assume the form of lions, and other beasts of
prey, and kill the offenders. Therefore in obedi-
ence to Krishna, the cowherders worshipped the
mountains, making offerings of curds, milk, and
flesh.

Indra, being thus defrauded of his usual adula-
tion, was very angry, and calling upon his cohorts
of attending clouds, he gave orders for a fearful
storm.

The clouds, obedient to his will, blended their
powers, and in an instant the thunders pealed, the
lightnings flashed, and the pitiless rain poured
down, not only from above, but apparently from
every side. Then Krishna plucked up a mountain,
and held it aloft with one hand, calling upon his
people to come under it. The herds of cattle, the
waggons with goods were quickly driven under
the great mountain umbrella, and there, also, the

io6 Hinduism

men, women, and children found shelter. Krishna
received their adoration while for seven days and
nights he still held it up.

At the end of this time, the storm king became
weary, and commanded the elements to be at
peace; then Krishna restored the mountain to its
proper place. When the sunlight flooded the
landscape, Indra himself praised Krishna, and by
the direction of the grateful cows made him
Govinda, or Prince of the Cattle, and this is the
name he often bears. '

After this, the Gopis — the wives and daughters
of the cowherds — strove with each other for the
attentions of the god. It is said:

They considered every instant without him as a
myriad of years; and prohibited in vain by husbands,
fathers, and brothers, they went forth at night to
sport with Krishna, the object of their affections.

One evening while they were all dancing upon
the green, the demon Arishto, disguised as a sav-
age bull, rushed upon them. " His colour was like
that of a dark cloud, his great horns were sharp
and fearful; his eyes were like two fiery suns;
as he moved, he ploughed up the ground with his
hoofs." When he came bellowing toward them,

1 Vish. Pur., pp. 522-28.

Present Conditions 107

the Gopis cried to Govinda for help, and the youth
stood like a statue waiting the approach of the
foe. As soon as he was near enough, he caught
him by the horns, and wrung his throat as if it
had been a piece of wet cloth, then tearing off
one of his horns, he beat the demon with it until
he died. *

This story is told more in detail in the Hari-
vansa. Afterward he killed another demon who
attacked him in the form of a monstrous horse,
but he thrust a powerful arm down the throat of
his assailant until the great horse was choked to
death.

Wives of Krishna. Many of his adventures are
less creditable and the stories of his numerous wives
occupy much space in the sacred books. It is
said that "he came down from heaven to be the
lover of Radha," but the other Gopis to the number
of thousands were included in his attentions.

The second wife was Jambavati, the daughter of
a bear. This marriage could only take place after
a terrible contest with the grizzly father of the
bride. Krishna fought the big bear for twenty-
one consecutive days, and at last conquered him.
The bear then exclaimed :

1 Vish. Pur., pp. 535-36.

io8 Hinduism

Thou, mighty being, art surely invincible by all the
demons and by the spirits of heaven, earth, and hell.
Much less art thou to be vanquished by such as we,
who are born of the brute creation.

Then humbly prostrating himself at the feet of
the conqueror, he presented his daughter to
Krishna as an offering suitable for a guest, and
the bridegroom led the beautiful animal away in
triumph. x

The third wife was the betrothed of another man,
but the god carried the girl away by force, and
afterward married her. Ruminiki appears to have
been the next bride, but Krishna professed to be
very tired of the marriage rites, and soon he
married a great multitude of girls by the same
ceremony.

The Purana says:

Sixteen thousand and one hundred was the number
of maidens (included in the last marriage) , and into so
many forms did he multiply himself that every one of
the damsels thought he had wedded her in his single
person, and the creator of the world — the assumer of
universal shape — abode severally in the dwelling of
each of these his wives.2

It is declared that these wives bore to Krishna
one hundred and eighty thousand sons, and the

1 Vish. Pur., p. 427. 3 Ibid., p. 528.

Present Conditions 109

Bhagavata-purana gives the names of about eighty
of this numerous family.

Death of the God. In Dvaraka, the city of
Krishna, according to the Purana, a hideous appari-
tion representing death in a horrible form stalked
in the streets and peered into the houses. Great
consternation prevailed, and as its visits grew
more frequent, the chief at last decided that the
only remedy would be the destruction of the whole
tribe.

Calling the Yadavas to gather at a sacred spot on
the seashore, he besought them to render homage to
a certain goddess, in the hope that she might avert
the evils that seemed to threaten the city, and
mayhap put an end to the visits of the ghastly
spectre. They gathered at the coast in great
numbers for this purpose — practically the whole
tribe being in camp ; but they brought with their
supplies an abundance of wine, and soon the
warriors were drinking freely, and quarrelling
over their cups.

Then says the Purana:

Infuriated by the divine influence (of Krishna) they
fell upon one another with missile weapons, and when
these were expended, they had recourse to the rushes
growing nigh. The rushes in their hands became as

no Hinduism

thunderbolts and with them they struck fatal blows.
. . . Krishna, then, enraged, took up a handful of
rushes to destroy them, and the rushes became a club
of iron, and with this he slew many of the murderous
Yadavas. '

After the members of the tribe, with his as-
sistance, had fought to extermination, Krishna
walked away with one surviving friend. They
found his wounded brother Bala-Rama dying at
the foot of a tree, and they waited until they saw
his spirit come out of his mouth in the form of an
enormous serpent and wend its way slowly to the
seashore, where it soon disappeared in the waters.

Then Krishna gave his friend instructions to go
to Dvaraka and carry the news of the death of his
brother to Arjuna and others ; he also charged him
to inform their friends of his own approaching
death. Then bidding his comrade farewell, he
seated himself at the foot of a tree, sitting down
Indian fashion with one foot supported upon the
other knee :

The illustrious Krishna sat engaged in thought rest-
ing his foot upon his knee. Then came a hunter named
Jara . . . and beholding from a distance the foot
of Krishna, he mistook it for a part of a deer, and
shooting an arrow lodged it in the sole.2 . . . Then

1 Vish. Pur., p. 1 1 6.

2 It is possible that we have here an echo of the vulnerable
heel of Achilles.

Present Conditions in

the illustrious Krishna abandoned his mortal body,
and the conditions of the threefold qualities; he be-
came Nirguna — devoid of all qualities.

When Arjuna heard the news, he went with
friends to the scene of the terrible melee where the
murderous Yadavas had slain each other. And
with the assistance of the Brahmans he gathered
a great quantity of fuel and burned the bodies of
the dead, not neglecting the proper funeral obla-
tions. He then sent out searching parties to find
the bodies of Krishna and Bala-Rama, and upon
finding them, he carried them back to the city for
the funeral rites to be performed there. When he
approached the city he was distracted by the
terrible howlings within her walls, for each of the
sixteen thousand wives of the god seemed to think
it was her wifely duty to make more outcry than
any of the others.

We have graphic descriptions of this body of
women with dishevelled hair, and loud voices
filling the air with their wailings. Four of the
widows were burned on his funeral pyre. Arjuna
took the treasures of the city and the few survivors
home with him, and settled them in Indra-prastha.
Scarcely had they left the scene of much revelry
and more crime, when the waves of the sea arose
and swept the devoted city into her bosom. Fishes

ii2 Hinduism

swam through the gilded halls of Dvaraka, and
the sea mosses twined around her idols, while the
moaning waves sang the requiem of fallen splen-
dour and the billows chanted dirges for the dead. x
Although these things are not history in any
true sense of that word, they at least represent
their own side of the question — they give the oft-
repeated assertions of their standard works on
this subject.

'Vish. Pur., p. 1 1 6.

CHAPTER VI
PRESENT CONDITIONS (Continued)

Modern Krishna Worship. Hindu Gurus. The Gossains.
European and American Fanatics.

\ 7ISHNU is adored under various names and
* in many localities. It is claimed that the
constant repetition of a certain formula is of such
efficiency that visions of the god are vouchsafed to
those who are faithful in the performance of this
duty.

One enthusiastic devotee who longed for this
experience consulted a Brahman who, for a satis-
factory reward, told him of the proper text, or
mantra, which, if repeated for 800,000 times, would
produce the desired result. This arduous task
was accomplished by persevering in hard work
nearly all the time, day and night, for three
months. Then, as no vision followed, the victim
went to the priest and told him of the failure of
the experiment. The Brahman glibly explained,
however, that some slight mistake must have been
made in the utterance of some one word, and any
s 113

ii4 Hinduism

such slip would necessitate the repetition of the
whole performance until the task was completed
without the slightest verbal slip, then the longed-
for vision would come !

The most popular form of Vishnu, especially
among the lower classes, is Krishna, and his images
abound throughout the country. The mere me-
chanical repetition of one of his many names, even
though the mind of the worshipper be fixed upon
something else, secures admission into Vishnu's
heaven. The worship of his images is very much
like the daily homage paid to Shiva, the same pro-
cess of dressing and undressing, washing, painting,
and offering refreshments to the idol being con-
stantly repeated in many localities, day after day,
and year after year, for a lifetime — nay, for many
lifetimes, for they are repeated from one generation
to the next.

In Europe and America, however, we have as yet
no large idols of Krishna to be painted, dressed, and
adored, from morning until night, hence it has been
necessary to somewhat modify the worship here.

A Krishna priest gives long and definite de-
scriptions of the duties of the Vaishnava evidently
intended for use on American and European soil.
He says:

Present Conditions 115

The Krishna worshipper is either a householder or
a hermit . . . the formula of worship and religious rule
of life as practised by both the hermit and the house-
holder are practically the same.

He then devotes hundreds of words to the definite
rules concerning the invocations of the entire
forenoon. Afterward he says:

But this morning worship is not all that the house-
holder Vaishnava performs to attain the love of Krishna.
He eats or drinks nothing, without first offering it
through some mystic formula to Krishna, and his
food is pure vegetables, his drink pure water. In the
evening he joins other Vaishnavas to tell of Krishna,
hear of the sacred earthly acts of Krishna, sing of
Krishna, and when the spirit of song moves him, he
dances with others in ecstasy. Besides these practices,
he repeats many thousand times the name of Krishna
over his Tulsai rosary ... a Vaishnava should, at all
times, sing of Krishna.

Dr. Bhattacharya, the scholarly Brahman, de-
votes many pages to descriptions of some of the
most loathsome Hindu sects and then says :

vVith all his cleanliness, and vegetarianism, and
teetotalism, the Vaishnava (or Krishna devotee) is
perhaps the most dangerous in the whole list. . . .
The moral laxity which he encourages by the stories
of the illicit loves between his gods and goddesses,
and by the strong tendency to imitate them which

n6 Hinduism

his teachings generate, outweighs the good done by
him.

Every man of common-sense naturally feels a horror
at the Tantrik and the Aghori, but the Vaishnava
insinuates himself in a manner that is irresistible. . . .
The manner in which, in the case of Krishna, man-
worship has degenerated into abomination worship
may be traced step by step . . . the Bhagavata and
Brahma Vaivarta throw aside every mask, and in the
most shameless manner attempt to sanctify every form
of debauchery, so as to enable the priestly class to
gratify their lust. . . . The reader is called upon to
admire and worship Krishna, on account of his having
seduced the milkmaids of Brindavan by every kind
of trick that the most wicked of human beings could
invent.

The chief object of his love was one Radha, who,
according to some of the authorities, was the wife of
the brother of his foster-mother. The very name of
this Radha is not now to be found even in the Bhag-
vat. But by an abuse of scientific terms, she is
represented by the latter-day Vishnuvites as the
Prakriti, or the material basis of the Yoga phi-
losophy, and Krishna is represented as the Purush
by whose union with the Prakriti this universe was
created.

In almost all the modern Vishnuvite shrines, an
image of Radha is associated with that of Krishna, and
in Northern India there are very few temples in which
Ruminiki or any of the married wives of Krishna are
worshipped with him.

The tales and songs connected with Radha and
Krishna cannot for the sake of decency be referred to
here. The reader, unacquainted with them, and

Present Conditions 117

curious to know their details, must take the trouble
to read the two modern Puranas mentioned above,
and also the work of Jaya-deva, Vidyapati, etc.

According to the legends contained in these works,
when Krishna, by killing Kansa, became the virtual
ruler of Mathura, he forsook not only Radha, and the
other cowherd women of Brindavan, whom he had
seduced, but, in the most heartless manner, disowned
even his foster-parents.

These stories form the theme of the most heart-
rending songs and odes, and being much more intel-
ligible to all classes of women, both young and old,
than the wars and intrigues of the Mahabharata, are
much better calculated than anything else to enable
the priest to acquire a hold on their hearts by awak-
ening their tenderest sentiments.1

Modern Hindu Gurus. The Guru is a modern
money -making invention who is not mentioned in
the earlier literature of India. The word origin-
ally meant a teacher of the Vedas, and as such it
conveyed the idea of respectability, but the Vedic
mantras are too voluminous, and prosaic, to at-
tract many pupils, and women are not allowed
to study them at all, neither are the lower castes,
hence pupils in these classes were so few in num-
ber that the income from them was exceedingly
small.

The Tantriks, however, were equal to the

'Bhatt., Hindu Castes and Sects, pp. 391, 394, 431, 433«

n8 Hinduism

emergency of furnishing profitable employment
for any Brahman who could read, in this way:
They gave the name of mantra to some mystic
and meaningless syllables, which might be given
to the pupil, and taught at a single sitting. The
lowest castes, and even women, were made eligible
to these classes, and almost any Brahman was
enabled to collect around him an army of chellas
who were bound by their vows to worship him as
their god, and to pay a yearly tax to him and his
descendants from generation to generation. In
this vow the victim swears that: "My soul,
mind and body, are irrevocably sold to my Guru''
whose name is given, and then the ownership of
his victim becomes absolute. When the sons of
a deceased Guru make a division of his property,
the chellas are counted as so many slaves, and are
distributed among the heirs in the same way as the
other properties belonging to the estate.

This simple method of inventing and installing
Gurus in modern times is remarkably easy and
successful. It is true that such mystic syllables
as hoong, doong, kling, or hring, are, as Bhat-
tacharya says,

an outrage upon common- sense. But, [he adds], the
gullibility of man has no limit, and the Guru
who whispers these meaningless expressions into the

Present Conditions 119

ears of his disciple is worshipped and paid by him (or
her) as the bestower of untold benefits.

The chella is not allowed to reveal these mystic
syllables to any one. The matter is certainly not
such as to be capable of bearing the light of intelligent
criticism. The Guru therefore acts wisely in insisting
that the communication should be treated as strictly
confidential. . . . Furthermore, those meaningless
syllables, or short sentences, must be repeated by the
chella, many times a day, and thus he is kept in con-
stant bondage to the man who first whispered them
into his or her ears.1

The Gurus are ingenious, also, about adding to
their income in various ways. For instance,
Ram Sarana Pal, belonging among the Gurus
of Bengal, was a man of great originality. He
proclaimed himself the proprietor of every human
body, and claimed that he was entitled to rent
from every human being for allowing his soul to
occupy his body! In order to enforce this right,
and to give a pecuniary interest to the most in-
fluential of his followers so as to strengthen his
position with them, he appointed several of the
chief men among them as agents and bailiffs, for
collecting his revenue.

The majority of the dupes are women who
gladly pay the small tax demanded of them for the

1 Bhatt., pp. 27-28.

120 Hinduism

rental of the bodies of their husbands and children,
so as to insure long life to their families.

Each agent of the Guru is generally on very
friendly terms with some woman in the village, or
group of villages, assigned to his care, and through
the instrumentality of this woman, he is enabled
to hold secret meetings which are attended by
all the female votaries within his jurisdiction, and
in which he plays the part of Krishna. The
agents of the Guru are required to pay over to
him all of their collections, except their own
commissions, at a grand levee which is held by
him at his family residence in the month of
March.

At this time, the Guru performs the most won-
derful miracles, curing leprosy, blindness, deaf-
ness, and other things which are beyond the reach
of Hindu medication. A Brahman, writing from
near the scene of action, describes one "cure" as
follows :

The crowd was great, but the blind man managed
to elbow his way through it and bring his case to the
notice of the Guru. . . . Suddenly he was seized by
attendants and taken to a near-by tank, where sand
was vigorously rubbed into his eyes while he cried out
in agony. . . . While they were doing it they kept
asking whether his sight was restored or not. . . .
Finding there was no other escape from the torture he

Present Conditions 121

at last said it was, and then a great shout went up that
a marvellous cure had been effected.

"He was made to bathe in the tank, for washing
away the sand, and then he was carried in triumph
through the crowd, being borne aloft in the air, like
a Roman victor. After this advertisement of the
miracle, the victim was deported from the village so
secretly that it was impossible for any of the pilgrims
to ascertain the truth of the matter, and it is very
likely that one of the attendants represented himself
as the blind man who had been restored to his
sight.

Guru worship is naturally favoured by the
priest-ridden Hindu everywhere, but it is only
among certain classes that a god would be humil-
iated for the honour of this man. The drinking
of such water as has been used for washing the
feet of the Guru is common enough, but some of
his devotees will go much farther in their
adoration.

The Gurus are mostly of two classes, the Tantrik
and the Vaishnava. The Tantriks inculcate and
enforce the homage to the wives of Shiva, and the
worship of courtesans. They also claim that
while meeting together for the practice of the
Bacchanalian rites, all the members of their orgies
have a higher position than that of the most
exalted Brahmans.

The Vaishnavas enforce the equally degrading

122 Hinduism

worship of either Krishna, or some other incar-
nation of Vishnu, which often includes the Guru
or the Gossain. Both sects agree that the Gurus
are a necessity, and that they must be well paid
by those who have sold themselves, "body, soul,
and mind," into this abject slavery.

The Gossains. This word is* a corruption of
Goswami, which is a compound consisting of go
and swami. Swami means an owner, — a lord or
master, — hence when it is assumed by a French-
woman it is at least a misnomer. r Go has several
meanings, such as cow, earth, mountain, etc. Hence
the word Goswami may mean "Lord of Cows,"
"Lord of Mountains, " " Owner of the Earth, " etc.
"Lord of the Cows" is one of the favourite titles
of Krishna and at present his worshippers are
divided into several sects — indeed the greater part
of modern Hinduism is apparently divided between
the idolatry connected with Shiva and his wives,
and the followers of Krishna, and the devotion
paid to his female favourites, which follows along
the same corrupt lines.

The ex-Chief Justice of Indore, in hi-s address

1 Dr. Chas. R. Lanman, Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard Uni-
versity, in a recent letter to the author says: " Don't fail to point
out that the Swamis are self-appointed 'Lords' or 'Owners.'
'Svamin' means 'owner' from svam, 'own.'"

Present Conditions 123

before the Congress of Orientalists held in London,
well says that :

One of the most remarkable features of Krishna
worship is the blind homage paid to the Gossains of
the Vallabh sect.

The cult is of recent origin, and its principal doctrine
is that of faith, or Bhakti — of sacrificing everything
for the Guru. Their mantras for the common people
are, "Sri Krishna Sarakam mam" (My shelter is
Krishna), or "Kling Krishnaya; Gopi Jan ballabhaya
Swaha" (Swaha to Krishna, the beloved of the Gopis).

For the richer and more well-to-do, the mantra is
longer. Translated into English it is: "Sri Krishna
is my refuge from the sorrows and troubles caused
by separation of hundreds of years, and from unlimited
time; for the removal of these, I offer to Lord Krishna
my body, its organs, their functions, wife (or husband),
house, son, wealth, and all that I have. I am thy slave,
Krishna."

The Gossains of this sect represent themselves to be
so many embodiments of Krishna, and expect and
receive from their followers, not only a dedication of
their wealth and money, but of their persons, espe-
cially the female and handsomer portion of them.1

Some parts of this worship would appear to the
outsider to be innocent enough, but its inevitable
tendency, especially where it is joined with reci-
tations from the poem of Jaya-deva, the Bhaga-
vata-purana, and other works of that class, is

1 Ex-Chief Justice, Trans. Ninth Internal. Cong., vol. i., p. 145.

124 Hinduism

to develop all the immoralities of the Krishna
and Radha ceremonies.

Serious charges of this nature were brought
against the Gossains in the celebrated case of the
Bombay Maharajas which came before the Su-
preme Court of Bombay, and in the judgment
rendered by Sir Matthew Sausse he says:

All songs connected with the god Krishna, which
were brought before us, were of an amorous character,
and it appeared that songs of a corrupting and licen-
tious tendency, both in ideas and expressions, are sung
by young females to the Maharaja (or Gossain) upon
festive occasions in which they are identified with the
god in his most licentious aspect.1

The testimony given by Judge Lala Baijnath
refers to the times since the criminal practices of
the priests were considerably checked by the
results of this celebrated trial.

But still in the temples where the priests do
homage to the idols, men and women perform their
acts of adoration to the Gossains. One mode of
worshipping the idols is swinging them, and the
women worship, not the god, but the priest or
Gossain by swinging him in a pendant seat. The
work of swinging the idol would be far easier,
but that has already been done by the Maharaja,

1 Sausse, History of the Bombay Maharajas, p. 142.

Present Conditions 125

who now takes his ease in the swinging seat at
the expense of his tired devotees, who do the work,
and also pay well for the privilege of doing it !

Not only this, but the pan-supra, or saliva ejected
from his mouth, the leavings of his food, and the
very dust whereon he has walked, are eagerly eaten
by them. The water in which the dirty images have
been washed is "holy water," and the devotees
also eagerly drink that in which the garments of
the Gossains have been washed, while that in
which their feet have been bathed is called Caran-
amrita, or "feet nectar," and it is used in the
same way.

In an address delivered before an English
audience, and reported by the London Daily News
Narayan Seshadri boasted that he himself had
claimed and received divine honours, and had
seen believers among his own countrymen greedily
drink the water in which his feet had been washed.

But infinitely worse than all this — it is believed that
the best mode of propitiating them [the Gossains] is
by ministering to their sensual appetites. Body,
soul, and property (tan, man, dhan) must be wholly
made over to them, by their disciples, and their women
are taught to believe that the highest bliss will be
secured to themselves and their families by the
caresses of Krishna's representatives."1

1 Williams, Hind., p. 145.

126 Hinduism

Like the Hindu priests in Europe and America,
the Gossains are thrifty souls, and they demand
good prices for whatever honours they may con-
descend to bestow upon their devotees. In a work
written by a Brahman and published in Calcutta,
we find the prices of these favours well defined.
He says:

Their tariff is as given below :
For homage by sight, five rupees.1

For homage by touch, twenty rupees.

For the honour of washing the Maharaja's foot,
thirty-five rupees.

For swinging him, forty rupees.

For rubbing sweet unguents on his body, forty-two
rupees.

For being allowed to sit with him on the same
couch, sixty rupees.

For being closeted with him in the same room,
from fifty to five hundred rupees.

For eating pan (spittle) from the mouth of the
Maharaja, seventeen rupees.

For the privilege of dancing with him, from one
hundred to two hundred rupees.

For drinking the water in which he has bathed,
seventeen rupees.2

1 A rupee is about forty-eight cents.
2Bhatt., H. C. and S., p. 457.

Present Conditions 127

If such prices as these are exacted from the
poor people of India for these honours, we can
only imagine what rates are paid by rich white
women who follow after the same notorious
characters.

European and American Fanatics. One would
hardly expect to find this confessedly corrupt cult
flourishing in the United States, but a book
recently written by a Krishna priest and pub-
lished on American soil is dedicated: "To my
Guru, to whom my Soul, Mind, and Body are irre-
vocably sold, in payment of the grace of his illumin-
ation which lighted my path to the Lotus feet of
Krishna, my Beloved. "

Hence we can easily see the character of the
vows which must finally be taken by this man's
devotees, and cease to wonder that so many of
them find at last a refuge, — not in Krishna, but
in the asylums.

And yet, knowing these things, the Swamis are
constantly advocating Krishnaism on both Euro-
pean and American soil. They know their own
official works are the exponents of the character
of the boy thief, the dishonourable warrior, the
licentious lover, and all of the unspeakable ob-
scenity connected even with his public worship,

128 Hinduism

in places where they dare go through with the
whole ceremony, and they know that this idola-
try is utterly degrading to all who are tainted
therewith, and yet they are persistently teaching
it in such language as the following :

Krishna is Love itself, the Love that draws the
Lover and the Loved closest to each other. //
knows no ceremony, knows no formal respect. It
knows no motive. Love is its own cause, motive,
and satisfaction. It knows no barrier, sees no faults,
nay sees virtue in faults.

A Chicago woman who entertained one of the
Hindu priests in her home said she had " never
heard any one talk so beautifully about L-o-v-e"!

Family ties are not allowed to intervene in any
way between the Swamis and their devotees, for
the official statement is:

It knows no barrier! We know thee, O Krishna
[or thy representatives,] as one greater and nearer to
us than our husbands, brothers, and fathers; and even
at the risk of their displeasure to us, we come to lay
at thy feet our poor offerings and our hearts.

It was in harmony with this creed that the wife
of a prominent educator abandoned her family,
with the announcement: "My husband and
children are no more to me than others who are
equally deserving of my regard. My religion
teaches me that they have no claim on me! "

Present Conditions 129

In one of our great cities, the headquarters of a
Hindu cult are, or were until very recently, in
charge of an American woman who had taken the
terrible vows, and the veil of an Indian nun. Her
associates declared: "We know nothing of former
relationships. She now belongs more to us than
to her family!"

A well-known New England woman, having
fallen under the hypnotic sway of a Swami, made
over her entire fortune at his dictation. After
the papers were safely made out, the "further
mysteries" were revealed to her. Can we wonder
that she then went hopelessly insane and was
for years — in the asylum?

The Gurus do not, as yet, bring their most
hideous idols with them — only some little image
before which to say one's prayers "so as to aid in
concentration." But far worse than idolatry
before images is the man-worship which they
inculcate and enforce, — the slavish devotion to
the priests.

One well-known Swami was in the habit of re-
ceiving the adoration of his followers, when he
came out of his "daily meditation. Then these
American women were ready to caress his robe,
and kiss his sandaled feet!

It sometimes happens that a Swami or Guru

130 Hinduism

takes a foreign trip from the Middle West, by way
of New York, when the most palatial ocean
steamer and the most luxurious Pullman cars are
allowed to carry him abroad and through the
principal cities of Europe. On these occasions he
sometimes tolerates the companionship of the
rich woman who pays all the bills!

"He was my man-god" (or Guru), wailed the
poor New York girl over the body of the creature
she worshipped, and tried to follow into the land of
shadows, by way of suicide!

To the "holy men" it surely is a wonderful
change from their native poverty, to Western
wealth and luxury. Squatting in a loin-cloth at
the gate of a heathen temple, as many of them do,
and receiving alms from the passers-by, is not
nearly so attractive as sitting in luxuriously
furnished parlours, while their dupes bring in their
delicate or valuable offerings.

Money and costly presents given to their "man-
god" counts greatly to the "accumulated merit"
of European and American women, but while they
receive a vast amount of lip flattery from the
objects of their devotion, they are inwardly held
in contempt, for no woman can cheapen herself,
without paying the terrible penalty. What won-
der that Vivekananda, on his return to his native

Present Conditions 131

soil, spread the report that American women were,
in character, even like the dancing girls of India?

There are too many even in civilised
countries, who are entranced with doctrines which
are claimed to represent Krishnaism, but the
philosophy which is at first presented for their
approval is only the beginning of the unspeakable
worship pertaining to "the dark god."

The final vows are a horrible secret which cannot
be revealed under penalty of punishments which are
far worse than death — it would at last bring upon
the devoted heads of the victims the curses of all
the gods in the Hindu pantheon !

A poor desolated and deserted girl in New York
at last testified that a vein was opened in her arm,
and she was compelled to sign her vows with a pen
dipped in her own blood!

Let the white woman beware of the hypnotic
influence of the East — let her remember that
when her Guru, or god-man, has once whispered
his mystic syllables into her ear1 and she has
sworn allegiance to him, she is for ever helpless in
his hands.

The Swami, Gossain, or Guru is now quite at
home in both Europe and America and many a
desolated home lies in the trail of his silken robes.

'See p. 118.

132 Hinduism

When for any reason they are forced out of one
community, other cities, other aliases, and other
victims are always waiting for them farther on.
For instance one of the most popular Swamis in
the Eastern States left Chicago, according to the
newspapers, at the strenuous invitation of an
indignant husband. Another, who is now doing
a flourishing business in California, left the same
city on account of irreconcilable difficulties with
the police.

Certain it is, that if our clean-hearted American
women were acquainted with the true character
of the cult, they would flee its contaminating
influence. But "the further mysteries" are not
revealed until the victim is beyond the reach of
any returning mental health, and the descent to
heathenism has been so gradual, and the way has
been painted in such alluring colours, that she has
been unconscious of her destination until it was too
late.

Let our people read the standard Hindu works on
this subject, — let them look into the pages of the
Vishnu-purana, which may be found in English
translation in our large libraries, let them study
the Bhagavata-purana; they are both devoted to
the glorification of Krishna, and they both show
him to be the worst type of a shameless sensualist,

Present Conditions 133

faithless lover, and undutiful son. Lacking these,
let them read the works of English scholars like
Sir Monier Monier- Williams or Prof. F. Max
Miiller. If they will only investigate the matter
in any sane and scholarly way, all illusions on this
subject will quickly vanish, and the priests of
Hinduism will no longer be able to "creep into
houses and lead captive silly women."

CHAPTER VII

IMITATIONS OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY

The Work of Translators. Imposition upon Wilford. Teachers
of Hinduism. Adam and Eve. Story of the Flood. Abra-
ham and Isaac. The Gita-govinda.

T^HE literature of India is colossal in its pro-
portions, and it was not until the iQth
century that its problems were solved by English-
speaking scholars. This was necessarily done
by a division of labour, for life is too short to
enable any one worker to obtain from original
sources a complete knowledge of Indian philology,
language, and history.

That prince of philologists, Prof. F. Max
Muller, devoted twenty of the best years of his
life to the Rig-veda alone. Colonel Colin Mac-
kenzie spent many years in collecting and arrang-
ing thirty -four large folio volumes of manuscripts,
but his careful methods were of inestimable value
to those who came after him.

A thorough study of the Puranas alone would
occupy half a century, but a year devoted to

134

Imitations of the Old Testament 135

the excellent translations of the late Horace Hay-
man Wilson will give one a very good idea of their
contents.

The Hindus themselves claim, in the Padma-
purana, that these books "consisted originally of
one thousand million stanzas, but four hundred
thousand of them were thought to be sufficient
for the instruction of men, and the rest were
preserved for the gods."

These "four hundred thousand stanzas," how-
ever, are equal to sixteen hundred thousand lines,
and the student has reason to be thankful that
the gods kept the greater portion of these books
for their own private use!

The literature of India was never properly
classified — it was never published, even in the
Sanskrit tongue, until it was done by European
scholars, under the auspices of England's greatest
university.

The fact that these books had for centuries
been transmitted from one generation to the next
only by constant repetition and memorising by the
students gave them a weird influence over the
Anglo-Saxon as well as over the Asiatic. And
when we remember that the Veda among the
Hindus occupies very much the position accorded
to the Old Testament in Hebrew letters — that it

136 Hinduism

is as sacred to the Indian as our Scriptures are to
us — we cannot wonder that it has attracted the
attention of scholars in every part of the world.

Imposition upon Wilford. According to Max
Muller, the pandits were greatly opposed to the
translation of the Veda from the Sanskrit. They
were obliged to admit that the edition was com-
plete and authentic, but it took from them their
principal weapon against the missionaries.

" In former times, they had been accustomed to
declare that there was no commandment in the
Old Testament, no precept in the New, which had
not been anticipated in the Vedas, and when the
incredulous missionary asked for the manuscript,
he was coolly informed that so sacred a document
must not be touched by an unbeliever ! " T It was
also asserted that "the sacred books of the Hindus
were thousands of years older than the Old Testa-
ment, which had indeed been largely borrowed
from them!"

Men who should have been more careful allowed
these statements in some cases to pass unchal-
lenged, while eager sceptics hailed the idea with
delight, and added very largely to the stories thus
set afloat.

Men and women, too, who could not tell to save

1 Max Muller, Chips, vol. ii., p. 304.

Imitations of the Old Testament 137

their lives what a Veda might be, were very loud
and confident in their assertions that the whole
Bible had been borrowed from books whose names
they could not spell, nor pronounce after they
had been spelled !

It was under these circumstances that Lieut.
Wilford took up the work of investigation in
Calcutta. He had become convinced that the
Hindus possessed in their literature some of the
myths found in Greek and Roman mythology,
and not only this, but he had an idea that the
narratives of the Old Testament had possibly
been derived from the same source, and he deter-
mined to verify the supposition.

With this object in view, he cultivated the
friendship of the priests, finding their affections
were easily won by gifts which were more or less
costly, and then availed himself of this acquaint-
ance for the examination of the problems in-
volved. He then told them the principal stories of
classical mythology and the leading events in Old
Testament history; he assured them they would
find these things in their own sacred books, if they
would only look for them, but no results were
forthcoming. He then held out hopes of goodly
financial rewards if they would find them, and this
offer worked like magic.

138 Hinduism

Soon they placed in his hands manuscripts con-
taining the very things he sought, and for these
the priests received generous compensation. The
stories of Deukalion and Prometheus — of Adam
and Eve — of Abraham and Sarah followed each
other in quick succession.

The demand created a large supply and for
several years one essay after another appeared
in the volumes of the Asiatic Researches. There
were myths of classical mythology, and narratives
closely resembling the stories of the Old Testa-
ment, all of which "had been translated from the
ancient books of India"!

Surprise and excitement prevailed in scholarly
circles over these discoveries. There was great
excitement, not only in Calcutta, but also in
London, Paris, and the German universities.

The Sanskrit manuscripts which Wilford had
obtained were submitted to Sir William Jones
and others who were considered the best Sanskrit
scholars of their day, and they pronounced them
genuine; it is true that many wise men remained
incredulous, but there were the manuscripts to
show for themselves, and the work went merrily
on.

At last, however, the supply corresponded so
exactly with the amount of money furnished that

Imitations of the Old Testament 139

the documents were again, and more carefully,
examined. It was then found that clever forgeries
had been committed — that pages which had been
aged by a peculiar process had been inserted in
manuscripts which were undoubtedly old, and on
them the wily priests had written the classical and
biblical stories which they had learned from the
lips of the enthusiastic officer.

Wilford, who by this time had become a Colonel,
did not hesitate to admit that he had been victim-
ised. He made a manly confession which was a
warning to others, and Sir William Jones openly
admitted that he also had been deceived, but dur-
ing the infancy of Sanskrit studies it had been easy
to perpetrate this gigantic fraud upon students of
limited experience.

Says Max Muller:

It is perfectly true that at the present time, after the
progress which has been made in accurate and critical
study of the Sanskrit, it would be unpardonable if
any scholar accepted as genuine, such passages as
were translated by Sir William Jones, yet it is by no
means certain that a further study may not lead to
similar disenchantments and deprive many a book in
Sanskrit literature of its high claims to antiquity
. . . and those who have believed in their extreme
antiquity will then be held up to ridicule like Sir
William Jones and Lieutenant Wilford.1
1 Max Muller, Chips, vol. v., p. 109.

140 Hinduism

Teachers of Hinduism. The essays which had
been so ignorantly constructed upon a false basis
were widely read, and are still quoted by people
who have never heard of Wilford's confession, or
if they have heard, they choose to ignore it. Not
only this but rumours grow as they spread, and
we have many Americans as well as Europeans
who are quick to catch at anything and every-
thing which seems to bring discredit upon the
Scriptures.

It is also true that Hinduism as taught in Europe
and America is very different from the genuine
article. These "missionaries from the Orient,"
who are teaching the milder forms, and even
misrepresentations of their own sacred books, are
very careful to keep out of the sight of beginners
those doctrines and ceremonies which would at
once repel clean-hearted Anglo-Saxons.

They present vague, illusive, and often attractive
theories without offering any definite form of proof,
and indeed the class of people who are delighted
with any new fad do not need any historical evi-
dence. For instance a Hindu, who was evidently
a Buddhist, in conversation with a Chicago lady
discoursed eloquently upon the marvellous pheno-
mena produced by the Mahatmas in the mountains
of Thibet and elsewhere.

Imitations of the Old Testament 141

At last she enquired: "How may I know posi-
tively that such beings exist?"

Said he : " Do you not sometimes have ideas, and
do not know where they come from?"

"Yes," she quickly answered.

"That is it — there is the proof for which you
ask — they come from the Mahatmas!"

The pathetic feature of the incident is found
in the fact that she seemed to be entirely satisfied
with the proof (?) thus obtained. And hence,
because so few people are willing to investigate
these things in a reasonable way, these teachers
are reaping a harvest of English, French, and
American money while claiming that even the
Puranas "were written thousands and thousands of
years ago"!

There are foolish women in some of our large
cities who are actually forcing their indulgent
husbands into financial ruin, by squandering their
money in secret, upon these wily adventurers.
It is often done without the husband's know-
ledge, and confession is sometimes made to a
friend that the demands are constantly growing
larger, and the victim cannot see any way of
escape. But the work goes wickedly on.

One of these "teachers" very truthfully re-
marked: "We find America a better place than

142 Hinduism

India in which to teach Krishnaism"! There
is no valid excuse for being thus victimised, when
our libraries contain the works of standard authors
on this subject, but some of the admirers of the
cult have actually rushed into print with asser-
tions that make them the laughing stock of scholars.

Even if the doctrines of Hinduism were abso-
lutely true, they never could be of the slightest
benefit to either Europeans or Americans, who
cannot by any amount of penance purchase ad-
mission at death to either of the heavens — they
cannot become worthy of recognition by these
people except in a financial way. The sole benefit
which they can derive is the privilege of admiring
those who sneer at them in secret, and then
continue to pour their money into the pockets
which are constantly crying for more.

In vain may Europeans go to India, assume
Indian aliases, and return claiming to be " swamis " ;
they must always be known as impostors, not only
by a genuine swami, but by every one who is
at all acquainted with the subject.

Sir Monier Monier- Williams says:

The truth certainly is that no stranger can be ad-
mitted as a convert to Hinduism, either by making
any particular confession of faith, or by going through
any prescribed forms. The only acknowledged mode

Imitations of the Old Testament 143

of admission is by birth. To become a Hindu, one
must be born a Hindu.1

And yet, inducements are held out which are
contrary to the fundamental principles of the
Hindu religions. Our land is flooded with liter-
ature which is well calculated to deceive the care-
less and thoughtless — it is flooded with reckless
assertions on this subject which are repeated over
and over again from the platform, many of the
speakers blindly following each other, without
making any effort to find out for themselves
whether or not there is a particle of truth in what
they are saying. They are issued in book form,
in pamphlet form, they are being sent out through
the medium of the newspapers wherever they can
find admission to these columns, and they are
going through the mails in the form of private
correspondence, France, England, Germany, and
Russia being especially unfortunate in Europe,
while our own land is also receiving the especial
attention of numerous invaders.

Adam and Eve. The acme of literary dishon-
esty is attained when so-called "quotations" are
deliberately manufactured in order to suit a certain

1 Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduism, p. 98.

144 Hinduism

theory, and this sort of work has been done in
numberless instances.

We now have stories written up in imitation of
Old Testament narratives and we are unblushingly
told that these things " are from the Veda" !

Extracts from a parody on Adam and Eve run
as follows:

Having created the man and woman and animated
them with the divine afflatus — the Lord said unto
them: "Behold your mission is to the people of this
beautiful island [Ceylon] where I have gathered
together everything pleasant, and needful for your
subsistence." . . .

And thus saying, the Lord disappeared . . . then
Adima and Heva dwelt together in perfect happiness:
but ere long a vague disquietude began to creep upon
them. . . . The spirit of evil, jealous of their felicity
and of the work of Brahma, inspired them with dis-
turbing thoughts. ' ' Let us wander through the island, ' '
said Adima to his companion, "and see if we may not
find some part of it more beautiful than this." . . .

And Heva followed her husband . . . wandering for
days and months. But as they advanced, the woman
was seized with strange terrors. "Adima," said she,
"let us go no farther. It seems to me that we are
disobeying the Lord ; have we not already quitted the
place he assigned us for a dwelling and forbade us to
leave?"

"Fear not," said Adima, "this is not the fearful
wilderness of which he spake unto us. "

And they wandered on ... arriving at last at the

Imitations of the Old Testament 145

extremity of the island, the two wanderers stood
amazed; the country before them was covered with
stately trees, birds of a thousand colours flitted midst
their foliage.

"Behold what beautiful things," cried Adima, "and
what good fruit such trees must produce! Let us go
and taste them, and if that country is better than this,
we will dwell there."

Heva, trembling, besought Adima to do nothing
which might irritate the Lord against them.

"Are we not well here? Wherefore seek other
things?"

"True," replied Adima, "but we will come back;
what harm can it be to have visited this unknown
country that presents itself to our view?"

Then placing his wife upon his shoulders, he pro-
ceeded to cross the space that separated him from the
object of his desires.

But no sooner did they touch the shore than trees,
flowers, birds, all they had seen from the opposite
side vanished midst terrific clamour; the rocks by
which they had crossed sunk into the waters, a few
sharp peaks alone remaining above the surface. . . .
Adima threw himself weeping upon the sands . . .
but Heva, throwing herself into his arms, besought him
not to despair. . . . "Let us rather pray to the Author
of all good to pardon us."

The above is a bit of modern fiction from which
it is asserted the story of Adam and Eve was
borrowed; it has been ingeniously prepared, with
variations enough to give colour to the charge of
plagiarism, but nothing of the sort can be found in

xo

146 Hinduism

the genuine books of India, from one end to the
other!

Other parodies have been perpetrated with the
cool announcement that ''these things are found
in the Bhagavad-gita " only the word is wrongly
spelled by the impostor, who had probably never
seen the book!

Poor France, especially, has been flooded with
this sort of literature, while England and America
have by no means escaped.

Max Muller says of these base forgeries and the
book which contains them :

Many of the words which J quotes as Sanskrit,

are not Sanskrit at all ; others never have the meaning
which he assigns to them; and as to the passages
[claimed to be] from the Veda, including the Bhaga-
vad-gita, they are not from the Veda, they are not
from any old Sanskrit writer — they simply belong
to the latter half of the nineteenth century.1

Story of the Flood. The survivors of the great
deluge evidently handed down to their posterity an
account of the leading events connected therewith,
and hence nearly every people on the globe have
their tradition concerning it. The same voice
comes to us from the archives of Babylon, from

1 Max Muller, Chips, vol. v., p. 128.

Imitations of the Old Testament 147

the clay tablets of Assyria, from the parchments
of China, from the .manuscripts of India, from
the annals of Greece, and more recently from
the temple library found in the ruins of
Nippur.

Amidst so many independent witnesses it is not
necessary to conclude that any of them are bor-
rowed from each other; like some of the others,
however, the Hindu tradition is so buried in
mythology that without other evidence on the
subject one would never conclude that it was
based on historic fact.

And yet, a Hindu priest, writing on American
soil, unblushingly asserts: "The account of the
deluge as given in the Old Testament has been
taken from minute accounts recorded in the
Matsya Purana and the condensed facts about
them given in all the Puranas."

That is, the biblical story of the flood as re-
corded in the Book of Genesis — one of the oldest
books of the Old Testament — " was taken from the
Puranas," which were written during the Middle
Ages of the Christian era !

He never would make such an absurdly false
statement as this, if he did not know that he could
place the most implicit confidence, in the utter
ignorance of his devotees!

148 Hinduism

Abraham and Isaac. One of the manufactured
quotations above alluded to is founded upon this
narrative in Genesis, and we are gravely told that :
"This is the original from which the story of
Abraham and Isaac was taken."

In this case, they have come nearer to the truth
than is their wont, from the fact that there is found
in the Aitareya-brahmana a legend concerning the
offering of a son.

But this Brahmana belongs to a period more
than a thousand years this side of Abraham, and
not only this, but the difference in the stories is
so radical and far reaching that the idea of pla-
giarism on either side must be ignored by the
careful critic.

The legend of Sunahsepa has been well trans-
lated by more than one scholar, and runs about as
follows :

King Harischandra had no son; therefore he
went to the great sage, Narada, and enquired,
"What benefit comes from a son?" Narada
replied :

A father, by his son clears off a debt,

In him, a self is born of self. The pleasure

A father has in his son exceeds

All other pleasures. Food is life, apparel

Is protection, gold an ornament;

A loving wife the best of friends, a daughter

Imitations of the Old Testament 149

An object of compassion, but a son

Is like a light sent from highest heaven.

Go then to Vartina, the god, and say —
' Let but a son be born, O King, to me
And I will sacrifice that son to thee ! '

An Indian is always in debt to his forefathers
until he has a son of his own, because the happi-
ness of the dead depends upon certain ceremonies
which can be performed only by a son. Those
who have lived in India or have read authoritative
works on the subject will understand why "a
daughter is an object of compassion."

According to the instructions of the sage, the
king went to Varuna, and made his plea and
promise.

In due time a son was born who was named
Rohita, but time passed on and still the king did
not fulfil his vow, and at last the angry god afflicted
him with dropsy as a penalty for the long delay.

The lad had now attained to years of some
understanding, and the royal father explained to
him the conditions of his birth and told him that
he must prepare for sacrifice.

Not liking the prospect before him, the boy took
his bow and arrows and fled into the forest. For
six long years, he roamed through the wilderness,
living upon the wild fruits and what game he

150 Hinduism

could secure, but still the sentence of death was
hanging over him.

At last he found a hermit who was a Brahman,
but he was living in the wilderness with his wife
and three sons, and Rohita entered into nego-
tiations with the father to procure a substitute.
The hermit agreed to sell one of his sons for the
sacrifice if the prince would give him a hundred
cows! A bargain was quickly made, and Rohita
set off for home with the boy, Sunahsepa, by his
side. In order to witness the horrible rite, the
unnatural father went also.

Taking the victim to the king, the prince
explained :

"Father, this boy shall be my substitute."

Then Harischandra went to Varuna

And prayed: "Accept this ransom for my son."

The god replied: "Let him be sacrificed,

A Brahman is more worthy than a king."

The preparations were made, and the intended
victim was led forth.

Four great Rishis, or sages, officiated as priests,
but they could find no one who would consent to
bind the beautiful child who was to be offered.
In this extremity the barbaric parent again came
to the rescue, and for the sake of adding to his large

Imitations of the Old Testament 151

herd of cattle, he volunteered to bind his boy upon
the sacrificial altar.

"Give me a hundred cows and I will bind him."
They gave them to him and he bound the boy.
But now, no person would consent to kill him.
Then said the father, "Give me yet again
Another hundred cows, and I will slay him! "

Once more they gave the hundred, and the father
Whetted his knife to sacrifice his son;
Then said the child: "Let me implore the gods,
Haply they may deliver me from death/'

So Sunahsepa prayed to all the gods
With verses from the Veda, and they heard him.
Thus was the boy released from sacrifice
And Harischandra restored to health.1

It would require a strong imagination to fancy
that this resembles the story of Isaac — that the
character of the avaricious hermit was like that
of Abraham!

Surely no one who has read both stories can
suppose for a moment that either was borrowed
from the other, and possibly it would not be too
much to conjecture that those who make these
uncritical assertions have never read either of
the narratives in question!

1 Aitareya-brah., Haug's ed.t 7-13, Williams's trans.

152 Hinduism

TheGita-govinda. Govinda is the title "Prince
of Cows" which was given to Krishna by Indra,
and the Gita is the song composed to describe the
conduct of Krishna with the wives and daughters
of the cowherders, and especially Radha. Some
modern writers who were unacquainted with the
true character of the Gita, have confidently as-
serted that "The Song of Solomon was borrowed
from the Gita-govinda " !

Here we have another example of the reckless
disregard of the principles of scholarly criticism.
The author of the Gita-govinda was Jaya-deva,
who lived in India in the I2th century of the
Christian era, many centuries after the author of
the Song of Solomon "slept with his fathers."

CHAPTER VIII

IMITATIONS OF THE GOSPELS

Modern Productions. King Herod. The Transfiguration.
Crucifixion. Vivekananda.

TT is true there are some similarities to the Gospels

in the Puranas, which were written after the

Gospels had been in the world for more than a

thousand years, but they are so slight that few

of them are considered worthy of critical notice.

Attention has been called to a story in the

Bhagavata-purana to the effect that Krishna

healed a deformed woman who prayed him to

allow her to anoint him with saffron and sandal:

He took compassion upon her and placed his two
feet upon her two feet, and his two fingers beneath
her chin, and raised her up so that she became quite
straight, and by the touch of Krishna, she became
young and beautiful.

Thus far, this might possibly be an echo of Mark
xiv., and Luke xiii., but the rest of the story
is decidedly incongruous, and not at all com-

153

154 Hinduism

plimentary to Krishna. Orientalists assign the
Bhagavata-purana to the I2th century of the
Christian era.

As with the Old Testament, however, so also
with the New, we now have speakers and writers
who furnish carefully prepared imitations, not of
the original texts, which they know nothing
about, but of King James's version, giving even the
idioms and peculiarities of this translation, and
then assert that these very modern parodies "were
derived from the ancient books of India"!

Books are widely circulated in England and on
the Continent, especially in France, as well as in
America, which have many paragraphs, and some-
times whole chapters, in imitation of incidents in
the life of Christ, and these manufactured quota-
tions are boldly credited to the Bhagavad-gita!

There are several translations of the Gita in our
large libraries and some of them have been pre-
pared by Hindu scholars, but a careful examination
of even half an hour will convince any one that
there is nothing of the kind in the Hindu book
from one end to the other. It would have been
nearer the truth to say that these things are found
in Webster's Dictionary, for the words at least
are there, and that is more than we can say for the
"Divine Song" of India.

Imitations of the Gospels 155

Bhagavad-gita is crudely spelled by this class
of writers, each of them apparently guessing at the
orthography from a different standpoint, but they
usually come near enough to the title so that one
can understand what they mean.

Far less fortunate are those pretenders to
Oriental lore who talk and write about "The
Ramazand, or Hindu New Testament/' as no
such book is known to scholars, and the pretended
quotations from it are simply forgeries of texts
which are found only in the New Testament, and
sometimes not even there, the copying having been
incorrectly done.

If they would take the trouble to read the
Gospels, it might save them from the blunder
of asserting that certain things "were borrowed
from the sacred books of India" which are not
to be found in either the one or the other!

What can we say, for instance, when it is
declared that "The Holy Ghost descended upon
Mary in the form of a dove"? And that "this
statement was taken from the Bhagavad-gita"?

It is confidently declared that: "Jesus of Naz-
areth borrowed his morals, his doctrines, and even
his name from one Jezeus Christna of the Hindus " !

The name of Krishna is thus misspelled ap-
parently for the purpose of confounding his

156 Hinduism

name with that of the Messiah. But the word
Christ means "anointed" while Krishna means
"black" or "dark coloured." The vast difference
in the signification of the names makes it impossi-
ble for scholars to suspect any kinship between
the two.

And yet, in defiance of all the principles of
philology, one author declares: "In Sanskrit,
Kristna, or rather Christna, signifies 'messenger of
God, promised of God, sacred/ etc." If he had
known the meaning of the word Christ he would
of course have said that "Christna in Sanskrit
means 'anointed'"!

Another of the same class and equally ignorant
asserts: "Christna as well as Buddha [enlightened]
means shepherd"! Still another of the same
reckless sort declares: "Krishna means the sun"!

In relation to Jezeus, one author pretends to
quote from the Bhagavad-gita as follows: "They
named him Jezeus, that is to say the pure divine
essence"! Of course there is nothing of the kind
in the Gita, from one end to the other, but on
another page of the same book we are assured:
"The name of Jesus, or Jezeus, was in ancient
India the consecrated epithet assigned to all in-
carnations"!

The truth is, however, that there is no such name

Imitations of the Gospels 157

as Jezeus in Sanskrit — no name like it in the
language, and Max Muller declares that "it was
simply invented1' by the author in question.1

The above manufactured quotations in relation
to " Jezeus'* are taken from a French work which
has been widely circulated in English translation
both in England and America. Poor France is
flooded with this spurious literature, the same
author having contributed more than twenty
volumes to the work of wilfully deceiving the pub-
lic. He claims that our civilisation, our religion,
our legends, and even our God, have come to us
from India after passing in succession through
Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Italy! "And this
statement," he boldly asserts, "has been admitted
by almost all Oriental scholars"!

He does not specify any one of them for the
best of reasons. He knows, if he knows anything
at all about the subject, that no scholar would
admit anything of the sort — he knows that such
assertions are not made by learned men, but are
propagated by people who wilfully deceive the
ignorant and unsuspecting victims of their false-
hoods!

His allegations that "the Old and New Testa-
ments are found in the Veda," he proves (?) by

1 Max Muller, Trans. Vic. Inst. voL, xxi., p. 179.

158 Hinduism

such forgeries as his parody on Adam and
Eve.1

In relation to these colossal falsehoods, Prof.
F. Max Muller says: "No one acquainted with
Sanskrit or Pali literature can doubt for a single
moment that all of these so-called 'translations'
from ancient Sanskrit text are mere inventions."2

Although Krishna is one of the later products of
Indian fancy, having attained his popularity as a
god in the Middle Ages of the Christian era, still
there are people who know nothing of the subject
and are not willing to learn, who are reckless
enough to rush into print with the assertion:
" Krishna lived 3000 years before Christ, and
taught everything that Christ taught"! And
still this writer has steadily turned away from
sources of information on this subject which are
within easy reach in the libraries!

All sorts of pretenders to Indian wisdom are
asserting that "Krishna was born of a virgin/'
and this too in direct violation of the teaching of
standard Hindu works on the subject.3 Surely
even a myth ought to be honestly represented!
Although the most revolting descriptions of the
immorality of this god are given in the native

1 See p. 144. a Max Muller, Last Essays, Second Series, p. 95.
3 See p. 104.

Imitations of the Gospels 159

classics, which are devoted to his glorification, we
are now assured that "Krishna lived chastely
and prescribed chastity," and "Indeed Chris-
tianity would have sunk into oblivion ages ago,
if the authors of the Gospels had not incorporated
into their works the sublime morale of Christna"!
When such brazen falsehoods can be uttered and
published without fear of contradiction from the
masses, surely it is time for the masses to learn
some of the facts in the case !

King Herod. It is possible that we may have
an imitation of the character of King Herod in
Kansa, who is represented in the Puranas as a
murderous tyrant. It is said:

After the marriage of Vasu-deva and Devaki ... a
voice from the sky addressed Kansa and said, "The
eighth child of the damsel shall take away your life. "
On hearing this, Kansa drew his sword and was about
to put Devaki to death; but Vasu-deva interposed
saying: "Kill not Devaki, and I will deliver to you
every child she shall bring forth." Appeased by the
promise Kansa desisted from the attempt.1

Afterward, Kansa was again warned by Narada,
but agreeably to his promise Vasu-deva delivered
to the tyrant each child as soon as it was born,

1 Vishnu-purana, p. 493.

160 Hinduism

to the number of six, these having been the off-
spring of the demon Hieranyakasipu. 1

Bala-rama appears to have been the first son
of Devaki who was the child of her husband and
he was saved by being transferred to the womb
of another wife by the name of Rohina. When
Krishna, the eighth child of his mother, was born,
his father exchanged him with Yasoda for her
daughter.

When Kansa was told that a daughter had been
born to Devaki he went to the home of Vasu-deva,
and seizing the infant, he threw her against a stone;
but the child rose into the sky and expanded into a
gigantic figure having eight arms, each wielding
a powerful weapon. This terrific being laughed
aloud and said: "What avails it to thee to have
hurled me to the ground? He is born who shall
kill thee. . . . Now quickly secure him and provide
for thine own welfare."

Kansa, much troubled in mind, summoned his
chiefs to counsel :

Now Chiefs of the Daitya race . . . the goddess has
been born who has announced to me that he is again
alive who in a former birth was my death. Let
therefore active search be made upon the earth, and
let every boy in whom there are signs of unusual
vigour be slain without remorse.2

1 Vish.-pur., p. 498. *Ibid.t 503-4.

Imitations of the Gospels 161

The Bhagavata-purana tells the story somewhat
differently, but they both describe "Nanda and
the rest" as paying tribute or taxes to Kansa.
And as the Gospels had been carried to India
hundreds of years before these books were written,
it is not impossible that we have here a mutilated
echo of the narrative found in Matt. ii.

The Transfiguration. It is occasionally claimed
that the sublime scene on the Mount of Trans-
figuration "was borrowed from the Bhagavad-
gita," which must have been written many years
afterward.

There has been considerable discussion con-
cerning the age of the Gita. Prof. Max Muller
places it in what he terms the "Renaissance
period of Indian literature," the beginning of which
he places at about 300 A.D. Sir Monier Monier-
Williams says of the author: "He is supposed to
have lived in India about the second or third
century of our era."1 We might also quote
Weber, Lassen, Lorinser, and others. But in the
eagerness to make a point by those who have
jumped to the conclusion that the Gospels were
borrowed, little anachronisms of one or two cen-
turies are considered entirely unworthy of notice.

1 Williams, Hind., p. 207.

162 Hinduism

The stubborn fact of the later origin of the
Hindu song is not the only reason why the Gos-
pels could not have borrowed from it; the dis-
similarities between the two are so striking that
no one could suppose that either was taken from
the other.

It is very true, as our best scholars admit, that in
making translations from the Sanskrit, the great
temptation was to choose only the most beautiful
portions of the works before them ; not only this,
but the constant tendency of a refined and poetic
nature is to improve whatever passes through
his hands.

Max Muller says :

Whether I am, myself, one of the guilty ones or not,
I cannot help calling attention to the real mischief
which has been done, and is still being done, by the en-
thusiasm of those pioneers who have opened the
first avenues through the bewildering forest of the
sacred literature of the East. They have raised
expectations which cannot be fulfilled, fears also,
which, as will readily be seen, are ungrounded.1

Oriental poetry is indeed largely indebted to
the eloquence of the English translators, who in
many cases have given it a beauty far above that
which is found in the versions of the native
linguists.

1 Max Muller, Int. Upanishads, S. B. E.

Imitations of the Gospels 163

But let us not therefore censure our scholars;
it is the most natural thing in the world to present
the best possible phases of the work which is
passing through our hands, and the most beautiful
myths of the Orient have gained a new radiance
under the poetic touch of modern workers.

In The Light of Asia Sir Edwin Arnold was
writing poetry, not history, and surely no one
could be more astonished than he to learn that
many members of a wonder-loving public have
imagined his fancies to be facts!

He read into a part of Buddha's story beautiful
sentiments of which the primitive Buddhists
never heard, and lo! in some minds it was immedi-
ately supposed that "this is Buddhism"!

As Sir Edwin has illumined The Light of Asia
with a borrowed radiance, as Fitzgerald has con-
tributed greatly to the harmonious numbers of the
Rubaiyatj so also has the Bhagavad-gita received
a wonderful beauty in passing through the hands
of Sir Monier Monier- Williams, who translates as
follows:

Having thus said, the mighty Lord of all
Displayed to Arjuna his form supreme,
Endowed with countless mouths and countless eyes,
With countless faces turned to every quarter,
With countless marvellous appearances —

164 Hinduism

With ornaments, and wreaths, and robes divine,
With heavenly fragrance and celestial weapons.

It was as if the firmament were filled,
All in an instant with a thousand suns,
Blazing with dazzling lustre; so beheld he
The glories of the universe collected
In the one person of the God of gods.

Arjuna, with every hair on his body bristling
with awe, bows his head at this vision, and folding
his hands in reverence, gives utterance to a passion-
ate outburst of enthusiastic adoration, which is
here abridged:

I see thee, mighty Lord of all, revealed
In forms of infinite diversity.
I see thee like a mass of purest light,
Flashing thy lustre everywhere around.

I see thee crowned with splendour like the sun

Pervading earth and air immeasurable,

Boundless, without beginning, middle, end,

Preserver of imperishable law,

The everlasting man; the triple world

Is awestruck at this vision of thy form

Stupendous, indescribable in glory.1

The late Mr. Justice Kashinath Trimbak Telang,
of the Bombay High Court, has given us a literal
translation of the Gita, and the strength of the

1 Gita, chap, xi, Williams, Hind., p. 215.

Imitations of the Gospels 165

position regarding the poetic work of English
scholars cannot be better illustrated than by
giving Judge Telang's prose version of the scene
which has just been quoted from Williams. The
celebrated Hindu linguist translates as follows:

Arjuna stood before him with bowed head, his hair
standing on end, and said: "O god I see your body;
the gods, as also all the groups of various beings, and
the Lord Brahman on his lotus seat, and all the sages
and celestial snakes. I see you, who are of countless
forms, possessed of many arms, stomachs, mouths,
and eyes, on all sides. ... I see you void of beginning,
middle, end, of infinite power, having the sun and
moon for eyes; having a mouth like blazing fire, and
heating the universe with your radiance. . . . Looking
at this wonderful and terrible form of yours, 0 high-
souled one! the three worlds are affrighted, for here
these groups of gods are entering into you . . . seeing
your mighty form with many mouths and eyes, with
many arms and thighs, and feet — with many stom-
achs, and fearful jaws, all people, and I likewise, are
much alarmed. Seeing your mouths, terrible by
reason of the jaws and resembling the fire of destruc-
tion, I cannot recognise the various directions.

All the bands of kings . . . together with our
principal warriors also, are rapidly entering into your
mouths, fearful and horrified. . . . And some of their
heads are seen to be stuck in the spaces between the
teeth. As the rapid currents of the river's waters
run toward the sea alone, so do these heroes of the
human world enter your mouths, blazing all around.

i66 Hinduism

. . . Swallowing all these people, you are licking
them over and over from all sides of your blazing
mouths! r

This is the literal translation by the noted
Hindu scholar of the so-called "transfiguration
of Krishna"! This is the description which some
men dare assert is similar to the scene on the
Mount when: "His face did shine as the sun,
and his garment was white as the light " !

The Crucifixion. Every possible effort has
been made to prove that leading events in the
life of Christ "were borrowed from the story of
Krishna." In furtherance of this scheme it has
even been asserted that Krishna was crucified, and
this too in the face of the assertion in several of
their sacred books to the effect that Krishna was
shot by a hunter who mistook him for a wild
animal! This statement is made in the Maha-
bharata and is repeated in their standard works
as late as the nth and I2th centuries of the
Christian era.

The author in writing to Sir Monier Monier-
Williams not long before his death, alluded among
other things to the modern claim that Krishna

1 Gita, chap, xi., Telang's trans., pp. 93-130.

Imitations of the Gospels 167

was crucified, but the eminent savant replied:
"I know nothing of this absurd myth!"

But although it had never until then, reached
the higher circles of scholarship, the story was,
and is, freely circulated by irresponsible writers
and speakers both in England and America as
well as on the Continent. Only now and then,
however, do we find those who have the temerity
to assure their dupes that "Christna was crucified
between two thieves, descended into hell, rose
from the dead, and ascended into heaven"! And
also: "Both Hindu and Christian New Testa-
ments record that at the crucifixion of these two
Saviours there was darkness and convulsions of
nature"!

We are not only told, in plain contradiction of
the Hindu authorities, that "Krishna was cruci-
fied, " but scholars are actually censured for keep-
ing this important information (?) from the world!

An English author says :

Neither in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic
Society, nor in the works of Sir William Jones is
there a single word to be met, concerning the cruci-
fixion of Krishna ! How strange that all these writers
should be ignorant of so startling a fact !

This last sentence is in italics, and the charge is
boldly made, both here and elsewhere, that Orient-

168 Hinduism

alists have deliberately and dishonestly withheld
this important fact (?) from the people!

We are also assured that Ixion, Prometheus,
and Buddha were crucified! The high school
pupils know that there is nothing of the kind in the
classics concerning either Ixion or Prometheus,
and as for Buddha, so far from being crucified,
he died in consequence of eating too much pork!

A full account of his illness and subsequent
death from this cause is found in the Maha-
parinibbana Suttana, or Book of the Great Decease. r
This is considered the oldest and most reliable of
the Buddhist works, and being one of the series
of "The Sacred Books of the East," it is now
available to the English-speaking world.

But what matters it, so far as the Gospel history
is concerned, if all these and more had been
represented as having suffered thus?

Indeed one author coolly declares: "They were
all crucified except Jesus of Nazareth, who was
never on a cross"! Not only this, but he claims
to prove his baseless assumption by forging
quotations (?) from Irenaeus, one of the early
Christian Fathers, who was born about one hund-
red and fifty years after Christ. Irenaeus, who
enunciates the Apostles' Creed in almost the very

1 Maha-parinibbana Suttana, chap. iv.

Imitations of the Gospels 169

words in which it is to-day recited in our churches !
Irenaeus, who writes of "Our Lord, of his cross and
his passion" — of his "having suffered under
Pontius Pilate" — Irenaeus, whose entire work of
two large volumes was written in defence of the
doctrines of the Christ — who quotes the old Testa-
ment prophecies as pointing to the birth, cruci-
fixion, and resurrection of our Lord! x An author
could not be more grossly misrepresented than in
this case.

Vivekananda. During the World's Parliament
of Religions, held in Chicago in 1893, this Hindu
priest stood up in a crowded hall and in violation
of all the rules of the Congress, which decreed
that no speaker should in any way reflect upon
others, he said: "I am told that the American
people are so 'liberal* that they will stand criti-
cism." Then he outraged every principle of
courtesy and politeness to his hosts, by proceeding
to pour out sneers and bitter denunciations upon
our missionaries to India. "If they want to help
our people," he shouted, "why don't they send
them something to save their starving bodies?"

Vivekananda either knew, or he ought to have

'See Irenaeus, vol. i., pp. 297, 300, 301, 303, 304, 311, 346;
also vol. ii., pp. 70, 139, 183, 184, etc.

170 Hinduism

known, that England and America had sent
millions of money and cargoes of grain to "save
their starving bodies" ! — had sent it in response to
appeals from these same Christian missionaries
whom he was then slandering! And since that
time other millions of money and other cargoes
of grain have been sent from the same sources in
response to other pleas from the same philan-
thropic men and women.

During the famine of 1896-7, three years after
his insulting assaults upon the best friends India
has ever had, not less than fifty millions of dollars
were sent from Christian countries for the relief
of that hungry and priest-ridden people.

Vivekananda either knew, or he ought to have
known, that there were no hospitals in India until
they were built under Christian influence, and by
Christian money. He either knew, or he ought
to have known, that the natives died like flies,
near the palaces of the rajas, with no hand to even
give them a drink of water, until they were cared
for by heroic men and women who followed in the
footsteps of Him who "went about doing good."
Vivekananda either knew, or he ought to have
known, that men, women, and children had been
saved from torture and from death by these same
loyal souls. He either knew, or he ought to have

Imitations of the Gospels 171

known, that the women medical missionaries
from Christian lands have carried to the women
of India timely relief from untold and unnoted
agonies.

Dr. John Henry Barrows gladly added his
enthusiastic testimony to that of many other
travellers concerning the unselfishness and devo-
tion of our missionaries in India, while Theodore
Roosevelt and William Howard Taft give enthusi-
astic praise to the results of their valiant efforts in
other lands.

It is not "liberality " which induces our people to
applaud these speakers, when they malign and
misrepresent the heroes who have gone at Ameri-
ca's bidding to heal and relieve the suffering
millions of India. It is not "liberality" which
induces them to countenance, by their repeated
presence, any speaker who attacks the character
of the Christ — who induces them to believe stories
which are a slander upon his name. Let us not
confuse our terms — it is not "liberality," it is
treachery!

What should we think of a man who would go
repeatedly and gladly listen to a speaker who
ridiculed or slandered his mother, or other things
which are even more sacred? Should we think
that he had any right to go around admiring

172 Hinduism

himself, and boasting of his " liberality"? God
help the men and women who are willing to give
their time, and their money, to those who are
doing their utmost to bring shame and reproach
and dishonour upon "the only name under heaven,
given among men, whereby we must be saved. "

CHAPTER IX

HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY

The Historic Christ. Alleged Life in India. Contrasts. Non-
Christian Bibles. The Triumphant Christ.

IT is freely charged that the Messiah is a sun-god
—that his personality is fictitious, and has
been borrowed from the son-gods of Babylonia, of
Egypt, of India or Persia ; they are not at all certain
where it has been borrowed from, but both history
and literature have been grossly misrepresented
by irresponsible writers on this subject. It re-
quires only a little fair investigation, however, to
expose the falsity of their claims.

The historical proofs of the existence of the
Christ cannot be given within a small compass; it
would require a volume to adequately treat the
various lines of evidence on this point, but one
thought, at least, may be suggested and this is
self-evident.

Whoever stops to think at all, must be aware of
the fact that about nineteen hundred years ago

174 Hinduism

some being appeared upon this earth who had
influence enough to change the chronology of the
whole civilised world, and if it were not Jesus of
Nazareth, surely it is time to enquire who it may
have been.

The world no longer counts time from A. U. C.
(Anno Urbis Condita), the year in which the City
(of Rome) was founded, and only among certain
peoples does any one attempt to reckon from the
time of the Creation.

The standard time measurement is from B.C. —
Before Christ; and A.D. — Anno Domini, in the Year
of Our Lord.

Hence every time an unbeliever dates a letter,
or any other document, he testifies to the truth of
the first coming of the historic Christ — he bears
witness to the fact that it has been nineteen
hundred years, and more, since he came and
changed the chronology of the nations, besides
leaving in a thousand other ways the impress of
his undying influence upon the world. This
great fact is only one witness in the case, but even
this is enough for reliable historical purposes.

Alleged Life in India. Even while declaring on
the one hand that "no such person as Christ ever
existed, " the same class of speakers at other times,

Hinduism and Christianity 175

and before different audiences, are glibly asserting
that: "He spent his youth in India, where he
learned his Gospel from the priests"! In some
instances both these positions are taken by the
same author, in the same volume, but little
inconsistencies like these being considered un-
worthy of notice, no effort is made towards a
reconciliation.

One man in Chicago published a book to prove
that no such being as Jesus of Nazareth ever ex-
isted, and afterward delivered a lecture to prove
that Jesus was a Socialist! And still his blind
followers were entirely unable to see any con-
tradiction between the two positions!

In relation to India, the argument at first ran
like this: "No one knows where Christ was during
a certain period of his life, therefore he must have
been in India"!

But, after a time, even its advocates were
enabled to understand that this sort of logic was
not quite consistent, and in order to save the
theory, it became necessary to manufacture "posi-
tive proof" on this subject.

Hence it was claimed that certain documents
have been "discovered" among Tibetan manu-
scripts, giving an account of the "Life of Issa in
India," and some people talk about "The Un-

176 Hinduism

known Life of Christ" with as much assurance as
others will sometimes discourse on "The Secret
Will of God"!

It is true that it would not take a clever pandit
long to prepare such a manuscript on pages which
had been properly " aged," but it has not been neces-
sary for the Hindus to take the trouble to do so.
This time the crime lies at the door of a European,
and while some other evidence (?) has been manu-
factured, the most ingenious work of the kind is
that of a cunning Russian who produced a bit of
fiction which was, and is, very attractive to his
dupes. It has passed through eleven editions in
poor France, some of whose people are eagerly
looking for something of the sort, and it was
translated into English before any one found time
to make a long and difficult journey, in order to
either verify the truth of the story, or to expose a
wilful fraud.

To be sure it never deceived scholars, for, as
Max Muller said: "One might as well look for
the waters of the Jordan in the Brahmaputra, as
for a life of Christ in Tibet."

There is much internal evidence which betrays
the true character of the book to those who are
accustomed to the analysis of evidence, but many
have been found who were entirely deceived

Hinduism and Christianity 177

by this gross imposition, and some of them were
very jubilant over it, especially the younger
generation of Hindus who were being educated
at the expense of the British Government.

This class is well represented by the editor of a
Bengali paper, who greeted the "find" as "clear
proof that Christianity, like Buddhism, is simply
an offshoot from Hinduism, and that Jesus Christ
learned his doctrines from the Brahmans"!

It is true there is a space in the history of Christ,
and every possible advantage has been taken of this
absence of data. The author of this fraudulent
work asserts that during that time Christ was in
India — that he studied Sanskrit and Pali, that
he read the Vedas and the Buddhist canon, and
then returned to Palestine to preach the gospel
which he had thus learned from these sources.

This writer claims to have gone to the Buddhist
monastery at Himnis, where he held long philo-
sophical conversations with the chief Lama, and
strange to say, his interpreter on this occasion was
a Shikari!

The Kashmeri Shikari [says Joldan] is invariably a
man whose knowledge of language is limited to his
native tongue, and a few words of Urdu and English,
relating to the necessities of the road, the camp,
and sport, picked up from the English and their
attendants.

178 Hinduism

The Russian claims to have received from the
Chief Lama long historical allusions, and compli-
cated philosophical speculations. He quotes the
Chief Lama as saying, "The documents brought
from India to Nepal, and from Nepal to Tibet,
concerning Issa's existence, are written in the Pali
language, and are now at Lassa; but a copy in
our language, that is Tibetan, exists in this
convent."

It was while he was laid up in the convent with
a broken leg that he had the opportunity to quote
so freely from these documents, which were
generously translated to him for this purpose by an
ignorant peasant !

Finding that these statements were often ac-
cepted by people who do not investigate for
themselves, Mr. J. Archibald Douglas, a professor
in the Government College at Agra, decided to give
the matter a thorough sifting. With this object in
view, he went to the Himnis monastery, and found
the Superior to be a venerable man who had been
so long in office that he must have been the
man interviewed by the Russian, if there had been
any truth in his story.

But when portions of the book in question
were translated to the old chief, he repeatedly
exclaimed indignantly: "Sun, sun, sun, manna

Hinduism and Christianity i?9

dug!" which is Tibetan for "Lies, lies, lies, and
nothing else!"

The old gentleman was most courteous, and
evidently truthful, but he was justly indignant
at the fraud which had been so deliberately
perpetrated. Prof. Douglas asked many ques-
tions of him, and others in the neighbourhood,
and became entirely satisfied that no Russian with
a broken leg had ever been there, and no such
document as he described had ever been in the
convent, or had been heard of there.

A sufficient statement was made out, and it was
then sworn to by the Chief Lama in the presence
of Archibald Douglas and Mr. Shamwell Joldan,
the late postmaster of Ladakh, and the official
papers were sent to Prof. F. Max Muller.

Not long before his death the great philologist
wrote a magazine article on this subject in which
he says:

After the complete refutation, or I should say the

annihilation of N by Mr. Douglas, there does not

seem to be any excuse for trying to spare the feelings
of the venturesome Russian traveller (?). He was not
hoaxed, he tried to hoax us.

Mr. Douglas has sent me the original papers, con-
taining the depositions of the Chief Priest of the mon-
astery of Himnis, and of his interpreter, and I gladly
testify that they entirely agree with the extracts

i8o Hinduism

given in the article, and are signed and sealed by the
Chief Lama, and by Mr. Joldan, formerly postmaster
at Ladakh, who acted as interpreter between the
priests and Mr. Douglas.

I ought, perhaps, to add that I cannot claim any
particular merit in having proved the Life of Christ
taken from MSS. in the monasteries of Tibet to be a
mere fiction.1

Contrasts. However familiar Christ may have
been with the doctrines of Hinduism, it is certain
that he never taught them and every system has
a right to demand that it be judged by the teach-
ing of its own sacred books.

Even in the morning of its life when it was
simple nature worship it was not only different —
it was opposite in its substance to God's truth, even
though all religions may still retain some traces
of the primitive revelation made to mankind.

(i) It is the sound, the intonation of the sacred
Sanskrit as well as of the sacred Arabic, which is of
primary importance and efficacy. Hence millions
of people have been obliged to hear, and many
of them have been compelled to repeat, the Veda,
following the intonations of the teacher, when they
had no conception of the meaning of the passages
recited.

The books of the Bible, on the other hand, de-

1 Max Muller, Nineteenth Century, vol. xxxix., pp. 667-678.

Hinduism and Christianity 181

mand the closest attention of the student, and in
order to be of benefit, their meaning must be taken
into the hearts, and lived out in the lives of men!

(2) Both the Hindus and Arabs were opposed to
the translation of their sacred books, the Brahmans
especially doing all in their power to prevent pub-
lication, even in Sanskrit, while Christian men
and women are making great efforts by the ex-
penditure of both time and money to spread the
good news of the Gospel. So far from hiding the
Book from the fires of investigation, the closest
examination is invited everywhere in the world
of letters, and not only this but the hosts of
criticism are often led by reverent believers.

Great sacrifices have been made, and are being
made, to further the colossal work of carrying this
great civiliser to the uttermost parts of the earth.
Savage dialects have been reduced to grammar for
the first time, by enthusiastic missionaries, who
have devoted their lives to the task, and so faith-
fully has the enterprise been pushed that trans-
lations have been made, either of the whole, or of
some portions of the Book into about five hund-
red and fifty different languages and dialects, and
its circulation is constantly increasing.

The science of philology will always be indebted

182 Hinduism

to those who have thus led the way in intellectual
as well as ethical progress.

(3) In the Veda the historical element is
wholly wanting. In all of this mass of literature,
there is not a single reliable historical event,
which will enable scholars to assign it to its proper
place in the world's history, and as we have no
Indian manuscripts which extend farther back
than the Middle Ages, it is no wonder that Orient-
alists find it difficult to bridge over this chasm, of
possibly two thousand years!

But the races of the Old Testament are promi-
nent figures in history, and not only this, but the
statements there made have been illustrated and
verified by the spade of the explorer. Ancient
cities there described, which were sometimes
pronounced "mythical,'* have been identified,
and the very language of the old inscriptions has
helped to elucidate difficult passages in the Hebrew
Bible.

Says Prof. A. H. Sayce, of Oxford University:
"Between the history of the monuments, and the
history of the Bible, there is perpetual contact ; and
the voice of the monuments is found to be in strict
harmony with that of the Old Testament." x

1 Sayce, Assyria, Her Princes and People, p. 16.

Hinduism and Christianity 183

(4) The books of Hinduism reveal no concep-
tion of man's nature, while Our Father "remem-
bereth that we are dust."

(5) Hinduism claims that we should crush out
all emotion — love as well as hatred, and even
indifference (if possible) should be avoided.

But the Master saith: "Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind . . . and thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two com-
mandments hang all the law and the prophets."

(6) The gods of Hinduism care nothing for
the world — they take no interest in humanity,
according to their own exponents.

On the other hand: "Are not five sparrows sold
for a farthing, and not one of them is forgotten
before God. . . fear not therefore, ye are of more
value than many sparrows."

(7) The books of Hinduism admonish men to
get rid of the trials and temptations of life. But
the Bible says: "Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive
the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to
them that love him. "

(8) Hinduism admonishes us to get rid of all

184 Hinduism

action, while practical Christianity is the embodi-
ment of wholesome activity :

"My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. . . .
By their works, ye shall know them."

(9) Hinduism teaches its devotees to sit for
years in one painful posture, until the limbs wither,
and the nails grow through the back of the hand.
In this attitude they command the admiration of
the passers-by.

But under the mission of the Christ the blessing
is given to those who: "For my name's sake hast
laboured and hast not fainted. "

(10) The priests of Hinduism sell to their
victims, water from the so-called "Well of Puri-
fication"— water reeking with the stench of cor-
ruption and laden with the germs of disease.

But the Christ offers "without money and with-
out price" water from the "Wells of Salvation."
"Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall
give him shall never thirst, but it shall be in him
a well of water springing up to everlasting life. "

(n) Hinduism says: "Perform penance, and
accumulate merit."

But the Bible says: "By grace are ye saved,
and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast. "

Hinduism and Christianity 185

(12) Hinduism says: "Get rid of suffering — get
rid of feeling."

But the Apostle says: "We glory in tribulation,
knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and
patience hope."

(13) Hinduism says: "Get rid of the body."
But the Bible says: "Know ye not that your

body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in
you?"

(14) Hinduism teaches men to seek annihilation
as the only refuge from repeated rebirths — teaches
its devotees to seek eternal death!

But the biblical admonition is: "Seek for glory,
immortality, eternal life!"

(15) The priests of Hinduism spend their time
in washing, dressing, painting, and worshipping
idols — in bringing oblations, even of food, to gods
of wood and stone.

But the servants of the Living God are working
night and day for the welfare of the race.

(16) All the history of Hinduism is marked
by continual and increasing degradation, — the
modern systems containing vileness that could
not be entertained by the writers of the early
Songs of the Vedas.

i86 Hinduism

But in God's plan, whatever race is willing to
follow, is led onward and upward, from the object-
lessons in the wilderness, to the triumphant mis-
sion of the Christ.

God's book records the sin of the first man, but
it advances calmly and surely to the one great
end — the conquest of wrong by him who " brought
life and immortality to light."

It moves with stately step from Eden lost, to
Eden regained, and closes with a splendid pano-
rama of victory.

The Non-Christian Bibles. Some traces of
God's primeval revelation to man are found among
all peoples and in all creeds, but F. Max Muller, in
his address before the British and Foreign Bible
Society, said:

Let us teach Hindus, Buddhists, and Mohammedans
that there is only one "Sacred Book of the East"
that can be their mainstay in that awful hour, when
they pass alone into the unseen world. It is that
Sacred Book which contains the saying that "Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners"

He also admonishes students to examine care-
fully the faith of other nations, for, he says :

We shall learn to appreciate better than ever before
what we have in our own religion. No one who has

Hinduism and Christianity 187

not examined patiently, and honestly, the other reli-
gions of the world can know what Christianity really is,
or can join in such truth and sincerity in the words of
St. Paul: " I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ."

And again:

Let us see what other nations have had, and still
have, in place of religion ; let us examine the prayers,
the worship, the theology, even of the most highly
civilised races — the Greeks, the Romans, the Hindus,
the Persians, and we shall then understand more
thoroughly what blessings have been vouchsafed to
us, in being allowed to breathe, from the first breath
of life, the pure air of Christian light and knowledge.

We are too apt to take the greatest blessings as a
matter of course, and even religion forms no exception
to the rule. We have done so little to gain our reli-
gion— we have suffered so little in the cause of truth,
that however highly we prize our Christianity, we
never prize it highly enough, until we have compared
it with the religions of the rest of the world.1

Sir Monier Monier- Williams, the Boden Pro-
fessor of Sanskrit at Oxford University, was the
author of eighteen standard works and trans-
lations in the domain of Indian wisdom one of
them being our great Sanskrit and English Dic-
tionary. After devoting fifty years of his life to this
subject, he said :

We welcome these books. We ask every missionary
to study their contents . . . but we warn him that
1 Max Muller, Chips, vol. i., pp. 48, 180.

i88 Hinduism

there can be no greater mistake than to force these
non-Christian bibles into conformity with some
degree of development, and then point to the Christ-
ian's Holy Bible as the crowning point of religious
evolution !

So far from this, the non-Christian bibles are all
developments in the wrong direction, they all begin with
some flashes of light, and end in utter darkness.

I know that to confess sympathy with this sort of
development is to win applause from certain classes
in these days of religious toleration and free trade;
but I maintain that this flabby, jellyfish kind of
tolerance is utterly incompatible with the nerve and
backbone that ought to characterise a manly Christian.
The Christian's character ought to be just what the
Bible intended it should be. Take that sacred Book
of ours ; handle reverently the whole volume ; search it
through from the first chapter to the last, and mark
well the spirit that pervades the whole.

You will find no limpness, no flabbiness about its
utterances. Even sceptics who dispute its authority
are ready to admit that it is a thoroughly manly book.
Vigour and Manhood breathe on every page. It is
downright and straightforward — bold and fearless,
rigid and uncompromising. It tells you and me to be
either hot or cold. If God be God, serve him; if Baal
be God, serve him.

We cannot serve both — we cannot love both.
"Only one name is given among men whereby we may
be saved." No other Saviour more suited to India,
Persia, China, or Arabia is ever mentioned.

The unparalleled declarations of our Holy Bible
make a gulf between it and the so-called "Sacred Books
of the East" which sever the one from the other, utterly,

Hinduism and Christianity 189

hopelessly, and for ever. Not a mere rift, across which
the Christian and the non-Christian may shake hands,
and interchange similar ideas in regard to essential
truths, but a veritable gulf which cannot be bridged
by any science of religious thought — yes a bridgeless
chasm, which no theory of evolution can ever span.

Go forth then, ye missionaries in your Master's
name. Go forth into all the world, and after studying
all of its false religions and false philosophies — go
forth and fearlessly proclaim to suffering humanity
the plain, the unchangeable, the eternal facts of the
Gospel!

Dare to be downright, with all the uncompromising
courage of your own Bible, while with it your watch-
words are love, joy, peace, and reconciliation. Be
fair, be charitable, be Christlike, but let there be no
mistake. Let it be made absolutely clear that Christ-
ianity cannot, must not, be watered down to suit the
palate of either Hindu, Buddhist, or Mohammedan;
and that whosoever wishes to pass from any false
religion to the true can never do so by the rickety
plank of compromise, or by the help of faltering
hands, held out by half-hearted Christians. He must
leap the gulf in faith, and the living Christ will spread
his everlasting arms beneath, and land him safely on
the Eternal Rock!1

The Triumphant Christ. "Let not your hearts
be troubled," God's eternal truths, like His eternal
stars, shine on, for ever above and beyond the
feeble attacks of man.

1 Williams, Trans. Vic. Inst., vol. xxi., p. 302.

190 Hinduism

The world hath many sages, but only one Sav-
iour. The story of the Christ was prefigured in
the very morning of time, when the constellations
of the cross flashed their glories down upon the
new-born earth. What wonder that the children
of men learned to love the sacred symbol, even
before they understood its meaning?

The centuries come, and the centuries go, but
the Cross still bends in southern skies; and in our
own heavens the Great Northern Cross is still set
with her crown jewels. These are the twofold
promise and prophecy of redemption, written in
letters of living light, where all the races of the
world may read their sublime message.

With nothing to fear, and nothing to hide,
Christianity presents as her model, a character who
hath no rival in the world's history. Under the
leadership of the Great Captain of our Salvation,
she shall carry her banners to victory on the glory-
crowned heights of God's eternal mountains. Far
over and above the worship of the dark idols,
there stands the ever-living Son of God. From
his stainless life, and cruel cross, the hope of the
world was born. One sentence from his lips, if
lived out in the lives of men, would for ever banish
the pages of wrong and fraud and cruelty from our
tear- wet and blood-stained earth. One touch from

Hinduism and Christianity 191

his hand hath broken the cold seal of the death-
angel, and brought immortality to light. One
mark of his footstep left in earth's tomb illumines
its portals with the glorious promise of life. One
word from his lips shall lead his risen host to the
fountains of living waters, that flow from under-
neath the Great White Throne.

He is "the bright and the morning star" who
shall crown with glory the long dark night of
time. He is the Sun of Righteousness with heal-
ing in his rays. He shall banish darkness and
sorrow and pain — he shall conquer death, and
illumine with light and life and love the coming
ages of God's eternal years.

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B

BADSHAH, BHAGWANLAL R. Transactions Congress of Oriental-
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BAIJNATH LALA, Ex-Chief Justice. Transactions Cong. Oriental-
ists.

BARROWS, Dr. JOHN HENRY, Pres. of Oberlin. Personal Lectures.

Bhagavad-gita. Williams's trans.

Bhagavata-purana. S.B.E.

BHANDARKAR, R. G., Vice-Chancellor Bombay University.
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BHATTACHARYA, JOGENDRA NATH. Hindu Castes and Sects.

Brahmanas. S.B.E.

Brahmana-satapatha. Williams's trans.

Buddha-karita. Standard work of Buddhists.

CHILDERS. Pali Dictionary.

CUNNINGHAM, Major-General. Archaeological Survey oj India.

DAS, DEVENDRA N. Nineteenth Century, vol. xx.
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DOUGLAS, J. ARCHIBALD, Prof, in Government College. Nine-
teenth Century, vol. xx.

E
EGGELING, JULIUS. Translation of Brahmanas.

13 193

194 Bibliography

F

FERGUSSON, JAMES. Tree and Serpent Worship.

H

Hari-vansa. S.B.E.
IMEL, Dr. FRITZ
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I

HOMMEL, Dr. FRITZ, Prof, of Semitic Languages at the Univer-
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IREN^EUS, Bishop of Lyons (France) latter quarter of 2d Cent.
Writings.

Jataka Book. Birth stories of Buddha.
JONES, Sir WILLIAM. Translations.

L

Lalita-vistara. Eighth in series of nine Dhamrnas.

M

Maha-bharata. Brahmanised epic poem.

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Maha-vagga. Old Pali work.

Manu, Code of. Standard of Hindu law.

MITRA, RAJENDRA LALA. Translation of Lalita-vistara.

Orissa.
MULLER, Prof. F. MAX. Chips.

" " Last Essays.

Nineteenth Century, vol. xxxix.

O

OLDENBERG, Dr. HERMAN. Translation text of Pali canon.

P

Padma-purana. S.B.E.

PETRIE, W. M. FLINDERS. Religion oj Egypt.

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RAMABAI PANDITA. High Caste Hindu Woman.
Ramayana. Hindu epic, Griffith's trans.

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REED, E. A. Hindu Literature.

" Primitive Buddhism.
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SAUSSE, Sir MATTHEW, Supreme Court of Bombay. History

of Bombay Maharajas.

SAYCE, Prof. A. H. Assyria, Her Princes and People.
Sukhavati-vyhua. Early Buddhist work.

T

TELANG, KASHINATH TRIMBAK, Judge of High Court of Bombay.
Translation of Bhagavad-gita.

U
Upanishads. S.B.E.

V
Vishnu- purana. Wilson's translation.

W

WALHOUSE. Indian Antiquities.

WHEELER, J. TALBOYS. Translation of Maha-bharata.

WILLIAMS, Sir MONIER MONIER-. Hinduism.

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Brahmanism and Hinduism.
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WILSON, Prof. HORACE HAYMAN. Translation of Puranas.

INDEX

Abode of love, 76

Abraham and Sarah, the story

of, 138, 148
Accad, ancient, n
Achilles, the heel of, no
Adam and Eve, the story of,

138, 143, 158
Adherents, number of, 46
Aditya, the sun, 5
Agama-prakasa, 64
Aghoris, the, 64, 116
Agni, the fire god, 5, 82
Agra, college at, 1 78
Aitareya Brahmana, quoted, 40,

43, 151

America, converts in, 17, 67;

relief by, 171
Ananda, 85
Animal food, 19
Anno Domini, 174
Anno Urbis Condita, 174
Anu, the god, 1 1
Anglo-Saxon admirers, 4
Ansumati River, 103
Apostles' Creed, the, 168
Arabic, the sacred, 180
Archaeological survey of India,

the, 76

Arishto, the demon, 106
Arjuna, no, 163
Arka plant, the, 86
Arnold, Sir Edwin, 163
Aryans, Hindu, 4, 89
Ashva-medha, 100
Assyria, monotheism of, 10;

tablets of, 147
Atheism, 39
Austin, Judge Henry, quoted,

75
Avatars, doctrine of the, 49

Babylon, archives of, 146
Badshah, B. R., quoted, 27,

94, 98

Baijnath, Lala, quoted, 19, 124
Bala-rama, 97, 101, no, 160
Bali, the demon, 97
Banyan tree, the, 84
Barrows, Dr. J. H., quoted, 20,

48, 63, 83, 171
Benares, 28, 73; Buddha at,

33, 48; Kali in, 68
Bengal, Kali in, 68; Gurus in,

119

Bentinck, Lord William, 54
Bhagavad-gita, 103, 146, 153
Bhagavata Purana, 94, 109,

116, 123, 132, 154, 161
Bhakti, or faith, 123
Bhandarkar, R. G., quoted, 94
Bhattacharya, J. N., quoted,

15, 19, 64, 68, 115, 117
Bibles, non-Christian, 186
Bilva, the, 84
Bodhisattva, the, 29
Bodhi tree, or Bo-tree, 30
Bodisat, the, 37
Bombay, Maharajas of, 124
Bo-tree, the, 85
Brahma, the god, 56, 82
Brahman, the spirit, 9, 165;

every priest a, 16; tyranny of

the, 19; divinity of the, 23,

40; Arjuna assisted by, in
Brahmanas, the, 15, 57
Brahmanism, the creed of, 9,

I4t 93 '» pantheism of, 31;

in the seventh century, 49;

modification of, 50
Brindavan, milkmaids of, 116
British Bible Society, the, 186

197

I98

Index

British government, the, 65,

98, 177

Buddha's hell, 37
Buddha, atheism of, 40; death

of, 41; cremation of, 43;

Krishna and, 98 ; meaning of,

156; crucifixion of, 168
Buddhas, series of, 26
Buddhism against caste, 32;

no creator in, 39; expelled

from India, 48; influence of,

50; liberty in, 93
Burma, serpent worship in, 41 ;

Buddhism in, 46
Burnouf, 66

Calcutta, Kali in, 68; Lieuten-
ant Wilford in, 137
Caranamrita, 125
Chellas, army of, 118
Caste, 15; sins against, 22
Ceremonies, 62
Ceylon, serpent worship in, 41 ;

bridge at, 79
Chandra, or Rama, 99
Chicago, devotion meetings in,

41; Dharmapala in, 33;

World's congress at, 48, 169;

address in, 49

Childers's Pali Dictionary, 45
Child weddings, 7
China, idea of God in, 12;

Buddhism in, 47
Christ, the historic, 173; the

triumphant, 189
Christianity, 93
Christna, 156, 167
Colebrook, 53
Commentaries on Hindu Law,

19

Confucianism, 47
Contrasts, 180
Cremation of Buddha, 43
Crooke, W., quoted, 66
Crucifixion, the, 166
Cunningham, General, quoted,
76

Daitya race, the, 160
Das, Devendra, quoted, 87

Davids, T. W. Rhys, quoted,

35, 45

Deb, Raja Radhakant, 51
Decease, book of the great, 42,

168

Dehunuka, the demon, 101
Demons and devils, 78
Deukalion and Prometheus,

story of, 138

Deva-duta Sutta, the, 38
Deveka, 102, 159
Devotees, modern, 69
Dhamma-pada, quoted, 34, 37,

38, 40

Dharmapala, 33
Dhyan, 69
Dipankara, 26
Divine mother, the 76
Divine song, the, 1 54
Douglas, J. A. Prof., quoted,

178

Draupadi, Princess, 103
Durga, 67, 69, 75
Dvaraka, city of, 109, 112

Eggling, Julius, quoted, 15
Egypt, historical records of , 1 1 ;

God worshipped in, n, 20
Egyptian mythology, 2
El, 10; meaning of, 14
Ender, the mighty, 59
Euphrates, the valley of the, 10
Europe, Hinduism in, 67

Famine in India, 170

Fanatics in Europe and Ameri-
ca, 127

Fergusson, James, quoted, 82

Fitzgerald, James, 161

Flood, the, 4; story of the, 146

France, spurious literature in,
157

Ganga, daughter of Himavat, 2
Ganesa, the god, 82
Ganges, the sacred, 2, 27, 100
Gautama, the, 26, 85; birth of,

27; teaching of, 33; rebirths

of, 35; death of, 42
Gaya, the city of, 84

Index

199

Genesis, book of, 147

Gita-govinda, the, 152

God, the idea of, 9; the true, 1 1 ;

union with, 47
Golden child, the, 9
Goloka, gate of, 76
Gopis, the, 106
Gospels, Puranas similar to

the, 153

Gossains, the, 122
Goswami, the, 122
Gotama, 27
Govinda, Prince, 106
Grand Lama, the, 41
Great Northern Cross, the,

190

Great Renunciation, the, 28
Gujerati work, 64
Guru, the Yoga, 56, 65; the

modern, 117

Hanuman, the monkey god,

79,99

Harischandra, King, 148

Harivansa, the, 107

Hea, 10

Hebrew Bible, the, 182

Hell, belief in, 25; Buddha's,

37

Hercules, the Indian, 101

Herod, King, 159

Himalaya Mountains, the, 60

Himnis, monastery at, 177

Hindu, the, 3; literature, 4;
the orthodox, 9

Hinduism, a composite system,
3; pollutions of, 7; develop-
ment of, 50; teachers of, 140

Hiranyakasipu, the demon, 104,
1 60

Holy Ghost, the, 155

Hommel, Dr. Fritz, quoted, 13

Human flesh, eating, 64

Idolatry, phases of, 72
Idol worship, 41, 72, 114
India, the land of contrasts, i ;
Buddhism in, 48; expulsion
from, 48; literature of, 134;
legends from, 157; mis-

sionaries to, 169; alleged life

in, 174

Indore, Justice of, 122
Indra-prastha, in
Indra, the storm god, 5, 59,

82, 103, 105

Irenaeus, quotations from, 1 68
Isaiah, prophecy of, n
Issa in India, Life of, 175
Ixion, 1 68

agan-nath, temple of, 76

ainism, 47, 49

ambavati, 107

ambu tree, Lord of the, 74

apan, Shintoism in, 40; Budd-
hism in, 47
Jataka Book, the, 34
Jaya-deva, 117, 123, 152
Jesus of Nazareth, 155 168,

174

Joldan, Shamwell, 170
Jones, Sir William, q. ted, j

138, 167

Kaira, town of, 80

Kala, or time, 85

Kali, the altars of, 8; SI

wife, 67 ; shrine of, 75
Kalpa, meaning of, 26
Kalki or Kalldn, 98
Kama-deva, the god, 82
Kanara, the demon, 78
Kansa, King, 104, 117, 15*

1 60

Karma, 33
Kartik, month of, 84
Kaulika, 68
Kaveri, the river, 77
King James, version of, 154
Koti, meaning of a, 26
Krishna Das Babaji, 65
Krishna, eulogy of, 7; the dark

god, 97; Indra praises, 106;

wives of, 107; death of, 109;

healing by, 153; meaning of,

156

Krishna Vasudeva, 102
Krishna worship, modern, 113
Kunda, 42

2OO

Index

Kurma, the tortoise, 95
Kusa grass, 83

Ladakh, 179

Lalita-Vistara, quoted, 27, 28
Lanman, Dr. Chas. R., quoted,

123

Lassa, documents at, 178
Lassen, quoted, 161
Legge, Dr. James, quoted, 12,

Light of Asia, the, 163
London Daily News, quoted,

125

Lorinser, quoted, 161
Luke, parable in, quoted, 33;
Gospel of, 153

Mackenzie, Colonel Colin, 134
Maha-parinibbana Suttana,

quoted, 42, 168
Maharaja of Benares, 101
Maharaja, the, 124
Mahatmas, the, 140
Maha-bharata, quoted, 103, 168
Maha-vagga, quoted, 32, 38, 43
Mandara Mountain, 95
Mango Tree, Lord of the, 74
Mantra, meaning of, 118
Manu, the code of, 23, 24, 57,
72, 83; birth of, 57; quota-
tion from, 87
Mara, the Evil One, 39
Mark, Gospel of, 153
Marriages, 86
Maruts, the, 6
Mary, the Virgin, 155
Maspero, on monotheism, n
Mathura, ruler of , 117
Matsya, the Fish, 95, 147
Matthew, Gospel of, 161
Maya-devi, 28

Metchizedek, devotion of, 14
Menes, II

Messiah, the, 156, 173
Metempsychosis, 33
Mitra, the sun, 5
Mitra, R. L., quoted, 30
Modern productions, 153
Mohammedanism, 47

Mohammedan burying-

grounds, 64; invaders, 74
Monkey Temple, the, 74
Monotheism, traces of, 8, 1 1
Moshka, 70

Mountain of snow, the, 2
Muller, Professor F. Max,
quoted, 4, 9, 12, 45, 53, 133,
134, 157, 162, 176

Nanda, 161

Narada, the Sage, 149, 159

Nara-sinha, the Man-Lion, 96

Negrito aborigines, the, 3

Neptune of the Hindus, 6

New York, Hinduism in, 67

Nile, the, 2, 10

Nippur, the ruins of, 147

Nirguna, in

Nirvana, 30, 44

Nominal Christianity, 47

Nu, the god, n

Oldenberg, Dr. H., quoted, 37
Om, the Omnipotent, 67
Orientalists, Congress of, 98;

123; opinions of the, 5, 12,

1 02

Oriental poetry, 162
Orissa, temple in, 62, 76

Padma-purana, the, 135

Palestine, Christ in, 177

Pali terminology, 33

Panca-gavya penance, 83

Pan-supra, 125

Pantheism, 14

Pantheon, the Buddhist, 40,

131

Pan-nirvana, 45

Parsu-rama, 97

Patanjali, 54

Pava, Buddha at, 42

Petrie, W. M. F., quoted, II

Philosophy, system of, 30

Pipal tree, the, 85, 100

Polytheism, n, 39

Pontius Pilate, 169

Prakriti, the, 116

Priesthood, offerings to the, 14

Index

201

Prometheus, 168

Puranas, the, 7, 49, 66, 92,

7 34

Puri, temples at, 76
Purusha-sukta, the, 10; Puru-

sha, 57

Radha, 67, 107, 116, 152

Raghunandana, 53

Raja-yoga, 56

Ramabai, Pandita, 88

Rama, 79, 92, 98

Rama Krishna order, the, 70

Ramazand, the, 155

Ramayana, the, 79, 97

Ramlila festival, 100

Ram Sarana Pal, 119

Rassam, quoted, 10

Ravanna, 99

Reed, Hindu Literature, quoted,

100

Revelations, the book of, 98
Rig-veda, the, 4, 6, 103, 134;

hymns of the, 16
Rome, founding of, 174
Rohina, 160
Rohita, 149

Roman Church, the, 41
Roosevelt, Theodore, 171
Royal Asiatic Society, the, 167
Rubaiyat, the, 163
Rudra, the storm-god, 59
Rudras, the, 6
Ruminiki, 108, 116
Rupee, value of the, 126

Sacred animals, 82

Sacred books of the East, 168,
1 88

Sacrifice, human, 7

Sakasink, 27

Sakyamuni, 47

Sanskrit, poetry in, 2; hell de-
scribed in, 25; literature in,
158

Sankhya, 54

Santapana, 83

Satapatha Brahmana, quoted,

59

Sati abolished, 88

Sausse, Sir Matthew, quoted,

124
Sayce, Professor A. H., quoted,

182

Sen, Ishan Chandra, 65
Serpent worship, 41, 80
Seshadri, Narayan, 125
Shaivism, 40, 92
Shaktas, the, 64, 70
Shakti of Shiva, 63
Shaktism, 40, 67, 93
Shami, or acacia, 86
Shesha, the serpent, 101
Shikari, Kashmeri, 177
Shintoism, 40
Shiva, the god, 56, 58, 61, 114,

122; temples of, 73
Sight restored, 120
Sita, 99

Siva or Shiva, 58
Solomon, Song of, 152
Soul, non-existence of the, 33;

the passing of the, 7
South Arabia, inscriptions of,

13

Sri-rangam, shrine of, 77
Suddhodana, 27
Sudra, 16

Sukhavati-vyhua, quoted, 27
Sun, names given the, 5
Sunahsepa, legend of, 148
Surya, the sun, 5
Swami, the, 17, 122, 129

Taft, William H., 171
Tantras, the, 65, 68
Tantriks, the, 64, 116, 121
Tantrism, 40, 93
Taoism, 47
Tathagata, 42
Telang, Justice, quoted, 164
Ten incarnations, the, 94
Thasng, Hiouen, 48
Theories, combination of, 4
Ti, the Chinese god, 12
Tibet, manuscripts of, 175
Transfiguration, the, 161
Translators, the work of, 134
Transmigration of souls, 20,

22

2O2

Index

Trees and plants, deified, 84
Trichinopoly, rock of, 74
Trinatra, the Buddhist, 77
Tulasi, the shrub, 84
Tusita heavens, the, 36

Upanishad, the first, 21
Upanayana, ceremonies of, 85
Upasaka, 39
Urdu, language of, 1 77
Ushas, goddess of the morning,
6

Vaishnaya, the, 63, 115, 121

Vaishnaism, 92

Vallabh sect, the, 123

Vamana, the dwarf, 97

Varaha, the boar, 96

Varuna, the god, 6, 82, 149

Vasudeva, 102, 159

Vata tree, Lord of the, 75

Veda, the only true, 9; second
division of the, 15; third
division of the, 2 1 ; burning
widows sanctioned by the,
52; the Guru in the, 117;
forgeries in the, 139; his-
torical element in, 182

Vedaism, 4; gods of, 51

Vedas, the songs of the, 2;
lack of chronology in, 4

Vidyapati, 117

Virag, 57

Vivekananda, 20, 64, 83, 130,
169

Vasuki, the serpent, 95

Vineyard, Lord of the, 75

Vishnu, the divine feet of, 2;
Buddha an incarnation of,
49; the god, 57; temples of,
76; great idol of, 77; su-
premacy of, 92 ; eighth incar-
nation of, 102; names of, 113

Vishnu-purana, quoted, 96, 104,
106, 108, 112, 132, 160

Walhouse, quoted, 81

Weber, quoted, 161

Webster's Dictionary, 154

Wheel, law of the, 30

Widows, burning of, 51; posi-
tion of, 86

Wilford, imposition on, 136

Williams, Sir M. M., quoted,
8, 9, 10, 16, 26, 35, 45, 48,
55» 59, 60, 64, 68, 102, 123,
133, 142, 161, 163

Wilson, Professor H. H.,
quoted, 53, 135

"Wives of the Snake," 82

Women, the burning of, 7

World's Congress at Chicago,

22, 48, 169

Yadavas, tribe of, 101, 109
Yama, the king of death, 6, 82;

on the doom of the wicked,

38

Yanda, 104
Yasoda, 104, 160
Yoga, philosophy, the, 54, 64
Yogi, Shiva, the, 58

Zoroastrianism, 48

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