A History of Sanskrit Literature Part 24

Owing to the universality of this mode of expression in Sanskrit literature, there are but few works consisting exclusively of poetical aphorisms. The most important are the two collections by the highly-gifted Bhartrihari, ent.i.tled respectively Niticataka, or "Century of Conduct," and Vairagya-cataka, or "Century of Renunciation." Others are the canti-cataka, or "Century of Tranquillity," by a Kashmirian poet named cilhana; the Moha-mudgara, or "Hammer of Folly," a short poem commending the relinquishment of worldly desires, and wrongly attributed to cankaracharya; and the Chanakya-cataka, the "Centuries of Chanakya," the reputed author of which was famous in India as a master of diplomacy, and is the leading character in the political drama Mudra-rakshasa. The Niti-manjari, or "Cl.u.s.ter of Blossoms of Conduct," which has not yet been published, is a collection of a peculiar kind. The moral maxims which it contains are ill.u.s.trated by stories, and these are taken exclusively from the Rigveda. It consists of about 200 clokas, and was composed by an author named Dya Dviveda who accompanied his work with a commentary. In the latter he quotes largely from the Brihddevata, Sayana on the Rigveda, and other authors.

There are also some modern anthologies of Sanskrit gnomic poetry. One of these is cridharadasa's Sadukti-karnamrita, or "Ear-nectar of Good Maxims," containing quotations from 446 poets, mostly of Bengal, and compiled in 1205 A.D. The carngadhara-paddhati, or "Anthology of carngadhara," dating from the fourteenth century, comprises about 6000 stanzas culled from 264 authors. The Subhas.h.i.tavali, or "Series of Fine Sayings," compiled by Vallabhadeva, contains some 3500 stanzas taken from about 350 poets. All that is best in Sanskrit sententious poetry has been collected by Dr. Bohtlingk, the Nestor of Indianists, in his Indische Spruche. This work contains the text, critically edited and accompanied by a prose German translation, of nearly 8000 stanzas, which are culled from the whole field of cla.s.sical Sanskrit literature and arranged according to the alphabetical order of the initial word.

Though composed in Pali, the Dhammapada may perhaps be mentioned here. It is a collection of aphorisms representing the most beautiful, profound, and poetical thoughts in Buddhist literature.

The keynote prevailing in all this poetry is the doctrine of the vanity of human life, which was developed before the rise of Buddhism in the sixth century B.C., and has dominated Indian thought ever since. There is no true happiness, we are here taught, but in the abandonment of desire and retirement from the world. The poet sees the luxuriant beauties of nature spread before his eyes, and feels their charm; but he turns from them sad and disappointed to seek mental calm and lasting happiness in the solitude of the forest. Hence the picture of a pious anchorite living in contemplation is often painted with enthusiasm. Free from all desires, he is as happy as a king, when the earth is his couch, his arms his pillow, the sky his tent, the moon his lamp, when renunciation is his spouse, and the cardinal points are the maidens that fan him with winds. No Indian poet inculcates renunciation more forcibly than Bhartrihari; the humorous and ironical touches which he occasionally introduces are doubtless due to the character of this remarkable man, who wavered between the spiritual and the worldly life throughout his career.

Renunciation is not, however, the only goal to which the transitoriness of worldly goods leads the gnomic poets of India. The necessity of pursuing virtue is the practical lesson which they also draw from the vanity of mundane existence, and which finds expression in many n.o.ble admonitions:--

Transient indeed is human life, Like the moon's disc in waters seen: Knowing how true this is, a man Should ever practise what is good (Hit. iv. 133).

It is often said that when a man dies and leaves all his loved ones behind, his good works alone can accompany him on his journey to his next life. Nor should sin ever be committed in this life when there is none to see, for it is always witnessed by the "old hermit dwelling in the heart," as the conscience is picturesquely called.

That spirit of universal tolerance and love of mankind which enabled Buddhism to overstep the bounds not only of caste but of nationality, and thus to become the earliest world-religion, breathes throughout this poetry. Even the Mahabharata, though a work of the Brahmans, contains such liberal sentiments as this:--

Men of high rank win no esteem If lacking in good qualities; A cudra even deserves respect Who knows and does his duty well (xiii. 2610).

The following stanza shows how cosmopolitan Bhartrihari was in his views:--

"This man's our own, a stranger that": Thus narrow-minded people think.

However, n.o.ble-minded men Regard the whole world as their kin.

But these poets go even beyond the limits of humanity and inculcate sympathy with the joys and sorrows of all creatures:--

To harm no living thing in deed, In thought or word, to exercise Benevolence and charity: Virtue's eternal law is this (Mahabh. xii. 5997).

Gentleness and forbearance towards good and bad alike are thus recommended in the Hitopadeca:--

Even to beings dest.i.tute Of virtue good men pity show: The moon does not her light withdraw Even from the pariah's abode (i. 63).

The Panchatantra, again, dissuades thus from thoughts of revenge:--

Devise no ill at any time To injure those that do thee harm: They of themselves will some day fall, Like trees that grow on river banks.

The good qualities of the virtuous are often described and contrasted with the characteristics of evil-doers. This, for instance, is how Bhartrihari ill.u.s.trates the humility of the benevolent:--

The trees bend downward with the burden of their fruit, The clouds bow low, heavy with waters they will shed: The n.o.ble hold not high their heads through pride of wealth; Thus those behave who are on others' good intent (i. 71).

Many fine thoughts about true friendship and the value of intercourse with good men are found here, often exemplified in a truly poetical spirit. This, for instance, is from the Panchatantra:--

Who is not made a better man By contact with a n.o.ble friend?

A water-drop on lotus-leaves a.s.sumes the splendour of a pearl (iii. 61).

It is perhaps natural that poetry with a strong pessimistic colouring should contain many bitter sayings about women and their character. Here is an example of how they are often described:--

The love of women but a moment lasts.

Like colours of the dawn or evening red; Their aims are crooked like a river's course; Inconstant are they as the lightning flash; Like serpents, they deserve no confidence (Kathas. x.x.xvii. 143).

At the same time there are several pa.s.sages in which female character is represented in a more favourable light, and others sing the praise of faithful wives.

Here, too, we meet with many pithy sayings about the misery of poverty and the degradation of servitude; while the power of money to invest the worthless man with the appearance of every talent and virtue is described with bitter irony and scathing sarcasm.

As might be expected, true knowledge receives frequent and high appreciation in Sanskrit ethical poetry. It is compared with a rich treasure which cannot be divided among relations, which no thief can steal, and which is never diminished by being imparted to others. Contempt, on the other hand, is poured on pedantry and spurious learning. Those who have read many books, without understanding their sense, are likened to an a.s.s laden with sandal wood, who feels only the weight, but knows nothing of the value of his burden.

As the belief in transmigration has cast its shadow over Indian thought from pre-Buddhistic times, it is only natural that the conception of fate should be prominent in Sanskrit moral poetry. Here, indeed, we often read that no one can escape from the operation of destiny, but at the same time we find constant admonitions not to let this fact paralyse human effort. For, as is shown in the Hitopadeca and elsewhere, fate is nothing else than the result of action done in a former birth. Hence every man can by right conduct shape his future fate, just as a potter can mould a lump of clay into whatever form he desires. Human action is thus a necessary complement to fate; the latter cannot proceed without the former any more than a cart, as the Hitopadeca expresses it, can move with only one wheel. This doctrine is inculcated with many apt ill.u.s.trations. Thus in one stanza of the Hitopadeca it is pointed out that "antelopes do not enter into the mouth of the sleeping lion"; in another the question is asked, "Who without work could obtain oil from sesamum seeds?" Or, as the Mahabharata once puts it, fate without human action cannot be fulfilled, just as seed sown outside the field bears no fruit.

For those who are suffering from the a.s.saults of adverse fate there are many exhortations to firmness and constancy. The following is a stanza of this kind from the Panchatantra:--

In fortune and calamity The great ever remain the same: The sun is at its rising red, Red also when about to set.

Collected in the ethico-didactic works which have been described in this chapter, and scattered throughout the rest of the literature, the notions held by the Brahmans in the sphere of moral philosophy have never received a methodical treatment, as in the Pali literature of Buddhism. In the orthodox systems of Hindu philosophy, to which we now turn, they find no place.

CHAPTER XV

PHILOSOPHY

The beginnings of Indian philosophy, which are to be found in the latest hymns of the Rigveda and in the Atharvaveda, are concerned with speculations on the origin of the world and on the eternal principle by which it is created and maintained. The Yajurveda further contains fantastic cosmogonic legends describing how the Creator produces all things by means of the omnipotent sacrifice. With these Vedic ideas are intimately connected, and indeed largely identical, those of the earlier Upanishads. This philosophy is essentially pantheistic and idealistic. By the side of it grew up an atheistic and empirical school of thought, which in the sixth century B.C. furnished the foundation of the two great unorthodox religious systems of Buddhism and Jainism.

The Upanishad philosophy is in a chaotic condition, but the speculations of this and of other schools of thought were gradually reduced to order and systematised in manuals from about the first century of our era onwards. Altogether nine systems may be distinguished, some of which must in their origin go back to the beginning of the sixth century B.C. at least. Of the six systems which are accounted orthodox no less than four were originally atheistic, and one remained so throughout. The strangeness of this fact disappears when we reflect that the only conditions of orthodoxy in India were the recognition of the cla.s.s privileges of the Brahman caste and a nominal acknowledgment of the infallibility of the Veda, neither full agreement with Vedic doctrines nor the confession of a belief in the existence of G.o.d being required. With these two limitations the utmost freedom of thought prevailed in Brahmanism. Hence the boldest philosophical speculation and conformity with the popular religion went hand and hand, to a degree which has never been equalled in any other country. Of the orthodox systems, by far the most important are the pantheistic Vedanta, which, as continuing the doctrines of the Upanishads, has been the dominant philosophy of Brahmanism since the end of the Vedic period, and the atheistic Sankhya, which, for the first time in the history of the world, a.s.serted the complete independence of the human mind and attempted to solve its problems solely by the aid of reason.

On the Sankhya were based the two heterodox religious systems of Buddhism and Jainism, which denied the authority of the Veda, and opposed the Brahman caste system and ceremonial. Still more heterodox was the Materialist philosophy of Charvaka, which went further and denied even the fundamental doctrines common to all other schools of Indian thought, orthodox and unorthodox, the belief in transmigration dependent on retribution, and the belief in salvation or release from transmigration.