The Religions of India Part 2

[Footnote 9: _Principles of Sociology_, I. P.448 (Appleton, 1882).]

[Footnote 10: Ib. p. 398.]

[Footnote 11: Ib. p. 427.]

[Footnote 12: Ib. p. 824.]

[Footnote 13: Ib.]

[Footnote 14: Ib. p. 821.]

[Footnote 15: Compare Muir, _Original Sanskrit Texts_, V. p.

412 ff., where are given the opinions of Pfleiderer, Pictet, Roth, Scherer, and others.]

[Footnote 16: ZDMG., vi. 77: "Ein alter gemeinsam arischer [indo-iranic], ja vielleicht gemeinsam indo-germanischer oberster Gott, Varuna-Ormuzd-Uranos."]

[Footnote 17: In his _Science of Language_, Muller speaks of the early poets who "strove in their childish way to pierce beyond the limits of this finite world." Approvingly cited, SBE. x.x.xii. p. 243 (1891).]

[Footnote 18: The over view may be seen in Muller's _Lecture on the Vedas_ (Chips, I. p. 9): "A collection made for its own sake, and not for the sake of any sacrificial performance." For Pischel's view compare _Vedische Studien_, I. Preface.]

[Footnote 19: Bloomfield, JAOS xv. p. 144.]

[Footnote 20: Compare Barth (Preface): "A literature preeminently sacerdotal.... The poetry ... of a singularly refined character, ... full of ... pretensions to mysticism," etc.]

[Footnote 21: _Iran und Turan_, 1889; _Vom Pontus bis zum Indus_, 1890; _Vom Aral bis zur Gang[=a]_ 1892.]

[Footnote 22: Or "all-possessing" [Whitney]. The metre of the translation retains the number of feet in the original.

Four [later added] stanzas are here omitted.]

[Footnote 23: So P.W. possibly "by reason of [the sun's]

rays"; _i.e._, the stars fear the sun as thieves fear light.

For 'Heaven,' here and below, see the third chapter.]

[Footnote 24: Yoked only by him; literally "self-yoked."

Seven is used in the Rig Veda in the general sense of "many," as in Shakespeare's "a vile thief this seven years."]

[Footnote 25: _jet[=a]ram [=a]par[=a]jitam_.]

[Footnote 26: The rain, see next note.]

[Footnote 27: After this stanza two interpolated stanzas are here omitted. Gra.s.sman and Ludwig give the epithet "fearless" to the G.o.ds and to Vala, respectively. But compare I.6.7, where the same word is used of Indra. For the oft-mentioned act of cleaving the cave, where the dragon Val or Vritra (the restrainer or envelopper) had coralled the kine(i.e. without metaphor, for the act of freeing the clouds and letting loose the rain), compare I.32.2, where of Indra it is said: "He slew the snake that lay upon the mountains ... like bellowing kine the waters, swiftly flowing, descended to the sea"; and verse 11: "Watched by the snake the waters stood ... the waters' covered cave he opened wide, what time he Vritra slew."]

[Footnote 28: Aryan, Sanskrit _arya, arya_, Avestan _airya_, appears to mean the loyal or the good, and may be the original national designation, just as the Medes were long called [Greek: _Arioi_]. In late Sanskrit _[=a]rya_ is simply 'n.o.ble.' The word survives, perhaps, in [Greek: _aristos_], and is found in proper names, Persian Ariobarzanes, Teutonic Ariovistus; as well as in the names of people and countries, Vedic [=A]ryas, [=I]ran, Iranian; (doubtful) Airem, Erin, Ireland. Compare Zimmer, BB. iii. p.

137; Kaegi, _Der Rig Veda_, p. 144 (Arrowsmith's translation, p. 109). In the Rig Veda there is a G.o.d Aryaman, 'the true,' who forms with Mitra and Varuna a triad (see below). Windisch questions the propriety of identifying [=I]ran with Erin, and Schrader (p. 584^2) doubts whether the Indo-Europeans as a body ever called themselves Aryans.

We employ the latter name because it is short.]

CHAPTER II.

PEOPLE AND LAND.

The Aryan Hindus, whose religions we describe in this volume[1], formed one of the Aryan or so-called Indo-European peoples. To the other peoples of this stock, Persians, Armenians, Greeks, Italians, Kelts, Teutons, Slavs, the Hindus were related closely by language, but very remotely from the point of view of their primitive religion.

Into India the Aryans brought little that was retained in their religious systems. A few waning G.o.ds, the worship of ancestors, and some simple rites are common to them and their western relations; but with the exception of the Iranians (Persians), their religious connection with cis-Indic peoples is of the slightest. With the Iranians, the Hindus (that were to be) appear to have lived longest in common after the other members of the Aryan host were dispersed to west and south[2]. They stand in closer religious touch with these, their nearest neighbors, and in the time of the Rig Veda (the Hindus'

earliest literature) there are traces of a connection comparatively recent between the pantheons of the two nations.

According to their own, rather uncertain, testimony, the Aryans of the Rig Veda appear to have consisted of five tribal groups[3]. These groups, _janas_, Latin gens, are subdivided into _vicas_, Latin vicus, and these, again, into _gr[=a]mas_. The names, however, are not employed with strictness, and _jana_, etymologically gens but politically tribus, sometimes is used as a synonym of _gr[=a]ma_.[4]

Of the ten books of the Rig-Veda seven are ascribed to various priestly families. In the main, these books are rituals of song as inculcated for the same rites by different family priests and their descendants. Besides these there are books which are ascribed to no family, and consist, in part, of more general material. The distinction of priestly family-books was one, possibly, coextensive with political demarcation. Each of the family-books represents a priestly family, but it may represent, also, a political family. In at least one case it represents a political body.[5]

These great political groups, which, perhaps, are represented by family rituals, were essentially alike in language, custom and religion (although minor ritualistic differences probably obtained, as well as tribal preference for particular cults); while in all these respects, as well as in color and other racial peculiarities, the Aryans were distinguished from the dark-skinned aborigines, with whom, until the end of the Rig Vedic period, they were perpetually at war.

At the close of this period the immigrant Aryans had reduced to slavery many of their unbelieving and barbarian enemies, and formally incorporated them into the state organization, where, as captives, slaves, or sons of slaves, the latter formed the "fourth caste." But while admitting these slaves into the body politic, the priestly Aryans debarred them from the religious congregation. Between the Aryans themselves there is in this period a loosely defined distinction of cla.s.ses, but no system of caste is known before the close of the first Vedic Collection. Nevertheless, the emphasis in this statement lies strongly upon system, and it may not be quite idle to say at the outset that the general caste-distinctions not only are as old as the Indo-Iranian unity (among the Persians the same division of priest, warrior and husbandman obtains), but, in all probability, they are much older. For so long as there is a cult, even if it be of spirits and devils, there are priests; and if there are chieftains there is a n.o.bility, such as one finds among the Teutons, nay, even among the American Indians, where also is known the inevitable division into priests, chiefs and commons, sometimes hereditary, sometimes not. There must have been, then, from the beginning of kingship and religious service, a division among the Aryans into royalty, priests, and people, i.e., whoever were not acting as priests or chieftains. When the people becomes agricultural, the difference tends to become permanent, and a caste system begins. Now, the Vedic Aryans appear in history at just the period when they are on the move southwards into India; but they are no irrupting host. The battles led the warriors on, but the folk, as a folk, moved slowly, not all abandoning the country which they had gained, but settling there, and sending onwards only a part of the people. There was no fixed line of demarcation between the cla.s.ses. The king or another might act as his own priest--yet were there priestly families. The cow-boys might fight--yet were there those of the people that were especially 'kingsmen,' _r[=a]janyas_, and these were, already, practically a cla.s.s, if not a caste[6]. These natural and necessary social divisions, which in early times were anything but rigid, soon formed inviolable groups, and then the caste system was complete. In the perfected legal scheme what was usage becomes duty. The warrior may not be a public priest; the priest may not serve as warrior or husbandman. The farmer 'people' were the result of eliminating first the priestly, and then the fighting factors from the whole body politic. But these castes were all Aryans, and as such distinguished most sharply, from a religious point of view, from the "fourth caste"; whereas among themselves they were, in religion, equals. But they were practically divided by interests that strongly affected the development of their original litanies. For both priest and warrior looked down on the 'people,' but priest and warrior feared and respected each other. To these the third estate was necessary as a base of supplies, and together they guarded it from foes divine and mortal. But to each other they were necessary for wealth and glory, respectively. So it was that even in the earliest period the religious litany, to a great extent, is the book of worship of a warrior-cla.s.s as prepared for it by the priest. Priest and king--these are the main factors in the making of the hymns of the Rig Veda, and the G.o.ds lauded are chiefly the G.o.ds patronized by these cla.s.ses. The third estate had its favorite G.o.ds, but these were little regarded, and were in a state of decadence. The slaves, too, may have had their own G.o.ds, but of these nothing is known, and one can only surmise that here and there in certain traits, which seem to be un-Aryan, may lie an unacknowledged loan from the aborigines.

Between the Rig Veda and the formation or completion of the next Veda, called the Atharvan, the interval appears to have been considerable, and the inherent value of the religion inculcated in the latter can be estimated aright only when this is weighed together with the fact, that, as is learned from the Atharvan's own statements, the Aryans were now advanced further southwards and eastwards, had discovered a new land, made new G.o.ds, and were now more permanently established, the last a factor of some moment in the religious development.

Indications of the difference in time may be seen in the geographical and physical limitations of the older period as compared with those of the later Atharvan. When first the Aryans are found in India, at the time of the Rig Veda, they are located, for the most part, near the Upper Indus (Sindhu). The Ganges, mentioned but twice, is barely known. On the west the Aryans lingered in East Kabulistan (possibly in Kashmeer in the north); and even Kandahar appears, at least, to be known as Aryan. That is to say, the 'Hindus' were still in Afghanistan, although the greater ma.s.s of the people had already crossed the Indus and were progressed some distance to the east of the Punj[=a]b. That the race was still migrating may be seen from the hymns of the Rig Veda itself.[7] Their journey was to the south-east, and both before and after they reached the Indus they left settlements, chiefly about the Indus and in the Punj[=a]b (a post-Vedic group), not in the southern but in the northern part of this district.[8]

The Vedic Aryans of this first period were acquainted with the Indus, Sutlej (cutudri), Beas (Vip[=a]c, [Greek: Yphtsis]), Ravi (Parushni or Ir[=a]vat[=i]); the pair of rivers that unite and flow into the Indus, viz.: Jhelum (Vitast[=a], Behat), and Chin[=a]b (Asikni,[9] Akesines); and knew the remoter Kubh[=a] ([Greek: Kophhen], Kabul) and the northern Suv[=a]stu (Swat); while they appear to have had a legendary remembrance of the Ras[=a], Avestan Ra[.n]ha (Rangha), supposed by some to be identical with the Araxes or Yaxartes, but probably (see below) only a vague 'stream,' the old name travelling with them on their wanderings; for one would err if he regarded similarity or even ident.i.ty of appellation as a proof of real ident.i.ty.[10] West of the Indus the Kurum and Gomal appear to be known also. Many rivers are mentioned of which the names are given, but their location is not established. It is from the district west of the Indus that the most famous Sanskrit grammarian comes, and long after the Vedas an Indic people are known in the Kandahar district, while Kashmeer was a late home of culture. The Sarasvati river, the name of which is transferred at least once in historical times, may have been originally one with the Arghand[=a]b (on which is Kandahar), for the Persian name of this river (_s_ becomes _h_) is Harahvati (Arachotos, Arachosia), and it is possible that it was really this river, and not the Indus which was first lauded as the Sarasvat[=i]. In that case there would be a perfect parallel to what has probably happened in the case of the Ras[=a], the name--in both cases meaning only 'the stream' (like Rhine, Arno, etc.)--being transferred to a new river. But since the Iranian Harahvati fixes the first river of this name, there is here a stronger proof of Indo-Iranian community than is furnished by other examples.[11]

These facts or suggestive parallels of names are of exceeding importance. They indicate between the Vedic Aryans and the Iranians a connection much closer than usually has been a.s.sumed. The bearings of such a connection on the religious ideas of the two peoples are self-evident, and will often have to be touched upon in the course of this history. It is of less importance, from the present point of view, to say how the Aryans entered India, but since this question is also connected with that of the religious environment of the first Hindu poets, it will be well to state that, although, as some scholars maintain, and as we believe, the Hindus may have come with the Iranians through the open pa.s.s of Herat (Haraiva, Haroyu), it is possible that they parted from the latter south of the Hindukush[12]

(descending through the Kohistan pa.s.ses from the north), and that the two peoples thence diverged south-east and south-west respectively.

Neither a.s.sumption would prevent the country lying between the Harahvati and Vitast[=a][13] from being, for generations, a common camping-ground for both peoples, who were united still, but gradually diverging. This seems, at least, to be the most reasonable explanation of the fact that these two rivers are to each people their farthest known western and eastern limits respectively. With the exception of the vague and uncertain Ras[=a], the Vedic Hindu's geographical knowledge is limited by Kandahar in the west, as is the Iranian's in the east by the Vitast[=a].[14] North of the Vitast[=a] Mount Tricota (Trikakud, 'three peaks') is venerated, and this together with a Mount M[=u]javat, of which the situation is probably in the north, is the extent of modern knowledge in respect of the natural boundaries of the Vedic people. One hears, to be sure, at a later time, of 'northern Kurus,' whose felicity is proverbial; and it is very tempting to find in this name a connection with the Iranian Kur, but the Kurus, like the Ras[=a] and Sarasvat[=i], are re-located once (near Delhi), and no similarity of name can a.s.sure one of a true connection. If not coincidences, such likenesses are too vague to be valuable historically.[15]

Another much disputed point must be spoken of in connection with this subject. In the Veda and in the Avesta there is mentioned the land of the 'seven rivers.' Now seven rivers are often spoken of in the Rig Veda, but only once does this term mean the country, while in the 'Hymn to the Rivers' no less than twenty-one streams are enumerated (RV. X. 75). In order to make out the 'seven rivers' scholars have made different combinations, that most in favor being Muller's, the five rivers of the Punj[=a]b together with the Kabul and (Swat or) Sarasvat[=i]. But in point of fact 'seven' quite as often means many, as it does an exact number, and this, the older use, may well be applied here. It is quite impossible to identify the seven, and it is probable that no Vedic poet ever imagined them to be a group of this precise number. It would be far easier to select a group of seven conspicuous rivers, if anywhere, on the west of the Indus. A very natural group from the Iranian side would be the Her[=i]r[=u]d, Hilmund, Arghand[=a]b, Kurum, Kabul, Indus, and Vitast[=a]. Against this, however, can be urged that the term 'seven rivers' may be Bactrian, older than the Vedic period; and that, in particular, the Avesta distinguishes Vaikerta, Urva, and other districts from the 'seven rivers.' It is best to remain uncertain in so doubtful a matter, bearing in mind that even Kurukshetra, the 'holy land,' is said to-day to be watered by 'seven streams,' although some say nine; apropos of which fact Cunningham remarks, giving modern examples, that "the Hindus invariably a.s.sign seven branches to all their rivers."[16]

Within the Punj[=a]b, the Vedic Aryans, now at last really 'Hindus,'

having extended themselves to the cutudri (catadru, Sutlej), a formidable barrier, and eventually having crossed even this, the last tributary's of the Indus, descended to the jumna (Yamun[=a]), over the little stream called 'the Rocky' (Drishadvat[=i]) and the lesser Sarasvat[=i], southeast from Lah.o.r.e and near Delhi, in the region Kurukshetra, afterwards famed as the seat of the great epic war, and always regarded as holy in the highest degree.

Not till the time of the Atharva Veda do the Aryans appear as far east as Benares (V[=a]r[=a]nas[=i], on the 'Varan[=a]vat[=i]'), though the Sarayu is mentioned in the Rik. But this scarcely is the tributary of the Ganges, Gogra, for the name seems to refer to a more western stream, since it is a.s.sociated with the Gomat[=i] (Gomal). One may surmise that in the time of the Rig Veda the Aryans knew only by name the country east of Lucknow. It is in the Punj[=a]b and a little to the west and east of it (how far it is impossible to state with accuracy) where lies the real theatre of activity of the Rig Vedic people.

Some scholars believe that this people had already heard of the two oceans. This point again is doubtful in the extreme. No descriptions imply a knowledge of ocean, and the word for ocean means merely a 'confluence' of waters, or in general a great oceanic body of water like the air. As the Indus is too wide to be seen across, the name may apply in most cases to this river. An allusion to 'eastern and western floods,'[17] which is held by some to be conclusive evidence for a knowledge of the two seas, is taken by others to apply to the air-oceans. The expression may apply simply to rivers, for it is said that the Vip[=a]c and cutudr[=i] empty into the 'ocean', i.e., the Indus or the cutudr[=i]'s continuation.[18] One late verse alone speaks of the Sarasvat[=i] pouring into the ocean, and this would indicate the Arabian Sea.[19] Whether the Bay of Bengal was known, even by hearsay and in the latest time of this period, remains uncertain. As a body the Aryans of the Rig Veda were certainly not acquainted with either ocean. Some straggling adventurers probably pushed down the Indus, but Zimmer doubtless is correct in a.s.serting that the popular emigration did not extend further south than the junction of the Indus and the Pa[=n]canada (the united five rivers).[20] The extreme south-eastern geographical limit of the Rig Vedic people may be reckoned (not, however, in Oldenberg's opinion, with any great certainty) as being in Northern Beh[=a]r (M[=a]gadha).

The great desert, Marusthala, formed an impa.s.sable southern obstacle for the first immigrants.[21]

On the other hand, the two oceans are well known to the Atharva Veda, while the geographical (and hence chronological) difference between the Rik and the Atharvan is furthermore ill.u.s.trated by the following facts: in the Rig Veda wolf and lion are the most formidable beasts; the tiger is unknown and the elephant seldom alluded to; while in the Atharvan the tiger has taken the lion's place and the elephant is a more familiar figure. Now the tiger has his domicile in the swampy land about Benares, to which point is come the Atharvan Aryan, but not the Rig Vedic people. Here too, in the Atharvan, the panther is first mentioned, and for the first time silver and iron are certainly referred to. In the Rig Veda the metals are bronze and gold, silver and iron being unknown.[22] Not less significant are the trees. The ficus religiosa, the tree later called the 'tree of the G.o.ds'

(_deva-sadana, acvattha_), under which are fabled to sit the divinities in heaven, is scarcely known in the Rig Veda, but is well known in the Atharvan; while India's grandest tree, the _nyagrodha_, ficus indica, is known to the Atharvan and Brahmanic period, but is utterly foreign to the Rig Veda. Zimmer deems it no less significant that fishes are spoken of in the Atharvan and are mentioned only once in the Rig Veda, but this may indicate a geographical difference less than one of custom. In only one doubtful pa.s.sage is the north-east monsoon alluded to. The storm so vividly described in the Rig Veda is the south-west monsoon which is felt in the northern Punj[=a]b. The north-east monsoon is felt to the southeast of the Punj[=a]b, possibly another indication of geographical extension, withal within the limits of the Rig Veda itself.

The seat of culture shifts in the Brahmanic period, which follows that of the Vedic poems, and is found partly in the 'holy land' of the west, and partly in the east (Beh[=a]r, Tirhut).[23] The literature of this period comes from Aryans that have pa.s.sed out of the Punj[=a]b.

Probably, as we have said, settlements were left all along the line of progress. Even before the wider knowledge of the post-Alexandrine imperial age (at which time there was a north-western military retrogression), and, from the Vedic point of view, as late as the end of the Brahmanic period, in the time of the Upanishads, the northwest seems still to have been familiarly known.[24]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: We take this opportunity of stating that by the religions of the Aryan Hindus we mean the religions of a people who, undoubtedly, were full-blooded Aryans at first, however much their blood may have been diluted later by un-Aryan admixture. Till the time of Buddhism the religious literature is fairly Aryan. In the period of "Hinduism"

neither people nor religion can claim to be quite Aryan.]