The Religions of India Part 38

Hast thou not worshipped with salutation and honored the priests, G.o.ds, and manes? Hast thou not made horse-sacrifices, the _r[=a]jas[=u]ya_-sacrifice, sacrifices of every sort (_pu[n.][d.]arika,[84] gosava_)? Yet art thou in this miserable plight! Verily is it an old story (_itih[=a]sa_) that 'the worlds stand under the Lord's will.' Following the seed G.o.d gives good or ill in the case of all beings. Men are all moved by the divinity. Like a wooden doll, moving its limbs in the hands of a man, so do all creatures move in the Creator's hands. Man is like a bird on a string, like a bead on a cord. As a bull is led by the nose, so man follows the will of the Creator; he never is a creature of free will (_[=a]tm[=a]dhina_). Every man goes to heaven or to h.e.l.l, as he is sent by the Lord's will. G.o.d himself, occupied with n.o.ble or with wicked acts, moves about among all created things, an unknown power (not known as 'this one'). The blessed G.o.d, who is self-created, the great forefather (_prapit[=a]maha_), plays with his creatures just as a boy plays with toys, putting them together and destroying them as he chooses. Not like a father is G.o.d to His creatures; He acts in anger.

When I see the good distressed, the ign.o.ble happy, I blame the Creator who permits this inequality. What reward does G.o.d get that he sends happiness to this sinful man (thy oppressor)? If it be true that only the individual that does the act is pursued by the fruit of that act (_karma_ doctrine) then the Lord who has done this act is defiled by this base act of His. If, on the other hand, the act that one has done does not pursue and overtake the one that has done it, then the only agency on earth is brute force (this is the only power to be respected)--and I grieve for them that are without it!"

To this plea, which in its acknowledgment of the Creator as the highest G.o.d, no less than in its doubtful admission of the _karma_ doctrine, is of peculiar interest, the king replies with a refutation no less worthy of regard: "Thy argument is good, clear and smooth, but it is heterodox (_n[=a]stikyam_). I have sacrificed and practiced virtue not for the sake of reward, but because it was right. I give what I ought to give, and sacrifice as I should. That is my only idea in connection with religious observances. There is no virtue in trying to milk virtue. Do not doubt. Do not be suspicious of virtue. He that doubts G.o.d or duty goes to h.e.l.l (confusion), but he that does his duty and is free from doubt goes to heaven (becomes immortal). Doubt not scriptural authority. Duty is the saving ship. No other gets to heaven. Blame not the Lord Creator, who is the highest G.o.d. Through His grace the faithful gets immortality. If religious observances were without fruit the universe would go to destruction. People would not have been good for so many ages if there had been no reward for it.

This is a mystery of the G.o.ds. The G.o.ds are full of mystery and illusion."

The queen, for all the world like that wise woman in the Upanishads, whose argument, as we showed in a preceding chapter, is cut short not by counter-argument, but by the threat that if she ask too much her head will fall off, recants her errors at this rebuke, and in the following section, which evidently is a later addition, takes back what she has said. Her new expression of belief she cites as the opinion of Brihaspati (32. 61, 62); but this is applicable rather to her first creed of doubt. Perhaps in the original version this authority was cited at the end of the first speech, and with the interpolation the reference is made to apply to this seer. Something like the queen's remarks is the doubtful saying of the king himself, as quoted elsewhere (III. 273. 6): "Time and fate, and what will be, this is the only Lord. How else could this distress have come upon my wife? For she has been virtuous always."

We turn now to the great sectarian G.o.ds, who eventually unite with Brahm[=a] to form a pantheistic trinity, a conception which, as we shall show, is not older than the fifth or sixth century after Christ.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: The rival heresies seem also to belong to the East. There were thus more than half a dozen heretical bodies of importance agitating the region about Benares at the same time. Subsequently the Jains, who, as we have shown, were less estranged from Brahmanism, drifted westward, while the Buddhist stronghold remained in the East (both, of course, being represented in the South as well), and so, whereas Buddhism eventually retreated to Nep[=a]l and Tibet, the Jains are found in the very centres of old and new (sectarian) Brahmanism, Delhi, Mathur[=a], Jeypur, [=A]jm[=i]r.]

[Footnote 2: 'The wandering of R[=a]ma,' who is the sectarian representative of Vishnu.]

[Footnote 3: The 'Bh[=a]rata (tale)', sometimes called Mah[=a]-Bh[=a]rata, or Great Bh[=a]rata. The Vishnuite sectarianism here advocated is that of Krishna. But there is as much civaism in the poem as there is Vishnuism.]

[Footnote 4: Dramatic and lyric poetry is artificial even in language.]

[Footnote 5: Schroeder, p. 453, compares the mutual relation of the Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata and R[=a]m[=a]yana to that of the Nibelungenlied and the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach.

Jacobi, in his 'R[=a]m[=a]yana,' has lately claimed a considerable antiquity for the foundation legends of the R[=a]m[=a]yana, but he does not disprove the late completed form.]

[Footnote 6: i. 78. 10; see Buhler's Introduction.]

[Footnote 7: Jacobi seeks to put the completed nucleus at the time of the Christian era, but it must have been quite a large nucleus in view of the allusions to it in precedent literature. Holtztmann puts the completion at about 1000 A.D.; but in 700 A.D., it was complete, and most scholars will agree with Buhler that the present Mah[=a]-Bh[=a]rata was completed by the sixth or seventh century. In 533 A.D.

it contained 100,000 distichs, that is, it was about the size it is now.]

[Footnote 8: By the time the drama began the epic was become a religious storehouse, and the actual epic story represented not a fifth of the whole work, so that, with its simple language, it must have seemed, as a literary production, very wearisome to the minds that delighted in the artificial compounds and romantic episodes of the drama and lyric. But even to-day it is recited at great fetes, and listened to with rapt attention, as the rhapsodes with more or less dramatic power recite its holy verses.]

[Footnote 9: The later law-books say expressly that women and slaves have a right to use _mantra, mantr[=a]dhik[=a]ri[n.]as._ But the later legal Smritis are no more than disguised sectarian Pur[=a]nas.]

[Footnote 10: Compare the visit of the old Muni on the prince in iii. 262. 8. He is _paramakopana_, 'extremely irritable'; calls for food only to reject it; growls at the service, etc. Everything must be done 'quickly' for him. "I am hungry, give me food, _quick_," is his way of speaking, etc. (12). The adjective is one applied to the All-G.o.ds, _paramakrodhinas._]

[Footnote 11: Each spiritual teacher instructed high-caste boys, in cla.s.ses of four or five at most. In xii. 328. 41 the four students of a priest go on a strike because the latter wants to take another pupil besides themselves and his own son.]

[Footnote 12: The saints in the sky praise the combatants (vii. 188. 41; viii. 15. 27); and the G.o.ds roar approval of prowess "with roars like a lion's" (viii. 15. 33). Indra and S[=u]rya and the Apsarasas cool off the heroes with heavenly fans (_ib_. 90. 18). For the last divinities, see Holtzmann's essays, ZDMG. x.x.xii. 290; x.x.xiii. 631.]

[Footnote 13: The original author of the Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata is reputed to be of low caste, but the writers of the text as it is to-day were sectarian priests. It was written down, it is said, by Ganeca, 'lord of the troops' of civa, i. 1.

79, and some historic truth lies in the tale. The priests of civa were the last to retouch the poem, as we think.]

[Footnote 14: Agni-worship is partly affected by the doctrine that the Samvartaka fire (which destroys the world at the cycle's end) is a form of Vishnu. In Stambamitra's hymn it is said: "Thou, O Agni, art the all, in thee rests the universe ... Sages know thee as single yet manifold. At the expiration of time thou burnest up the three worlds, after having created them. Thou art the originator and support of all beings" (i. 232. 12). Elsewhere more Vedic epithets are given, such as 'mouth of the G.o.ds' (ii. 31.

42), though here 'the Vedas are produced for Agni's sake.'

In this same prayer one reads, 'may Agni give me energy; wind, give me breath; earth, give me strength; and water, give me health' (45). Agni, as well as civa, is the father of k.u.m[=a]ra K[=a]rtikeya, _i.e_., Skanda (_ib_. 44).]

[Footnote 15: But the Acvins are c[=u]dras In the 'cast-hood of G.o.ds' (the caste-order being Angirasas, [=A]dityas, Maruts and Acvins), xii. 208. 23-25; and Indra in one pa.s.sage refuses to a.s.sociate with them, xiii. 157. 17 (cited by Holtzmann, ZDMG. x.x.xii. 321).]

[Footnote 16: Manibhadra, in iii. 64, is king of Yaksash; he is the same with Kubera, _ib_. ch. 41 (V[=a]icinavana).]

[Footnote 17: In the Cosmogony the G.o.ds are the sons of the Manes, xii. 312. 9.]

[Footnote 18: When the G.o.ds churn the ocean to get ambrosia, an ancient tale of the epic, Mandara is the twirling-stick.

It is situated in modern Beh[=a]r, near Bhagalpur.]

[Footnote 19: III. 42; 139. 14, where the Ganges and Jumna are invoked together with the Vedic G.o.ds. So in III. 104 (Vindhya); and Damayanti prays to mountains. Mt. Meru is described in III. 163. 14 (compare I. 17. 5 ff.). In I. 18.

1 ff., is related the churning of the ocean, where Indra (vs. 12) places Mt. Mandara on Vishnu, the tortoise.]

[Footnote 20: Mbh. I. 30. 37, _mamlur m[=a]ly[=a]ni dev[=a]n[=a]m_, etc. The older belief was that the G.o.ds'

garlands never withered; for the G.o.ds show no mortal signs, cast no shadows, etc.]

[Footnote 21: Compare the four hymnlets to Agni in i. 232. 7 ff.]

[Footnote 22: After the mention of the thirty-three G.o.ds, and Vishnu 'born after them,' it is said that the Acvins, plants, and animals, are Guhyakas (vs. 40), though in vs.

35: "Tvashtar's daughter, the wife of Savitar, as a mare (_va[d.]av[=a]_) bore in air the two Acvins" (see above), in Vedic style. For cruti compare iii. 207. 47; 208. 6, 11.]

[Footnote 23: i. 23. 15 ff. His name is explained fancifully in 30. 7.]

[Footnote 24: It is at the funeral feasts to the Manes that the Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata is to be recited (i. 62. 37).]

[Footnote 25: Arjuna is an old name of Indra, and in the epic Arjuna is Indra's son.]

[Footnote 26: The legal _dharma_ or sitting at a debtor's door, which still obtains in India, is, so far as we know, not a very ancient practice. But its application in the case of heralds (who become responsible) is epic.]

[Footnote 27: This is the covenant (with friends) of revenge; the covenant of mutual protection in the sacrifice is indicated by the 'protection covenant' of the G.o.ds (see the chapter on Brahmanism above, p. 192).]

[Footnote 28: See an essay on the Ruling Caste in the epic, in JAOS. xiii. 232 ff.]

[Footnote 29: Reverend Doctor H.C. Trumbull has kindly called our attention to Robert's _Oriental Ill.u.s.trations_, p. 148 ff., where it is said that in India today the threshold is sacred. In reference to threshold offerings, common in the law, Dr. Trumbull's own forthcoming book on Covenants may be compared.]

[Footnote 30: But these are by no means the last examples of human sacrifices. Several of the modern Hindu sects have caused to be performed such sacrifices, even in this century.]

[Footnote 31: This can hardly mean 'put out on the river' as has been suggested as an explanation of the corpse 'thrown aside' in accordance with the earlier text, AV. xviii. 2. 34 (_paropta_), where the dead are 'buried, thrown aside, burned, or set out.']

[Footnote 32: It is a.s.sumed in XII. 364. 2 that "leaves and air" are food enough for a great saint. Compare below the actual asceticism of modern devotees.]

[Footnote 33: III. 25. 14: _saptar[s.]ayas ... divi viprabh[=a]nti_. Compare _ib._ 261. 13, and the apocalypse in VII. 192. 52 ff., where Drona's soul ascends to heaven, a burning fire like a sun; In sharp contrast to the older 'thumbkin' soul which Yama receives and carries off in the tale of Satyavant. Compare also Arundhati in I. 233. 29.]

[Footnote 34: Described, as above, as a place of singers and dancers, where are the Vedic G.o.ds and sages, but no sinners or cowards (III. 42. 34 ff.).]

[Footnote 35: From another point of view the stars are of interest. They are favorable or unfavorable, sentient, kind, or cruel; influential in man's fate. Compare III. 200. 84, 85, where the sun is included with the _grahas_ (planets) which influence men, and ib. 209. 21, _tulyanak[.s]atrama[.n]gala_.]

[Footnote 36: Other of Indra's spirits are the singers, Gandharvas and Apsarasas; also the horse-headed Kinnaras and C[=a]ranas, who, too, are singers; while later the Vidy[=a]dharas belong both to Indra and to civa. In modern times the South Indian Sittars, 'saints,' take their name from the Siddhas.]

[Footnote 37: In _d[=a]nnavar[s.]i_ there is apparently the same sort of compound as in _devar[s.]i_ and _brahmar[s.]i_, all a.s.sociated with the _siddhas_ in III. 169. 23. But possibly 'demons and seers' may be meant.]

[Footnote 38: III. 37. 32-35 (_prapadye vicvedev[=a]n!_).]