The Religions of India Part 44

civa and Ganeca are revered because they might impede, not because, as does Sarasvat[=i], they further literary accomplishment. Sarasvat[=i]

is almost the only fair G.o.ddess. She is represented not as a horror, but as a beautiful woman sitting on a lotus, graceful in shape, a crescent on her brow.[47] The boys, too, celebrate the day with games, bat and ball, prisoner's base, and others "of a very European character." The admixture of sectarian cults is shown by the transference to this Vishnuite feast of the civaite (Durg[=a]) practice of casting into the river the images of the G.o.ddess.[48] When applied distinctly to Sarasvat[=i] the feast is observed in August-September; when to Lakshm[=i], in October-November, or in February. There is, however, another feast, celebrated in the North and South, which comes on the exact date fixed by the Romans for the beginning of spring, and as an ending to this there is a feast to K[=a]ma, Cupid, and his bride Rati ('Enjoyment'). This is the Vasanta, or spring festival of prosperity and love, which probably was the first form of the Lakshm[=i]-Sarasvat[=i] feast.

Another traditional feast of this month is the 10th[49] (the eleventh lunar day of the light half of M[=a]gha). The eleventh lunar day is particularly holy with the Vishnuites, as is said in the Brahma Pur[=a]na, and this is a Vishnuite festival. It is a day of fasting and prayer, with presents to priests.[50] It appears to be a mixture of Vedic prayers and domestic Vishnu-worship. On the 11th of February the fast is continued, and in both the object is expiation of sin. The latter is called the feast of 'six sesamum acts,' for sesamum is a holy plant, and in each act of this rite it plays a part. Other rites of this month are to the Manes on the 14th, 22d, and 24th of February.

Bathing and oblation are requisite, and all are of a l.u.s.tral and expiatory nature. Wilson remarks on the fact that it is the same time of year in which the Romans gave oblations to the Manes, and that Februus is the G.o.d of purification. "There can be no reasonable doubt that the Feralia of the Romans and the cr[=a]ddha (feast to the Manes) of the Hindus, the worship of the Pitris and of the Manes, have a common character, and had a common origin."[51]

The 27th of February is the greatest civaite day in the year. It celebrates civa's first manifestation of himself in phallic form. To keep this day holy expiates from all sin, and secures bliss hereafter.

The worshipper must fast and revere the Linga. Offerings are made to the Linga. It is, of course, a celebration formed of unmeaning repet.i.tions of syllables and the invocation of female caktis, snapping the fingers, gesticulating, and performing all the humbug called for by civaite worship. The Linga is bathed in milk, decorated, wrapped in _bilva_ leaves, and prayed to; which ceremony is repeated at intervals with slight changes. All castes, even the lowest, join in the exercises. Even women may use the _mantras_.[52] Vigil and fasting are the essentials of this worship.[53]

The next festival closes these great spring celebrations. It bears two names, and originally was a double feast, the first part being the Dol[=a] Y[=a]tr[=a], or 'Swing-procession,' the second part being the execrable Holi. They are still kept distinct in some places, and when this occurs the Dolotsava, or Dol[=a] Y[=a]tr[=a], follows the Holi.

They are both spring festivals, and answer roughly to May-day, though in India they come at the full moon of March. We have followed Wilson's enumeration of all the minor spring feasts, that they may be seen in their entirety. But in ancient times there was probably one long Vasantotsava (spring-festival), which lasted for weeks, beginning with a joyous celebration (2d of February) and continuing with l.u.s.tral ceremonies, as indicated by the now detached feast days already referred to. The original cult, in Wilson's opinion, has been changed, and the Dol[=a] Y[=a]tr[=a] is now given over to the Krishna-cult, while the Hol[=i] divinity is a hobgoblin. The Dol[=a] Yatr[=a] begins with fasting and ends (as Hol[=i]) with fire-worship. An image of Krishna is sprinkled with red powder (_ab[=i]r_), and after this (religious) ceremony a bonfire[54] is made, and an effigy, Holik[=a], is put upon it and burned. The figure is carried to the fire in a religious procession headed by Vishnuite or Brahman priests, of course accompanied with music and song. After seven circ.u.mambulations of the fire the figure is burned. This is the united observance of the first day. At dawn on the morning of the second day the image of Krishna is placed in a swing, _dol[=a]_, and swung back and forth a few times, which ceremony is repeated at noon and at sunset. During the day, wherever a swing is put up, and in the vicinity, it is the common privilege to sprinkle one's friend with the red powder or red rose-water. Boys and common people run about the streets sprinkling red water or red powder over all pa.s.sengers, and using abusive (obscene) language. The cow-herd caste is conspicuous at this ceremony. The cow-boys, collecting in parties under a koryphaios, hold, as it were, a komos, leaping, singing, and dancing[55] through the streets, striking together the wands which they carry. These cow-boys not only dress (as do others) in new clothes on this occasion,[56] but they give their cattle new equipments, and regard the whole frolic as part of a religious rite in honor of Krishna, the cow-herd. But all sects take part in the performance (that is to say, in the Hol[=i] portion), both civaites and Vishnuites. When the moon is full the celebration is at its height. Hol[=i] songs are sung, the crowd throws _ab[=i]r_ the chiefs feast, and an all-night orgy ends the long carousal.[57] In the south the Dol[=a] takes place later, and is distinct from the Hol[=i]. The burning here is of K[=a]ma, commemorating the love-G.o.d's death by the fire of civa's eye, when the former pierced the latter's heart, and inflamed him with love. For this reason the bonfire is made before a temple of civa. K[=a]ma is gone from the northern cult, and in upper India only a hobgoblin, Hol[=i], a foul she-devil, is a.s.sociated with the rite. The whole performance is described and prescribed in one of the late Pur[=a]nas.[58] In some parts of the country the bonfire of the Hol[=i] is made about a tree, to which offerings are made, and afterwards the whole is set on fire. For a luminous account of the Hol[=i], which is perhaps the worst open rite of Hinduism, partic.i.p.ated in by all sects and cla.s.ses, we may cite the words of the author of _Ante-Brahmanical Religions_: "It has been termed the Saturnalia or Carnival of the Hindus. Verses the most obscene imaginable are ordered to be read on the occasion. Figures of men and women, in the most indecent and disgusting att.i.tudes, are in many places openly paraded through the streets; the most filthy words are uttered by persons who, on other occasions, would think themselves disgraced by the use of them; bands of men parade the street with their clothes all bespattered with a reddish dye; dirt and filth are thrown upon all that are seen pa.s.sing along the road; all business is at a stand, all gives way to license and riot."[59]

Besides these the most brilliant festivals are the R[=a]s Y[=a]tr[=a]

in Bengal (September-October), commemorating the dance of Krishna with the _gop[=i]s_ or milk-maids, and the 'Lamp-festival'

(D[=i]p[=a]l[=a]), also an autumnal celebration.

The festivals that we have reviewed cover but a part of the year, but they will suffice to show the nature of such fetes as are enjoined in the Pur[=a]nas. There are others, such as the eightfold[60]

temple-worship of Krishna as a child, in July or August; the marriage of Krishna's idol to the Tulasi plant; the Awakening of Vishnu, in October, and so forth. But no others compare in importance with the New Year's and Spring festivals, except the Bengal idol-display of Jagann[=a]th, the Rath Y[=a]tr[=a] of 'Juggernaut'; and some others of local celebrity, such as the D[=u]rg[=a]-p[=u]j[=a].[61] The temples, to which reference has often been made, have this in common with the great civaite festivals, that to describe them in detail would be but to translate into words images and wall-paintings, the obscenity of which is better left undescribed. This, of course, is particularly true of the civa temples, where the actual Linga is perhaps, as Barth has said, the least objectionable of the sights presented to the eye of the devout worshipper. But the Vishnu temples are as bad.

Architecturally admirable, and even wonderful, the interior is but a display of sensual immorality.[62]

HISTORY OF THE HINDU TRINITY.

In closing the Puranic period (which name we employ loosely to cover such sects as are not clearly modern) we pause for a moment to cast a glance backwards over the long development of the trinity, to the units of which are devoted the individual Pur[=a]nas. We have shown that the childhood-tales of Krishna are of late (Puranic) origin, and that most of the cow-boy exploits are post-epic. Some are referred to in the story of cicup[=a]la in the second book of the Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata, but this scene has been touched up by a late hand.

The Vishnu Pur[=a]na, typical of the best of the Pur[=a]nas, as in many respects it is the most important and interesting, represents Krishnaite Vishnuism as its height. Here is described the birth of the man-G.o.d as a black, _k[r.][s.][n.]a,_ baby, son of Nanda, and his real t.i.tle is here Govinda, the cow-boy.[63] 'Cow-boy' corresponds to the more poetical, religious shepherd; and the milk-maids, _gopis_ with whom Govinda dallies as he grows up, may, perhaps, better be rendered shepherdesses for the same reason. The idyllic effect is what is aimed at in these descriptions. Here Krishna plays his rude and rustic tricks, upsetting wagons, overthrowing trees and washermen, occasionally killing them he dislikes, and acting altogether much like a cow-boy of another sort. Here he puts a stop to Indra-worship, over-powers civa, rescues Aniruddha, marries sixteen thousand princesses, burns Benares, and finally is killed himself, he the one born of a hair of Vishnu, he that is Vishnu himself, who in 'goodness'

creates, in 'darkness' destroys,[64] under the forms of Brahm[=a] and civa.[65]

In Vishnu, as a development of the Vedic Vishnu; in civa, as affiliated to Rudra; in Brahm[=a], as the Brahmanic third to these sectarian developments, the trinity has a real if remote connection with the triune fire of the Rig Veda, a two-thirds connection, filled out with the addition of the later Brahmanic head of the G.o.ds.

To ignore the fact that Vishnu and Rudra-civa developed inside the Brahmanic circle and increased in glory before the rise of sectaries, and to a.s.severate, as have some, that the two chief characters of the later trinity are an unmeaning revival of decadent G.o.ds, whose names are used craftily to veil the modernness of Krishnaism and civaism,--this is to miscalculate the waxing dignity of these G.o.ds in earlier Brahmanic literature. To say with Burnouf that the Vishnu of the Veda is not at all the Vishnu of the mythologists, is a statement far too sweeping. The Vishnu of the Veda is not only the same G.o.d with the Vishnu of the next era, but in that next era he has become greatly magnified. The Puranic All-G.o.d Vishnu stands in as close a relation to his Vedic prototype as does Milton's Satan to the snaky slanderer of an age more primitive.

civa-worship appears to have been adapted from a local cult in the mountainous West, and at an early date to have been amalgamated with that of his next resemblance, the Vedic Rudra; while Krishna-worship flourished along the Ganges. These are those Dionysos and Herakles of whom speak the old Greek authorities. One cult is possibly as venerable as the other, but while civaism became Brahmanized early, Krishnaism was adopted much later, and it is for this reason, amongst others, that despite its modern iniquities civa has appealed more to the Brahman than has Krishna.

Megasthenes tells us a good deal about these Hindu representatives of Herakles and Dionysos. According to him there were Dionysiac festivals in honor of the latter G.o.d (civa),[66] who belongs where flourishes the wine, in the Acvaka district, north of the Kabul river. From this place civa's worship extended into the East, M[=a]gadha (Beh[=a]r), around Gokarna in the West, and even to the Kalinga country in the extreme Southeast. But it was especially native to the mountainous Northwest, about the 'Gate of Ganges' (north of Delhi, near Saharampur), and still further north in Kashmeer. In the epic, civa has his throne on K[=a]il[=a]sa,[67] the Northern mountain, in the Him[=a]layas, and Ganges descend from the sky upon his head.

On the other hand, Herakles, of the Ganges land, where grows no wine, is plainly Krishna, who carries club, discus, and conch. The Greek cities Methora and Kleisobora are Mathur[=a] and Krishna-pur, 'Krishna-town'; the latter on the Jumna, the former near it on the same river, capital of the clan which venerated Krishna as its chief hero and G.o.d, the Y[=a]davas. Megasthenes says, also, that Herakles'

daughter is Pandaie, and this agrees with the P[=a]ndya, a southern development of the epic Gangetic P[=a]ndavas, who especially worship Krishna in conjunction with the Y[=a]davas. Their South-Indic town, Mathur[=a], still attests their origin.

In speaking of the relative antiquity of Vishnuism and civaism one must distinguish the pantheistic form of these G.o.ds from the single forms. While civaism,_per se_, that is, the worship of civa as a great and terrible G.o.d, preceded the same exaltation of Krishna, as is shown by their respective literary appearance, and even by Megasthenes'

remark that the worship of Dionysos preceded that of Herakles by fifteen generations, yet did Krishnaism, as a popular pantheism, come before civaism as such. Although in the late cvet[=a]cvatara Upanishad civa is pantheistic, yet is he not so in the epic till some of the latest pa.s.sages make him the All, in imitation of Krishna as All-G.o.d.

Probably civaism remained by the first philosophy, Sankhyan dualism, and was forced into Krishna's Vedantic pantheism, as this became popular. At first neither was more than a single great G.o.d without any philosophy.[68]

In one of the early exegetical works, which is occupied somewhat with philosophical matter, there is evidence that a triad existed between the Vedic triad of fires and the Puranic triad. Fire, Wind (or Indra), and the Sun (S[=u]rya), are stated in a famous pa.s.sage to be the only real G.o.ds, all the others being but names of these. But, although in form this triad (Nirukta, vii. 4, 5) is like the Vedic triad,[69] it is essentially a triad in a pantheistic system like that of the epic and Pur[=a]nas, for it is added that "all the G.o.ds are parts of one soul." In explanation it is said: "Fire is the earth-G.o.d, Wind, or Indra, is the G.o.d of the atmosphere, and the sun is the G.o.d of the sky." Now in the Rig Veda Indra is closely united not only with Agni but with Vishnu, albeit in this period Vishnu is his subordinate. The nearest approach of this Vishnu to his cla.s.sical descendant is in one of the latest hymns of the Rig Veda, where it is said that the seven seeds of creation are Vishnu's, as in later times he comprises seven males. In the philosophy of the T[=a]ittir[=i]ya Samhit[=a] the three places of Vishnu are not, as in the Rig Veda, the two points of the horizon (where the sun sets) and the zenith, but 'earth, air, and sky.'[70] That is to say, in the Brahmanic period Vishnu is already a greater G.o.d than he had been. Nay, more, he is explicitly declared to be "the best of the G.o.ds."[71] That best means greatest may be shown from the same work, where in savage fable it is recited that all the G.o.ds, including Indra, ran up to him to get his strength.[72] But especially in the Upanishads is Vishnu the one great G.o.d left from the Rig Veda.

And it is with the philosophical (not with the ritualistic) Vishnu that Krishna is equated.

Of civa, on the other hand, the prototype is Rudra ('red'), his constant sobriquet. In the Rig Veda he is the G.o.d of red lightning, who is the father of the Maruts, the storm-G.o.ds. His attributes of a fulgurant G.o.d are never lost. Even as civa the All-G.o.d he is still the G.o.d of the blue neck, whose three-forked trident and home among the mountains remind us of his physical origin. He is always the fairest of the G.o.ds, and both early and late he is terrible, to be averted by prayer, even where his magic 'medicines' are asked for. To him are addressed the most suppliant cries: "O Rudra, spare us, strike not the men, slay not the kine." In the Atharva Veda at every step one finds characteristics which on the one hand are but exaggerations of the type formulated in the Rig Veda, and on the other precursors of the signs of the later G.o.d. In civaism, in contradistinction to Vishnuism, there is not a trace of the euhemerism which has been suspected in the Krishna-Vishnu cult. The Rudra of the Rig Veda already begins to be identified with the triune fire, for he bears the standing epithet of fire, "he of three mothers."[73] And this name he keeps, whether as Rudra, who is "brilliant as the sun" (RV. i. 43. 5), whose weapon is "the shining one that is emitted from the sky and pa.s.ses along the earth" (_ib_. vii. 46. 3); or again, as the "red boar of the sky,"

the "holder of the bolt" (_ib._ ii. 33. 3), and, above all G.o.ds, "the terrible" (x. 126. 5).

Coming to the Brahmanic period one finds him a dweller in the mountain tops, of a red color, with a blue neck, the especial lord of the mountains, and so of robbers; while he is also the 'incantation-G.o.d,'

the 'G.o.d of low people.' Some of these are Rudra's attributes; but here his name is already civa, so that one may trace the changes down the centuries till he finds again in the epic that civa is the lord of mountains, the patron of thieves (Hara, robber?), and endowed with the trident, the blue neck,[74] and the three mothers of old. In the middle period he has so many t.i.tles that one probably has to accept in the subsequent civa not only the lineal descendant of the Vedic Rudra, but also a combination of other local cults, where clan G.o.ds, originally diverse, were worshipped as one in consequence of their mutual likeness. One of the G.o.d's especial names is here Bhava, while in the earlier period Bhava and Rudra are distinct, but they are invoked as a pair (AV).[75] What gives civa his later tremendous popularity, however, is the feature to which we have alluded in the chapter on the epic. In the epic, all the strength of civa lies in the Linga.[76] Both Bhava and Rudra, as carva, the archer--his local eastern name--are represented as hurling the lightning, and it is simply from ident.i.ty of attributes that they have become identified in person (AV. x. i. 23). Rudra's t.i.tle of Pacupati, or 'lord of cattle'[77] goes back to the Vedic age: "Be kind to the kine of him who believes in the G.o.ds" is a prayer of the Atharva Veda (xi. 2. 28).

Agni and Rudra, in the Rig-Veda, are both called 'cattle-guarding,'

but not for the same reason. Agni represents a fire-stockade, while Rudra in kindness does not strike with his lightning-bolt. The two ideas, with the identification of Rudra and Agni, may have merged together. Then too, Rudra has healing medicines (his magical side), and Agni is kindest to men. All Agni's names are handed over in the Br[=a]hmanas to Rudra-civa, just as Rudra previously had taken the epithets of P[=u]shan (above), true to his robber-name. To ignore the height to which at this period is raised the form of Rudra-civa is surely unhistorical; so much so that we deem it doubtful whether civa-invocations elsewhere, as in the S[=u]tra referred to above, should be looked upon as interpolations. In the M[=a]itr[=a]yan[=i]

Collection, the Rudraj.a.pas, the invocations to Rudra as the greatest G.o.d, the highest spirit, the lord of beings (Bhava), are expressly to civa Girica, the mountain-lord (2. 9; Schroeder, p. 346). In the [=A]itareya Br[=a]hmana it evidently is Rudra-civa, the G.o.d of ghastly forms (made by the G.o.ds, it is said, as a composite of all the 'most horrible parts' of all the G.o.ds), who is deputed to slay the Father-G.o.d (when the latter, as a beast, commits incest with his daughter), and chooses as his reward for the act the office of 'lord of cattle.'[78] This is shown clearly by the fact that the fearsome Rudra is changed to the innocuous Rudriya in the next paragraph. As an example of how in the Br[=a]hmanas Rudra-civa has taken to himself already the powers of Agni, the great G.o.d of the purely sacrificial period, may be cited cat. Br. vi. 1. 3. 10 and 2. 1. 12. Here Agni is k.u.m[=a]ra, Rudra, carva (Sarva)[79], Pacupati (lord of beasts), Bh[=a]irava (terrible), Acani (lightning), Bhava (lord of beings), Mah[=a]deva (great G.o.d), the Lord--his 'thrice three names.' But where the Br[=a]hmana a.s.sumes that these are names of Agni it is plain that one has Rudra-civa in process of absorbing Agni's honors.

The third element in the Pur[=a]nic trinity,[80] identified with the Father-G.o.d, genealogically deserves his lower position. His rivals are of older lineage. The reason for his inferior position is, practically, that he has little to do with man. Being already created, man takes more interest in the G.o.ds that preserve and destroy.[81]

Even Brahm[=a]'s old exploits are, as we have shown, stolen from him and given over to Vishnu. The famous (totemistic) tortoise legend was originally Brahm[=a]'s, and so with others of the ten 'forms' of Vishnu, for instance the boar-shape, in which Vishnu manifests himself, and the fish-shape of Brahm[=a] (epic) in the flood-story.

The formal _trim[=u]rti_ or _tr[=a]ipurusha_ ('three persons') is a late figure. It would seem that a Harihara (Vishnu and civa as one) preceded the trinity, though the dual name is not found till quite late.[82] But, as we showed above, the epic practically identifies Vishnu and civa as equals, before it unites with these Brahm[=a] as an equal third.

There arises now the further question whether sectarian Vishnuism be the foisting of Krishnaism upon a dummy Vishnu. We think that, stated in this way, such scarcely can have been the case. Neither of the great sects is professedly of priestly origin, but each, like other sects, claims Vedic authority, and finds Brahmanical support. We have said that Vishnu is raised to his position without ictic suddenness.

He is always a G.o.d of mystic character, in short, a G.o.d for philosophy to work upon. He is recognized as the highest G.o.d in one of the oldest Upanishads. And it is with the philosopher's Vishnu that Krishna is identified. Krishna, the real V[=a]sudeva (for a false V[=a]sudeva is known also in the epic), is the G.o.d of a local cult. How did he originate? The king of serpents is called Krishna, 'the black,' and Vishnu reposes upon cesha Ananta, the world-snake; but a more historical character than this can be claimed for Krishna. This G.o.d-man must be the same with the character mentioned in the Ch[=a]ndogya Upanishad, 3. 17. 6. One may notice the similarities between this Krishna and him of the epic cult. Krishna, son of Devak[=i], was taught by his teacher, Ghora [=A]ngirasa, that sacrifice may be performed without objective means; that generosity, kindness, and other moral traits are the real signs of sacrifice; and it is then said: "The priest Ghora [=A]ngirasa having said this to Krishna, the son of Devak[=i]--and the latter was thereby freed from (thirst) desire--said: "When a man is about to die let him resort to this triad: 'the imperishable art thou,' 'the unmoved art thou,'

'breath's firmness art thou'; in regard to which are these two verses in the Rig-Veda:[83] 'till they see the light of the old seed which is kindled in the sky,' and 'perceiving above the darkness the higher light, the sun, G.o.d among G.o.ds, we come to the highest light.'"

Krishna thus learned the abolition of sacrifice, and the worship of the sun, the highest light (Vishnu), as true being--for this is the meaning of the philosophical pa.s.sage taken with its context. Kings and priests discuss philosophy together in this period,[84] and it would conform to later tradition to see in the pupil the son of a king. It is, moreover, significant that the priest, Ghora [=A]ngirasa, is named specially as priest of the sun-G.o.d elsewhere (K[=a]ush. Br. 30. 6), as well as that Krishna [=A]ngirasa is also the name of a teacher. It is said in this same Upanishad (3. 1. 1) that the sun is the honey, delight, of the G.o.ds; and this chapter is a meditation on the sun,[85]

of which the dark (_k[r.][s.][n.]a_) form is that which comes from the Itih[=a]sas and Pur[=a]nas, the fore-runners of the epic (3. 4. 3).

This is taught as a _brahma-upanishad_, a teaching of the absolute, and it is interesting to see that it is handed down through Brahm[=a], Praj[=a]pati, and Manu, exactly as Krishna says in the Divine Song that his own doctrine has been promulgated; while (it is said further) for him that knows the doctrine 'there is day,' his sun never sets (3.

11. 3-4). It is a doctrine to be communicated only to the eldest son or a good student, and to no one else (_ib. 5), i.e_., it was new, esoteric, and of vital importance. Here, too, one finds Sanatk.u.m[=a]ra, the 'ever young,' as Skanda,[86] yet as an earthly student also (7. 1; 26. 2), just like Krishna.

It cannot be imagined, however, that the cult of the Gangetic Krishna originated with that vague personage whose pupilage is described in the Upanishad. But this account may still be connected with the epic Krishna. The epic describes the overthrow of an old Brahmanic Aryan race at the hands of the P[=a]ndavas, an unknown folk, whose king's polyandrous marriage (his wife is the spouse of his four brothers as well as of himself) is an historical trait, connecting the tribe closely with the polyandrous wild tribes located north of the Ganges.

This tribe attacked the stronghold of Brahmanism in the holy land about the present Delhi; and their patron G.o.d is the Gangetic Krishna.

In the course of the narrative a very few tales are told of Krishna's early life, but the simple original view of Krishna is that he is a G.o.d, the son of Devak[=i]. The few other tales are late and advent.i.tious additions, but this is a consistent trait. Modern writers are fain to see in the ant.i.thesis presented by the G.o.d Krishna and by the human hero Krishna, late and early phases. They forget that the lower side of Krishna is one especially Puranic. In short, they read history backwards, for theirs is not the Indic way of dealing with G.o.ds. In Krishna's case the tricky, vulgar, human side is a later aspect, which comes to light most prominently in the Genealogy of Vishnu and in the Vishnu Pur[=a]na, modern works which in this regard contrast strongly with the older epic, where Krishna, however he tricks, is always first the G.o.d. It is not till he becomes a very great, if not the greatest, G.o.d that tales about his youthful performances, when he condescended to be born in low life, begin to rise. An exact parallel may be seen in the case of civa, who at first is a divine character, a.s.suming a more or less grotesque likeness to a man; but subsequently he becomes anthropomorphized, and is fitted out with a sheaf of legends which describe his earthly acts.[87] And so with Krishna. As the chief G.o.d, identified with the All-G.o.d, he is later made the object of encomiums which degrade while they are meant to exalt him. He becomes a cow-boy and acts like one, a G.o.d in a mask.

But in the epic he is the invading tribe's chief G.o.d, in process of becoming identified with that G.o.d in the Brahmanic pantheon who most resembles him. For this tribe, the (Yadavas) P[=a]ndavas, succeeded in overthrowing the Brahmanic stronghold and became absorbed into the Brahmanic circle. Their G.o.d, who, like most of the supreme G.o.ds of this region among the wild tribes, was the tribal hero as sun-G.o.d, became recognized by the priests as one with Vishnu. In the Upanishad the priest-philosopher identifies Krishna with the sun as the 'dark side' (_k[r.][s.][n.]a_, 'dark') of Vishnu, the native name probably being near enough to the Sanskrit word to be represented by it. The statement that this clan-G.o.d Krishna once learned the great truth that the sun is the All-G.o.d, at the mouth of a Brahman, is what might be expected. 'Krishna, the son of Devaki,' is not only the G.o.d, but he is also the progenitor of the clan, the mystic forefather, who as usual is deified as the sun. To the priest he is merely an _avatar_ of Vishnu. The ident.i.ty of Krishna with the Gangetic G.o.d described by Megasthenes can scarcely be disputed. The latter as represented by the Greek is too great a G.o.d to have pa.s.sed away without a sign except for a foreigner's account. And there is no figure like his except that of Krishna.

The numerous _avatars_[88] of Vishnu are first given as ten, then as twenty, then as twenty-two,[89] and at last become innumerable. The ten, which are those usually referred to, are as follows: First come the oldest, the beast-_avatars_, viz., as a fish; as a tortoise;[90]

as a boar (rescuing earth from a flood); and as a man-lion (slaying a demon). Next comes the dwarf-_avatar_, where Vishnu cheats Bali of earth by asking, as a dwarf, for three steps of it, and then stepping out over all of it (the 'three strides' of the Rig Veda). Then come the human _avatars_, that of Paracu-R[=a]ma (R[=a]ma with the axe), Krishna, R[=a]ma[91] (hero of the R[=a]m[=a]yana epic), Buddha, and Kalki (who is still to come).

The parallels between the latest Krishna cult and the Biblical narrative are found only in the Pur[=a]nas and other late works, and undoubtedly, as we have said in the last chapter, are borrowed from Christian sources. Krishna is here born in a stable, his father, like Joseph, going with his virgin spouse to pay taxes. His restoring of a believing woman's son is narrated only in the modern J[=a]imini Bh[=a]rata, These tales might have been received through the first distant Christian mission in the South in the sixth century, but it is more likely that they were brought directly to the North in the seventh century; for at that time a Northern king of the V[=a]icya caste, cil[=a]ditya (in whose reign the Chinese pilgrim, Hiouen Thsang, visited India), made Syrian Christians welcome to his court (639 A.D.).[92] The date of the annual Krishna festival, which is a reflex of Christmastide, is variously fixed by the Pur[=a]nas as coming in July or August.[93]

As Krishna is an _avatar_ of Vishnu[94] in the Bh[=a]rata, and as the axe-R[=a]ma is another _avatar_ in legend (here Vishnu in the form of Paracu-R[=a]ma raises up the priestly caste, and destroys the warrior-caste), so in the R[=a]m[=a]yana the hero R[=a]ma (not Paracu-R[=a]ma) is made an _avatar_ of Vishnu. He is a mythical prince of Oude (hence a close connection between the R[=a]m[=a]yana and Buddhism), who is identified with Vishnu. Vishnu wished to rid earth of the giant R[=a]vana,[95] and to do so took the form of R[=a]ma. As Krishnaism has given rise to a number of sects that worship Krishna as Vishnu, so Ramaism is the modern cult of R[=a]ma as Vishnu. Both of these sects oppose the Vishnuite that is not inclined to be sectarian; all three oppose the civaite; and all four of these oppose the orthodox Brahman, who a.s.signs supreme G.o.dship to civa or Vishnu as little as does the devotee of these G.o.ds in unsectarian form to Krishna or R[=a]ma.

civa is on all sides opposed to Vishnu. The Greek account of the third century B.C. says that he taught the Hindus to dance the kordax, but at this time there appears to have been no such phallic worship in his honor as is recorded in the pseudo-epic. civa is known in early Brahmanic and in Buddhistic writings, and even as the bearer-of-the-moon, Candracekhara, he contrasts with Vishnu, as his lightning-form and mountain-habitat differ from the sun-form and valley-home of his rival. This dire G.o.d is conceived of as ascetic partly because he is gruesome, partly because he is magical in power.

Hence he is the true type of the awful magical Yogi, and as such appealed to the Brahman. Originally he is only a fearful magical G.o.d, great, and even all-pervading, but, as seen in the Brahmanic catarudriya hymn, he is at first in no sense a pantheistic deity. In this hymn there is a significant addition made to the earlier version.

In the first form of the hymn it is said that Rudra, who is here civa, is the G.o.d of bucolic people; but the new version adds 'and of all people.' Here civa appears as a wild, diabolical figure, 'the G.o.d of incantations,' whose dart is death; and half of the hymn is taken up with entreaties to the G.o.d to spare the speaker. He is praised, in conjunction with trees, of which he is the lord, as the one 'clad in skins,' the 'lord of cattle,' the 'lord of paths,' the 'cheater,' the 'deceiver.' When he is next clearly seen, in the epic, he is the G.o.d to whom are offered human sacrifices, and his special claim to worship is the phallus; while the intermediate literature shows glimpses of him only in his simple Brahmanic form of terror. It has long been known that civaite phallic worship was not borrowed from the Southerners, as was once imagined, and we venture with some scholars to believe that it was due rather to late Greek influence than to that of any native wild tribe.[96]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Parts of the epic are called Pur[=a]nas, as other parts are called Upanishads. These are the forerunners of the extant Pur[=a]nas. The name, indeed, is even older than the epic, belonging to the late Vedic period, where are grouped together Pur[=a]nas and Itih[=a]sas, 'Ancient History' and 'Stories'; to which are added 'Eulogies.' Weber has long since pointed out that even when the 'deeds of kings' were sung at a ceremony they were wont to be so embroidered as to be dubbed 'fiction' by the Hindus themselves. India has neither literary history (save what can be gleaned from genealogies of doubtful worth), nor very early inscriptions. The 'archaeology' of the Pur[=a]nas was probably always what it is in the extant specimens, legendary material of no direct historical value.]

[Footnote 2: Strictly speaking to the present Allah[=a]b[=a]d, where is the Pray[=a]ga, or confluence of Yamun[=a] and Gang[=a] (Jumna and Ganges).]

[Footnote 3: M[=a]gadha; called Beh[=a]r from its many monasteries, _vih[=a]ras_, in Ac.o.ka's time.]

[Footnote 4: So, plausibly, Muller, _loc. cit_. below.]

[Footnote 5: The tribes became Hinduized, their chiefs became R[=a]jputs; their religions doubtless affected the ritual and creed of the civilized as much as the religion of the latter colored their own. Some of these un-Aryan peoples were probably part native, part barbaric. There is much doubt in regard to the dates that depend on accepted eras.

It is not certain, for instance, that, as Muller claims, Kanishka's inauguration coincides with the caka era, 78 A.D.

A great Buddhist council was held under him. Some distinguished scholars still think with Buhler that Vikram[=a]ditya's inauguration was 57 B.C. (this date that used to be a.s.signed to him). From our present point of view it is of little consequence when this king himself lived. He is renowned as patron of arts and as a conqueror of the barbarians. If he lived in the first century B.C. his conquest amounted to nothing permanent. What is important, however, is that all Vikram[=a]ditya stands for in legend must have been in the sixth century A.D. For the drama, of which he is said to have been patron, represents a religion distinctly later than that of the body of the epic (completed in the sixth or seventh century, Buhler, _Indian Studies_, No. ii.). The dramatic and astronomical era was but introductory to k.u.m[=a]rila's rea.s.sertion of Brahmanism in the seventh century, when the Northern barbarian was gone, and the Mohammedan was not yet rampant. In the rest of Northern India there were several native dynasties in different quarters, with different eras; one in Sur[=a]shtra (Gujar[=a]t), one again in the 'middle district' or 'North Western Provinces,' one in Kutch; overthrown by Northern barbarians (in the fifth century) and by the Mohammedans (in the seventh and eighth centuries), respectively. Of these the Guptas of the 'middle district,' and the Valabh[=i]s of Kutch, had neither of the eras just mentioned. The former dated from 320-321 (perhaps 319), the latter from 190 (A.D.). The word _samvat_, 'year,' indicates that the time is dated from either the caka or Vikram[=a]ditya era. See IA. xvii. 362; Fergusson, JRAS. xii. 259; Muller, _India, What Can It Teach Us_? p. 282; Kielhorn, IA. xix. _24;_ xxii. 111. The Northern barbarians are called Scythians, or Huns, or Turanians, according to fancy. No one really knows what they were.]

[Footnote 6: The first host was expelled by the Hindus in 750. After a period of rest Mahmud was crowned in 997, who overran India more than a dozen times. In the following centuries the land was conquered and the people crushed by the second great Mohammedan, Ghori, who died in 1206, leaving his kingdom to a va.s.sal, Kutab, the 'slave sultan'