The Religions of India Part 45

of Delhi. In 1294, thus slave dynasty having been recently supplanted, the new successor to the throne was slain by his own nephew, Allah-ud-din, who is reckoned as the third Mohammedan conqueror of India. His successor swept even the Dekhan of all its Hindu (temple) wealth; but his empire finally broke down under its own size; preparing the way for Timur (Tamerlane), who entered India in 1398.]

[Footnote 7: cankara himself was not a pure Brahman. Both Vishnuites and civaites lay claim to him.]

[Footnote 8: Coy as was the Brahman in the adoption of the new G.o.ds he was wise enough to give them some place in his pantheon, or he would have offended his laity. Thus he recognizes K[=a]l[=i] as well as cr[=i]; in fact he prefers to recognize the female divinities of the sects, for they offer less rivalry.]

[Footnote 9: There was a general revival of letters antedating the Brahmanic theological revival. The drama, which reflects equally Hinduism and Brahmanism, is now the favorite light literature of the cultured. In the sixth century the first astronomical works are written (Var[=a]hamihira, who wrote the _B[r.]hat Sa[.m]hit[=a]_), and the group of writers called the Nine Gems (reckoned of Vikram[=a]ditya's court) are to be referred to this time.

The best known among them is K[=a]lid[=a]sa, author of the _cakuntal[=a]_. An account of this Renaissance, as he calls it, will be found in Muller's _India, What Can It Teach Us_?

The learned author is perhaps a little too sweeping in his conclusions. It is, for instance, tolerably certain that the Bh[=a]rata was completed by the time the 'Renaissance'

began; so that there is no such complete blank as he a.s.sumes prior to Vikram[=a]ditya. But the general state of affairs is such as is depicted in the ingenious article referred to.

The sixth and seventh centuries were eras that introduced modern literature under liberal native princes, who were sometimes not R[=a]jputs at all. Roughly speaking, one may reckon from 500 B.C. to the Christian era as a period of Buddhistic control, Graeco-Bactrian invasion, and Brahmanic decline. The first five centuries after the Christian see the two religions in a state of equilibrium, under Scythian control, and the Mah[=a]-Bh[=a]rata, the expanded Bh[=a]rata, is written. From 500 to 1000 is an era of native rulers, Brahmanic revival in its pure form, and Hindu growth, with little trouble from the Mohammedans. Then for five centuries the horrors of Moslem conquest.]

[Footnote 10: Har. 10,662. Compare the laudation of 'the two G.o.ds' in the same section.]

[Footnote 11: As the Jains have Angas and Up[=a]ngas, and as the pseudo-epic distinguishes Nishads and Upanishads, so the Brahman has Pur[=a]nas and Upapur[=a]nas (K[=u]rma Pur[=a]na, i. p. 3). Some of the sects acknowledge only six Pur[=a]nas as orthodox.]

[Footnote 12: As an example of a Puranic Smriti (legal) we may cite the trash published as the V[r.]ddha-H[=a]rita-Sa[.m]hit[=a]. Here there is polemic against civa; one must worship Jagann[=a]th with flowers, and every one must be branded with the Vishnu disc (_cakra_). Even women and slaves are to use _mantras_, etc.]

[Footnote 13: The lateness of this law-book is evident from its advocacy of _suttee_ (XXV. 14), its preference for female ancestors (see below), etc.]

[Footnote 14: Manu, III. 89; XII. 121.]

[Footnote 15: As, for example, in K[=u]rma Pur[=a]na, XVI.

p. 186, where is found a common epic verse description of battle.]

[Footnote 16: A good instance of this is found in Brihan N[=a]rad[=i]ya Pur[=a]na, X., where the _churik[=a]_ and _drugha[n.]a_ (24) appear in an imitative scene of this sort; one of these being later, the other earlier, than the epic vocabulary.]

[Footnote 17: Perhaps the most striking distinction between Vedic and Puranic, or one may say, Indic Aryan and Hindu religions, is the emphasis laid in the former upon Right; in the latter, upon idols. The Vedic religion insists upon the law of right (order), that is, the sacrifice; but it insists also upon right as rect.i.tude, truth, holiness. Puranic Hinduism insists upon its idols; only incidentally does it recommend rect.i.tude, truth, abstract holiness.]

[Footnote 18: KP. i. p. 29.]

[Footnote 19: K[=u]rma, xii. p. 102. Contrast _ib_. xxii. p.

245, _caturvy[=u]hadhara Vishnur avy[=u]has procyate_ (elsewhere _navavy[=u]ha_). Philosophically, in the doctrine of the epic P[=a]ncar[=a]tras (still held by some sectaries), Vishnu is to be revered as Krishna, Balar[=a]ma, Pradymana, Aniruddha (Krishna's brother, son, and grandson), representing, respectively, _[=a]tm[=a], j[=i]va,_ supreme and individual spirit, perception, and consciousness.

Compare Mbh[=a]. xii. 340. 8, 72.]

[Footnote 20: KP. xxi. p. 236; xxii. p. 238, etc.]

[Footnote 21: _ib._ I, p. 23.]

[Footnote 22: Compare Brihan N[=a]radiya Pur[=a]na, xiv. 10, _bah[=u]ni k[=a][s.][t.]hay[=a]ntr[=a][n.]i_ (torture machines) in h.e.l.l. The old tale of N[=a]ciketas is retold at great length in the Var[=a]ha Pur[a=]na. The oldest Pur[=a]na, the M[=a]rkandeya, has but seven h.e.l.ls, a conception older than Manu's twenty-one (compare on MP. x.

80 ff., Scherman, _loc. cit_. p. 33), or the later lists of thousands. The Padma Pur[=a]na, with celebrates R[=a]ma, has also seven h.e.l.ls, and is in part old, for it especially extols Pushkara (Brahm[=a]'s lone shrine); but it recommends the _taptamudra_, or branding with hot iron.]

[Footnote 23: Nar. xiv. 2.]

[Footnote 24: xiv. 54 and 70.]

[Footnote 25: KP. xxii. pp, 239-241.]

[Footnote 26: As will be shown below, it is possible that this may be a ceremony first taken from the wild tribes. See the 'pole' rite described above in the epic.]

[Footnote 27: Compare for instance _ib_. xxviii. 68, on the strange connection of a c[=u]dr[=a] wife of a Guru.]

[Footnote 28: KP. x.x.xvi. It is of course impossible to say how much epic materials come from the literary epic and how much is drawn from popular poetry, for the vulgar had their own epoidic songs which may have treated of the same topics.

Thus even a wild tribe (Gonds) is credited with an 'epic.'

But such stuff was probably as worthless as are the popular songs of today.]

[Footnote 29: KP. x.x.x. p. 305; x.x.xvii. p. 352.]

[Footnote 30: _ib._ p. 355.]

[Footnote 31: Compare N[=a]rad[=i]ya, xi. 23,27,31 'the one whom no one knows,' 'he that rests in the heart,' 'he that seems to be far off because we do not know,' 'he whose form is civa, lauded by Vishnu,' xiii. 201.]

[Footnote 32: Even Vishnu as a part of a part of the Supreme Spirit in VP. is indicated by Vishnu's adoration of _[=a]tm[=a]_ in the epic (see above).]

[Footnote 33: Compare Williams' _Brahmanism and Hinduism_.]

[Footnote 34: cankara's adherents are chiefly civaite, but he himself was not a sectary. Williams says that at the present day few worship civa exclusively, but he has more partial adherents than has Vishnu. _Religious Thought and Life,_ pp. 59, 62.]

[Footnote 35: The two last are just recognized in Brahmanic legal works.]

[Footnote 36: See Wilson's sketch of Hindu sects. The author says that there were in his day two shrines to Brahm[=a], one in [=A]jm[=i]r (compare Pushkara in the epic), and one on the Ganges at Bithur. The Brahma Pur[=a]na is known also as S[=a]ura (sun). This is the first in the list; in its present state it is Vishnuite.]

[Footnote 37: Sun-worship (Iranian?) is especially p.r.o.nounced in the Bhav[=i]shya(t) Pur[=a]na. Of the other Pur[=a]nas the L[=i]nga is especially civaite (_linga_ is phallus), as are the Matsya and older V[=a]yu. Sometimes civa is androgynous, _ardhan[=a]r[=i]cvara_, 'half-female.'

But most of the Pur[=a]nas are Vishnuite.]

[Footnote 38: On the Ganeca Pur[=a]na see JRAS. 1846, p.

319.]

[Footnote 39: The worshippers of Bhagavat were originally distinct from the P[=a]ncar[=a]tras, but what was the difference between them is unknown. The sect of this name in the pseudo-epic is not c[=a]kta in expression but only monotheistic. Probably the names of many sects are retained with altered beliefs and practices. The Vishnu Pur[=a]na, i.

11. 54, gives a model prayer which may be taken once for all as the att.i.tude of the Vishnuite: "Glory to V[=a]sudeva, him of perfected wisdom, whose unrevealed form is (known as) Brahm[=a], Vishnu, and civa" (Hira[n.]yagarbha, Purusha, Pradh[=a]na).]

[Footnote 40: Weber shows for instance, _loc. cit_., that Indra takes the place of older Varuna; that the house-priest yields to the Brahm[=a]; that in this feast in honor of the king he]

[Footnote 41: Gover, JRAS. v. 91; IA. xx. 430.]

[Footnote 42: In Hinduism itself there is a striking example of this. The Jagann[=a]th ('Juggernaut') temple was once dedicated to Buddha as _loka-n[=a]th_ or _jagan-n[=a]th_, 'saviour of the world' Name, temple, and idol-car are now all Vishnu's!]

[Footnote 43: That is, Rain and Sun, for all Indra's warlike qualities are forgotten, absorbed into those of civa and his son, the battle-G.o.d. The sun crosses the equator at noon of the second day, the 'Mah[=a] Pongol.']

[Footnote 44: "Now every neck is bent, for the surface of the waters disturbed. Then with a heave, a hiss, and a surge of bubbles, the seething milk mounts to the top of the vessel. Before it has had time to run down the blackened sides, the air resounds with the sudden joyous cry of 'Pongol, oh Pongol, S[=u]rya, S[=u]rya, oh Pongol,' The word Pongol means "boiling," from the Tamil word _pongu_, to boil; so that the joyous shout is, 'It boils, oh S[=u]rya, it boils.' In a moment a convulsion of greetings animates the a.s.sembly. Every one seizes his neighbor and asks, 'Has it boiled?' Both faces gleam with delight as the answer comes--'It has boiled.' Then both shout at the top of their voices--'Oh Pongol, Pongol, oh S[=u]rya, oh Indra, Pongol, Pongol.'" Gorer, _loc. cit_.]

[Footnote 45: The Crocodile, _makara_, like the parrot, is sacred to K[=a]madeva, Love. But as Ganges also is holy it is difficult to say for which divinity the offering was intended. Some, indeed, interpret _makara_ as dolphin.]

[Footnote 46: A feast now neglected, though kept up by strict Brahmans, occurs on or about the 20th January. The orthodox adherents of the civaite sects and c[=a]ktas also observe it. It is a cr[=a]ddha, or funeral feast to the Manes. Also on the 26th and 30th January there are rites nearly obsolete, the first being signalized by offerings to Yama; the second, a civaite feast (to his spouse, as 'giver of bridegrooms'). The list is more celebrated in the South than in the North. It is interesting chiefly as a parallel to St. Valentine's day, or, as Wilson says, the nearer feast of St. Agnes (21st January) on the eve of which divination is practiced to discover future husbands. It is this time also that the Greeks call 'marriage-month' (Gamelion); and the fourth day from the new moon (which gives the name to this Hindu festival, _caturth[=i]_, "fourth day") is the day when Hesiod recommends the bringing home of the bride.]

[Footnote 47: In case any writing has to be done on this day it is done with chalk, not with the pens, "which have a complete holiday" (Wilson).]

[Footnote 48: The invocations show very well how the worship of Brahm[=a] has been driven out in honor of his more powerful rivals. For Sarasvat[=i] is invoked first as "Thou without whom Brahm[=a] never lives"; but again as "Thou of eight forms, Lakshm[=i], Medh[=a], Dhav[=a], Pusht[=i], G[=a]ur[=i], Tusht[=i], Prabh[=a], Dhriti, O Sarasvat[=i]."

The great festivals, like the great temples, are not very stricly sectarian. Williams says that in civa's temple in Benares are kept monkeys (sacred to Vishnu).]