The Religions of India Part 51

[Footnote 49: Formerly performed by the Kar[=a]ris. "The c[=a]ktas hold the killing of a man to be permitted,"

Dabist[=a]n, II. 7. "Among them it is a meritorious act to sacrifice a man," _ib_.]

[Footnote 50: Hence the name of K[=a][=n]culiyas _[ka[=n]culi_, a woman's garment).]

[Footnote 51: This has no parallel in Vishnuism except among some of the R[=a]dh[=a] devotees. Among the R[=a]dh[=a]

Vallabh[=i]s the vulgarities of the civaites are quite equalled; and the a.s.sumption of women's attire by the Sakh[=i] Bh[=a]vas of Benares and Bengal ushers in rites as coa.r.s.e if less b.l.o.o.d.y than those of the civaites.]

[Footnote 52: Of course each G.o.d of the male trinity has his cakti, female principle. Thus Brahm[=a]'s cakt[=i] is S[=a]vitr[=i] (in the epic), or Sarasvat[=i], or V[=a]c; that of Vishnu is cr[=i], or Lakshm[=i], or R[=a]dh[=a]; that of civa is Um[=a], Durg[=a], K[=a]l[=i], etc. Together they make a female trinity (Barth, p. 199); So even the Vedic G.o.ds had their (later) wives, who, as in the case of S[=u]ry[=a], were probably only the female side of a G.o.d conceived of as androgynous, like Praj[=a]pat[=i] in the Brahmanic period.]

[Footnote 53: Historically, Thags, like Panj[=a]b, Santh[=a]ls, etc, is the more correct form, but phonetically the forms Thugs, Punj[=a]b, Sunth[=a]ls or Sonth[=a]ls, are correct, and [=a], the indeterminate vowel (like o in London), is generally transcribed by u or o (in Punj[=a]b, Nep[=a]l, the [=a] is p.r.o.nounced very like au, and is sometimes written so, Punjaub, etc).]

[Footnote 54: The Jemidar, captain, gives the order to the b.u.t.toat, strangler, who takes the _rumal_ (yard of cotton) with a knot tied in the left end, and, holding his right hand a few inches further up, pa.s.ses it from behind over the victim's head. As the latter falls the strangler's hands are crossed, and if done properly the Thugs say that "the eyes stand out of the head and life becomes extinct, before the body falls to the ground" (Notes on the 'Thags, Thugs, or Thegs,' by Lieutenant Reynolds; of whom Lieutenant-Colonel Smythe says that he knew more than any other European about the Thugs, 1836). The b.u.t.toat received eight annas extra for his share. Each actor in the scene had a t.i.tle; the victim was called Rosy. For their argot see the R[=a]maseeana.]

[Footnote 55: Thugs (defined as 'knaves' by Sherwood, more probably 'throttlers') must be distinguished from Decoits.

The latter (Elphinstone, i. 384) are irreligious gangs, secretly bound together to sack villages. Peaceable citizens by day, the Decoits rise at night, attack a village, slay, torture, rob, and disappear before morning, 'melting into the population' and resuming honest toil. When the police are weak enough they may remain banded together; otherwise they are ephemerally honest and nocturnally a.s.sa.s.sins. The Thugs or Ph[=a]ns[=i]gars (_ph[=a]ns[=i]_, noose) killed no women, invoked K[=a]li (as Jay[=i]), and attacked individuals only, whom the decoys, called Tillais, lured very cleverly to destruction. They never robbed without strangling first, and always buried the victim. They used to send a good deal of what they got to K[=a]li's temple, in a village near Mirz[=a]pur, where the establishment of priests was entirely supported by them. K[=a]li (or Bhav[=a]n[=i]) herself directed that victims should be strangled, not bled (so the Thug legend). Their symbol was a pick, emblem of the G.o.ddess, unto whom a religious ceremony was performed before and after the murder was committed. Local small bankers often acted as fence for them.]

[Footnote 56: This is called either P[=u]rva-m[=i]m[=a]ms[=a] (Karma-m[=i]m[=a]ms[=a]) or simply M[=i]m[=a]ms[=a].]

[Footnote 57: Or c[=a]r[=i]raka-m[=i]m[=a]msa, or Brahma-m[=i]m[=a]ms[=a] (_m[=i]m[=a][=m.]sa,_ reflexion, philosophy).]

[Footnote 58: Kapila's system, usually known as the S[=a]nkhya.]

[Footnote 59: And attributed to Pata[=n.]jali. Compare Deussen, _System des Ved[=a]nta,_ p. 20.]

[Footnote 60: Born In 788. But some scholars refer him to the seventh century. See IA. xiii. 95; xvi. 41. His name, a t.i.tle of civa, indicates his nominal sect.]

[Footnote 61: For the meaning of Ved[=a]nta (whether 'end of Veda,' or 'goal of Veda') compare Deussen, _loc. cit._ p. 3, note (above, p. 253, note).]

[Footnote 62: The Supreme Spirit or All-Spirit is either purely non-dualistic or qualifiedly non-dualistic; in the latter event he is, says the sectary, identical with Vishnu, who may be represented either by Krishna or R[=a]ma (sub-sects). Pure non-duality (unconditioned _[=a]tm[=a]_) was taught by cankara.]

[Footnote 63: Gough, _Philosophy of the Upanishads_..

Compare Williams, _loc. cit_. In our own view the unsystematic Upanishads teach both doctrines (above, p. 228, note).]

[Footnote 64: Before K[=a]m[=a]nuja it was taught by c[=a]ndilya that _brahma_ (and the individual spirit) was conditioned, a doctrine supposed to be that of the old Bh[=a]gavatas or P[=a][.n]car[=a]tras; but this is quite uncertain. The c[=a]ndilyan chapter of the Ch[=a]ndogya Upanishad (above, p. 221) may be thus interpreted, _vis_, that the (conditioned) individual spirit is identical with _brahma_.]

[Footnote 65: Thibaut, _Introduction to the Ved[=a]nta S[=u]tras_, SBE. x.x.xIV. p. x.x.xI; Deussen, _System des Ved[=a]nta_, p.469.]

[Footnote 66: Philosophical illusion, _m[=a]n[=a]_, appears first in late Upanishads.]

[Footnote 67: The author of the Dabist[=a]n (seventeenth century) tells a Berkeleyan story in regard to cankara's doctrine of illusion. His enemies wished to test his belief in his own philosophy; so they drove an elephant at him, on which the philosopher ran away. "Ho!" they jeered, "Did you not maintain that all was a mere illusion? Then an elephant is illusion. Yet you take to flight before it." "Yes,"

replied the philosopher, "all is illusion; there was no elephant, and there was no flight" (II. 4).]

[Footnote 68: The Sm[=a]rta (orthodox) Brahman believes, on the other hand, that Vishnu, civa, and Brahm[=a] are all mere forms of the Supreme [=A]lm[=a].]

[Footnote 69: If Mohammed were regarded as one with Allah there would be an Occidental parallel to the Krishna and R[=a]ma sects.]

[Footnote 70: Whether the Hindu trinitarianism derives from the Occident or not (the former view being historically probable, but not possible to prove) the importance of the dogma and its place in Hindu theology is very different to the condition of things in the Christian church. In India trinitarianism is merely a convenience in adjusting the claims of two heterodox sects and orthodoxy, each believer being willing to admit that the G.o.d of the other is his own G.o.d, only with the understanding that the last is a superior manifestation. In late civaism both Vishnu and Brahm[=a] are indeed called the 'sons of G.o.d' (civa). but in the sense that they are distinctly subordinate creatures of civa (JAOS. iv. 147).]

[Footnote 71: But some Hindus worship both Vishnu and civa without insisting that one is higher than the other.

Moreover, there is a Mahratta sect of Vishnuites who complacently worship Buddha (Vishnu's ninth _avatar_) as Vi[t.]h[t.]hala or P[=a]ndura[.n]ga. These are simply eclectic, and their G.o.d is without or with quality. Buddha is here not a deceiver, but an instructor (JRAS. 1842, p.

66; IA. XI. 56, 149).]

[Footnote 72: The civaites, too, are divided on the questions both of predestination and of free grace. The greater body of them hold to the 'monkey doctrine'; the Pacupatas, to the 'cat.']

[Footnote 73: Sanskrit _kal[=a]_, school (_marka[t.]a-ny[=a]ya_ and _m rj[=a]ra-ny[=a]ya_). The Southern school has its own Veda written in Tamil. Williams, JRAS. xiv. 301. According to the same writer the Ten-galais hold that Vishnu's wife is finite, created, and a mediator; the Vada-galais, that she is infinite, and uncreated.]

[Footnote 74: All Vishnuites have the vertical sign; civaites have a horizontal sign (on the forehead).]

[Footnote 75: _Proceed. AOS_. 1894, p. iii. The Vada-school may be affected by civaism.]

[Footnote 76: A divine monkey appears in the Rig Veda, but not as an object of devotion.]

[Footnote 77: The teachers of the Ramaites are generally Brahmans, but no disciples are excluded because of their caste. R[=a]m[=a]nuja adopted the monastic system, which cankara is said to have taken from the Buddhists and to have introduced into Brahmanic priestly life. Both family priests and cen.o.bites are admitted into his order.]

[Footnote 78: What the Linga is to civaite the c[=a]lagr[=a]ma is to the Vishnuite (who also reveres the _tulas[=i]_ wood). The c[=a]lagr[=a]ma is a black pebble; the L[=i]nga is a white pebble or gla.s.s (Williams). The civaites have appropriated the _d[=u]rv[=a]_ gra.s.s as sacred to Ganeca. Sesamum seeds and _d[=u]rv[=a]_ are, however, Brahmanically holy. Compare cat. Br. iv. 5-10, where _d[=u]rv[=a]_ gra.s.s is even holier than _kuca_-gra.s.s. The rosaries used by the sects have been the subject of a paper by Leumann, and are described by Williams. Thirty-two or sixty-four berries of _eleocapus ganitrus (rudr[=a]ksha_) make the civaite rosary. That of the Vishnuite is made of lotus-seeds or of _tuls[=a]_ wood in one hundred and eight pieces.]

[Footnote 79: For an account and list of the works of Tulas[=i]d[=a]s[=a] (Tuls[=i]d[=a]s), compare IA. xxii. 89, 122, 227. Jayadeva (twelfth century), the author of the G[=i]ta Govinda (translated by Jones, La.s.sen, and Ruckert), is sometimes reckoned falsely to the adherents of R[=a]m[=a]nand, but he is really a Krishnaite.]

[Footnote 80: The _bhakti_ doctrine is that of the extant c[=a]ndilya S[=u]tras, which make faith and not works or knowledge a condition of salvation. They are modern, as Cowell, in his preface to the work, has shown. Cowell here identifies K[=a]cyapa with Ka[n.][=a]da, the V[=a]iceshika philosopher, his school holding that the individual spirits are infinite in number, distinct from the Supreme Spirit.]

[Footnote 81: The infant-cult is of course older than these sects. For an account of the ritual, as well as its intrusion into the earlier cult of the Pur[=a]nas, with the accompanying resemblances to Madonna-cult, and the new features (the ma.s.sacre of the innocents, the birth in the stable, the three wise men, etc.) that show borrowing from Christianity, compare Weber's exhaustive treatise referred to above, the _K[=r.][=s.][n.]ajanm[=a][=s.][=t.]am[=i], Krishna's Geburtsfest_.]

[Footnote 82: Williams, _loc. cit._]

[Footnote 83: 'Gosain' means shepherd, like Gop[=a]la. Some of the sects, like the Kart[=a]bh[=a]js, recognize only the Teacher as G.o.d. Williams states that in Bengal a fourth member has been added to this sect-trinity. On Dancing-girls see IA. XIII-165.]

[Footnote 84: The philosophical tenet of this sect 'pure _adv[=a]ita_' (non-duality) distinguishes it from the qualified duality taught by R[=a]m[=a]nuja. This is a reversion to cankara. The C[=a]itanya sect teaches not absorption but individual existence in a heaven of sensuous (sensual) pleasure.]

[Footnote 85: "In the temples where the Mah[=a]r[=a]jas (priests) do homage to the idols men and women do homage to the Mah[=a]r[=a]jas.... The best mode of propitiating the G.o.d Krishna is by ministering to the sensual appet.i.tes of his vicars upon earth. Body and soul are literally made over to them, and women are taught to deliver up their persons to Krishna's representatives," Williams, _loc. cit_. p. 309.]

[Footnote 86: On these sects see Wilson, Hunter (Statistical Account), Williams, JRAS. xiv. 289. The festival verses in honor of the Madonna are: "Honor to thee, Devak[=i], who hast borne Krishna; may the G.o.ddess who destroys sin be satisfied, revered by me. Mother of G.o.d art thou, Adit[=i], destroying sin. I will honor thee as the G.o.ds honor thee,"

_etc_. (Weber, _Janm[=a][s.][t.]am[=i]_, p. 286). The birth-day celebration is not confined to Krishnaites; but in the R[=a]ma sect, though they celebrate the birth, they do not represent the man-G.o.d as a suckling. In other respects this feast is imitated from that of Krishna (Weber, p. 310, note). The R[=a]macandra celebration takes place in the spring. The birth-day of Ganeca is also celebrated by the civaites (in August-September).]

[Footnote 87: He himself claimed to be an incarnate G.o.d. He adopted the qualified non-duality of R[=a]m[=a]nuja. See Williams' account of him and of the two great temples of the sect, _loc. cit_.]

[Footnote 88: From Williams, _loc. cit_. p. 291 ff. The three qualities (sometimes interpreted as activity, purity, and indifference) are met with for the first time in the Atharva Veda, where are found the Vedantic 'name' and 'form'

also; Muir, v. p. 309. The three qualities that condition the idealist Vedantist's personal Lord in his causal body are identical with those that const.i.tute the 'nature,'

_prak[=r.]ti_, of the S[=a]nkhya dualist.]

[Footnote 89: Among the Vallabhas (above, p. 505). The Teacher is the chief G.o.d of most of the Vallabhas (Barth, p.

235}. For the Vi[t.]h[t.]hal view of caste see 1A. XI.152.]

[Footnote 90: It is true of other sectaries also, Ramaites and civaites, that the mere repet.i.tion of their G.o.d's name is a means of salvation.]

[Footnote 91: Now chiefly in the South. The Dabist[=a]n gives several divisions of sun-worshippers. For more details see Barth, p. 258. Apollonius of Tyana saw a sun-temple at Taxila, JRAS. 1859, p. 77.]

[Footnote 92: More direct than in the form of Vishnu, who at first is merely the sun. Of the relation with Iranian sun-worship we have spoken above.]

[Footnote 93: They brand themselves with the Vishnu-mark, are generally high-caste, live in monasteries, and profess celibacy. They are at most unknown in the North. They are generally known by their founder's name, but are also called Brahma-Samprad[=a]yins, 'Brahma-adherents.']