The Religions of India Part 55

In coming to the end of the long course of Hindu religious thought, it is almost inevitable that one should ask what is the present effect of missionary effort upon this people, and what, again, will eventually be the direction which the native religious sense, so strongly implanted in this folk, will take, whether aided or not by influence from without.

Although it is no part of our purpose to examine into the workings of that honest zeal which has succeeded in planting so many stations up the Indic coast, there are yet some obvious truths which, in the light of religious history, should be an a.s.sistance to all whose work lies in making Hindu converts. To compile these truths from this history will not be otiose. In the first place, Christian dogma was formally introduced into South India in the sixth century; it was known in the North in the seventh, and possibly long before this; it was the topic of debate by educated Hindus in the sixteenth and seventeenth. It has helped to mould the Hindus' own most intellectual sects; and, either through the influence of Christian or native teaching, or that of both, have been created not only the Northern monotheistic schools, but also the strict unitarianism of the later Southern sects, whose scriptures, for at least some centuries, have inculcated the purest morality and simplest monotheistic creed in language of the most elevated character.[40] In the second place, the Hindu sectary has interwoven with his doctrine of pantheism that of the trinity. In the third place, the orthodox Brahman recognizes in the cult of Christianity, as that cult is expressed, for instance, in Christmas festivities, one that is characteristic, in outward form and inner belief, of a native heterodox sect. In the fourth place, the Hindu sectary believes that the native expression of trinitarian dogma, faith-doctrine, child-G.o.d worship, and madonna-worship takes historical precedence over that of Christianity; and the orthodox Hindu believes the same of his completed code of lofty moral teachings. Vishnuism is, again, so catholic that it will accept Christ as an _avatar_ of Vishnu, but not as an exclusive manifestation of G.o.d. In the fifth place, the Hindu doctors are very well educated, and often very clever, both delighting in debate and acute in argument It follows, if we may draw the obvious inference, that, to attack orthodox Brahmanism, or even heterodox Hinduism, requires much logical ability as well as learning, and that the best thing a missionary can do in India, if he be not conscious of possessing both these requisites, is to let the native scholars alone.

But native scholars make but a small part of the population, and among the uneducated and 'depressed' cla.s.ses there is plenty for the missionary to do. Here, too, where caste is hated because these cla.s.ses suffer from it, there is more effect in preaching equality and the brotherly love of Christianity, doctrines abhorrent to the social aristocrats, and not favored even by the middle cla.s.ses. But what here opposes Christian efforts is the splendid system of devotion, the magnificent fetes, the gorgeous shows, and the tickling ritualism, which please and overawe the fancy of the native, who is apt to desire for himself a pageant of religion, not to speak of a visible G.o.d in idol form; while from his religious teacher he demands either an asceticism which is no part of the Christian faith, or a leadership in sensuous and sensual worship.

What will be the result of proselytizing zeal among these variegated ma.s.ses?[41] Evidently this depends on where and how it is exercised.

The orthodox theologian will not give up his inherited faith for one that to him is on a par with a schismatic heresy, or take dogmatic instruction from a level which he regards as intellectually below his own. From the Sam[=a]jas no present help will come to the missionary; for, while they have already accepted the spirit of Christianity, liberal Hindus reject the Christian creed.[42] At a later day they will join hands with the missionary, perhaps, but not before the latter is prepared to say: There is but one G.o.d, and many are his prophets.

There remain such of the higher cla.s.ses as can be induced to prefer undogmatic Christianity to polytheism, and the lowest cla.s.s, which may be persuaded by acts of kindness to accept the dogmas with which these are accompanied. It is with this cla.s.s that the missionary has succeeded best. In other cases his success has been in inverse ratio to the amount of his dogmatic teaching. And this we believe to be the key to the second problem. For, if one examine the maze of India's tangled creeds, he will be surprised to find that, though dogmatic Christianity has its Indic representative, there yet is no indigenous representative of undogmatic Christianity. For a G.o.d in human form is worshipped, and a trinity is revered; but this is not Christianity. Love of man is preached; but this is not Christianity. Love of G.o.d and faith in his earthly incarnation is taught; but this, again, is not Christianity. No sect has ever formulated as an original doctrine Christ's two indissoluble commandments, on which hang all the law and the prophets.

It would seem, therefore, that to inculcate active kindness, simple morality, and the simplest creed were the most persuasive means of converting the Hindu, if the teacher unite with this a practical affection, without venturing upon ratiocination, and without seeking to attract by display, which at best cannot compete with native pageants.[43] Moreover, on the basis of undogmatic teaching, the missionary even now can unite with the Sam[=a]j and Sittar church, neither of which is of indigenous origin, though both are native in their secondary growth. For it is significant that it is the Christian union of morality and altruism which has appealed to each of these religious bodies, and which each of them has made its own. In insisting upon a strict morality the Christian missionary will be supported by the purest creeds of India itself, by Brahmanism, unsectarian Hinduism, the Jain heretics, and many others, all of whom either taught the same morality before Christianity existed, or developed it without Christian aid. The strength of Christian teaching lies in uniting with this the practical altruism which was taught by Christ. In her own religions there is no hope for India, and her best minds have renounced them. The body of Hinduism is corrupt, its soul is evil. As for Brahmanism--the Brahmanism that produced the Upanishads--the spirit is departed, and the form that remains is dead. But a new spirit, the spirit of progress and of education, will prevail at last. When it rules it will undo the bonds of caste and do away with low superst.i.tion. Then India also will be free to accept, as the creed of her new religion, Christ's words, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy G.o.d, and thy neighbor as thyself.' But to educate India up to this point will take many centuries, even more, perhaps, than will be needed to educate in the same degree Europe and America.[44]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: La.s.sen interprets _ophir_ as Abh[=i]ras, at the mouth of the Indus. The biblical _koph_ is Sanskrit _kapi_, ape. Other doubtful equivalents are discussed by Weber, _Indische Skizzen_, p. 74.]

[Footnote 2: The legend of the Flood and the fancy of the Four Ages has been attributed to Babylon by some writers.

Ecstein claims Chaldean influence in Indic atomic philosophy, _Indische Studien_, ii. 369, which is doubtful; but the Indic alphabet probably derived thence, possibly from Greece. The conquests of Semiramis (Serimamis in the original) may have included a part of India, but only Brunnhofer finds trace of this in Vedic literature, and the character of his work we have already described.]

[Footnote 3: Senart attributes to the Achaemenides certain Indic formulae of administration. IA. xx. 256.]

[Footnote 4: Certain Hindu names, like those to which we called attention in the epic, containing Mihira, _i.e.,_ Mithra; the Magas; _i.e.,_ Magi; and recommendations of sun-worship in the Pur[=a]nas are the facts on which Weber bases a theory of great influence of Persia at this later period. Weber claims, in fact, that the native sun-worship was quite replaced by this importation (_Indische Skizzen_, p. 104). This we do not believe. Even the great number of Persians who, driven out by Arabians, settled in Gujar[=a]t (the name of Bombay is the same with Pumbadita, a Jewish settlement in Mesopotamia) had no other effect on the Brahmanic world that absorbed them (_ib._ p. 109) than to intensify the fervor of a native cult.]

[Footnote 5: Weber ascribes to Greek influence the Hindus first acquaintance with the planets. On a possible dramatic loan see above, p. 2, note. The Greeks were first to get into the heart of India (as far as Patna), and between the court of Antiochus the Great and the king S[=a]ubhagasena there was formal exchange of amba.s.sadors in the third century B.C. The name of Demetrius appears as Datt[.a]mitra in the Hindu epic. He had "extended his rule over the Indus as far as the Hydaspes and perhaps over M[=a]lava and Gujarat" (about 200 B.C.; Weber, _Skizzen_). In the second century Menandros (the Buddhists' 'Milinda') got as far as the Jumna; but his successors retreated to the Punj[=a]b and eventually to Kabul (_ib_.) Compare also Weber, _Sitz. d.

konig. Preuss. Akad_., 1890, p. 901 ff., _Die Griechien in Indien_. The period of Greek influence coincides with that of Buddhist supremacy in its first vigor, and it is for this reason that Brahmanic literature and religion were so untouched by it. There is to our mind no great probability that the Hindu epic owes anything to that of Greece, although Weber has put in a strong plea for this view in his essay _Ueber das R[=a]m[=a]ya[n.]a_.]

[Footnote 6: The romance of a Russian traveller's late 'discovery,' which Sanskrit scholars estimate at its true value, but which may seem to others worthy of regard, is perhaps, in view of the interest taken in it, one that should be told correctly. Nicholas Notovitch a.s.serts that he discovered seven years ago in the Tibetan monastery of Himis, a work which purports to give a life of Christ from birth to death, including sixteen years spent in India. This life of 'Issa' (Jesus) is declared to have been written in the first century of the Christian era. Unfortunately for the reputation of the finder, he made a mistake in exploiting his discovery, and stated that his ma.n.u.script had been translated for him by the monks of Himis 'out of the original P[=a]li,' a dialect that these monks could not understand if they had specimens of it before them. This settled Notovitch's case, and since of course he did not transcribe a word of the MS. thus freely put at his disposal, but published the forgery in a French 'translation,' he may be added to the list of other imposters of his ilk. The humbug has been exposed for some time, and we know of no one who, having a right to express an opinion, believes Notovitch's tale, though some ignorant people have been hoaxed by it. If the blank sixteen years in Christ's life ever be explained, it may be found that they were pa.s.sed in a Zoroastrian environment; but until real evidence be brought to show that Christ was in India, the wise will continue to doubt it. As little proof exists, it may be added, of Buddhistic influence in the making of the Gospels. But this point is nowadays scarcely worth discussing, for competent scholars no longer refer vague likenesses to borrowing. Certain features are common to the story of Christ and to the legends of Buddha; but they are common to other divine narratives also. The striking similarities are not found in the earliest texts of the Southern Buddhists. [=I]ca for Jesus is modern, Weber, _loc.

cit._, p. 931.]

[Footnote 7: Elphinstone, I. pp, 140, 508; II. chap. I. The 'slave dynasty' of Kutab, 1206-1288. It was the bigoted barbarity of these Mohammedans that drove Brahmanic religion into the South.]

[Footnote 8: Though immediately before it the Harihara cult, survival of Sankhyan dualism, is practically monotheistic.

Basava belongs to the twelfth century.]

[Footnote 9: The literary exchange in the realm of fable between Arabia and later Sanskrit writers (of the twelfth century) is very evident. Thus in Indic dress appear at this time the story of Troy, of the pa.s.sage over the Red Sea, of Jonas, etc. On the other hand, the Arabians translated native Hindu fables. See Weber, IS. iii. 327, _Ueber den Zusammenhang griechischer Fabeln mit indischen_, and _Indische Skizzen_, p. 111, and _Die Griechen in Indien_.

Arabia further drew on India for philosophical material, and Alber[=u]ni himself translated Kapila's work (Weber,_loc.

cit_.).]

[Footnote 10: Whereby cows, snakes, cats (sacred to one of the civaite 'mothers'), crocodiles, monkeys, etc, are worshipped.]

[Footnote 11: Pantheists in name alone, most of the lower caste-men are practically polytheists, and this means that they are at bottom dualists. They are wont to worship a.s.siduously but one of the G.o.ds they recognize.]

[Footnote 12: Where Brahmanism may be said to cease and Hinduism to begin can be defined but vaguely. Krishnaism is rank Hinduism. But civaism is half Brahmanic. For the rest, in its essential aspects, Hinduism is as old as the Hindus.

Only the form changes (as it intrudes upon Brahmanism).]

[Footnote 13: It is highly probable that the mention of the Northwestern c[=u]dras in Mbh[=a]. VI. 9. 67 refers to the Afghan S[=u]droi, and that the slave-caste as a whole, which bears the name c[=u]dra, received this appellation first as conquered tribes of Afghanistan.]

[Footnote 14: Brahmanism has always been an island in a sea.

Even in the Brahmanic age there is evidence to show that it was the isolated belief of a comparatively small group of minds. It did not even control all the Aryan population.]

[Footnote 15: We refer partly to literature, that of the drama and novel, for instance; and partly to the fine arts.

But in connection with the latter it may be remarked that painting, and the fine arts generally, are expressly reckoned as the pursuit of slaves alone. For instance, even as late a jurist as he that wrote the law-code of 'Vishnu'

thus (chap. ii.) parcels out the duties and occupations of the four castes: The duty of a priest is to teach the Veda, his means of livelihood is to sacrifice for others and to receive aims; the duty of the warrior is to fight, his means of livelihood is to receive taxes for protecting the other castes; the duty of the V[=a]icya is to tend cattle, his means of livelihood 1s gain from flocks, farm, trade, or money-lending. The duty of a slave, cudra, is to serve the three upper castes; his means of livelihood is the fine arts.]

[Footnote 16: It is this that has exaggerated, though not produced, that most marked of native beliefs, a faith which Intertwines with every system, Brahmanic, Buddhistic, or Hinduistic, a belief in an ecstatic power in man which gives him control over supernatural forces. Today this Yogism and Mah[=a]tmaism, which is visible even in the Rig Veda, is nothing but unbridled fancy playing with mesmerism and lies.]

[Footnote 17: The Hindu sectarian cults are often strangely like those of Greece in details, which, as we have already suggested, must revert to a like, though not necessarily mutual, source of primitive superst.i.tion. Even the sacred free bulls, which roam at large, look like old familiar friends, [Greek: apheton dnion tauron en tps tou IIoseidonos Ierps] (Plato, _Kritias_, 119); and we have dared to question whether Lang's 'Bull-roarer' might not be sought in the command that the priest should make the bull roar at the sacrifice; and in the verse of the Rig Veda which says that the priests "beget (produce) the Dawn by means of the roar of a bull" (vii. 79. 4); or must the bull be _soma_? For Muller's defence of the Hindu's veraciousness, see his _/India, What Can It Teach Us_, p. 34.]

[Footnote 18: Some exception may be taken to this on the ground that moral laws really are referred to the Creator in one form or another, This we acknowledge as a theory of authority, but it so seldom comes into play, and there is so little rapport between G.o.ds and moral goodness, that the difference in this regard is greater by far than the resemblance. A Christian sins against G.o.d, a Hindu sins against himself. The Christian may be punished by G.o.d; the Hindu punishes himself (the _karma_). The latter may say that moral laws are of G.o.d, but he means that they are natural laws, the violation of which has the same effect as touching fire.]

[Footnote 19: The _lex talionis_ is in full force in Hindu law, even in the codes of Hinduism; for example, 'Vishnu,'

V. 19.]

[Footnote 20: Deceit of a foe is no sin in any system. "All is fair in war."]

[Footnote 21: This idea may be carried out in other instances. The bravery of civilization is not the bravado that savages call bravery, and modesty is now a virtue where boasting used to be reckoned as the necessary complement of bravery. As for hospitality in the old sense, it is not now a 'virtue' not to kill a guest.]

[Footnote 22: India's relations with Rome were late and wholly of mercantile character.]

[Footnote 23: It is interesting, as showing incidentally the close connection between Buddhism and civaism in other than philosophical aspects, that the first Indic grotto-temple mentioned by foreigners (in the third century A.D.) was one which contained a statue of an androgynous (civaite) deity (Weber, _Indische Skizzen_, p. 86, note).]

[Footnote 24: Rosaries are first mentioned in the AV.

Paricista, XLIII. 4. 11 (Leumann, Rosaries).]

[Footnote 25: In Lamaism there is also the tiara-crowned pope, and the transubstantiation theory; the reverence to Virgin and Child, confessions, fasts, purgatory, abbots, cardinals, etc. Compare David's _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 193.]

[Footnote 26: The literature on this subject is very extensive (see the Bibliography). On Buddhism and Christianity see Bohlen's _Altes Indien_, I. 334 (Weber, _Indische Skizzen_, p. 92). At a recent meeting of the British a.s.sociation E.B. Tylor presented a paper in which is made an attempt to show Buddhistic influence on pre-Columbian culture in America. On comparing the Aztec picture-writing account of the journey of the soul after death with Buddhistic eschatology, he is forced to the conclusion that there was direct transmission from Buddhism.

We require more proof than Aztec pictures of h.e.l.l to believe any such theory; and reckon this attempt to those already discussed in the eighth chapter.]

[Footnote 27: It is a mooted question in how far the influence in this line has been reciprocal. See _Indische Studien_, iii. 128.]

[Footnote 28: The S[=a]nkhya has no systematic connection with the 'numbers' of Pythagoras.]

[Footnote 29: Compare on the culvas[=u]tras, Thibaut, J.A.

Beng. xliv. p. 227; Von Schroeder, _Pythagoras und die Inder; Literatur und Cultur_, p. 718 ff, who also cites Cantor, _Geschichte der Mathematik_, p. 540, and refutes the possibility, suggested by the latter, of the loan being from Greece to India on the ground that the culvas[=u]tra are too old to belong to the Alexandrine period, and too essentlal a part of the religious literature to have been borrowed; and also on the ground that they are not an addition to the cr[=a]utas[=u]tra, but they make an independent portion (p.

721, note).]

[Footnote 30: Compare Garbe (_loc. cit_. below), and his _S[=a][.m]khya Philosophic_, p. 94.]

[Footnote 31: This view is not one universally accepted by Sanskrit scholars. See, for instance, Weber, _Die Griechen in Indien_. But to us the minute resemblance appears too striking to be accidental.]

[Footnote 32: La.s.sen, and Weber, _Indische Skizzen, p_. 91.]

[Footnote 33: Garbe, in a recent number of the _Monist_, where is given a _resume_ of the relations between Greek and Hindu philosophical thought.]