r ^ o AA pproved of by the other families of the same Ian. If the common opinion of the majority f the families of one clan be against any act f violation of its long-standing custom, then it lould not be performed. If any one dares to violate such custom, then he forfeits all the privileges which he may have in his family life in the community. He will be deprived of social intercourse and relationship with the clan family and of the protection of the community. This clan family is called in Sanskrit "Gotra". There is no English word by which I can translate this term, the literal meaning of "Gotra" being "lineage", that is, the descendants of common 91 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. ancestors. Originally there were about twenty- four Rishis who were Gotra-makers or makers of clans. They were all sages and Seers of Truth, who lived in the Vedic period and were inspired. The hymns of the Vedas and other holy Scrip- tures in India came through them, and they were leaders as well as clan-makers. We all trace our descent from these great Rishis. Again, the community of many clans is called in Sanskrit "J Mi", Greek "Genus", Roman "Gens", or the patriarchal family in the largest sense of the term. Each community consists of many clans, which live together, obeying the laws of the community. The rules of propriety and impropriety, marriage ceremonies and funeral rites, rituals and ceremonies, amusements and occupations, professions and industries, nay, all the details of social life must be in perfect harmony with the laws and customs which have been handed down through generations to the existing communities. These social laws are called "Jati-Dharma", or the duties of a Jati or community. Each clan family, from the lowest Pariah to the highest Brahmin, is guided 92 THE SOCIAL STATUS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. and governed by the Jati-Dharma. No position, profession, or industry can be accepted by any member of a community if the community as a body disapproves of it. If any member wishes to fulfil a desire, he must first consider whether it is in perfect harmony with the customs of the family (Kula-Dharma), then with the duties of the clan family (Gotra-Dharma), and lastly with the laws of the community (Jati-Dharma); and, after establishing harmony with all these, he can do what he pleases. In case of difference of opinion, whatever the community decides for the family and the individual they must im- plicitly obey. The leaders of the community are the final authorities. The individual sacrifices his freedom for the sake of the family, the interest of the family is merged into that of the clan, and the clan sacrifices its interest for the community. This is a peculiar system of government, but it has existed in India for many centuries. A Hindu from the time of his birth up to his last moment lives a life which may be called a life of self-sacrifice. Whether a man or a woman, 93 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. his or her ideal is not to think of himself or her- self, not to seek his or her own comfort, not to enjoy selfish pleasures, but to live for the good, first, of the family, then of the clan, then of the community. Such is the custom in India. Of course this government by community we find in almost every country in some form and to some extent, but nowhere is it so strict and so perfectly organized as in India. The communities, again, have no social rank or grade among themselves. All communities are equally great and all clans are equally good. Each community is like a small social republic in itself. The rules and customs of one com- munity do not interfere with those of another, and in this respect every community enjoys absolute freedom as a body, but the individuals in it cannot enjoy this freedom. They must obey the laws of their community; and if they violate any existing custom they must go through certain penances and austerities. Otherwise they will be excommunicated, and excommunication is the worst punishment that can be given to a Hindu. He will not be invited by other mem- 94 THE SOCIAL STATUS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. bers of the same community, neither will his invitation be accepted by them. At the time of birth, death, or wedding he will be left alone and absolutely friendless in the world. No other community will take him. Nor can he join another clan, because his birthright prevents him. Such is the rigidity and power of the communal form of social government among the Hindus. Outsiders and foreigners do not understand this government, because they do not belong to any community, and those who do not belong to a community cannot know anything of it. These are unwritten laws. You will not find them in books; but the unwritten laws are more binding than the written laws. Strangers who go to India cannot see the reason why the mem- bers of different communities under the name of Brahmin, Kshatriya, or any other caste do not intermarry or have free social intercourse with one another. There are, for instance, Brahmins all over India; but a Brahmin of Bombay will not intermarry with the Brahmins of Calcutta, or Madras, or the Punjab. Why? Because 95 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. although they are all Brahmins, they do not belong to the same community. Again, all the Brahmins of the Province of Bengal do not intermarry or mix freely or eat together, because they are members of different communities. The descendants of different clans (Gotra) belonging to the same community, however, will inter- marry and have free social intercourse. The tendency of each community is to preserve the clan family intact and to keep the Aryan blood of the individuals in it as pure as possible, and also to make its members live on the highest moral and spiritual plane. The community approves of everything that is truly ethical and uplifting and rejects that which debases the moral and spiritual conduct of the family or individual. Being thus protected by the laws and customs of the community, individual members grow up, rear their children, live in joint families, fulfil their social or rather com- munal duties, enjoy pleasures and amusements, and serve the community by performing such acts as will help other families and members of the same community. If there be a millionaire, 96 THE SOCIAL STATUS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. for example, his duty is to help first his own family, then all the families of his own clan, then other families of the same community. He can then extend his charitable and philanthropic works to the members of other communities or do anything for the good of the public in general. Each community is like one family and tremendous unity exists among its mem- bers. For this reason, there never was any need in India of such philanthropic organizations and asylums as you have in Europe and America. Orphanages, poorhouses, and charitable insti- tutions were not necessary, because the com- munity took care of its own poor and its own orphans. You put the poorer classes in asylums; but we take them into our homes, feed them, and clothe them. That is our duty, because they are our brothers. No grander system was ever established in the world. Hindu leaders of society, after trying various methods, discovered that this form of social government was the best suited for the Hindu people. Their idea was that if all the existing communities into which the whole Hindu popu- 97 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. lation is divided enforced these moral and spiritual laws among the members of the different families then the whole nation would be moral and spiritual; just as the whole street will be clean if every one keeps the front of his house clean. Thus they started from these individual units and built up a system upon natural laws, making one family of the whole nation. But these communities at present are not perfect. They have now become fixed entities; their laws, rules, and ideals have lost their flex- ible nature and have become so rigid and binding that they cannot be changed, for they are considered to represent the highest and best ideals. But the individual living within the limits of the community may change his ideas and adopt new ones, better suited to immediate conditions, which will put him at variance with the communal life and alienate him from his clan family. Herein lies one of the serious defects of the present system. This govern- ment by community, however, is more effective and beneficial than the church government such as we find in this country. Why? Because THE SOCIAL STATUS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. social questions must be kept separate from religion; otherwise there will be religious dis- sension and persecution. And this is the secret of religious toleration in India. Religion is never interfered with on account of social affairs. As I explained in my last lecture, the Hindus are absolutely free to choose any form of worship they like, but that has nothing to do with their social status. The government by community, however imperfect it may be, has at least this advantage, — that it gives freedom in religion and confers upon all the members of these com- munities equal rights, equal privileges, and equal opportunities. Both men and women are al- lowed the same right to discuss and vote upon any disputed question. Each community has its aristocracy, middle classes, and lower classes. The lower and middle classes aspire to rise to the higher ranks of the community and expect favor, help, and support from the superior classes. A man may possess enormous wealth in the community, but he can never change his birthright. Neither will he change his clan (Gotra) or community (Jati). 99 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. No other clan will accept him as a member, no other community will give him better privileges or protection. The social status of a Hindu depends upon the rights which he or she has acquired by birth in the family, clan, and com- munity. There was, for example, a community of fishermen. A lady in that community in- herited a large estate. In India the women hold property, manage their own estates, and in such matters have great freedom. Now this lady had unusual power and ability and she managed her property most admirably. She built temples, performed other charitable and philanthropic works, and did incalculable good by her example to all the members of the families and clans of the same community. She was considered to be like the queen of that community. All of its members honored and respected her as the jewel of their society, as did the communities of Brahmins and other castes ; but she never thought of changing her clan or of rejecting the laws and customs of her own community. These communities, again, are subdivisions of larger classes, which are known in English as 100 THE SOCIAL STATUS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. "castes." The word "caste" has become most mischievous and misleading, and the less we use it the better we shall be able to understand the social conditions of the people of ancient and modern India. The term "caste" is the angli- cized form of the Portuguese word "casta", which means "breed" or "stock." It was first applied by the rough Portuguese sailors of the sixteenth century to certain divisions of the Hindu society. It was originally used in the sense of pure, unmixed breed, but in Sanskrit there is no equivalent of such a word as caste. In the writings of the Hindus, from the Veda s down to the Laws of Manu and the Puranas, we do not find any word which has the same meaning as is conveyed by the term caste, and in India to ask a Hindu what is meant by caste would be Hke asking an American what caste means in America. The Sanskrit word which has been translated (or mistranslated) by caste is "Varna" (color), which implied some eth- nological distinction of' complexion as separat- ing the dominant from the inferior classes, the Aryans from the non- Aryan aboriginal tribes 101 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. of ancient India. Mr. R. C. Dutt says: "The very word 'Varna', which in later Sanskrit in- dicates caste, is used in the Rig Veda to dis- tinguish the Aryans and the non- Aryans, and nowhere indicates separate sections in the Aryan community." * This distinction of color, how- ever, gradually gave rise to separate divisions in the Aryan community itself; as in the Bha- gavad Gita we read: "The Lord has divided the whole human race into four classes, according to their color, qualifications, qualities, and works." f The four original colors of different races were white, red, yellow, and black; and the intermixture of these four original colors has produced all the various race divisions of the world. Among the Aryans those who were white in color were called Brahmins; the red, Kshat- riyas; the yellow, Vaishyas; and the black, Sudras. Again the different qualities and works of these four classes are thus described: "The duties of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, as also of Sudras, are divided in accordance with * Civilization in Ancient India, Vol. I, p. 65. | Chapter IV, verse 13. 102 THE SOCIAL STATUS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. their nature-born qualities. Peace, self-restraint, austerities, purity, forgiveness, and uprightness, knowledge, direct intuition, and faith in God are the natural qualities of the Brahmin. Of the Kshatriyas, bravery, energy, fortitude, dexterity, fleeing not in battle, gift and lordliness are the nature-born qualities. Agriculture, protection of cows, merchandise, and various industries are the nature-born duties of the Vaishyas. Con- scientiousness in menial service is the nature- born duty of the Sudras. A man attains per- fection by performing those duties which he is able to do." * Here you see a man's caste was determined not only by his color but also by his natural qualifications. That was the original idea behind all caste distinctions among the Hindus. It is quite different from the explanation given by foreigners and missionaries. The Brahmins were naturally qualified to fulfil certain duties, and they discharged them faithfully and perfectly. Propelled by a nature- born tendency they devoted themselves to the study of the various branches of science and phi- * Bhagavad Gita, Chapter XVIII, verses 4i~4S- 103 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. losophy, as well as the Vedic Scriptures, and performed the religious rites and ceremonies of all classes of people and other priestly duties. The Kshatriyas were those who became warriors, soldiers, commanders, and rulers of the country. The trades, industries, and agriculture were man- aged by the Vaishyas; while the Sudras were those who were qualified to do only the menial and domestic service in the household life of the other three classes. Thus there arose a complete system of division of labor. To every man his place, work, rank, and remuneration were as- signed. This division was made perhaps during the Vedic period, or perhaps earlier; but we find it given in the Vedas. When the Aryans first in- vaded India from Central Asia they were highly civilized. They knew agriculture, and had won- derful social and political organizations. And when a division of labor became necessary, they divided themselves into different classes in accordance with their natural tendencies. But at first these divisions were flexible and inter- changeable. The social distinctions were not 104 THE SOCIAL STATUS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. iron-bound; neither were the occupations and professions hereditary. We read in the Vedas and other ancient writings of the Hindus that the Brahmins could intermarry with the Kshat- riyas, Vaishyas, and Sudras. They could also become warriors if they were so qualified; while the Kshatriyas often became the teachers of the Brahmins; in fact, most of the philosophical and spiritual ideals which we have to-day were first given by the Kshatriyas, and not by the Brahmins. The members of these classes mixed freely, and whenever any one had the qualifica- tions of a Brahmin or a Kshatriya he was called Brahmin or Kshatriya. There were many Kshat- riyas who were afterward called Brahmins on account of their spiritual wisdom and greatness. You will notice that almost all the incarnations of Divinity in India were Kshatriyas, and very few were Brahmins. Another theory about the origin of caste is given in the Mahabharata. In the Shanti Parva (chs. 188-189) we read: "A sage Bharadvaja asks another sage Bhrigu; "If color is the principle of differentiation of caste in the fourfold caste system, then there 105 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. is indeed seen the confusion of color among all castes; "Desire, anger, fear, avarice, grief, anxiety, hunger, and weariness sway aU of us, how then is the division of caste? "Innumerable are the species of moving and unmoving beings; of these various classes, whence the determination of castes?' "Bhrigu replied: ' 'There is no distinction of castes. The whole world being created by Brahma, in the beginning consisted of Brahmins only. By actions it underwent (the distinctions of) caste. "Those twice-born men or Brahmins, who were fond of the enjoyment of desires, fierce, passionate, and daring in (the pursuit of) desired objects, who had abandoned their own duties, men of ruddy complexion, — these attained the rank of Kshatriyas. ' 'Those twice-born men or Brahmins, who had taken to the profession of tending cattle, who were yellow in color, lived by agriculture, and abode not by their own duties, — these attained the rank of Vaishyas. 106 THE SOCIAL STATUS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. "Those twice-born men or Brahmins, who were fond of killing and telling falsehoods, covet- ous, who lived by all (kinds of) occupations, dark in color, and who abandoned all cleanli- ness, — these attained the rank of Sudras. "Separated by these actions, the twice-born have undergone differentiation into castes." These four main divisions of the Indo-Aryans of the Vedic period, according to their Varna (color) and occupations gradually lost their flexible nature and became a system of hereditary caste as early as six centuries before Christ, when Buddha arose as a great reformer against the separation and distinction of castes. He gave a death-blow to priestly power and equalized all classes of people by breaking down the barriers of this artificial hereditary caste division. Under this system if a Brahmin was a priest, his son must be a priest also; while the son of a Kshat- riya (soldier) must be a soldier. This was of course started at first with the idea of perfecting the different lines of work, and the ancient thinkers and social leaders understood the laws of heredity so thoroughly that they tried 107 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. to develop the best qualities through hereditary transmission. Buddha, however, strove to bring the whole social system into its original simple form and make it as flexible as it was at the outset. He- would not recognize a Brahmin because he was born a Brahmin, but he dis- tinguished all people according to their merits and qualifications. Any one who possessed the beautiful qualities of peace, self-restraint, self- control, righteousness, devotion, love for human- ity, and divine wisdom, was called by him a Brahmin; * and during the period of nearly a thousand years, while Buddhism reigned over India, people of different classes forgot their hereditary caste distinctions and enjoyed social and political freedom. About 600 a.d., however, Buddhism declined, corruptions crept in, and the orthodox Brahmins, regaining their power, reestablished the original social organization in accordance with the hered- itary system of class divisions. Then later the Mahometans came, and for six hundred years tried in vain to destroy the social structure of * Vide Dhammapada, Chapter XXVI. 10S THE SOCIAL STATUS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. the Hindus. Whoever favored the Mahometan ideals was ostracized and excommunicated by the Hindus. Thus Hindu society lost many of its most brilliant men and women. Those who intermarried or associated freely with the Mahom- etans were deprived of all social rights in their community, and under no circumstances could be taken back by the Hindus. Such was the tyranny and abuse of power exercised by the fanatical descendants of the great Aryan Rishis and sages of ancient India. The Brahmins and social leaders of the middle ages were short- sighted and superstitious; they had love of power, they wished to rule over the people and keep them under their control. To-day India would be one of the mightiest nations in the world if these short-sighted orthodox social leaders had not pursued a policy of seclusion and isolation, which resulted in absolute disunion among the members of the different classes of the Hindus. England could not have held her dominant sword over the heads of three hundred millions of people in India if there had been unity among the isolated communities and clans of the four 109 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. divisions. Well has it been said by Sir Monier Monier Williams: "And certainly the antagonism of these caste associations and trade leagues has helped us to govern the country by making political combinations impracticable." * But now the conditions are changing. India of to-day is different from what she was fifty years ago. Education and intellectual progress are opening the eyes of the nation. The cry for social reform is to be heard in every corner of this vast country. People are beginning to see the defects of the existing social organism. The educated classes are now convinced that if the present conditions are allowed to continue the absolute disintegration and complete anni- hilation of the national life will be the inevitable result. Thinking people are no longer satisfied with the seclusion and isolation of the different communities by iron barriers of superstition. They wish to unify all communities into one homogeneous whole, to make every member feel that he is a part and parcel, not merely of a family, clan, or community, not merely a part * Br&hminism and Hinduism, p. 474. 110 THE SOCIAL STATUS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. of a section of the Hindu nation which is limited by color or caste, but a most important part of the Indo-Aryan nation as a whole. The solidarity of all classes and all communities is the aim of the social reformers. The work has begun, but it will take a long time to make this reform effective and universal. To-day the integrity of the social organization is weakened; social chaos and anarchy have prevailed. Fifty years ago every one was proud of his noble birth, but with the hard competi- tion and extreme poverty of the masses, brought about by an alien government, the question of bread and butter has absorbed the whole atten- tion of the people. The people to-day are very poor. They need food and clothes and a shelter over their heads. They have no means to support their families. Their present social status depends upon wealth. A high-class Brahmin, disregarding the ancient tradition and custom of his caste, will now perform the most menial tasks, like cooking in a private house or working as a servant. To-day the question is how to live. A Brahmin again will bow down ill INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. to a Sudra of the lowest class if the latter hap- pens to be rich. Twenty years ago the brother looked upon his elder as his superior, but now he considers him merely as a good companion. The rigors of the social organization, which formerly ensured obedience to authority have been loosened, and every one now feels that he is at liberty to go his own way. The Hindus are passing through a transition period. Social progress is at present checked by the vigorous efforts of an unsympathetic, greedy, selfish, and despotic foreign government, whose heartless officials are sucking the life-blood of the Hindu nation. All the trade guilds and in- dustrial leagues which exercised such tremendous power in the social life of the Hindus have no longer voice or authority in the community. English merchants, protected by the British government, have taken possession of the market, have driven out the native manufacturers, have destroyed the trade and commerce of the country, and have thus ruined millions of people. If you go to India to-day, you will find thousands and thousands, perhaps millions and millions, who 112 THE SOCIAL STATUS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. have no occupation. No industry is encouraged. People are driven to live upon agriculture. The English government wanted to make India an agricultural country and she has succeeded in doing so. The laboring classes in consequence are obliged to live and support their family on from two to five cents a day. What social progress can we expect to see under such destruc- tive power vigorously exercised by the so-called monarch of European civilization? Christian missionaries, blinded by their fanatical zeal to Christianize India, do not see the faults and the demoralizing influence of the present system of despotic government which is ruining the country, but they trace the origin of all social evils to the religion of the Hindus. Directly or indirectly their efforts are to destroy the Hindu social structure, but have they any better system to give in return? We see that the present social government in Europe and in this country is not perfect. It is not even as perfect as the corrupted caste system which exists in India! These Christian missionaries do not realize that the majority of the Christian 113 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. converts in India repent as long as they live for the great mistake they have committed in alienat- ing themselves from the Hindu society. Have they any social standing even among the Chris- tians themselves? Are the negroes of America on an equal footing with the white Christians? No. First let the Christians root out from their hearts the prejudice against race and color. Have they succeeded in doing that? How then can they solve the tremendous social problem which faces the Hindu people? India needs social reconstruction, but will they find that through Christianity? No, Christianity cannot help them, because the Christians know how to destroy, but they do not know how to build — especially in India. They may give their church government, which would be worse in a country like India. The people have suffered enough from priestcraft; they do not want any more of it. India needs social reorganization and social regeneration. The Christians, like the Mahom- etans, have poured their ideals into the sea of Hindu society and have created waves of radical reform. To-day the waters of that social sea 114 THE SOCIAL STATUS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE. are being constantly stirred by the anglicized and half-Europeanized reformers of the present generation. Now the time has come for the Hindu leaders of society to stand on a broader and more universal platform and reconstruct their system, accepting whatever is good and noble among Western nations and adding it to their own lofty ideals. They will have to make their social organization more flexible than it has ever been. That reconstruction must be based upon the broadest and most universal ideals of the Hindu nation, tempered by the need of occidental aggressiveness and commercialism. The remedy has already been discovered in the all-embracing and unifying system of Vedanta, which, proclaiming the divine right of all human- ity irrespective of caste, creed, or color, and teaching that all are children of God, whether Christians or Hindus, Pariahs or Brahmins, will once more purify the social conditions, remove the evils of the caste system, uplift the indi- viduals, bring solidarity among the members of different communities, and make the Hindu nation stand once more as a great civilizing power among the civilized nations of the world. 115 IV. POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. Those who have studied the history of tha civilization of ancient India are well acquainted with the fact that the Hindus were highly civilized at least five thousand years ago. The earliest records of Hindu civilization are to be found in the Rig Veda, the oldest Scriptures of the world, and in other writings of the Vedic period. From these sources we learn, as was shown in the last lecture, that the Indo-Aryans of those prehistoric times organized their society into four general classes: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Sudras, according to their color, qualifications, and professions. The Brahmins were entrusted with literary and priestly duties; while the Kshatriyas were those who devoted their energy to protect the country against in- vaders, to govern the land, and to look after the 116 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. welfare and safety of all the other classes. In- dustry, trade, commerce, agriculture, and the various duties of a commercial life were under- taken by those who were known as the Vaishyas or the merchant class; and the Sudras belonged to the serving class. The Vedic writings also tell us that the Indo- Aryans of those days cultivated the land with ploughs, used oxen and horses in the field, understood irrigation by means of canals, and knew the use of wells and reservoirs for drinking as well as for irrigation. Various kinds of industry, trade, and commerce, as also the existence of current money — like pieces of gold of a certain fixed value, for use in buying and selling are mentioned in the Rig Veda. The Indo-Aryans, we read, furthermore, were con- tinually engaged in fighting against the non- Aryan aboriginal tribes who were the original inhabitants of India, and remnants of whom are still to be found in some parts among the hill tribes, just as you find to-day some of the original inhabitants of America in certain parts of this country. In these battles with hostile 117 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. tribes "the (Aryan) warriors used not only armour and helmets, but also protecting armour for the shoulder, probably shields. They used javelins and battle-axes, and sharp-edged swords, besides bows and arrows. All the weapons of war known elsewhere in ancient times were known in India four thousand years ago. Drums assembled men in battle, banners led them on in compact masses, and the use of war horses and chariots was well known. Tame elephants were in use too." * The Rig Veda contains numerous allusions which show that the use of iron, gold, and of other metals was well known to the Hindus. Armors worn in war are mentioned in Book I, 140, 10; in II, 39, 4; in IV, 53, 2, as in various other places; while the javelin, in Sanskrit Rishti, and the battle-axe, Bashi in Sanskrit, are mentioned in the Rig Veda, V, 52, 6, and 57, 2. Three thousand mailed warriors are spoken of in the same Veda, VI, 27, 6; and sharp-edged swords are described in VI, 47, 10. That the arrowheads were made of iron is shown in * "Civilization in Ancient India," Vol. I, p. 58. 118 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. Book VI, 75, 15: "We extol the arrow which is poisoned whose face is iron," and in the next book (83, 1) we read: "When the battle is nigh and the warrior marches in his armour, he appears like the cloud." It was by ceaseless fighting that the ancient Indo-Aryans protected themselves in their newly- conquered country, extended the limits of cul- tivation, and built new towns and villages. This interminable warring and fighting forced the conquering Aryan tribes to organize their politi- cal and military institutions. Thus the political institutions of the Hindus are as old as their civilization. They divided the country into various kingdoms, principalities, and chiefships, each enjoying perfect autonomy. At the head of each province or kingdom was a Hindu chief or governor, who was called a Rajah, which means "prince" or "king." These Rajahs were absolutely independent of one another. They entertained friendly relations with the Rajahs of other neighboring provinces, and sometimes they were jealous of each other. But there never was a universal sovereignty over the whole of 119 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. India, like that of the great autocrat of Russia, although there were powerful monarchs and emperors to whom other kings, chiefs, and governors of states acknowledged subordination and paid tribute. Their autonomy, however, was never sacrificed. Their alliances generally bore the character of confederacies, or federal unions, and not that of feudal baronies subject to a ruling chief; and under no circumstances were the servile duties of the feudal barons of Europe exacted from the weaker Rajahs or governors. The bond between them was of the feeblest kind, and easily broke at every favorable opportunity. In the Vedic period, there were many such emperors or Chakravartins, as they were called in Sanskrit. In the Ramayana we read that Rama was the emperor of Ayodhya (modern Oudh), and his power extended all over northern and southern India as far down as Ceylon. From the Mahabharata, which contains the history of the Hindus who lived as early as 1400 B.C., we learn that Yudhishthira became the emperor of India after the battle of Kuruk- shetra. His successors, Parikshit, Janmejaya, 120 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. and many others, were known as emperors. These emperors had a number of Rajahs under them, who paid allegiance and tribute to them. But their bond could break at any time for very insignificant causes. When Alexander the Great invaded India, there was on the throne the most powerful Buddhist emperor, Chandra Gupta, whose capital was Pataliputra, modern Patna, on the river Ganges. His grandson was Asoka, who lived in 260 B.C. and became the most celebrated emperor of those days. He was like Constantine the Great among the Buddhists. He made Buddhism the state religion of India; he sent missionaries from Siberia to Ceylon, from China to Egypt, and made treaties with kings of foreign countries. One of the edicts of Asoka, which were written during his lifetime, says that he made treaties with five Greek kings who were his contem- poraries, namely, Antiochus of Syria, Ptolemaos of Egypt, Antigonus of Macedon, Magus of Cyrene, and Alexander of Epiros; and he sent missionaries to those places, as far as Alexandria, to preach the Gospel of Buddha. 121 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. Alexander the Great, however, invaded only the northwestern corner of India, and defeated in one battle some of the hill-tribes, but after- wards, when he heard of the power and strength of Chandra Gupta, he withdrew his troops and returned to Greece. His successor, Seleucus, sent the Greek ambassador Megasthenes, who lived for several years at the court of this great em- peror. From the accounts of Megasthenes, which are the most authentic historical records that we can gather from an outsider, we learn many facts about the political institutions of the Hindus as witnessed by a foreigner during the fourth century B.C. Megasthenes left a valuable record of the actual work of administra- tion as observed by him. He says: "Those who have charge of the city are divided into six bodies of five each. The members of the first look after everything relating to the industrial arts. Those of the second attend to the enter- tainment of foreigners. To those they assign lodgings, and they keep watch over their modes of life by means of those persons whom they give to them for assistants. They escort them 122 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. on the way when they leave the country, or, in the event of their dying, forward their property to their relatives. They take care of them when they are sick, and, if they die, bury them. The third body consists of those who inquire when and how births and deaths occur, with a view not only of levying a tax, but also in order that births and deaths among both high and low may not escape the cognizance of government. The fourth class superintends trade and com- merce. Its members have charge of weights and measures, and see that the products in their season are sold by public notice. No one is allowed to deal in more than one kind of com- modity unless he pays a double tax. The fifth class supervises manufactured articles, which they sell by public notice. What is new is sold separately from what is old, and there is a fine for mixing the two together. The sixth and last class consists of those who collect the tenths of the prices of the articles sold." The military officers "also consist of six divi- sions, with five members to each. One division is appointed to cooperate with the admiral of 123 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. the fleet; another with the superintendent of the bullock-trains which are used for transporting engines of war, food for the soldiers, provender for the cattle, and other military requisites. . . . The third division has charge of the foot- soldiers, the fourth of the horses, the fifth of the war-chariots, and the sixth of the ele- phants." In addition to the military and municipal officers, there was a third class whose duty was to superintend agriculture, irrigation, forests, and the general work of administration in rural dis- tricts. "Some superintend the rivers, measure the land, as is done in Egypt, and inspect the sluices by which water is let out from the main canals into their branches, so that every one may have an equal supply of it. The same per- sons have charge also of the huntsmen, and are entrusted with the power of rewarding or pun- ishing them according to their deserts. They collect the taxes, and superintend the occupa- tions connected with land, as those of the wood- cutters, the carpenters, the blacksmiths, and the miners. They construct roads, and at every 124 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. ten stadia set up a pillar to show the by-roads and distances." * The laws of war among the Hindus were more humane than among the other nations of the world, and Megasthenes mentions this fact. All these Rajahs governed their country in accordance with their laws and for the welfare of their people, and what accounts we get from Megasthenes are exactly the same as those we read in Manu, Apastamba, and other Sanskrit law-books of an- cient time. Regarding the military law, or the laws of war, the Hindu lawgiver Apastamba says: "The Aryans forbid the slaughter of those who have laid down their arms, of those who beg for mercy with flying hair or joined hands, and of fugitives." (II, 5, 10, n.) "Let him not fight with those who are in fear, intoxicated, insane or out of their minds, nor with those who have lost their armour, nor with women, infants, aged men, and Br&hmins." (Bodhayana, I, 10, 18, ii.) "The wives of slain soldiers were always provided for." (VasishthaXIX, 20.) Megasthenes says: "For whereas among other „*MacCrindle's Translation. 125 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. nations it is usual, in the contests of war, to ravage the soil, and thus to reduce it to an uncultivated waste, among the Indians, on the contrary, by whom husbandmen are regarded as a class that is sacred and inviolable, the tillers of the soil, even when battle is raging in the neighborhood, are undisturbed by any sense of danger. . . . Besides, they (the warriors) never ravage an enemy's land with fire nor cut down its trees. They never use the conquered as slaves." * The duties of the king, according to the law- giver Manu, were "to protect his subjects, to deal impartial justice, and to punish the wrong- doer." (VII, 12, 16.) These were the three principal duties. "Drinking, gambling and licen- tiousness, and hunting were the most perni- cious faults of the king." (VII, 50.) The private life of kings is described by Manu thus: "The king should rise in the last watch of the night, and, having performed his personal puri- fication and devotional exercises, he should enter the hall of audience in the morning. There he * MacCrindle's Translation. 126 , POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. should gratify all subjects who come to see him, and, having dismissed them, he should take counsel with his ministers in a private chamber." (VII, 145-147.) "When the consultation is over, then he is ready to take care of his physical needs, meals, and so on." But his first duty is to give an audience to his subjects and to gratify their demands. "In the afternoon, the king should review his army, inspect his fighting-men, his chariots, animals, and weapons, and then perform his twilight devotions. After this he should give audience to his secret spies and hear private reports." (VII, 221-225.) "The king was al- ways assisted by his council of seven or eight ministers," as we read in the laws of Manu (VII, 54-63), "who were versed in sciences, skilled in the use of weapons, and descended from noble and well-tried families. Such ministers used to advise the king in matters of peace and war, revenue and religious gifts. The king also employed suitable persons for the collecting of revenue, and in mines, manufactories, and store- houses; and he employed ambassadors for car- rying on negotiations with rulers." For the 127 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. protection of villages and towns, separate officers were appointed. The king appointed a lord over each village, over ten villages, lords of twenty, of a hundred, and of a thousand villages; and these lords were not merely governors, but they used to check crime and protect the villages. These were the special duties of these special officers. They were like superintendents. Simi- larly, each town had its superintendent of all affairs, who personally inspected the work of all officials and got secret information about their behavior and private character, because the Hindu law says: "The servants of the king, who are appointed to protect the people, gener- ally become knaves, who seize the property of others; let him protect his subjects against such men.' (Manu, VII, 115-123.) From this you will see that, in ancient times, government offi- cials used to become knaves, as they do now in a highly civilized country like America. Think of the time when this law was written, — centuries before Christ! The income of the state from the royal demesnes was supplemented by taxes. Manu fixes an 128 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. income tax of two per cent on cattle and gold. The land revenue varied from one-sixth to one-eighth or one-twelfth of the crops,* and this was much less than the land-revenue tax under British rule. Under the Hindu rule, the king was strictly prohibited from exacting excessive taxation. He was allowed to take one-sixteenth part of the price made on butter, earthen vessels and stone wares, and might exact a day's service in each month from arti- sans, mechanics, and other working-people; that is, one day in a month these people would give their service free. Of course, they were maintained by the king, that is, they were fed by the king at that time; and with this institu- tion, in ancient times, they could erect wonderful buildings, palaces, and monuments for public use, which now they cannot do because the cost is so great. All these and other laws regarding administra- tion and taxation show that an advanced sys- tem of government prevailed in India before the beginning of the Christian era. Megasthenes, * Vide Civilization in Ancient India, Vol. II, p. 102. 129 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. who lived in India in the fourth century before Christ, as also the Chinese travellers, Fa Hian, who visited India about 400 a.d., and Houen Tsang, who came to India about 630 a.d. and resided there for nearly fifteen years, spoke in the highest terms of praise of the govern- ment and administration of the Hindu Rajahs. Frequently we hear that the Hindus were so badly governed at that time that they had no peace or justice and were constantly engaged in fighting; but these witnesses of other nations, who came from other countries and lived in India, left records which speak differently. They do not cite one single instance of a people being ground down by taxes, or harassed by the arbitrary acts of kings, or ruined by famines, plagues, or internecine wars. On the contrary, they say: "The people were happy, prosperous, enjoying peace and justice. Agriculture flour- ished, the fine arts were cultivated." Houen Tsang, in his diary, which has been translated into English by Samuel Beal, wrote thus, de- scribing the administration of India: "As the administration of the country is conducted on 130 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. benign principles, the executive is simple. . . . The private demesnes of the crown are divided into four principal parts: the first is for carry- ing out the affairs of state and providing sac- rificial offerings; the second is for providing subsidies for the ministers and chief officers of state; the third is for rewarding men of dis- tinguished ability; and the fourth is for charity to religious bodies, whereby the field of merit is cultivated. In this way the taxes on the peo- ple are light, and the personal service required of them is moderate. Each one keeps his own worldly goods in peace, and all till the ground for their subsistence. Those who cultivate the royal estates pay a sixth part of the produce as tribute. The merchants who engage in com- merce come and go in carrying out their trans- actions. The river passages and the road bar- riers are open on payment of a small toll. When the public works require it, labour is exacted, but paid for. The payment is in strict pro- portion to the work done. "The military guard the frontiers, or go out to punish the refractory. They also mount 131 INDIA. AND HER PEOPLE. guard at night round the palace. The soldiers are levied according to the requirements of the service; they are promised certain payments, and are publicly enrolled. The governors, min- isters, magistrates, and officials have each a portion of land assigned to them for their per- sonal support." Houen Tsang also says that tributary kings from China sent hostages to Kanishka, the great Buddhist emperor, who reigned in Kashmir (Northwestern India) about 78 a.d., and he treated them with special favor, and set apart for their residence that portion of the country which afterwards was named Chinapati. The Chinese introduced the pear and the peach into India, "wherefore the peach is called Chinani and the pear is called Chinarajaputra (son of the Chinese monarch)." Such political conditions existed in India from the time of Megasthenes down to Houen Tsang; that means from nearly the fourth century B.C. to the seventh century A. d. Besides these, the most remarkable feature of the political organi- zation of ancient India was the village com- 132 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. munity and municipal institutions. This village community was called "Panchayat," or com- mittee of five. There was originally a commit- tee of five, then afterwards it was increased to twelve. Each community formed itself into an independent little republic, which managed its own affairs and governed itself, but which was bound to the central government by the regular payment of an assessment or tax on the produce. Each district, again, was divided into territories which were governed by the village community, or "Panchayat." Under this self-government by community, every individual member en- j oyed absolute political freedom and independence . Each had full voice in the government. This government by Panchayat is described in Manu and in other law-books of ancient India, and it has always existed among the Hindus. The people first elected their head-man, or president, who was a kind of mayor, and who was paid by a fixed proportion of land. He was the chairman of the village or town council, and used to call regular meetings. The next important officer of the community was the notary, or local at- 133 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. torney, who transacted the village business and kept an account of the land and produce, the rents and assessments. Then there was a Brahmin priest, a village schoolmaster, a barber, a carpenter, a blacksmith, a cowman, a shoe- maker, a potter, a washerman, a druggist, an oilman, the watchman, and the sweeper. These made up the village community. These mem- bers discussed and managed the whole affairs of the territory. From the time of Manu, or from at least four hundred years before Christ, this form of muni- cipal institution has existed in India, undisturbed by foreign invasions and political convulsions, internal wars, famine, plague, or earthquake. Sir Monier Monier Williams says: "And here I may observe that no circumstance in the history of India is more worthy of investigation than the antiquity and permanence of her village and municipal institutions. The importance of the study lies in the light thereby thrown on the parcelling out of rural society into autonomous institutions, like those of our own English parishes, wherever Aryan races have occupied the soil 134 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. in Asia or in Europe. The Indian village or township, meaning thereby not merely a col- lection of houses forming a village or town, but a division of territory, perhaps three or four miles or more in extent, with its careful dis- tribution of fixed occupations for the common good, with its intertwining and inter-dependence of individual, family, and communal interests, with its provision for political independence and autonomy, is the original type, the first germ, of all the divisions of rural and civic society in mediaeval and modern Europe. It has existed almost unaltered since the description of its organization in Manu's code, two or three cen- turies before the Christian era. It has sur- vived all the religious, political, and physical convulsions from which India has suffered from time immemorial. Invader after invader has ravaged the country with fire and sword, . . . but the simple, self-contained Indian township has preserved its constitution intact, its customs, precedents, and peculiar institutions, unchanged and unchangeable, amid all other changes." * * Brihminism and Hinduism, p. 455. 135 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. During the Mahometan rule of six hundred years, all these political institutions of the Hindus remained unaltered. They were never modified or disturbed. The Hindu villagers did not know that they were governed by the Mahometans. The throne was occupied by a Mahometan or Mogul emperor, to whom the native Rajahs and queens paid tribute, but beyond that they had no obligation; they were quite independent. Each Rajah had his own laws, his own court, and his own separate administration. The government of the country according to the Hindu system has always been continued in the native states. Even at the present time there are native states governed by Hindu Rajahs where you will still find this kind of government. The Mahometans never gained absolute control over the whole of India. Before the advent of the British rule, the administra- tion of justice, the repression of crime, and other functions of the police, the collection of cesses and taxes, were all carried out by the govern- ment of the village community. To-day in British India this self-government of the Hindus has 136 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. been destroyed by the short-sighted policy of the British autocrats, and its place has been given to a most costly system of judicial administration, unparalleled in the history of the world. They talk about English justice. Of course there is justice in English government, but it is very expensive and one-sided. Indians have justice among Indians, but if an Indian's rights are outraged by a European he cannot hope for similar justice. The poorer classes, furthermore, cannot pay for justice under any conditions; it is too expensive. The present oppression of the police and the cruelty of revenue collectors under British management have already driven the masses to the verge of absolute despair and rebellion. Many people in this country think that England conquered India by force of arms, but history tells us that some English merchants first came to India to trade at the time when the Mahometan power was in its decline, and the Hindus were fighting against the Mahometans to throw off their yoke and reestablish Hindu power upon the throne of Delhi. At this time of anarchy 137 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. and revolution, these British traders, under the name of the East India Company, took the side of the Mahometans and gained the confidence of the last of the Mogul emperors, who was then merely a titular sovereign. He had lost all power; nobody obeyed him. As a return for what he had received from the East India Com- pany and as a favor to Lord Clive, this last of the Mogul emperors, in 1765, gave a charter making the East India Company of British traders the Dewan, or administrators, of Bengal. Though the Great Mogul had no real power to do such a thing, still, as long as he was the titular sovereign of India, his charter gave the East India Company a legal status in the country. The officers of the Company held that charter in their hands wherever they went. Lord Clive himself, in his letter to the Court of Directors from Calcutta dated September 30, 1765, writes: "The assistance which the Great Moghal had received from our arms and treasury made him readily bestow this grant upon the Company." "I mean the Dewanee, which is the superinten- dency of all the lands and the collection of all 138 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. the revenues of the provinces of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa." These three provinces first came into the hands of the East India Company, and at that period the revenue from them was enormous. Lord Give writes again: "Your revenues, by means of this acquisition, will, as near as I can judge, not fall far short, for the ensuing year, of 250 lacks of Sicca Rupees,* including your former possession of Burdwan, etc. Hereafter they will at least amount to twenty or thirty lacks more. Your civil and military expenses in time of peace can never exceed sixty lacks of Rupees; the Nabob's allowances are already reduced to forty- two lacks, and the tribute to the king (the Great Moghal) at twenty-six; so that there will be remaining a clear gain to the Company of 122 lacks of Sicca Rupees, or £1,650,900 sterling." f "An annual remittance of over a million and a half sterling was to be made from a subject country to the shareholders (of the East India Company) in Engliand." t * Three rupees make one dollar; a. lack was 100,000 rupees. t House of Commons Third Report, 1773, Appendix, PP- 39 J -398. I Economic History of British India, p. $g. 139 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. This was the beginning of British empire in India. That annual remittance has now in- creased and swelled to nearly thirty million pounds sterling. "The scheme of administration intro- duced by Clive was a sort of dual government. The collection of revenues was still made for the (Mahometan) Nawab's exchequer; justice was still administered by the Nawab's officers; and all transactions were covered by the mask of the Nawab's authority. But the East India Com- pany, the real masters of the country, derived all the profits; and the Company's servants practised unbounded tyranny for their own gain, overawing the Nawab's servants, and converting his tribunals of justice into instruments for the prosecution of their own purposes.* It is a long story; time will not permit me to describe the harrowing tales of the foul and treacherous methods which were adopted by the unworthy representatives of the English people, under the name of the East India Company, to secure for their motherland a market-place for her trade and commerce, and to bring benefit and prosperity * Economic History of British India, p. 42. 140 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. to the British nation, which was at that time the poorest nation in Europe. Those who have read the impeachment of Warren Hastings by Burke, as also impartial students of the history of the East India Company, are already acquainted with the brutal policy of the Company, which has ruined the most prosperous country of India. Zemindars were dispossessed of their hereditary rights, their lands were let to the highest bidder by public auction, trade and manufacture were destroyed by monopoly and coercion, prohibitive duties were charged on manufactured articles, etc. Terrible famines began for the first time with the British rule in India. In 1770 there was a terrible famine in the district of Purneah, in Bengal, in which above one-third of the popula- tion died of starvation; but the revenue from land-tax was exacted with such tyranny and oppression that even during that famine it was larger than in previous years. On the 9th of May, 1770, the Calcutta Council wrote to the Court of Directors : ' 'The famine which has ensued, the mortality, the beggary, exceed all description. 141 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. Above one-third of the inhabitants have perished in the once plentiful province of Purneah, and in other parts the misery is equal." On the 12th of February, 1771, they wrote: "Notwith- standing the great severity of the late famine, and the great reduction of the people thereby, some increase has been made in the settlements (of taxes) both of the Bengal and the Behar provinces for the present year." * Mr. Dutt says in his Economic History of India: "Famines in India are directly due to a deficiency in the annual rainfall; but the intensity of such famines and the loss of lives caused by them are largely due to the chronic poverty of the people. If the people were generally in a prosperous condition, they could make up for local failure of crops by purchases from neighboring provinces, and there would be no loss of life. But when the people are absolutely resourceless, they cannot buy from surrounding tracts, and they perish in hundreds of thousands, or in millions, whenever there is a local failure of crops." f * Extracts from India Office Records quoted in Hun- ter's "Annals of Rural Bengal," 1868, pp. 21, 399. tP. 51- 142 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. The reports of the Indian Famine Commissions of 1880 and 1898 show that between i860 and 1900, that is, within forty years, there were ten widespread famines in India. In i860 a famine broke out in Northern India and the loss of life was estimated at 200,000, but was probably much larger; in 1866 a famine in Orissa carried off one-third of the population, or about a million people; in 1869 there was another famine in Northern India, during which at least 1,200,000 people died; in 1874 Bengal was visited by famine, but the land-tax in this province is light and is -permanently settled; the people are therefore comparatively prosperous and resource- ful, and there was no loss of life from this famine. The land-tax of Madras, on the contrary, is heavy and is enhanced from time to time, and the people are poor and resourceless; when, therefore, a famine broke out there in 1877, ^ ve millions perished. A third famine in Northern India in 1878 cost the lives of 1,250,000 people; and during the famine of 1889 in Madras and Orissa the loss of life was very severe, but no official figures are available. In 1892, again, 143 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. there was a famine in Madras, Bengal, Burma, and Rajputana, causing a heavy loss of life in Madras but none in Bengal. In 1897 famine swept over all Northern India, Bengal, Burma, Madras, and Bombay. The number of people on relief works alone rose to three millions in the worst months. Deaths were prevented in Bengal and elsewhere, but in the Central Provinces the death rate rose from an average of thirty-three per mille to sixty-nine per mille during the year. The famine of 1900 in the Punjab, Rajputana, the Central Provinces, and Bombay was the most widespread ever known in India. The number of persons relieved rose to six millions in the worst months. In Bombay, in the famine camps, so Sir A. P. Macdonnell, President of the Famine Commission, reported, the people "died like flies." "The results of the three famines within the last ten years (1891- 1901), and of the increasing poverty of the people, are shown in the census taken in March, 1901. The population of India has remained stationary during the last ten years. There is a slight increase in Bengal, Madras, and Northern 144 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. India, while there is an actual decrease of some millions in Bombay, the Central Provinces, and the Native States affected by recent famines. In other words, the population of India to-day is less by some thirty millions than it would have been if the nominal increase of one per cent per annum had taken place during these ten years." * Warren Hastings, who had succeeded Clive as Governor of Bengal, was made first Governor- General in 1772. Pitt's India Bill became a law in 1784. It removed the administration of the East India Company from the hands of directors and placed it under the control of the crown, thus compelling some reforms. Lord Cornwallis then became the successor of Warren Hastings. The policy of all of the governor- generals under the East India Company was to extend the British territory, to absorb the Native States by declaring war on the slightest pretence, to increase the revenue, and to drain the country of her resources. "The people of India have no votes, and are not even represented in the * Indian Famines, by R. C. Dutt, p. ^. 145 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. Executive Councils of India. They have no voice in the matter of taxation or of expenditure. They have no share in the work of adjusting the finances of India. Taxation exceeds all reason- able limits in India, and the proceeds of the taxation are not all spent in India. A large sum, estimated between twenty and thirty millions in English money, is annually drained from India to this country (England). The disastrous results of this annual drain have been described by many English writers and admin- istrators throughout the century which has just closed." * Sir Thomas Munro, for some time Governor of Madras, after forty years' experience in India, wrote in 1824: "They (natives of India) have no share in making laws for themselves; little in administering them, except in very sub- ordinate offices; they can rise to no high station, civil or military; they are everywhere regarded as an inferior race, and more often as vassals or servants than as the ancient owners and masters of the country. . . . All the civil and military offices of any importance are now held by Euro- * Indian Famines, by R. C. Dutt, p. 10. 146 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. peans, whose savings go to their own country." Mr. Frederick John Shore, of the Bengal Civil Service, wrote in 1837: "The halcyon days of India are over; she has been drained of a large proportion of the wealth she once possessed, and her energies have been cramped by a sordid system of misrule, to which the interests of millions have been sacrificed for the benefit of the few." Professor H. H. Wilson, the noted English historian, also says of the annual drain from India: "Its transfer to England is an abstraction of Indian capital for which no equiv- alent is given; it is an exhausting drain upon the country, the issue of which is paid by no reflux; it is an extraction of the life-blood from the veins of national industry, which no subse- quent introduction of nourishment is furnished to restore." John Sullivan, at one time a Mem- ber of the Government of Madras and President of the Board of Revenue, writes thus in one of his reports: "As to the complaints which the people of India have to make of the present fiscal system, I do not conceive that it is the amount, altogether, that they have to complain 147 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. of. I think that they have rather to com- plain of the application of that amount. Under their own dynasties, all the revenue that was collected in the country was spent in the country; but under our rule, a large proportion of the revenue is annually drained away, and without any return being made for it; this drain has been going on now for sixty or seventy years, and it is rather increasing than the reverse. . . Our system acts very much like a sponge, drawing up all the good things from the banks of the Ganges, and squeezing them down on the banks of the Thames. . . They (the people of India) have no voice whatever in imposing the taxes which they are called upon to pay, no voice in framing the laws which they are bound to obey, no real share in the administration of their own country; and they are denied those rights from the insolent and insulting pretext that they are wanting in mental and moral qualifications for the discharge of such duties." * The British administrators, in the first part of the nineteenth century, did all they could to * Report of the Select Committee, p. 402. 148 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. promote English industries at the sacrifice of Indian industries; for the policy of English ad- ministration in India is shaped, not by states- men and philosophers, but by merchants, traders, and manufacturers, who are the voters of Great Britain. British manufactures were forced into India through the agency of the Company's Governor-General and commercial residents, while Indian manufactures were shut out from England by prohibitive tariffs, as the following table will show. "Petitions were vainly presented to the House of Common against these unjust and enormous duties on the import of Indian manufactures into England. One petition against the duties on sugar and spirits was signed by some four hundred European and Indian merchants," * and it was rejected by the British Government in England. The policy of England was to make Great Britain independent of foreign countries for the raw material upon which her valuable manufactures depend, and to make India the producer of raw materials for English manufac- * Economic History of India, p. 294. 149 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. o o o o o o o CO H W CN W)fO« a, a, o £ « P o -t^ o'a w O cu CO o o OT rt ^ g^s-^ftl ^* CD w 3_, *i (-< CO £ft w a .5 "to H r/5 a a) a e 3 In Thousands of Rupees. Total Salaries of Natives. Total Salaries of Eura- sians. Total Salaries of Euro- peans. Civil department. . . Military 55 i 3 i IO i 4 I2II 854 2 39 9 947 12 33 10 151 II 45 25. 2 74 13,268 3.415 113 Incorporated local 6o iS 2 3 J 3 1002 207 42,070 Besides these 105 officers drawing Rs., 10,000 a year or more are employed by the railway companies; they are all Europeans, and their salaries amount to 16 lacks and 28 thousand rupees (about $542,667). Among the officers, who are paid between Rs. 5000 and Rs. 10,000 a year, we find 421 natives in the civil department as against 1207 Europeans and 96 Eurasians. In the military department 25 natives are employed and 1699 Europeans and 22 Eurasians; while, in the Department of Public Works, there are 85 natives, as against 549 Europeans and 3 Eurasians. Mr. Alfred Webb (late M.P.), who has studied the subject with care, says: "In charges for the 157 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. India Office (in London); for recruiting (in Great Britain, for soldiers to serve in India); for civil and military pensions (to men now living in England, who were formerly in the Indian service); for pay and allowances on furloughs (to men on visits to England); for private remit- tances and consignments (from India to England); for interest on Indian Debt (paid to parties in England); and for interest on railways and other works (paid to shareholders in England), — there is annually drawn from India, and spent in the United Kingdom, a sum calculated at from £25,000,000 to £30,000,000" (between $125,000,- 000 and $150,000,000). It would have been bad enough if this drain had continued for a few years, or even for one year, but it began with the day when India came under England's power and has been kept up ever since. Of this Mr. Brooks Adams writes: "Very soon after Plassey (fought in 1757) the Bengal plunder began to arrive in London, and the effect seems to have been almost instan- taneous. . . . Possibly since the world began, no investment has ever yielded the profit reaped 158 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. from the Indian plunder." * The stream of wealth ruthlessly drawn from the conquered people of India, and poured from Indian treasuries into English banks, between Plassey and Waterloo (fifty-seven years), has been variously calculated at from £500,000,000 to £1,000,000,000. The "Westminster Gazette" of London, April 24, 1900, estimates the drain from India to England, during the closing twenty-five years of the nineteenth century, to have been £500,000,000 ($2,500,000,000). It would be impossible to believe these enormous figures if they were not taken from authentic records. Can we wonder that India to-day is so impoverished? Could any nation withstand so merciless and unceasing a drain upon its resources? The popular belief is, that England has sunk her enormous capital in the development of India; but the truth is, that England has not spent a cent in governing India. (Compare this with the Colonial Governments.) The In- dian Government means to-day the government of a bureaucracy, which includes the Viceroy * Law of Civilization and Decay, pp. 259-264. 159 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. and the Members of the Executive Council, the Commander-in-Chief, the Military Mem- ber, the Home Member, the Public Works Mem- ber, the Finance Member, and the Legal Mem- ber. The people are not represented in this Council; their agriculture, their landed interests, their trades and industries, are not represented; there is not, and never has been, a single Indian member in the Council. The members are high English officials, who draw large salaries and get pensions for life after their service is over. Then in each large Indian province there is a Legislative Council, and some of the members of these smaller councils are elected under the Act of 1892. The principal function of the Legislative Council is legislation. In theory it exercises control over finance, but in prac- tice the budget is submitted to the autocracy merely for criticism; the representatives, how- ever, can exercise no control over its being passed. The Council consists of twenty-five members, four of whom are Indians, recommended by 160 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. certain constituencies but appointed by the Viceroy. He has the power to appoint any one he pleases. He calls them elected, for the pur- pose of argument. The four Indians sit at one end of the table and the Englishmen at the other end. Beginning with the Indians, each one reads the speech he has prepared in order of seniority, each speech being prepared with- out knowledge of what the others will say, consequently without reference to what they have said. There is no real discussion. The Viceroy may turn its course as he pleases. The representatives cannot produce any impression on the Council, nor can they divide the Council or shape the decision in any way. It is indeed no representation of the natives in the proper sense of the term. The Viceroy of India is under the orders of the Indian Secretary of State, who is a mem- ber of the English Cabinet. The Secretary of State lives in England, six thousand miles away from the governed people. He is assisted by a Council of ten retired Anglo-Indian officials, who seek the interest of their own nation. The 161 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. whole system is, as Sir William Hunter calls it, an "oligarchy" which does not represent the people. The government of India is as despotic as it is in Russia, because three hundred millions of people who are governed have neither voice nor vote in the government. The interest of the British nation is the first aim of the present system of government. People pay heavy taxes of all kinds, and that is all. The government sends out expeditions to Soudan, Egypt, China, Tibet, and other places outside of India, and then the poor people of India are forced to pay the enormous cost of these expeditions, amounting to millions of dollars.* The land- tax, income tax, and various kinds of taxes are higher than in any other civilized part of the world. "In India the State virtually in- terferes with the accumulation of wealth from the soil, intercepts the incomes and gains of the tillers, and generally adds to its land-revenue demand at each recurring settlement, leaving the cultivators permanently poor. In England, in * Vide India in the Victorian Age, p. 604. 162 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. German}', in the United States, in France, and other countries, the State widens the income of the people, extends their markets, opens out new sources of wealth, identifies itself with the nation, grows richer with the nation. In India the State has fostered no new industries and revived no old industries for the people; on the other hand, it intervenes at each recur- ring land settlement to take what it considers its share out of the produce of the soil." * "But the land-tax levied by the British Gov- ernment is not only excessive, but, what is worse, it is fluctuating and uncertain in many prov- inces. In England, the land-tax was between one shilling and four shillings in the pound, i.e., between 5 and 20 per cent, of the rental, during a hundred years before 1798, when it was made perpetual and redeemable by William Pitt. In Bengal the land-tax was fixed at over 90 per cent, of the rental, and in Northern India at over 80 per cent, of the rental, between 1793 and 1822." f * Economic History of British India, p. xi. t Ibid. p. ix. 163 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. To-day the masses of people in India live on from two to five cents a day and support their families with these earnings. Expecting to have their grievances removed by the government, they have been agitating for the last twenty years by calling annual public meetings and special public meetings, where the best classes of edu- cated people have been represented. Although the Indian Government has spared no pains to stop all such agitations, still the people have been passing resolutions and sending them to the Viceroy and to the Secretary of State. Not one single word of encouragement has ever come from the despotic rulers, who are deter- mined to follow the steps of the Russians in their methods of administration. Indeed, Sir Henry Cotton says: "Even the Russian Gov- ernment, which we are accustomed to look upon as the ideal of autocracy, is not such a typical autocracy as the Government of India." Ambitious, unsympathetic young civilians go out to India for a few years to exploit the country, satisfy their greed and self-interest, and return home to live like lords, drawing upon the taxes 164 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. of the impoverished millions. I will give you an illustration of Lord Curzon's administra- tion. Lord Curzon was the most unpopular Viceroy ever in India. His policy was one of interference and distrust. He is no believer in free institutions or in national aspirations. He took away the freedom of the press, which was steadily gaining in weight and importance, by passing the Official Secrets Act. The policy of his administration was to keep all civil as well as all military movements of the government secret. He sent the expedition to Tibet. He wasted the resources of the country on the vain show and pomposity of the Durbar while millions were dying of famine and plague. He condemned the patriotic and national spirit of the Indians, and lastly he carried out the Roman policy of divide and rule by partitioning the Province of Bengal, simply to cripple the unity of the educated natives, as also of seventy mil- lions of inhabitants. All these and many acts he carried out with such despotism and high- handedness, against the unanimous opinion of seventy million people, that they were driven to 165 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. boycott all English goods and manufactures. The fire of boycott has spread all over the country, like wildfire in a forest. The people have unanimously appealed to the Viceroy and to the Secretary of State again and again, but all the higher officials of India and England have turned deaf ears to them. It is to be hoped that this boycott will bring the English auto- crats and despots to their senses. The people of India are loyal and peace-loving, but they are discontented and impoverished after carrying for one hundred and fifty years the burden of an unsympathetic alien government. There would have been continuous rebellion and mutiny had they not so long depended upon passive resistance with the expectation that some day the famous proclamation of the late Queen Victoria would be carried into effect. On the morrow of the dark mutiny Queen Victoria proclaimed: "We desire no extension of our present terri- torial possessions; and, while we will permit no aggression upon our dominions or our rights to be attempted with impunity, we shall sanc- 166 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. tion no encroachment on those of others. We shall respect the rights, dignity, and honor of Native Princes as our own; and we desire that they, as well as our own subjects, should enjoy that prosperity and social advancement which can only be secured by internal peace and good government. "We hold ourselves bound to the Natives of our Indian territories by the same obligations of duty which bind us to all our subjects, and those obligations, by the blessing of Almighty God, we shall faithfully and conscientiously fulfil. "Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of Christianity, and acknowledging with gratitude the solace of religion, we disclaim alike the right and the desire to impose our convictions on any of our subjects. We declare it to be our royal will and pleasure that none be anywise favored, none molested or disquieted, by reason of their religious faith and observances, but that all shall alike enjoy the equal and impar- tial protection of the law; and we do strictly charge and enjoin all those who may be in 167 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. authority under us that they abstain from all interference with the religious belief and wor- ship of any of our subjects, on pain of our high- est displeasure. "And it is our further will that, so far as may be, our subjects, of whatever race or creed, be freely and impartially admitted to offices in our service, the duties of which they may be qualified, by their education, ability, and in- tegrity, duly to perform." (Lord Curzon, however, openly declared that all Indians were disqualified by reason of their race.) This proclamation was repeated by King Edward VII on the day of his coronation. But have the Anglo-Indian bureaucracy shown any desire to do the things which were promised by the late Empress and the present Emperor, King Edward? No. People have now organized themselves, have sent delegates to England and America, and have awakened to the truth of what John Stuart Mill said: "The government of a people by itself has a meaning and a reality, but such a. 168 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA. thing as government of one people by another does not and cannot exist. One people may keep another for its own use, a place to make money in, a human cattle farm for the profit of its own inhabitants." The natives of India are now determined to stand on their own feet, but it is a hard prob- lem for an enslaved nation to raise their heads while the dominant sword of a powerful alien government is held close to their necks. If the people of America wish to know what would have been the condition of the United States under British rule, let them look at the political and economic condition of the people of India to-day. Well has it been said by Mr. Reddy, an Eng- lish friend of India: "England, through her mis- sionaries, offered the people of India thrones of gold in another world, but refused them a simple chair in this world." * * India, Oct. 13, 1905. 169 Vj EDUCATION IN INDIA. Education in India can be divided into four periods: The first, the pre-Buddhistic, or before the sixth century B.C.; the second, the Bud- dhistic period, from 500 B.C. to the tenth cen- tury a.d.; the third, the Mahometan; and the fourth, the period under British rule. In order to get a correct idea of the educa- tion of a people, we must first be familiar with the civilization of that people, because the standard of education must go parallel with the culture and civilization of a nation. As we have already seen, the earliest civilization of the Hindus began in the Vedic period. His- tory tells us that during that time the Indo- Aryans developed their voluminous scriptural works known as the Vedic literature, which consists of the Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama 170 EDUCATION IN INDIA. Veda, and Atharva Veda, with their Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads. All these are in the Sanskrit language and are the most ancient Scriptures of the world. The Hindus of to-day consider these Vedas as revealed just as other nations believe in their Scriptures as revealed. Long before the art of writing was known these Vedas were studied, committed to memory, and taught from mouth to mouth. In those early days the study of these Sacred Scriptures formed the principal feature in the education of the boys and girls of the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas. The life of a Hindu at that time was divided into four periods. The first was that of the student. The Aryan boys were initiated as stu- dents between the ages of eight and twelve. They then went to the teacher's house, re- mained there and studied the Vedas. As in this age the students of civilized countries live in the universities for several years, so in ancient times the Hindu boys used to leave their homes and stay with their teachers. Some lived with them for twelve years, some for twenty-four, 171 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. others for thirty-six or forty-eight years, in accordance with their desire to master one, two, three, or four Vedas. When they had finished these years of study under various instructors and professors, the students returned to their homes, after making a handsome gift to their masters. According to Hindu custom, no teacher should ever sell his knowledge or receive any salary in return for his instruction, but the students were allowed to make presents to their masters at the close of their studies. Having returned home, they married and settled them- selves as householders. Some, however, did not return, but devoted their whole life to the study of various Shastras or sciences. The main object of education at that time was the moral and spiritual culture of the soul, the attainment of God-consciousness and the knowledge of the various sacrifices that are described in the Vedas. Along with the Vedas the students had to learn the six Veddngas or limbs of the Vedas. These were regarded as the most important branches of Scriptural study. The first was Shikshd or the science of phonetics, 172 EDUCATION IN INDIA. that is, the science which explains the correct pronunciation of the Sanskrit words and texts used in the Vedas. The second was Chhanda, or metre. The Vedic hymns have different metres, and one must be familiar with them in order to read or chant correctly. The scholars and professors of Sanskrit in Europe and America find great difficulty in pronouncing Sanskrit words and sentences because their tongues are not flexible enough to express the minute shades of difference that exist in the sounds of Sans- krit words. The Hindus, however, used to study metre, as also the science of pronuncia- tion and grammar. At that time (even as early as 1400 B.C.) they had a scientific grammar. The Greek and Sanskrit languages have the best grammars, but the Sanskrit is the most perfect grammar that exists in the world. Then Nirukta, the fourth branch, was the science which describes the etymology, the meanings of differ- ent words, as well as the use of the same word in various senses. Also there was Kalpa, which includes Shrauta-suiras, or the laws about sac- rifices, Dharma-sutras, or laws regarding the 173 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. duties of a true citizen, Grihya-sutras, the rules of domestic life, and Sulva-sutras, the geomet' rical principles for constructing sacrificial altars. And the last branch was Jyotisha, or astronomy. In order to fix the time for Vedic sacrifices they had to study astronomy. Without knowing astronomy they could not understand the Vedas and could not perform any of the sacrifices. For this reason we find many astronomical references in the Vedas. These were the main branches of study to which every Hindu belonging to the upper three classes — Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaish- yas — was entitled. Besides this private educa- tion in the house of some teacher, who, as I have already said,] took no salary, there were public places for instruction. The courts of the enlightened kings and Maharajahs were the principal seats of learning where education was bestowed free of charge; and there were also V the Parishads, which corresponded to the uni- versities of Europe. "At the period of transi- tion from the Vedic to the Brahmanic stage of religious development about 1200 B.C. the courts 174 EDUCATION IN INDIA. of the kings were the centers of culture. . . . At a later period, iooo B.C., there arose Brah- manic settlements, called Parishads, which we might call collegiate institutions of learning." * These public institutions were started and established by Brahmin professors and scholars. The students in them used to stay with the teachers and do some work in their households in return for free board and tuition. Professor Max Miiller, in his "History of Sanskrit Litera- ture," says that a "Parishad used to consist of 21 Brahmins well-versed in philosophy, theol- ogy, and law. Sometimes three or four learned Brahmin scholars would form a small Parishad in a village." In the Upanishads we find men- tion of this kind of ancient Hindu university system. For instance, in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, VI, 2, we read that Svetaketu went to the Parishads of the Panchalas for education. In these colleges were taught the Vedas, philosophy, theology, and Hindu law, civil and criminal, — law of agriculture, of property, of usury, laws of inheritance and partition. These ♦ Education in India, W. I. Chamberlain, Ph.D., p. 20- 175 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. laws still govern Hindu society even under British rule. England has not succeeded in changing the Hindu laws and has not found any others more just or more perfect than those of the Hindus. This is not an exaggeration. Students of law, who have studied Roman and European law for years, cannot complete their course without studying Hindu law. I have already shown in the first lecture that there were six schools of philosophy among the Hindus of the pre-Buddhistic period, that is, between 1400 and 600 B.C. These six schools of philosophy included logic, psychology, the science of numbers and the evolution theory of Kapila, the atomic theory of Kanada, the science of thought, metaphysics, and the monistic science and philosophy of Vedanta. The students re- ceived instruction in these various branches in f ! the Parishads or universities. Arithmetic, Al- gebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Decimal nota- tion, and Astronomy were also taught during the pre-Buddhistic period. You may be sur- prised to know that in those ancient times such sciences and philosophies were known to the 176 EDUCATION IN INDIA. Hindus; but it is a matter of history that these various branches of science and philosophy owed their origin to the Vedic religion of India. Geom- etry was developed from the rules for the con- struction of Vedic altars as described in the Vedas. For instance, it is told there to de- scribe a circle, make a triangle, or inscribe a triangle in a circle, and so on. When geometry fell into disuse in the Buddhistic period, after sacrifices were no longer made, algebra took its place. "The science of algebra indeed re- ceived a remarkable degree of development in India; the application of algebra to astronom- ical investigations and to geometrical demon- strations is a peculiar invention of the Hindus; and their manner of conducting it has received the admiration of modern European mathe- maticians." * Besides these, the great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata, which contain the ancient national history of the Hindus as well as the essence of all Hindu sciences and philosophies, came into existence during the pre-Buddhistic * Civilization in Ancient India, Vol. II, p. 246. 177 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. period. They were studied by all classes of people, both men and women. They were written especially for those classes who were not fitted for Vedic studies. The Vedas and the various sciences and philosophies existed among the Hindus long before the art of writ- ing was known in the world. Can you believe that the hundreds of volumes which have been handed down to us were originally learned and taught from memory? They were transmitted from generation to generation by word of mouth. What a marvellous memory the people of that time had! The Mahabharata, for example, con- tains one hundred thousand verses in Sanskrit, and when I was in India I knew a Brahmin lady who could recite every sentence from the beginning to the end; and there are many scholars who can recite a volume with its com- mentary without looking at the book. All sciences and philosophies were originally written in Sanskrit, but lately they have been trans- lated into the various spoken dialects, of which there are at present about one hundred and fifty in India. Through these the masses obtain 178 EDUCATION IN INDIA. their moral and spiritual training. Public lec- tures and readings are given in almost every Hindu village for the education of the illiterate classes. Even to-day, in all Hindu communi- ties, this old system of reading a Sanskrit verse and then explaining it in the vernacular lan- guage is very common. Those who cannot read or write receive moral and spiritual instruction through these Kathakatd, or public readings. There were also medical schools for the study of Ayurveda, or the medical science. The word "Ayus" means life, and "veda" means wisdom, A knowledge, and hence science. Ayurveda, there- fore, is the "science of life." It contains the Hindu materia medica, which is much older than the sixth century B.C. It was taught long before the time of Hippocrates, the "father of medicine," who lived about 400 B.C. Even in that early pre-Buddhistic age, Hindu medi- cine received scientific treatment, and there were separate schools and colleges for medical stu- dents. During the Buddhistic period, medical science made considerable progress, and ex- haustive scientific works were written on medi- 179 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. cine. Among these, the works by Charaka and Sushruta were the best. Their writings became so widely known that translations of them were already familiar to the Arabs in the eighth century a.d., at the time of Haroun-al-Raschid; and they still remain to-day the standard medical works among Hindu physicians. They contain ex- haustive chapters on anatomy and physiology; on symptoms, diagnoses, and causes of various diseases, and on their proper treatment. Their words may be archaic, but they give a scien- tific treatment which was unknown in any other part of the world at that time. Chemistry, in Sanskrit "Rasayana," was also familiar to the Hindus from very early times. "Nor is this surprising, as the materials for preparing many chemical products have abounded in India. Rock-salt was found in Western India; borax was obtained from Tibet; saltpetre and sulphate of soda were easily made; alum was made in Cutch; and sal ammonia was familiar to the Hindus; with lime, charcoal, and sulphur they were acquainted from time immemorial. The alkalies and acids were early known to the ISO EDUCATION IN INDIA. Hindus, and were borrowed from them by the Arabians. The medicinal use of metals was also largely known. We have notices of antimony and of arsenic, of medicines prepared with quick- silver, arsenic, and nine other metals. The Hindus were acquainted with the oxides of copper, iron, lead, tin, zinc, and lead; with the sulphurets of iron, copper, antimony, mercury, and arsenic; with the sulphates of copper, zinc, and iron; with the diacetate of copper and the carbonates of lead and iron." * Dr. Royle also says, in his essay on "Hindu Medicine": "Though the ancient Greeks and Romans used metallic substances as external applications, it is gener- ally supposed that the Arabs were the first to prescribe them internally. . . . But in the works of Charaka and Sushruta, to which, as has been proved, the earliest of the Arabs had access, we find numerous metallic substances directed to be given internally." f History tells us that Alexander the Great kept Hindu physicians in his camp for the treatment of diseases which * Civilization in Ancient India, Vol. II, p. 254. t Royle, p. 45. 181 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. Greek physicians could not heal; and in the eighth century a.d. the Mahometan Badshaw, Haroun-al-Raschid, retained in his court two Hindu physicians. As early as 260 B.C. the Buddhist emperor Asoka also established many public hospitals, not only for men, women, and children, but also for animals.! Megasthenes, after his long residence at the court of Chandra Gupta in the fourth century B.C., testified that he found among the Hindus various kinds of schools suited to the different castes. There were Brahmin schools, whose function was to train priests and teachers; war- rior schools, where the pupils received military training; industrial schools for the merchant class; and schools for the lowest caste, where manual labor was taught. During the Buddhistic age, and before the Mahometan invasion, Hindu culture in every branch of science and philosophy made tremen- dous progress. Arya Bhatta, the noted Hindu astronomer, who lived about 476 a.d. and who is called the Newton of India, wrote many works on algebra and astronomy. It was he who 182 EDUCATION IN INDIA. first discovered the rotation of the earth on its own axis. As a Jewish writer says: "The theory that the earth is a sphere revolving on its own axis, which immortalized Copernicus, was previously known only to the Hindus, who were instructed in the truth of it by Aryabhatta in the first century before the common era." * He also discovered the true cause of solar and lunar eclipses, and it was he who, for the first time, grasped the idea of gravitation toward the center (called in Sanskrit Mddhydkarshan, that is, attraction towards the center), and correctly calculated the distance of the earth's circum- ference. His successor, Varahamihira, another noted astronomer (500-587 a.d.), left valuable works, especially his "Brihat Sanhita," which covered almost every department of natural history and was encyclopedic in its nature. Brahma Gupta, who lived in 628 a.d., described in his astronomical system the true places of the planets, the calculation of lunar and solar eclipses, and wrote a treatise on spherics. There are * Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. XII, p. 689. 183 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. still some ruins of Hindu observatories in Benares and other cities. In the sixth century A.D., this golden age of science and letters reached its climax in the reign of the great Hindu emperor, Vikramaditya, who was what Augustus was to the Romans, what Alfred was to the English, what Charle- magne was to the French, what Asoka was to the Buddhists, and what Haroun-al-Raschid was to the Mahometans.: He was the great supporter of learning and education among the Hindus. To the learned, to the illiterate, to poets, to story-tellers, to dramatists and novelists, to astronomers, lexicographers, and historians, to the old and to the young, the name of Vikrama- ditya is as familiar in India as the name of any great patron of science, drama, poetry, and education of modern Europe. He had nine gems in his court, and the finest among them was Kalidasa, the great Hindu dramatist. He was as great as Shakespere of England; indeed, he is called the Shakespere of India. His best- known drama, "Sakuntala,," has been translated into more than one European language, and 184 EDUCATION IN INDIA. has been considered by such great scholars as Augustus William Von Schlegel, Alexander Von Humboldt, and Goethe as one of the dramatic masterpieces of the world. Goethe speaks thus of it: "Wouldst thou the life's young blossoms and the fruits of its decline, And all by which the soul is pleased, enraptured, feasted, fed, — Wouldst thou the earth and heaven itself in one sweet name combine? I name thee, O Sakuntala, and all at once is said." You have heard something about " Sakuntala," " Vikramorvasi," and the other dramas and mas- terpieces which Kalidasa left. His " Megha-duta," or the " Cloud Messenger," can stand side by side with the best poems of Shelley and Wordsworth, if not higher. One critic says: "Like Words- worth, he looked upon Nature with the eye of a lover, and his knowledge of the physical laws is superior to that of any other Hindu poet." Kalidasa's successors, — Bharavi, Dandin, Bana- bhatta, Subandhu, Bhartrihari, Bhavabhuti, — all these great Hindu poets and dramatists lived in the sixth century a.d. Their writings are still 185 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. studied in all Sanskrit colleges, as they were twelve centuries ago. The fables of Panchatantra and of Hitopa- desha,* which gave foundation to Tisop's fables and to the fables of Pilpay, are also still studied in the primary schools of India. They came into existence in the sixth century after Christ, and have been translated into all the civilized languages of the world. Panchatantra "was translated into Persian in the reign of Naushar- wan (5.51-572 a.d.). . . . The Persian transla- tion was rendered into Arabic, and the Arabic translation was rendered into Greek by Symeon Seth about 1080. . A Spanish translation of the Arabic was published about 1251. The first German translations were published in the fifteenth century." f Besides these, the vast literature known as the " Puranas " is still studied by all classes of people, both men and women, as they were a thousand years ago. From this you will gel an idea of the civiliza- * The fables of Hitopadcsha have been translated by Sir Edwin Arnold under the name of "The Book of Good Counsels." t Civilization in Ancient India, Vol. II, p. 297. ISO EDUCATION IN INDIA. tion of the Hindus during the ancient pre- Buddhistic and mediaeval ages, and you will be able to form some conception of what kind of education they received before the advent of the British in India. The Hindus, it must be remembered, have gone through a great many national disasters, calamities, and vicissitudes; and during the Mahometan occupation, which began in the eleventh century a.d. and con- tinued for nearly six hundred years, they made very little progress in scientific education. They had to fight to protect themselves against the invaders, and turn their attention to their polit- ical condition; consequently they neglected the study of science. Furthermore, the Mahometan sword and fire destroyed the glorious monuments of Hindu culture and civilization. The Mahome- tan rulers never encouraged any kind of study outside of the reading of the Koran, for which classes were attached to the mosques. It is said that the Mogul Emperor Arangzeb, in the seventeenth century, established universities in all the principal cities and erected schools in the smaller towns, but it is now difficult to get any 187 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. historical evidence to support this statement. A Mahometan believes that the essence of all literature and of all science is summed up in the Koran, so nothing outside of the Koran is to be studied. If all that is worth knowing is in the Koran, then there is no use of studying any other books. So they destroyed all the Scrip- tures, and all the works on science and phi- losophy, which they could get hold of. But the caste prejudice of the Hindus kept the Brahmins from mixing with the Mahometans, and one of the most beneficial effects of the caste system was the preservation of the Sacred Books of the Hindus from the destructive hands of fanatical Mussulmans. Mahometan elementary schools were started for the study of the Persian and Arabic lan- guages. Many Hindu boys used to study these languages in Mahometan schools. They had no feeling of prejudice, so far as education was concerned. In the advanced Mahometan schools, there were complete courses in rhetoric, logic, law, ritual, and theology; all these and the Arabic language were taught to Mussulman 188 EDUCATION IN INDIA. students, but not to the Hindus. Euclid and Ptolemy's astronomy, and other branches of natural philosophy, were also taught in the high schools for Mahometans at the time when British rule began in India, about the middle of the eighteenth century. The pioneers of Western education in India were the Christian missionaries. Some Danish missionaries arrived at Tranquebar, in Southern India, in 1706, and at once began to study the vernacular languages in order to teach the Bible. They founded some schools for that pur- pose, which were of minor importance. Their object was to convert the students to Christianity. In 1727 the first English mission established in India a society for promoting Christian knowl- edge, but it did not make much progress until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the third missionary society of the English Baptists was established in Bengal. Their repre- sentatives were Carey and Marshman, who were men of ability and distinction. They studied the vernacular languages, and established schools for the teaching of the Bible. 189 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. The East India Company, however, hesitated to impart English education to the natives of India. When, in 1792, Wilberforce proposed to add two clauses to the Charter Act of the year for sending out schoolmasters to India, the di- rectors of the Company strongly objected to the proposal. "On that occasion one of the Directors stated that we had just lost America from our folly in having allowed the establish- ment of schools and colleges, and that it would not do for us to repeat the same act of folly in regard to India; if the natives required any- thing in the way of education they must come to England for it." * This policy still exists at the bottom of the educational system estab- lished by the British Government in modern India. Although this policy, or rather fear, has apparently been modified, and schools, col- leges, and universities have been founded, still the government of India does not feel safe in giv- ing the natives substantial higher education of the same nature as can be obtained in England, *J. C. Marshman's Evidence, Lords' Second Report, 190 EDUCATION IN INDIA. Europe, or America. It was on account of this fear that the only educational institutions which were established up to 1792 were a Mahometan College at Calcutta, founded by Warren Hast- ings in 1781, and a Sanskrit College at Benares, founded by Lord Cornwallis in 1792. The main object of these institutions was to train law officers, both Mahometan and Hindu, to help the English judges in the judicial administra- tion of the country. For twenty years longer the English Government was disinclined to spread English education in India. In 1813 the British Parliament, for the first time, offered the sum of £10,000 from the revenue of India, to be appropriated for the education of the people of the three provinces of Bengal, Bombay, and Madras. Nothing, however, was done for ten years until 1823.* In the mean- time the Hindus themselves, under the leader- ship of the great Hindu reformer, whose name is known all over the world, Rajah Ram Mohun Roy, became anxious to learn the English lan- * Vide Sir Charles Trevelyan's Evidence, Lords' Second Report, 1853. 191 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. guage. He was the first Hindu who learned English thoroughly by his private exertions, for there was no school at that time; and he was the first native of India who went to England, where he died. His grave still exists in Bristol. At that time there was in Calcutta an illiterate English watchmaker, Mr. David Hare by name. He was a man of great energy and practical sense. Rajah Ram Mohun Roy consulted with him and planned to open an English seminary. The project started in 1815, and this energetic Mr. Hare had some circulars written out and distributed. He first succeeded in interesting some of the English officers and some representa- tive Hindus, and in 1817 he established a school at Calcutta which is known to-day as the Hare School. It was the first respectable English seminary in Bengal, and was founded by the Hindus themselves before the British Govern- ment did anything for education in India.* In 1820 the Government of India started an inquiry to find out the indigenous method of * Vide Rev. Alexander Duff's Evidence, Lords' Second Report, 1853. 192 EDUCATION IN INDIA. education among the Hindus in the Presidencies of Madras, Bombay, and Bengal; but for two years nothing was done. In 1822 Sir Thomas Munroe, the Governor of Madras, finding the decay of literature and arts and the deep igno- rance of the masses, started an investigation, from which he discovered that the number of Hindu schools and colleges under the old Hindu system, in the Presidency of Madras alone, amounted to 12,498 among a population of something over twelve millions. In his report to the Court of Directors, which was made known in 1826, he says: "I am inclined to estimate the portion of the whole population who receive school education to be nearer one-third than one-fourth of the whole. The state of education exhibited, low as it is, compared with our own country, is higher than it was in most European countries at no very distant time." * In 1823 Lord Elphinstone, Governor of Bom- bay, found that there was in the Bombay Presi- dency alone 1705 Hindu schools and colleges; and in 1835 Lord Bentinck discovered 3355 * Minute dated March 10, 1826. 193 INDIA AND ITER l'KOI'I.K. Hindu schools among a population of seven millions in Kengal alone. This will prove how the Hindus have always eared lor knowledge, culture, and education. In every village there was an elementary school where the village boys were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and the elements of mensuration. These elementary schools were called I'dl/msijltls, or school-houses. Resides these, there were collegiate institutions like the Pcin's/iads, which I have already described, for higher education in grammar, mathematics, rhetoric, poetry, astronomy, and other branches of science and philosophy, as they were known to the Hindus at that time. The proportion of the latter to the lormer, that is, of collegiate schools to village schools, was one to three. A Committee of Public Instruction was ap- pointed by the Past India Company's govern- ment in 182 ;, and the / 10,000, which had been granted by Parliament ten years belore, were expended in establishing an English school, under the name of Hindu College, in Calcutta, six Oriental colleges, and a number of elementary schools in Bengal and Rajputana. The Com- EDUCATION IN INDIA. mittee also gave its attention to the publication of Oriental books, and started a press in 1824. Between 1823 and 1833 no special thing was done in the educational line other than to add classes in English in all the chief colleges. In 1835 Lord Bentinck, the Governor-General of India, enlarged the Committee of Public Instruc- tion and appointed Macaulay as its president. Two distinguished Hindu gentlemen of the time, Sir Rajah Radha Kanta Deb Bahadur and Ros- somoy Dutt of Calcutta, and Takawar Jung, the Mahometan Nawab of Bengal, were enrolled as members of the Committee. With Macaulay's support and assistance, Lord Bentinck passed the famous resolutions of March 7, 1835, by which the English language was established as the language of superior education in India. The resolutions were these: (1) That the chief aim of the educational policy of the Government should be to promote a knowledge of European literature and science. (2) That henceforth no more stipends should be conferred, but that all existing stipends 195 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. should be continued as long as the natives con- tinue to avail themselves of them. (3) That the printing of Oriental books should at once cease, and that the funds thus set free should be employed in promoting European studies through the medium of the English language. In Madras, about this time, a Hindu named Pachiapa left a large donation for religious uses, and out of this sum, which amounted to nearly £80,000, a central educational institution, which is now known as Pachiapa's College, was estab- lished by the Hindus in 1839. It still con- tinues to be the most nourishing college for the study of English in Madras, and it was the first college established there. In 1830 Alexander Duff arrived in Calcutta as the missionary of the General Assembly of the Scotch Kirk, and established a school which was at first a great success; but his aim was to convert the natives to Christianity, and when some of the students were persuaded to accept Christianity, the whole Hindu community protested against the object and plan of the missionary schools and would 196 EDUCATION IN INDIA. not allow their children to enter them as students. During his stay, Alexander Duff succeeded in converting only forty young Hindus who were studying in his school, and the conversion of these created a great sensation in the city of Calcutta. About that time the Hindus began to study Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason." The book spread like wildfire among native stu- dents and scholars, and Dr. Duff, finding that it was a great obstacle in the path of converting the Hindus, bought all the copies that were in the market, piled them in the street and made a bonfire out of them; but the Hindus reprinted the book and distributed it among themselves. Being thus aroused, the native Hindus of Calcutta were determined to start schools and colleges for the education of their boys in English. Foremost among them was Pundit Iswara Chun- der Vidyasagar, the most distinguished edu- cationalist and the greatest Hindu scholar of his time. He established by his own individual efforts, unaided by the Government, the Metro- politan School in Calcutta, and to-day it is one of the most powerful and best conducted colleges 197 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. in India. It has always been entirely under Hindu management, and all its teachers and professors are Hindus. Hundreds and thousands of students study English and graduate every year under native professors. Lord Hardinge established one hundred schools in the different districts of Bengal for the pur- pose of imparting education in the vernacular as a preliminary step to higher education in English. He also passed the famous resolution of 1844 for the selection of candidates for public employment from those who had been educated in the institutions established. This gave a tremendous impetus to native efforts to start schools, colleges, and seminaries in Calcutta and other places. Intense desire to learn and teach English was expressed by all classes of people and no caste distinction was observed. Students from all castes and all classes wanted to study and to teach English, and schools sprang up on all sides for imparting English education. In 1836 Hoogly College was opened, and in three days twelve hundred names were enrolled and an auxiliary school was immediately filled. 198 EDUCATION IN INDIA. In 1843 there were fifty-one schools and colleges, containing 8,200 students, of whom 5,132 were studying English, 426 Sanskrit, 572 Arabic, and 706 the Persian language. In 1839 Lord Auckland offered a grant from the Government treasury of 25,000 rupees (about $8000) to pro- mote Oriental education; and in 1845 Mr. Thomason, the Governor of the Northwestern Provinces, started a plan to encourage the native village schools of the Hindus, which have existed in India for ages. This plan involved the estab- lishment of: (1) An elementary school for circles of villages, each school to be situated in a central village and no village to be more than one mile from the central school; (2) A middle school at the headquarters of each subdivision; (3) A high school in each Zillah or district. This plan was sanctioned by the Directors, who made an allowance of 500,000 rupees. Operations began in 1850, and after four years there were eight District High Schools in the whole Northwestern Province. For the support of these state schools (which were not free) monthly fees, which varied from one to twelve rupees, were exacted 199 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. of all students. In the state schools the fees were higher than in the private schools. The missionary schools were mostly element- ary or primary. Only three or four of them imparted secondary education, and some of them were free of charge to help the poorer classes. Up to this time the Government had not taken any step to educate the girls. Female education received no support from the Govern- ment; while the missionaries were trying their best to educate native girls in the tenets of Christianity, denouncing the religion of their forefathers and condemning everything of Hindu origin or which had to do with Hindu society and religion, in the same manner as they did in the schools for boys. This is one of the greatest drawbacks in the missionary methods of educa- tion. They condemn everything that is outside of their religion, their standards and their ideals. They are too narrow to see good in any but their own creed and dogmas. They do not con- sider the Hindu religion as a religion or the Hindu Saviours as Saviours; but they think that the Hindus are all going to eternal perdi- 200 EDUCATION IN INDIA. tion and so they are very anxious to save their heathen souls! An American missionary, in referring to the schools for non-Christians in India, writes: "These are especially established with a view to reaching and affecting the non- Christian community. . . . They represent the leaven of Christianity in India. They furnish excellent opportunity to present Christ and his Gospel of salvation to a large host of young people under very favorable circumstances. . . . And I fearlessly maintain that more conversions take place and more accessions are made through these schools than through any other agency." This will give you an idea of the fanaticism and bigotry of these apostles of Christianity, who pretend to impart free education to the boys and girls of poor, illiterate parents. The poor Hindu boys and girls come to study and learn some- thing, but instead of receiving the blessing of true education, their minds are filled with super- stitious and unscientific doctrines and dogmas, and they are forced to leave the community of their parents and relatives and become converts to Christianity. These missionaries do not think 201 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. for a moment why the Hindus should give up their own prophets and Saviours and worship the prophets of the Semitic race, especially of the Jews. Why should the Hindus abandon their ancient traditions and the religion of their Aryan forefathers? Why should they forsake the Aryan prophets and accept the Jewish prophets in- stead? Those who never had any higher phi- losophy, higher religion, or a spiritual leader like Christ, may accept with delight the banner of Christ, but not the Hindus, who have many Saviours, — Krishna, Rama, Buddha, Chaitanya, Ramakrishna, — each of whom, according to the Hindus, was as great as the Saviour of Nazareth. The Christian missionaries, before preaching Christ among the Hindus, should first convert the Jews. The East India Company's charter was renewed in 1853, and a Lords' Committee was appointed to make necessary additions or modifications in the policy of the government of India. Among other things, the Committee discussed the sub- ject of education of the people of India. After collecting evidence from all sides, the Committee 202 EDUCATION IN INDIA. issued a Despatch in 1854, constituting the great Charter of Indian education; and on this De- spatch the whole system of education in India of to-day is based. It approved of the higher edu- cation and the establishment of universities in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, the chief towns of the three Presidencies under British rule. The Despatch of 1854 extended the field of education and prescribed these objects: "First, the con- stitution of a separate department of the admin- istration of education. Second, the institution of the universities at the Presidency towns. Third, the establishment of institutions for train- ing teachers for all classes of schools. Fourth, the maintenance of the existing Government col- leges and high schools, and the increase of their number when necessary. Fifth, the establish- ment of new middle schools. Sixth, increased attention to vernacular schools, indigenous or other, for elementary education. And seventh, the introduction of a system of grants-in-aid." "Aid is to be given (so far as available funds may render it possible) to all schools im- parting a good secular education, provided 203 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. they are under adequate local management and subject to Government inspection, and pro- vided that fees, however small, are charged in them." In the assignment of these grants, however, there were no less than five systems in operation. They were as follows: (i) The Salary Grant System, in use in Madras only, was applied to secondary education. Under this system the Government contributed a fixed proportion of the teacher's salary in accordance with his qualifications. (2) The Results Grant System was in Madras applied to primary education only, and in Bom- bay to secondary education. To obtain this grant it was necessary to pass Government examinations. (3) The combined Salary-Results System. (4) The Fixed Period System was in operation in the greater part of Northern and Central India. Under this an average grant was paid for periods of three or five years. (5) The Captitative System was applied to a few girls' schools in Bengal. The seven articles of the Despatch of 1854 204 EDUCATION IN INDIA. helped in a systematic manner the promotion of education in India. The English language became the medium in the higher branches and the vernacular in the lower. The system of grants-in-aid was based upon the principle of absolute neutrality. Aid was given from 1854 to all schools imparting a good secular educa- tion. Three universities were established in 1857 by Lord Canning after the model of the London University. Thus the inspiring in- fluence of Western education reached a larger circle of the population. Two more universi- ties have been added since, — one in the Punjab in 1882 and the other in Allahabad in 1887; so there are altogether five universities in India, — one in Calcutta, one in Bombay, one in Madras, one in the Punjab and the other in Allahabad. These universities consist of a chancellor, the governor of the Presidency ex officio, a vice- chancellor, and not less than thirty fellows, who constitute a Senate. The Senate controls the management of the funds of the universities, and frames rules and regulations, which are subject to Government approval and under 205 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. which examinations are held periodically in the various branches of art and science by exami- ners chosen from among themselves or nomi- nated from outside. The Senate is divided into four faculties, — Arts, Law, Medicine, and En- gineering. The executive government of the university is in the hands of a syndicate, which consists of the vice-chancellor and eight of the Fellows. This syndicate selects examiners, reg- ulates examinations, recommends for degrees, honors, and rewards, and carries on the busi- ness of the university. Boards of studies in the various departments are also appointed from among the Fellows by the syndicate. The Fellows do not correspond to the Fellows of this country, nor of Europe, nor even of England. The office of Fellow is an honorary office, usually conferred on some representative man or upon those who have been active in the cause of education. They may be natives or Europeans. The Indian universities are without a staff of teachers. They simply hold examinations and grant degrees, but they have no courses of lectures. In India we do not have anything 206 EDUCATION IN INDIA. like the universities of this country and nothing like Cambridge and Oxford. I will give you an idea of the examinations that are held under the universities: The subjects of examinations are: (i) English; ( 2 ) A classical (Oriental or European ) or vernacu- lar language; (3) Physics and Chemistry; (4) His- tory; (5) Geography; (6) Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry. This is the examination for entrance into college. Under each university there are many schools and colleges started and managed by the natives. Then after two years' study in a college the student prepares for the First Ex- amination in Arts. The subjects are: (1) English; (2) A classical language (Oriental or European) or a vernacular; (3) Logic; (4) Mathe- matics; (5) History and Geography; and (6) Physical Science. Two years later comes the B.A. Examination. This has two branches — the Language Division and the Science Division. The subjects in the Language Division are: (1) English; (2) A classical or vernacular language; (3) Mathematics; (4) and (5) any two of the following: Moral Philosophy, History, and Ad- 207 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. vanced Mathematics. The Science Division con- sists of (i) English; (2) Mathematics; (3) Chemistry; (4) Physical Geography; (5) either Physics, Physiology, or Geology. For the degree of Masters of Arts there is an honor examination in Language, Mental and Moral Philosophy, Natural Science, or History and Mathematics. Then there are Law examinations, Medical examinations, and Civil Engineering examinations with degrees. This system has been in existence for the last forty-eight years. The total number of stu- dents in schools and colleges all over British India is 4,405,042. To-day, excluding cities, three villages out of four are without schools, and seven children out of eight are growing up in ignorance and darkness. According to the census of 1901 there are 147,086 educational institutions of all kinds in British India. Of these 104,743 are public institutions (that is, institutions open to all classes but not free), which are divided as follows: 44 Professional Colleges, 141 Art Colleges, 5461 Secondary Schools, 98,133 Primary Schools, 170 Training 208 EDUCATION IN INDIA. Schools, and 494 Special Schools. In addition to these there are 42,343 private institutions, of which 4306 are advanced, 26,668 elementary, 11,016 teaching the Koran only, and 263 not conforming to departmental standards. "Dur- ing the past three years the sum of 4,000,000 rupees has been contributed by the (native) public in the United Provinces towards educa- tion. Nearly half of this sum was given in the year 1905. The numbers attending public in- stitutions of all kinds have increased, while those attending private institutions have de- clined. The past year witnessed the erection of several schools and boarding-houses, the in- stitution of schemes for the development of Sanskrit, Arabic, the enlargement of the Medical School at Agra, the development of mechanical training and electrical work at Rurki and the starting of an institution for mechanical and manual training at Lucknow." * The Government does not give free educa- tion in India and although the Hindus pay all kinds of taxes — 40 per cent more than the tax- * The Indian Nation, Jan. 22, 1906. 209 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. payer of Great Britain and Ireland — and support the most expensive system of administration, still they do not receive from the Government free education. The Government now spends annually nearly 27 million pounds sterling for military expenses and about £750,000 for the education of the natives. The Rev. J. T. Sunder- land, after long residence in India, says: "Much credit has been given to the Indian Government for education. It has done some good work in this direction, for which let it have full praise. But how little has it done compared with the need, or compared with what the people want, or compared with its ability, if it would only use its resources primarily for India's good! Why has so little of the people's money been spent for education? In the schools of India, of all kinds, high and low, there are some 4,418-, 000 scholars (if we include the native states). But what is this number in a population nearly as large as that of all Europe? How much does the Indian Government spend annually for education? The munificent sum of one penny and a fifth per head of the population! Think 210 EDUCATION IN INDIA. of it! Is it any wonder that, after a century and a half of British dominance, the number of persons in India who can read and write is only about eleven in a hundred among males, and one in two hundred among females? With their native industries so badly broken down, the Indian people have special need for indus- trial, technical, and practical education. But their rulers are giving them almost nothing of this kind. Britain's neglect of education is a dark stain upon her treatment of India." * The Government has no school or college for female education. The first girls' school was established in Calcutta by Mr. Drinkwater Bethune (a legal member of the Governor- General's Council), who gave £10,000 from his own pocket. This school is the most success- ful institution for girls in India, and teaches up to the highest grades of university examina- tions. The Indian universities bestow degrees on women, and lady graduates take their degrees in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. There are * Paper on "The Causes of Famines in India," before the Canadian Institute, p. 22. 211 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. many girls' schools which have been started by the Hindus. In private primary schools, little boys and girls are taught together. The total number of girls who receive education is about half a million; but the majority of Hindu girls receive their education at home. The illiterate women in India are given moral and spiritual instruction, as well as instruction in religious truths and moral duties, and in their national traditions and literature, to a much larger extent than in Europe. About 85 per cent of the population of India to-day depends upon agriculture. Yet the Gov- ernment had no agricultural institution in the country until recently, when it started one agri- cultural college in Poona, near Bombay. Education in India is very expensive, consider- ing that the average annual income per head is £2, out of which from 14 to 15 per cent goes to- wards paying taxes. Furthermore, the educated Hindus, who have spent a considerable part of this income in receiving university degrees, have no prospect of obtaining higher positions in Gov- ernment offices. All the higher positions are 212 EDUCATION IN INDIA. occupied by English officials, who draw large salaries, while native graduates are allowed to remain as clerks on a salary of from three to ten dollars per month. Until recently, these Hindu graduates had the one chance of enter- ing Government offices through competitive ex- aminations. But Lord Curzon closed that door by passing the University Bill, which brings the universities and schools under rigid official con- trol. Now none but those who are appointed by the Government can hold any Government position. The Official Secrets Bill passed by Lord Curzon has also gagged the Indian press. There are a number of daily and weekly papers published in English by the Hindus. But they cannot agitate the political and economic policy of the Government. Thus people are kept in absolute darkness. Notwithstanding his de- spotic rule, however, Lord Curzon did one good act in allowing a permanent grant of £220,000 from the surplus revenue for primary education. India needs to-day free education, and free industrial and technical schools and colleges for the masses. India needs schools and colleges for 213 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. the education of girls, not under the management of Christian missionaries, but under the man- agement of the Hindus. India needs a national university where boys and girls will receive secular education free of charge, and where all technical and manual training can be obtained freely. To-day the Hindus have shown to the world that intellectually they are equal to the most intellectual people of Europe and America, but they are downtrodden and poor. The whole weight of the British Government is grinding the nation and crushing the spirit of progress. Fur- thermore, India is impoverished under British rule; yet the Hindus are raising private funds and sending their students to America and Japan to receive better and more substantial education than what they receive under the British Gov- ernment. The Hindus are eager to learn, and they are indebted to England for introducing Western education in India. If England has done any good to India, it is by the introduction of English education. This is the greatest bless- ing that India has received under British rule. 214 EDUCATION IN INDIA. The seed of Western education is sown in the soil of India; future generations will reap the fruit. Herbert Spencer says "education is training for completeness of life." The Hindus now see the defects of the present system of education in India, and are endeavoring to reform it and to make it as perfect as it is in this land of free education and political independence. May their noble efforts be crowned with glorious success! 215 VI. THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA ON WESTERN CIVILIZATION, AND THE INFLUENCE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION ON INDIA. The dawn of Aryan civilization broke for the first time on the horizon, not of Greece or Rome, not of Arabia or Persia, but of India, which may be called the motherland of metaphysics, phi- losophy, logic, astronomy, science, art, music, and medicine, as well as of truly ethical religion. Although students in the schools and colleges of modern Europe and America are generally taught that the Greeks and Romans were the fathers of European civilization and that phi- losophy and science first arose in ancient Greece, still it has been proved by the Oriental scholars of Europe and by all impartial students of history that ancient Greece was greatly indebted to India for many of her best ideas in philosophy, 216 THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA. science and intellectual culture, as also for many of her ethical and spiritual ideals. If we read the writings and historical accounts left by Pliny, Strabo, Megasthenes, Herodotus, Porphyry and a host of other ancient authors of different countries, we shall see how highly the civilization of India was regarded by them. In fact, between the years 1500 and 500 B.C., the Hindus were so far advanced in religion, metaphysics, philosophy, science, art, music, and medicine that no other nation could stand as their rival, or compete with them in any of these branches of knowledge. On the contrary, many of the nations which came in contact with the Hindus through trade or otherwise, accepted the Hindu ideas and moulded their own after the Hindu pattern. For instance, the science of geometry, as I have already said, was first invented in India by the Hindus from the Vedic rules for the construction of sacrificial altars; from these rules they gradually developed geom- etry, and it has been admitted by the great scholars that the world owes its first lesson in this science, not to Greece, but to India. The 217 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. geometrical theorem that the square of the hy- potenuse of a rectangular triangle is equal to the squares of its sides was ascribed by the Greeks to Pythagoras, but it was known in India at least two centuries before Pythagoras was born. It was contained in the two rules: "(i) The square of the diagonal of a square is twice as large as that square; and (2) The square of the diagonal of an oblong is equal to the square of both its sides." These rules formed a part of the Sulva Sutras, which date from the eighth century before Christ. There is a Greek tradition that Pythagoras visited India, and most prob- ably he did, because in his writings we find such ideas as were very common among the Hindus, but which were unknown to other nations. Probably he learned from the Hindus his first lessons in geometry, mathematics, the doctrine of pre-exist ence and transmigration of souls, and of final beatitude, ascetic observances, prohibition of eating flesh, vegetarianism, the conception of the virtue of numbers, and lastly, the idea of a fifth element, which was unknown in Greece and Egypt at that ancient time. The Egyptians and 218 THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA. Greeks admitted four elements, but ether as an element was known only among the Hindus of those days. All these things were taught by the Hindus centuries before the time of Pythagoras. Prof. E. W. Hopkins admits this in his "Religions of India," as you will recall from the first lecture, when he says: "Before the 6th century B.C. all the religious-philosophical ideas of Pythagoras are current in India." Geometry gradually fell out of use among the Hindus, and geometrical truths were represented by algebra and arithmetic. The Greeks could not rival the Hindus in the science of numbers. The world indeed owes decimal notation to India. The Arabs first learned it from the Hindus and then introduced it into Europe. It was unknown to the Greeks and Romans, and arithmetic as a practical science would have been impossible without decimal notation. The Hindus have also given algebra (Vijaganita) to the Western world through the Arabs, who translated it in the eighth century a.d.; and Leonardo da Pisa first introduced it into Europe in the thirteenth century. So the world received its fhst lesson in 219 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. algebra from India. The Hindus were also the first teachers of plane and spherical trigonometry. The great Indian mathematician, Bhaskara - cMrya, who lived from 1114-1150 a.d., wrote exhaustive treatises * on all these subjects, and his works contain solutions of remarkable prob- lems which were not achieved in Europe until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. f In astronomical observations, the Hindus were the first to fix the lunar mansions, lunar Zodiac, and the divisions of the constellations. The Chinese * Those treating of algebra and arithmetic have been translated by Colebrooke, and the portion on spherical trigonometry has been translated by Wilkinson. | "A striking history has been told of the problem to find x so that ax t + b shall be a square number. Fre- mat made some progress towards solving this ancient problem, and sent it as a defiance to the English alge- braists in the seventeenth century. Euler finally solved it, and arrived exactly at the point attained by Bhaskara in 1 1 50. A particular solution of another problem given by Bhaskara is exactly the same as was discovered in Europe by Lord Brounker in 1657; and the general solution of the same problem given by Brahmagupta, in the seventh century a.d., was unsuccessfully attempted by Euler, and was only accomplished by De la Grange in 1767 a.d. The favorite process of the Hindus known as the Kuttaka was not known in Europe till published by Bachet de Mezeriac in 1624 a.d." — Civilization in Ancient India, Vol. II, p. 246. 220 THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA. and Arabs borrowed these from India. The Hindus first developed the science of music from the chanting of the Vedic hymns. The Sama Veda was especially meant for music. And the scale with seven notes and three octaves was known in India centuries before the Greeks had it. Probably the Greeks learned it from the Hindus. It will be interesting to you to know that Wagner was indebted to the Hindu science of music, especially for his principal idea of the "leading motive"; and this is perhaps the reason why it is so difficult for many Western people to understand Wagner's music. He be- came familiar with Eastern music through Latin translations, and his conversation on this sub- ject with Schopenhauer is probably already familiar to you. The Western world, again, owes its first lesson in medicine to India. In the preceding lecture I gave proofs that Alexander not only had in his camp Hindu physicians, but that he pre- ferred them to Greek physicians. Megasthenes, Nearchus, and Arrian spoke highly of the won- derful healing powers of the Hindu physicians- 221 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. In 1837 Dr. Royle, of King's College, London, wrote his celebrated essay on "Hindu Medicine," in which he showed that Hippocrates, the father of medicine, who lived in Greece in the fourth century B.C., borrowed his Materia Medico, from India. Dr. Royle says, "We owe our first system of medicine to the Hindus." Herodotus, who lived in the fifth century B.C., states that the Hindus were the greatest nation of that age. He also writes that the Hindus had trade with Egypt, while from other sources we gather that they had trade with Babylon and Syria. From another authentic source we learn that there was a Hindu philosopher who visited Socrates at Athens, a fact which Prof. Max Miiller confirms in his book on "Psychologi- cal Religion." This Hindu philosopher, we are told, had a conversation with the great Greek philosopher. He asked in what the philosophy of Socrates consisted, and Socrates replied that his philosophy consisted in inquiries about the life of man, upon which the Hindu philosopher smiled and answered: " How can you know things human without first knowing things divine? " 222 THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA. And that is an answer which could not have been given by any other than a Hindu, because the Hindus ascribed all true knowledge to Divine origin, and did not care much for the knowl- edge of anything human before knowing God. Ralph Waldo Emerson says: "Plato was a synthesis of Europe and Asia, and a decidedly Oriental element pervades his philosophy, giving it a sunrise color." In fact, in teaching asceti- cism, Plato was more of a Hindu than a Greek, because, of all nations, the Greeks were least ascetic. My friend, Professor Edward Howard Griggs, in his lecture on the "Philosophy of Plato" before the Vedanta Society of New York, also admitted this in saying: "Plato's belief in the conquest of the senses, as the only means of attaining true knowledge, was preeminently Oriental and non-Greek." Moreover, if we study Plato carefully, comparing his ideas with those of the Upanishads and other Vedic writings, we find that his well-known figure of the man chained in the cave is merely an allegorical presentation of the Vedanta doctrine of Maya, that the phenomenal world is like a dream; 223 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. while his other figure of the chariot was a favor- ite theme of the Vedic writers who lived cen- turies before Plato. In the Katha Upanishad, for instance, we read: "This body may be com- pared to a chariot, intellect to the charioteer, mind to the reins, the five senses to the horses, whose path is the object of senses." Sir William Jones, the first eminent Sanskrit scholar among the English, confirming this fact, writes that "it is impossible to read the Vedanta, or the many fine compositions in illustration of it, without believing that Pythagoras and Plato derived their sublime theories from the same fountain with the Indian sages." * Professor Max Miiller and other Oriental scholars maintain, as you know, that the logic of Aristotle was perhaps a Greek presentation of the Hindu logic. You will also remember that Professor Hopkins writes, in his "Religions of India," that Thales and Parmenides were both anticipated by the sages of India, while the Eleatic School appears merely a reflection of the Upanishads. He even suggests that the doc- * Works (Calcutta Ed.), pp. 20, 125, 127, 224 THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA. trines propounded by Anaximander and Hera- clitus might not have been known first in Greece. We should, indeed, bear in mind that after the invasion of India by Alexander the Great the con- nection between India and Greece became closer than ever before, and many Hindu philosophers lived at Athens and in other parts of Greece. They were known as Gymnosophists, or Hindu philosophers from India. At that time Alex- andria became the center of trade and commerce between India and Greece, and there was great opportunity for interchange of ideas between the Hindus and Western nations. Porphyry speaks of the wise men from India in high terms of praise for their wisdom, morality, and knowl- edge of the mysteries of the universe. In regard to Neo-Platonism, Professor Garbe has said that Plotinus was in perfect agreement with the Hindu philosophers, and that his disciple Porphyry knew of the Yoga doctrine of union with the Deity. It was unknown to any of the Western nations, like the Hebrews, Parsees, or Egyptians. Through Plato and his followers, the Neo- Platonists, Stoics, and Philo of Alexandria were 225 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. also influenced by the Hindu Philosophy. The idea of the Logos which formed the corner-stone of the philosophy of Plato, of the Neo-Platonists, of Philo, and later of the Fourth Gospel, first arose in India. In the Vedas we find reference to it; and it has moulded Hindu thought, as well as the religious ideals of other nations. Christianity as a religion owes a great deal to India. This may startle some of our friends, but from the historical standpoint it is true. If we read the religious history of the East, we find many evidences which are undeniable. For instance, Asoka, who lived in 260 B.C., had his edicts inscribed on pillars of stone during his lifetime, and in one of those edicts we read that he sent Buddhist missionaries to different parts of the world, from Siberia to Ceylon, from China to Egypt, and that, for two centuries before the advent of Jesus, the Buddhist missionaries preached the sublime ethics of Buddha in Syria, Palestine and Alexandria. The same ethical ideas were afterwards repeated and emphasized by Christ. The Christian historian Mahaffi, speaking about those Buddhist missionaries, de- 226 THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA. clared it to be a fact that they were the fore- runners of Christ. These preachers influenced the Jewish sect known as the Essenes; and the Roman historian Pliny, who lived between 23 and 79 a.d., described the mode of living of the Essenes, — that they lived like hermits, without having any possessions or any sex relation, being celibates and associates of palm-trees. It can be shown that they belonged to the sect founded by the Buddhist monks from India, who lived in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. Phi- losophers like Schelling and Schopenhauer, and Christian thinkers like Dean Mansel and D. Mill- man, admit that the sect of the Essenes arose through the influence of the Buddhist mis- sionaries who came from India. Moreover, it is a well-known fact that John the Baptist was an Essene. Ernest Renan, speaking of John the Baptist, says: "He led there a life like that of a Yogi of India, clothed with skins or cloth of camel's hair, having for food only locusts and wild honey. . . . We might imagine ourselves transported to the banks of the Ganges, if special features had not revealed in this recluse the last 227 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. descendant of the grand prophets of Israel." * Again he says: "The teachers of the young were also at times a species of anchorites, re- sembling to some extent the Gurus (spiritual preceptors) of Brahminism. In fact, might there not in this be a remote influence of the Mounts (sages) of India? Perhaps some of those wan- dering Buddhist monks who overran the world, as the first Franciscans did in later times, preach- ing by their actions and converting people who knew not their language, might have turned their steps towards Judea, as they certainly did towards Syria and Babylon. . . Babylon had become for some time a true focus of Buddhism. Boudasp (Bodhisattva) was reputed a wise Chaldean, and the founder of Sabeism. Sabeism was, as its etymology indicates, baptism." f And he continues: "We may believe, at all events, that many of the external practices of John, of the Essenes, and of the Jewish spiritual teachers of this time, were derived from in- fluences then but recently received from the far East. The fundamental practice which gave to * Life of Jesus, p. 126. f Ibid., p. 127. 228 THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA. the sect of John its character, and which has given him his name, has always had its center in lower Chaldea, and constitutes a religion which is practised there to this day. This prac- tice was baptism or total immersion. Ablutions were already familiar to the Jews, as they were to all the religions of the East. The Essenes had given them a peculiar extension." * Thus we see that baptism by water was in- troduced among the Essenes by the Buddhist missionaries, having originated in India. Bap- tism afterwards became the principal ceremony at the time of the initiation of the disciple in the religion of John. The life of Jesus the Christ as described in the Synoptic Gospels, — the immac- ulate conception of a virgin mother, the miracu- lous birth, the story of the slaughter of infants by Herod, and the chief events of his life, all these seem like repetitions of what happened in the lives Of Krishna (1400 B.C.) and of Buddha (547 B.C.). In fact, the idea of the incarnation of God is purely a Hindu idea. It was not known among the Jews. The Jews never accepted * Renan, Life of Jesus, p. 128. 229 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. Christ as the incarnation of Divinity, but from the Vedic period the Hindus accepted many Avataras or Incarnations of the Lord in a human form, and this is at the foundation of the religion of the Hindus. Many of the famous parables of Jesus the Christ existed among the Hindus and Buddhists of the pre-Christian era. In the Gospel of Buddha, for instance, we find the parables of the prodigal son and of the marriage feast, which were taught by Buddha to his dis- ciples about five centuries B.C., and they re- semble in every way the similar parables of Jesus the Christ. The Roman Catholics have taken a great many of their ideas — their form of worship, the monastic life, the nunnery and the idea of purgatory — from the Buddhists of India. In the religious history of the world, Buddha was the first to organize communities of monks and nuns and to establish monasteries and nun- neries. Under cover of the legend of Barlaam and Josaphat, the story of Buddha has found a niche in the row of canonized Catholic saints and has his Saint-day in the calendar of the Greek and Roman churches. 230 THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA. The Buddhist missionaries and preachers also influenced the faith of the Gnostics and Mani- cheans,* and introduced the idea of reincarna- tion among them. Many of the early church Fathers, like Origen, admitted that the soul existed before birth and would be born again, that this was not the first or the last time that we had come or would come to this world. The doc- trine of pre-existence and reincarnation of souls was accepted by the majority of the Christians until it was suppressed in 538 A.D. by Justinian, who passed this law: "Whoever shall support the mythical presentation of the pre-existence of the soul and the consequently wonderful opinion of its return, let him be Anathema." It was for- eign to Judaism until about the eighth century a.d., when under the influence of the Hindu mystics it was adopted by the Karaites and other Jewish sects. The Jewish Encyclopedia says: " Only with the spread of the Cabala did it begin to take root in Judaism, and then it gained * Professor E. W. Hopkins declares that "Neo- Platonisrxi and Christian Gnosticism owe much to India" in their philosophical beliefs. See p. 25. 231 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. believers even among men who were little in- clined toward mysticism." And again: "Like Origen and other church Fathers the Cabalists used as their main argument in favor of the doctrine of metempsychosis the justice of God!"* The Sanskrit grammar of Panini, who, accord- ing to Max Miiller, was the greatest grammarian that the world has ever seen, has given a key to the science of comparative philology. Many of the English words which we commonly use can be traced back to a Sanskrit origin. For instance: Mother, in Latin mater, is in San- skrit Mdtar; father, in Latin pater, is in Sanskrit Pitar; brother, in Sanskrit Bhrdtar; sister, Swasar; daughter, Duhitar; path, in Sanskrit Patha; serpent, Sarpa; bond, Bandha; etc. The word "punch" has an interesting history. It originally meant "five" in Sans- krit; so the expression, "Give him a punch," means literally "Give him five fingers." We also use the name "punch" for the drink, which implies that it is made up of five ingredients. In the last lecture, I showed how the fables * Vol. XII, p. 232. 232 THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA. of iEsop and Pilpay originated in India. In- deed, these stories of animals, with their wonder- ful Hindu morals, have influenced the young minds of Europe and America for many centu- ries. I think no child is brought up without studying some of them and learning the morals attached to them. Roman law and Roman juris- prudence also were perhaps not left uninfluenced by the more perfect system of ancient Hindu law. Now, I will show you the more recent influ- ence of India upon Western civilization. Those who have studied Schopenhauer's philosophy have undoubtedly noticed that he was full of Buddhistic ideas, as well as of the principles of the Vedanta philosophy. He paid a great tribute to the latter by his celebrated saying, "There is no study more beneficial and elevating to mankind than the study of the Upanishads * * "Fifty Upanishads, under the name of Oupenek'hat, were translated from the Sanskrit into Persian in 1656 at the instance of the Sultan Mohammed Dara Shakoh, and from the Persian into Latin in 180 1-2 by Anquetil Duperron." — Philosophy of the Upanishads, Paul Deus- sen, p. 36. 233 INDIA AND HEE PEOPLE. (Vedanta). It has been the solace of my life, and it will be the solace of my death." And Max Miiller declares, "If philosophy is meant to be a preparation for a happy death, or Euthan- asia, I know of no better preparation for it than the Vedanta philosophy"; while Schopenhauer's direct disciple, Paul Deussen, writes in his "Phi- losophy of the Upanishads": "God, the sole author of all good in us, is not, as in the Old Testament, a Being contrasted with and distinct from us, but rather . . . our divine self. This and much more we may learn from the Upan- ishads: we shall learn the lesson if we are willing to put the finishing touch to the Christian con- sciousness, and to make it on all sides consist- ent and complete." In fact, the philosophy of modern Europe has obtained a new life since the introduction of the doctrines of Vedanta into it. Carlyle was influenced by the teachings of Krishna through the English version of the Bhagavad Gita,* first translated by Charles Wilkins during the administration of Warren Hastings, and now well known to you as the * Published in London in 1 7 S 5 and in New York in 1867. 234 THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA. "Song Celestial." Many other translations have also been published in Europe and America. Frederick Schlegel, Victor Cousin, Amiel, Paul Deussen, Max Miiller, and Emerson were great advocates of the Vedanta philosophy. Emerson was, indeed, the pioneer of Hindu thought in America. He says in his Journal that the study of the Upanishads was a favorite recreation with him. Perhaps you have read his poem on Brahman, which he calls "Brahm"; it begins with this celebrated verse: "If the red slayer thinks he slays, Or if the slain thinks he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways I keep, and pass, and turn again." This is almost a literal translation of a passage in the Bhagavad Gita, which runs thus: "He who thinketh It to be a slayer and he who thinketh It to be slain, — both of these know not, for It neither killeth nor is killed" (chap, ii, verse 19). Like Emerson, the Concord sage, Thoreau, was also deeply imbued with the sublime teachings of Vedanta. "The Hindus," he writes, "are more 235 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. serenely and thoughtfully religious than the He- brews. They have, perhaps, a purer, more inde- pendent, and impersonal knowledge of God. Their religious books describe the first inquisitive and contemplative access to God; the Hebrew Bible, a conscientious return, a grosser and more per- sonal repentance. Repentance is not a free and fair highway to God. A wise man will dispense with repentance. It is shocking and passionate. God prefers that you approach him thoughtfully, not penitent, though you are the chief of sinners. It is only by forgetting yourself that you draw near to Him. "The calmness and gentleness with which the Hindu philosophers approach and discourse on forbidden themes is admirable. "What extracts from the Vedas I have read fall on me like the light of a higher and purer luminary, which describes a loftier course through a purer stratum, — free from particulars, simple, universal. It rises on me like the full moon after the stars have come out, wading through some far summer stratum of sky. "The Vedant teaches how, ' by forsaking re- 236 THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA. ligious rites,' the votary may 'obtain purification of mind.' "One wise sentence is worth the State of Massachusetts many times over. "The Vedas contain a sensible account of God. "The religion and philosophy of the Hebrew are those of a wilder and ruder tribe, wanting the civility and intellectual refinement and subtlety of the Hindus. "I do not prefer one religion or philosophy to another. I have no sympathy with the bigotry and ignorance which makes transient and partial and puerile distinctions between one man's faith and another's, as Christian and heathen. I pray to be delivered from narrowness, par- tiality, exaggeration, bigotry. To the philoso- pher, all sects, all nations, are alike. I like Brahma, Hari, or Buddha, the Great Spirit, as well as God." To-day the whole Western world is permeated with Hindu thoughts and ideals. The educated men and women of Europe and America, who have outgrown the superstitions, doctrines, and dogmas of orthodox Christianity, are finding the 237 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. right solutions of the problems of life and death, and of the riddles of the universe, as also the greatest comfort and happiness in the universal religion of Vedanta, which is in perfect harmony with the science, logic, and philosophy of modern Europe. To-day the moral influence of Bud- dhism and the ethics of Vedanta are strongly felt in all European and American communities. You see how many vegetarians are springing up, how many people now prefer a vegetarian diet to animal flesh. I saw the other day in New York a hospital for dogs and cats, but, as I have already told you, such a hospital was built in 260 B.C. by the Buddhist emperor, Asoka. Then, again, the interest in concentration, meditation, breathing exercises, New Thought, etc., which is to be found at present all through Europe and America, is the result of Eastern influence. Mrs. Eddy's early editions of "Science and Health" had quotations from the Bhagavad Gita; and Celia Thaxter, we know, was deeply influenced by the teachings of Krishna, gathered from the same source. The Theosophists have, indeed, disseminated the Hindu teachings most widely 238 THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA. all over the world. Even in Mexico I discovered that the teachings of Vedanta were spreading rapidly. From very ancient times the Hindus as a nation have practised the sublime ethical pre- cept of non-resistance of evil, and the grand moral doctrine of returning good for evil and "love thy neighbor as thyself." "Love thy neighbor as thyself" was taught by Christ, but why? The reason was not given by Him. In the Vedas we find the reason: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor because thou art thy neighbor in spirit. Thou art one with him." "Tat twam asi" "That art Thou." Love means expression of oneness. The Hindus have always practised these higher ethical virtues, but as a result India has been invaded again and again by the greedy nations of Europe and Asia. To-day they have been enslaved by the swords of a Christian nation, whose Master proclaimed before the world the doctrine of non-resistance of evil, of returning good for evil, and of loving one's enemies. As nations, the so-called Christian nations of Europe do not follow the path of their Master, do not 239 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. practise non-resistance of evil, do not love their enemies; on the contrary, they worhip Mammon, and seek worldly success and material prosperity instead of the Kingdom of Heaven. They send missionaries as forerunners of conquest and pio- neers for territorial possession. They do not spread peace and goodwill among the people, but fire and guns, as we have seen lately in the British expedition to Tibet. We cannot forget how the poor, innocent Tibetans were mowed down by Maxim guns. We cannot forget how the Portuguese and Dutch Christians held in one hand the Bible and in the other a gun, and demolished the Hindu temples in India. We cannot forget how the Christian missionaries, under the name of religion, destroyed the monu- ments of Buddhism in Japan until they were driven out by the Japanese Government in 1614 A.D. The Hindu and Buddhist missionaries, on the contrary, have always carried, instead of fire and sword, the gospel of peace and goodwill, and have civilized the nations. Think what Buddhism has done for China and Japan, for Tibet and Burmah! The whole civ- 240 THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA. ilization of Japan is indebted to Buddhism for its art, as for most other things. Buddhism was introduced into Japan in the sixth century after Christ, and since that time has lived there in absolute peace and harmony with Shintoism and Confucianism. Buddhism was introduced into China in 65 A.D., and it has existed among the Chinese for nearly two thousand years without destroying anything of Taoism and Confucianism, at the same time broadening the religious ideals of the nation, humanizing and civilizing them. Lafcadio Hearn, in his book on Japan, shows how much Buddhism has done for Japan; and those who have read "The Soul of a People," by H. Fielding Hall, cannot help admiring the humane, loving, and spiritual qualities of the Buddhist people. Religious toleration has always been practised by the Hindus and Buddhists. When the Parsees were driven out of Persia by the Mohometans, they took refuge in India, where they are now flourishing and living un- molested. Under the influence of this religious toleration of the Hindus, Western nations, espe- cially the English, are beginning to learn and 241 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. practise it. The Hindus and Buddhists have never robbed their neighbors to enrich them- selves, but they have given to the world the highest moral and spiritual truths, not in mere theories, but by setting their noble examples. The Hindus and Buddhists have always been the true spiritual teachers of the world; they know how to preach and how to live religion. By a strange irony of fate, to-day they are called barbarous and uncivilized heathens by the ag- gressive pioneers of European conquest.* Practical morality and spirituality have always been considered by the Hindus as greater than mere intellectual culture. In India, religion has been the source of philosophy, science, art, music, and everything. From religion the Hin- dus have gained their education and culture, therefore religion is a vital thing with them. It is the primary thing, while intellectual cul- * "Unhappy Asia! Do you call it unhappy Asia? this land of divine needs and divine thought ! Its slumber is more vital than the waking life of the rest of the globe , as the dream of genius is more precious than the vigils of ordinary men. Unhappy Asia, do you call it? It is the unhappiness of Europe over which I mourn." Benjamin Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield). 242 THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA. ture is secondary. The Hindus cultivate the feelings of the heart and do not care much for external reforms. It is for this reason that their civilization is based upon the highest moral and spiritual standards. Hindu civilization is founded, not upon the commercial and indus- trial interests of the people, but upon the eter- nal moral and spiritual laws which govern our lives. It is not like the European civiliza- tion of to-day, which inspires a nation mainly to protect its self-interest at the expense of other nations, and to gain material and com- mercial prosperity by depriving others of their rights, by robbing the weaker nations who are kind, innocent, and humane. According to the Hindu idea, that man is civilized who is versed in the Scriptures; who is learned and wise in the various branches of knowledge; who is truthful, unselfish, and who obeys the moral laws; who helps the poor and distressed; who returns good for evil; and who conquers hatred by love, avarice by generosity. These are the high moral virtues which should adorn the character of a thoroughly civilized 243 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. man. A civilized man must always cultivate these virtues, and control the brute impulses and animal propensities with which he is born. By these virtues the civilized man is distinguished from a barbarous savage, as also from lower animals. A civilized man or woman must have polished manners, not simply as an external form, as we see in Europe to-day, but they must pro- ceed from the feelings of the heart. European civilization,* on the contrary, has left moral and spiritual standards in the background, and made material prosperity and intellectual cul- ture the chief factors of civilization. The old brutal law of "might is right" is still in its ascendancy in the civilization of the West. The West looks mainly to externals, but India looks chiefly to the internal. With the former, worldly prosperity is the goal, and intellectual preemi- * "Asia revivified would act upon Europe. The Eu- ropean comfort, which they call civilization, is, after all, confined to a very small space, — the Island of Great Britain, France, and the course of a single river, the Rhine. The greater part of Europe is as dead as Asia, without the consolation of climate and the influence of immortal traditions." — Benjamin Disraeli (Lord Beacons- field). 244 THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA. nence is its watchword. With the latter, the attainment of spiritual perfection is the highest aim of civilization, and the cultivation of moral virtues is a necessary step or auxiliary. In Europe, religion has always retarded the progress of true civilization and freedom of thought by the Inquisition, and by continuous persecution on the part of priests and clergy. Think of the fate of Galileo, Giardino Bruno, and a host of other eminent thinkers of the Middle Ages! Consequently religion has been put aside from practical daily life. But freedom of thought must be the constant companion of true civiliza- tion. Social and political freedom are also the outcome of the most advanced kind of civiliza- tion. Freedom is the goal for every man, but that freedom must be based upon moral and spiritual laws. Through the influence of the dominant or rather militant civilization of Europe, India has lost her social and political freedom. She has become a slave. She cannot talk freely; she cannot discuss the unjust policy and oppressive methods of the so-called civilized government 245 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. which rules over her. European civilization has given to India the standard of commercialism, and has set an example of extreme selfishness, and this has been undermining the moral and spiritual standards of the Hindus. The ideal of simplicity and of humanitarianism is every day sacrificed upon the altar of commercialism and greed for material possession. Those who try to live in India a Christ-like life of purity and righteousness are robbed and dispossessed of their property by the selfish pioneers of the aggressive civilization of England. Under the influence of British rule, the culture of the feelings of the heart among the younger generation has become almost an impossibility. The moral and spiritual standards of the Hindus are giving place to hypocrisy and intellectual culture for material gain. The vices of Christian civilization, with slaughter-houses and saloons, with the liquor trade and the opium trade as Government monopolies for revenue, have been spreading all over India under the civilizing power of English rule. The influence of Western civilization is de- 246 THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA. stroying the social structure of the Hindus, and is breaking the harmony of the household life which has existed from time immemorial. But it has done some good. It has loosened the rigidity of caste rules and caste distinctions, and has removed the degenerating evil effects of priestcraft. India was groaning under priest- craft, but to-day its evil effects have been re- moved by English education. English educa- tion, on the other hand, has disturbed the minds of the people; has shaken their faith in their religion; has made its students advocates of atheism, agnosticism, and utilitarianism, which are the banes of scientific education. The great mass of Hindu students who come out of the uni- versities every year do not believe in God or the human soul, do not care for anything but worldly success, social position, fame, and glory. Their first object in life is to earn their bread and butter by some honest profession. The heartless and demoralizing influence of business competition, which never existed under caste rules in India, is suppressing the moral and spiritual develop- ment of the people. The gladiatorial policy of 247 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. European civilization is now in full force. The educated Hindus of to-day do not know which step to take in the path of their worldly career. They run for help toward the governing power, as a child would run to its father for protection in time of distress, but their hearts are filled with despair when they meet the frowning eyes of task-masters under the garb of Western culture and civilization. A civilized English- man in India kicks his native servant to death, and is fined perhaps five dollars by the Govern- ment. A civilized Englishman on a tea planta- tion in Assam will carry on a coolie trade, which is almost as bad as the old slave-trade, and is seldom punished by the Government. Such are the examples which the Hindus are witnessing every day in India. Western civilization under British rule has opened the eyes of the masses, has made them realize that a foreign government is no better than a curse of God upon a nation; and a nation which tyrannizes over another nation for its own gain is not entitled to be called civilized, according to the Hindu standard of civilization. 24S THE INFLUENCE OF INDIA. But I must say that India has derived certain benefits from English rule. After one hundred and fifty years of oppression and tyranny, it has made the Hindus stand on their own feet, and has brought out their national and patriotic feelings, in which they were lacking for nearly a century. It has brought India in close touch with European and American culture, and has driven away many superstitious ideas from the minds of the Hindus. The Hindus are now taking lessons in commercialism from the civil- ized masters of Europe, and are studying their ways and manners, so that in future they will be able to become their worthy disciples. Japan has shown to the world what ready disciples of Western civilization her people have become in less than half a century. Now it will be the turn for poor and downtrodden India. We may not see it, but future generations will enjoy that freedom which is the goal of all nations. Another good thing has come from the influ- ence of Western civilization, and that is the blessing of scientific education for the masses. It has opened a new field, and has brought a 249 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. tremendous power of knowledge with it. India is beginning to wake up from her sleep in the darkness which prevailed during the night of the Mahometan rule of six hundred years, and her children are now receiving the light of science and the blessings of knowledge which have come from her contact with England. India will always remain gratefully indebted to the West, especially to England, for this blessing, and will always thank the Lord that He has given to her people so glorious an opportunity to accomplish her future greatness and pohtical regeneration. India needs the spirit of Western civilization, while the West needs yet to learn from the Hindus the lesson of religious toleration, as also that practical method by which it will establish its civilization upon the principles of higher ethics and true spirituality taught by the uni- versal religion of Vedanta, which is the crest jewel of the civilization of India. 250 WOMAN'S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. VII. WOMAN'S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. Well has it been said by Louis Jaccoliot, the celebrated French author of the "Bible in India," that: "India of the Vedas entertained a respect for women amounting to worship; a fact which we seem little to suspect in Europe when we accuse the extreme East of having denied the dignity of woman, and of having only made of her an instrument of pleasure and of passive obedience." He also said: "What! Here is a civilization, which you cannot deny to be older than your own, which places the woman on a level with the man and gives her an equal place in the family and in society." Long before the civil laws of the Romans, which gave the foundation for the legislation of Europe and of America, were codified by Jus- tinian, the Hindu laws of Manu were closely 253 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. observed and strictly followed by the members of Hindu society in general. Many of the Ori- ental scholars, having compared the digest of Justinian and the Mosaic laws of the Old Testa- ment with the Hindu laws, have arrived at the conclusion that the code of Manu was related to them as a father is to his child. Yet the Hindu law-givers only repeated and codified the ethical principles which were inculcated in the Vedas. Following the teachings of the Vedas, the Hindu legislator gave equal rights to men and women by saying: "Before the creation of this phe- nomenal universe, the first-born Lord of all creatures divided his own self into two halves, so that one half should be male and the other half female." This illustration has established in the minds of the Hindus the fundamental equality of man and woman. Just as the equal halves of a fruit possess the same nature, the same attributes, and the same properties in equal proportion, so man and woman, being the equal halves of the same substance, possess equal rights, equal privileges, and equal powers. This idea of the equality of man and woman was the 254 WOMAN'S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. corner-stone of that huge structure of religion and ethics among the Hindus which has stood for so many ages the ravages of time and change, defying the onslaughts of the short-sighted critics of the world. Therefore, in India, what- ever is claimed for the man may also be claimed for the woman; there should be no partiality shown for either man or woman, according to the ethical, moral, and religious standards of the Hindus. The same idea of equality was most forcibly expressed in the Rig Veda (Book 5, hymn 61, verse 8). The commentator explains this pas- sage thus: "The wife and husband, being the equal halves of one substance, are equal in every respect; therefore both should join and take equal parts in all work, religious and secular." No other Scriptures of the world have ever given to the woman such equality with the man as the Vedas of the Hindus. The Old Testament, the Koran, and the Zend-Avesta have made woman the scapegoat for all the crimes com- mitted by man. The Old Testament, in describ- ing the creation of woman and the fall of man, has 255 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. established the idea that woman was created for man's pleasure; consequently her duty was to obey him implicitly. It makes her an instru- ment in the hands of Satan for the temptation and fall of the holy man with whom she was enjoying the felicity of paradise. Adam's first thought on that occasion was to shift the burden of guilt on to the shoulders of the woman. St. Paul, in the New Testament, shows that, through Adam's fall, woman was the means of bringing sin, suffering, and death into the world. Popu- lar Christianity has been trying lately to take away this idea, but, in spite of all the efforts of the preachers, it still lurks behind the eulogies that have been piled upon the conception of womanhood in Christian lands. How is it pos- sible, for one who believes the accounts given in Genesis to be literally true, to reject the idea there set forth that woman was the cause of the temptation and fall of man, thereby bringing sin and suffering and death into the world? For one who accepts the Biblical account, there is no other alternative left. In India, such ideas never arose in the minds 256 WOMAN'S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. of the Vedic seers, nor have kindred notions found expression in the writings of the law-givers of later days. The Hindu legislators realized that both sexes were equal, and said before the world that women had equal rights with men for freedom, for the acquirement of knowledge, education, and spirituality. It is for this reason that we find in the Rig Veda the names of so many inspired women who attained to the realization of the highest spiritual truths. These inspired women are recognized by all classes as the Seers of Truth, as spiritual instructors, divine speakers and revealers, equally with the inspired men of Vedic hymns. Those who believe that the Hindu rehgion debars women from studying the Vedas, or from acquiring religious ideas ought to correct these erroneous notions by opening their eyes to the facts, which are indelibly written on the pages of the religious history of India. The one hundred and twenty-sixth hymn of the first book of the Rig Veda was revealed by a Hindu woman whose name was Romasha; the one hundred and seventy-ninth hymn of the same book was by Lopamudra, another inspired 257 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. Hindu woman. I can cite at least a dozen names of women revealers of the Vedic wisdom, such as Visvavara, Shashvati, Gargi, Maitreyi, Apala, Ghosha, and Aditi, who instructed Indra, one of the Devas, in the higher knowledge of Brahman, the Universal Spirit. All of these are the names of inspired women revealers of the spiritual wisdom. Every one of them lived the ideal life of spirituality, being untouched by the things of the world. They are called in Sanskrit Brah- mavadinis, the speakers and revealers of Brahman. They were devout performers of the religious rites, singers of holy hymns, and often discussed with great philosophers the most subtle problems of life and death, the nature of the soul arid of God, and their inter-relation, and sometimes, in the course of these discussions, they defeated the most advanced thinkers among their opponents. Those who have read the Upanishads, the philosophical portions of the Vedas, know that Gargi and Maitreyi, the two great women Seers of Truth, discoursed on philosophical topics with Yajnavalka, who was one of the best authorities in the Vedic lore. There are many instances of 258 WOMAN'S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. women acting as arbitrators on such occasions. When Sankaracharya, the great commentator of the Vedanta, was discussing this philosophy with another philosopher, a Hindu lady, well versed in all the Scriptures, was requested to act as umpire. If, in the face of such facts, the Christian missionaries say that the Hindu religion prevents women from studying the Vedas, or denies them a place in religion, we can only console ourselves by thinking that the eyes of our missionary brothers and sisters are not open to truths which exist outside the boundary-line of their own particular creed and religion. It is the especial injunction of the Vedas that no married man shall perform any religious rite, ceremony, or sacrifice without being joined in it by his wife; should he do so, his work will be incom- plete and half finished, and he will not get the full results, because the wife is considered to be a partaker and partner in the spiritual life of her husband: she is called, in Sanskrit, Saha- dharmini, "spiritual helpmate." This idea is very old, as old as the Hindu nation. It is true 259 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. that there were certain prohibitions for some women against certain studies and ceremonies, which were prescribed for those only who were in a different stage of spiritual development, just as a certain class of men were proscribed from the studies of some portions of the Vedas, or from performing certain ceremonies simply because they were not read)- for them. Coming down from the Vedic period to the time when the Puranas and Epics were written, we find that the same idea of equality between men and women was kept alive, and that the same laws were observed as during the time of the Vedas. Those who have read the Ram- ayana will remember how exemplary was the character of Sita, the heroine. She was the embodiment of purity, chastity, and kind- ness, the personification of spirituality. She still stands as the perfect type of ideal womanhood in the hearts of the Hindu women of all castes and creeds. In the whole religious history of the world a second Sita, will not be found. Her life was unique. She is worshipped as an In- carnation of God, as Christ is worshipped among 260 WOMAN'S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. the Christians. India is the only country where prevails a belief that God incarnates in the form of a woman as well as in that of a man. In the Mahabharata we read the account of Sulabha, the great woman Yogi, who came to the court of King Janaka and showed wonderful powers and wisdom, which she had acquired through the practice of Yoga. This shows that women were allowed to practise Yoga; even to-day there are many living Yoginis in India who are highly advanced in spirituality. Many of these Yoginis become spiritual teachers of men. Sri Ramakrishna, the greatest Saint of the nineteenth century, was taught spiritual truths by a Yogini* As in religion the Hindu woman of ancient times enjoyed equal rights and privileges with men, so in secular matters she had equal share and equal power with them. From the Vedic age women in India have had the same right to possess property as men; they could go to the * See "Life and Sayings of Ramakrishna," by Prof. P. Max Muller, published by Scribner and Sons, New York. 261 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. courts of justice, plead their own cases, and ask for the protection of the law. Those who have read the famous Hindu drama, called Sakuntala, know that Sakuntala pleaded her own case and claimed her rights in the court of King Dushyanta. Similar instances are mentioned in the one hundred and eighth hymn of the tenth book of the Rig Veda. As early as 2000 B.C. Hindu women were allowed to go to the battle-fields to fight against enemies. Sarama, one of the most power- ful women of her day, was sent by her hus- band in search of robbers. She discovered their hiding-place and afterwards destroyed them. In the fifth book of the Rig Veda we read that King Namuchi sent his wife to fight against his enemies. She fought and eventually conquered them. There have been many instances of women holding high political powers, governing states, making laws, and administering justice to all. Throughout the history of India are to be found the names of many women who have governed their own territories. Some women 262 WOMAN S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. of later dates resisted foreign invaders.* The history of India records the wonderful general- ship of the Rdni of Jhansi, who held a portion of the British army in check during the famous mutiny of 1857-58. She headed her troops against the British, dressed like a cavalry officer, and after a hard fight she fell in battle and died, in June, 1858. Sir Hugh Rose declared that the best man on the enemy's side was the Rdni of Jhansi, not knowing that the Rdni was not a man, but the Queen herself. Not long ago a Hindu lady, Aus Kour by name, was elevated by the Hindus, with the help of the British Government, to the disputed throne of the disorganized and revolted State of Patiala, in the northwest of India. She has been described by English historians as the most competent person to govern that state. In less than a year she brought peace and security into all parts of her dominions. Ahalya Bai, the Queen of Malwa, governed * The heroic queen 1 Chand Bibi, who defended the fort of Ahmednagar against the attacks of the Mogul emperor Akbar, may be called the Joan of Arc of India. 263 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. her kingdom with great success for twenty years, devoting herself to the rights and welfare of her people and the happiness of her subjects; she was so great and popular that both the Mahome- tans and the Hindus united in prayers for her long life; so little did she care for name and fame that, when a book was written in her honor, she ordered it to be destroyed, and took no notice of the author. America boasts of her civilization and the freedom of her women, but we know how little power and how few privileges have been given to women. The cause of this is deeply rooted in the Biblical conception of womanhood. It is claimed that Christianity has elevated the con- dition of women; but, on the contrary, history tells us that it is Christianity that has stood for centuries in the way of the religious, social, and political freedom of women. Think of the women's suffrage societies, and how hard they are struggling to win recognition of the rights of their sex.* Roman law and Roman juris- * The following extract from a letter sent by Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Bishop Potter, of New York, 264 WOMAN'S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. prudence gave woman a place far more elevated than that given to her by Christianity. The Christians learned to honor women from the pagans. The Teutonic tribes believed, like the Hindus, in the perfect equality of both sexes in all domestic and social relations, and held that a queen was as good as a king. Even to-day the Christian nations fail to see this equality between man and woman. on 15th January, 1901, will give an idea of the situa- tion: " Ever and anon public thought is aroused by a terrible tragedy, like the one enacted in Paterson, or by some unusually open manifestation of vice in the streets of our cities. Though an aroused public sentiment can repress the evils for a time in one locality, they reappear at once, with renewed energy, in many others. Occa- sionally, church officials make their protests, but no one seems to understand the hidden cause of all these outrages. "The authorities of the Episcopal Church are just now aroused to action. The first step to be taken is to teach woman a higher respect for herself, and the rising generation a more profound reverence. "The Church and the Bible make woman the foot- ball for the jibes and jeers of the multitude. "When, in their marriage service, it is the duty of woman to obey, and be given away by some man, she is made the inferior and subject of man. "All our efforts to suppress the social evil are hope- less until woman is recognized, in the canon law and all 265 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. The Hindu law allows the women a much greater share in the management of property than most of the statutes of the Christian nations. In family affairs, religious or secular, especially in business or trade, a husband in India cannot take any step without consulting the female members of the family. It is often said that Hindu women are treated like slaves by their husbands, but it is not a fact. On the contrary, the Hindu women get better treatment than the majority of the wives church discipline, as equal in goodness to bishops, arch- bishops, and the Pope himself. "The sentiments of men in high places are responsible for the outrages on woman in the haunts of vice and on the highway. If the same respect the masses are educated to feel for cathedrals, altars, symbols, and sacraments were extended to the mothers of the race, as it should be, all these problems would be speedily settled. "When our good men in State and Church try to suppress the terrible outrages on woman, while they deal with the evil on the surface, they should begin the lasting work of securing to her equal honor, dignity, and respect by sharing with her all the liberties they them- selves enjoy. "The lesson of inferiority is taught everywhere, and in these terrible tragedies of life we have the result of the universal degradation <>f woman." 266 WOMAN'S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. of Englishmen or of Americans endowed with the spirit of an English husband. Sir Monier Monier Williams says : "Indian wives of ten possess greater influence than the wives of Europeans." The number of wife-beaters is considerably smaller in India than in Europe or America. He is not a true Hindu who does not regard a woman's body as sacred as the temple of God. He is an outcast who touches a woman's body with irreverence, hatred, or anger. "A woman's body," says Manu the law-giver, "must not be struck hard, even with a flower, because it is sacred." It is for this reason that the Hindus do not allow capital punishment for women. The treatment of woman, according to Hindu religion, will be better understood from some of the quotations from the laws of Manu and other law-givers. Manu says: i. "The mouth of a woman is always pure." V, 130. 2. "Women must be honored and adorned by their fathers, husbands, brothers, and brothers- in-law, who desire their own welfare." Ill, 55. 3. ' 'Where women are honored, there the Devas 267 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. (gods) are pleased; but where they are dishon- ored, no sacred rite yields rewards." Ill, 56. 4. "Where female relations live in grief, the family soon wholly perishes; but that family where they are not unhappy ever prospers." HI, 57- 5. "In like manner, care must be taken of barren women, of those who have no sons, of those whose family is extinct, of wives and widows faithful to their lords, and of women afflicted with diseases." VIII, 28. 6. "A righteous king must punish like thieves those relatives who appropriate the property of such females during their lifetime." VIII, 29. 7. "In order to protect women and Brahmins, he who kills in the cause of right commits no sin." VIII, 349. 8. "One's daughter is the highest object of tenderness; hence, if one is offended by her, one must bear it without resentment." IV, 185. (Compare this with the statements of the mission- aries that the Hindu religion sanctions the killing of girls.) 9. "A maternal aunt, the wife of a maternal 268 WOMAN'S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. uncle, a mother-in-law, and a paternal aunt, must be honored like the wife of one's spiritual teacher; they are equal to the wife of one's spiritual teacher." II, 131. (In India, the wife of a spiritual teacher is regarded as a living goddess. ) 10. "Towards the sister of one's father and of one's mother and towards one's elder sister, one must behave as towards one's mother; but the mother is more venerable than they." II, 133. 11. "But the teacher is ten times more vener- able than the sub-teacher, the father a hundred times more than the teacher, but the mother a thousand times more than the father." II, 145. 12. "A chaste wife, who after the death of her husband constantly remains chaste, reaches heaven, though she have no son, just like those chaste men." V, 160. (Compare this with the statements of the missionaries that Hindu widows are cursed by their religion.) 13. "In that family where the husband is pleased with his wife and the wife with her hus- band, happiness will assuredly be lasting." Ill, 60. 269 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. 14. "Offspring, the due performance of re- ligious rites, faithful service, highest conjugal happiness, and heavenly bliss for the ancestors and one's self, depend upon the wife alone." IX, 28. 15. "Let mutual fidelity continue till death; this may be considered as a summary of the highest law for husband and wife." IX, 101. From other Hindu laws: "Woman possesses an unequalled means of purification: they never become (entirely) foul." "Women are pure in all limbs." 1. "Man is strength, woman is beauty; he is the reason that governs and she is the wisdom that moderates." 2. "He who despises woman despises his mother." 3. "He who is cursed by a woman is cursed by God." 4. "The tears of a woman call down the fire of heaven on those who make them flow." 5. "Evil to him who laughs at a woman's sufferings; God shall laugh at his prayers." 6. "The songs of women are sweet in the ears 270 WOMAN'S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. of the Lord; men should not, if they wish to be heard, sing the praises of God without women." 7. "There is no crime more odious than to persecute women, and to take advantage of their weakness to despoil them of their patrimony." 8. "The woman watches over the house, and the protecting divinities (Devas) of the domestic hearth are happy in her presence. The labors of the field should never be assigned to her." 9. "When relatives, by some subterfuge, take possession of the property of a woman, her car- riages or her jewels, such evil-doers shall descend into the infernal regions." 10. "The virtuous woman should have but one husband, as the right-minded man should have but one wife." Here is the definition of a wife given in the Mahabharata : — A wife is half the man, his truest friend; A loving wife is a perpetual spring Of virtue, pleasure, wealth; a faithful wife Is his best aid in seeking heavenly bliss; A sweetly-speaking wife is a companion In solitude, a father in advice, A mother in all seasons of distress, A rest in passing through life's wilderness." 271 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. The Christian missionaries say that these laws are most horrible! Yet to-day in some parts of Europe women are yoked together with horses and cattle in the field, and obliged to do the roughest labor! The unmarried daughter, not the son, inherits the mother's estate. This is the Hindu law. The special property of the wife which she gets as dowry cannot be used by the husband. A wife in India is not responsible for the debts of her husband or son. The mother in India owns her children as much as the father does. Mrs. F. A. Steele, who has written several novels on Indian life, and who resided in India for twenty-five years, writes of Indian women: "In regard to the general position of women in India, I think it is rather better than our own. Women in India can hold property, and a widow always gets a fixed portion of her hus- band's estate." Some American ladies who lived in India, not as missionaries but as impartial observers, have corroborated these statements. It is gen- erally said that the Hindu law makes no provi- WOMAN'S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. sion for the Hindu widows. Let us see what an English historian says: "In the absence of direct male heirs, widows succeed to a life-interest in real and abso- lute interest in personal property. The daugh- ters inherit absolutely. Where there are sons, mothers and daughters are entitled to shares, and wives hold peculiar property from a variety of sources over which a husband has no control during their lives, and which descends to their own heirs, with a preference to females." * Much has been said against the marriage customs of the Hindus. I have heard a great deal of objection to them, in this country espe- cially. It is true that marriage by courtship is not considered by the Hindus to be the highest and best system; they say this method generally proceeds from selfish desires, or the mere grati- fication of passion. Marriage, according to the Hindu ideas, must be based on the ideal of the spiritual union of the souls, and not on the lower desires for sense pleasures. It must be a sacred bond. The Hindus were the first to ♦ Mill's History of India, Vol. I, p. 248. 273 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. recognize marriage as an indissoluble holy bond between two souls. Even death does not dissolve it; and this idea prevails in the hearts of many- Hindu wives, who do not care to remarry after the death of their husbands, but prefer to de- vote their lives to fulfilling spiritual duties. Mrs. Steele says: "I have seen many a virgin widow who gloried in her fate." Marriage is not considered to be the only aim of life. There are nobler and higher purposes, and they must be accomplished before death comes. The whole spirit of the marriage laws in India is in favor of the legal union between one man and one woman, but they allow a little latitude for the preservation of the race. It is said that a man may marry a second wife for progeny alone, with the consent of his first wife, in case she should be barren. The aim of Hindu law-givers was to build a society where the moral and spiritual evolution of the individual should be free from legal inter- ference. Therefore they divided society into classes, and set forth laws for each class; the marriage laws in India have been many-sided in 274 WOMAN'S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. order to suit the different tendencies which pre- vailed among different classes. Hindu law-givers understood that one law would not do for all people. The higher the class in society, the more restricted are their laws; for instance, the same law-giver, who allows the marriage of widows amongst the lower classes, sets forth arguments against its practice among women of a higher class. Nearly all Hindu widows of the lower classes can remarry after the death of their husbands; but it depends upon the choice both of the husband and the wife. The Hindu law provides for the remarriage of widows * and of divorced women in the same way as for the remarriage of widowers and divorced men. Ac- cording to the law, a wife may abandon her husband (if she choose) if he be criminal, insane, * "That the remarriage of widows in Vedic times was a national custom can be easily established by a variety of proofs and arguments. The very fact of the Sans- krit language having from ancient times such words as didhishu, 'a man that has married a widow,' parapurva, 'a woman that has taken a. second husband,' paunar- bhava, 'a son of a woman by her second husband,' are enough to establish it." — " Indo-Arians," by Rajendra Lala Mitra, Vol. II, p. 155. 275 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. impotent, outcast, or afflicted with leprosy, also because of his long absence in foreign lands, and can take another husband. The Roman law gives no other causes of divorce than these. Similarly, a husband may abandon his wife if she be drunken or adulterous, afflicted with lep- rosy, or cruel towards husband and children, and can remarry. But the Hindu law does not allow a divorce simply for incompatibility of temper, nor because of the simple desire in either party to marry another. It is said that the greatest curse is the child- marriage in India, and that it is sanctioned by religion; but this is not true. Religion distinctly forbids it, and in many parts of India so-called child-marriage is nothing but a betrothal. The betrothal ceremony takes place some years before the real marriage ceremony; sufficient cause may prolong the period of betrothal for even three or four years. In Northern India the real marriage does not take place until the parties are of proper age; it is attended with music, feasting, and the presentation of gifts. A be- trothed wife stays in her father's house until 276 WOMAN'S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. the time of her real marriage. In Southern India, customs are not the same; many abuses have crept in, and child-wives are often given to their husbands at too tender an age. The Hindu law does not prevent the remarriage of the betrothed wife after the death of her be- trothed husband, but it says that under such circumstances the parents of the betrothed wife commit a sin as of giving false witness before the court of justice. According to the Hindu law, it is better for a girl of a high caste to remain unmarried for life than to marry one who is not of noble birth or from a family of the same caste, or one who is unqualified and illiterate. Eight different kinds of marriages are described and discussed by Hindu legislators,* among which marriage with the consent of the parents of both parties, and not a sentimental love con- tract, is considered to be the highest. In ancient times, when the country was governed by Hindu kings, the Svayambara system of marriage was very common. It was the system of free choice * Manu, III, 21 — 33. 277 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. of a husband by the maiden. Those who have read "The Light of Asia," by Sir Edwin Arnold, will remember how Buddha was married. But when the Hindus lost their political freedom they would have been unable to prevent the inter- mixture of races had such liberty been continued; so they abandoned that system of marriage and adopted that of betrothing their sons and daugh- ters in their youth. The betrothal, however, is not practised in all parts of the country. Christian missionaries have brought false charges against the moral character of Hindu wo- men; and some of our own countrywomen, having enlisted their names as Christian converts, have, I regret to say, joined these missionary detractors in bringing false charges against Hindu women. If you wish to know the true condition of the women in India, you will have to reject ninety- nine per cent of the statements which you hear from the missionaries, or from Christian con- verts who come from India. There are immoral women in India, as there are in every other country, but it is more than wicked to make such sweeping statements as that there is no morality 278 WOMAN'S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. among Hindu women. The Pandita Ramabai said: "I would not trust one of my girls in any Indian home. The immorality in that country is horrible!" * Self-burning of widows was not sanctioned by the Vedic religion, but was due to other causes. Some say that, when the Mahometans conquered India, they treated the widows of the soldiers so brutally that the women preferred death, and voluntarily sought it. It is often said that the "Christian government" has suppressed Suttee; but the truth is, that the initiative in this direction was taken by that noble Hindu, Rajah Ram Mohan Roy, who was, however, obliged to secure the aid of the British Govern- ment in enforcing his ideas, because India was a subject nation. The educated classes among the Hindus had strongly protested against the priests f who supported this inhuman custom (which prevailed only in certain parts of India), and efforts had been made to suppress the evil by force; but, as it could not be done without * Fitchburg Sentinel, 18 April, 1898. 1 f Br&hminism and Hinduism, p. 482. 279 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. official help, appeal was made to the Viceroy, Lord Bentinck, and a law against Suttee was passed. Thus the evil was practically sup- pressed by the Hindus themselves, aided by the British Government. Sir Monier Monier Williams says: "Perhaps the most important point to which he (Rajah Ram Mohan Roy) awakened attention was the absence of all Vedic sanction for the self-immolation of widows (Suttee, in Sanskrit Sati). It was princi- pally his vehement denunciation of this practice, and the agitation against it set on foot by him, which ultimately led to the abolition of Sati throughout British India in 1829."* The exclusion of women from the society of men, which we find in some parts of India, is not due to their religion, but to other causes. Although this custom existed among the aristo- * Some of the Brahmin priests perverted the meaning of the Vedic text which describes the funeral ceremony of the ancient Hindus. The true meaning of that verse is: "Rise up, woman, thou art lying by one whose life is gone; come, come to the world of the living, away from thy husband, and become the wife of him who grasps thy hand and is willing to marry thee." — Rig Veda, Bk. 10, Hymn 18, verse 8. 280 WOMAN'S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. cratic classes of the Hindu community, still it came into practice largely for self-defence against Mahometan brutality. The Purda system, that is, the custom of not allowing women to appear in public without a veil, was not of Hindu origin, but was introduced into India by the Mahome- tans. There are many parts of India Where the Purda system does not exist at all, where men mix freely with women, travel in the same vehicle, and appear in public with the women unveiled. Sir Monier Monier Williams writes; "More- over, it must be noted that the seclusion and ignorance of women, which were once mainly due to the fear of the Mahometan conquerors, do not exist in the same degree in provinces unaffected by those conquerors." Every one has heard the old missionary tale of the Hindu mothers throwing their babies to the crocodiles in the Ganges. Touching pic- tures of a black mother with a white baby in her arms, calmly awaiting the advent of a large crocodile, have adorned many Sunday-school books. Perhaps this story arose from the fact that in certain places poor Hindu mothers place 281 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. the dead bodies of their little ones by the river- side, because they cannot afford the expense of cremating them. The zeal of the pious missionaries for Chris- tianizing India was the cause of the story of the car of Jaggannath. Sir Monier Monier Williams says: "It is usual for missionaries to speak with horror of the self-immolation alleged to take place under the car of Jaggannath. But, if deaths occur, they must be accidental, as self- destruction is wholly opposed both to the letter and spirit of their religion." * As regards female infanticide, Pandita Rama- bai herself wrote: "Female infanticide, though not sanctioned by religion and never looked upon as right by con- scientious people, has nevertheless, in those parts of India mentioned been silently passed over unpunished by society in general." f The Pandita does not perhaps know that numbers of dead bodies of illegitimate babies are picked up every year in the streets and * Brahmanism and Hinduism, p. 118. t High-caste Hindu Women, p. 26. 2S2 WOMAN'S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. vacant lots of New York and other large Ameri- can cities. What does American society do about such criminals? Is it not equally reason- able to charge these evils to the Christian re- ligion as to lay all the sins of India at the door of the Hindu religion? High-caste Hindu women generally learn to read and write in their own vernacular, but they do not pass public examinations. Hindu religion does not prevent any woman from receiving education; on the contrary, it says that it is the duty of the parents, brothers, and husbands to educate their daughters, sisters, and wives. So, if there be ignorance among Hindu women, it is not the fault of their religion, but rather of their poverty. Malabar boasts of seven great poets, and four of them were women. The moral sentiments uttered by one of them (Avyar) are taught in the schools as the golden rules of life. The writings of Lilavati, a great woman mathematician, still form the text-book in native schools of the Hindus. It is often said by the Christian missionaries 283 INDIA AND HER PEOPLE. that Hindu religion teaches that women have no souls, and that they are not entitled to sal- vation. On the contrary, all the sacred books of the Hindus testify against such outrageous falsities. Those who have read the Bhagavad Gita, or the Upanishads, know that, according to Hindu religion the soul is sexless, and that all men and women will sooner or later reach the highest goal of religion. It was in India that women were first allowed to be spiritual teachers and to enter into the monastic life. Those who have read the life of Buddha know that his wife became the leader of the Buddhist nuns. There are to-day hundreds of Hindu Sanny&sinis (nuns) who are recognized as spiritual teachers by the Hindus. The wife of Sri Ramakrishna, the great Hindu Saint of the nineteenth century, has become a living example of the great honor and reverence that are paid by Hindus to a woman of pure, spotless, spiritual life. Lastly, the position of women in Hindu re- ligion can be understood better by that unique idea of the Motherhood of God, which is nowhere so strongly expressed and recognized as in India. 2S4 WOMAN'S PLACE IN HINDU RELIGION. The mother is so highly honored in India that the Hindus are not satisfied until they see divin- ity in the form of earthly mother. They say that one mother is greater than a thousand fathers, therefore the Hindus prefer to call the Supreme Being the Mother of the Universe. The Divine Mother is greater than the "Creator" of other religions. She is the Producer of the Creator, or the First-born Lord of all creatures. There is no other country in the world where every living mother is venerated as an incarna- tion of the Divine Mother, where every village has a guardian mother who protects all as her own children. Listen to the prayer that rises every day to the Almighty Mother of the universe from the hearts of Hindu worshippers: "O Mother Divine, Thou art beyond the reach of our praises; Thou pervadest every par- ticle of the universe; all knowledge proceeds from Thee, O Infinite Source of wisdom! Thou dwellest in every feminine form, and all women are Thy living representatives upon earth." 285 Publications of The Vedanta Society. NEW BOOK BY SWAMI ABHEDANANDA. Self-Knowledge (Atma-Jnana). Cloth, $1.00. Postage, 8 cents. Portrait of author, frontispiece. Contents. I. Spirit and Matter. IV. Search after the Self. II. Knowledge of the Self. V. Realization of the Self. III. Prana and the Self. VI. Immortality and the Self. " So practically and exhaustively is each phase of the subject treated that it may well serve as a text-book for anyone striving for self-development and a deeper understanding of human nature." — Toronto Saturday Night, Dec. 1905. " It will also be welcomed by students of the Vedic Scriptures, since each chapter is based upon some one of the ancient Vedas known as the Upanishads, and many passages are quoted." — Chicago Inter^Ocean, Jan. 1906. " The book, from the gifted pen of the head of the Vedanta Society of New York, presents in a clear manner, calculated to arrest the attention of those not yet familiar with Vedic literature, the principles of self-knowledge as taught by the leaders of that philosophy. . . . The many passages quoted prove the profound wisdom and practical teaching contained in the early Hindu Scrip- tures." — Washington Evening Star, Dec. 1905. " A new book which will be welcome to students of Truth, whether it be found in the Eastern religions, in modern thought or elsewhere." — Unity, Nov. 1905. "The book is very well written." — San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 1905. " In forcefulness and clearness of style it is in every way equal to the other works by the Swami Abhedananda, who has always shown himself in his writings a remarkable master of the English language." — Mexican Herald, Dec. 1905. " The volume is forcefully written, as are all of this author's works, and cannot fail to be of great interest to all who have entered this field of thought. A fine portrait of the Swami forms the frontispiece." — Toledo Blade, Nov, 1905. Publications of The Vedanta Society. BY SWAMI ABHEDANANDA. How to be a Yogi. I. Introductory. III. Science of Breathing. II. What is Yoga ? IV. Was Christ a Yogi ? i2mo, 188 pages. Cloth, $1.00. Postage, 8 cents. " For Christians interested in foreign missions this book is of moment, as showiDg the method of reasoning which they must be prepared to meet if they are to influence the educated Hindu. To the Orientalist, and the philosopher also, the book is not without interest. . . . Swami Abhedinanda preaches no mushroom creed and no Eurasian hybrid 'theosophy.' He aims to give us a com- pendious account of Yoga. Clearly and admirably he performs his task. In form the little book is excellent, and its English style is good." — New York Times Saturday Review of Books, Dec. 6, 1902, *' 4 How to be a Yogi ' is a little volume that makes very interest- ing reading. The book contains the directions that must be fol- lowed in physical as well as in mental training by one who wishes to have full and perfect control of all his powers." — Record- Herald, Chicago, Feb. 28, 1903. " The Sw^mi writes in a clear, direct manner. His chapter on Breath will elicit more than ordinary attention, as there is much in it that will prove helpful. The book makes a valuable addition to Vedanta Philosophy." — Mind, June, 1903. "The book is calculated to interest the student of Oriental thought and familiarize the unread with one of the greatest philo- sophical systems of the world." — Buffalo Courier, Nov. 23, 1902. " l How to be a Yogi ' practically sums up the whole science of Vedanta Philosophy. The term Yogi is lucidly defined and a full analysis is given of the science of breathing and its bearing on the highest spiritual development. The methods and practices of Yoga are interestingly set forth, and not the least important teaching of the book is the assertion of how great a Yogi was Jesus of Naz- areth." — The Bookseller, Newsdealer and Stationer, Jan. 15, 1903. "This book is well worth a careful reading. Condensed, yet clear and concise, it fills one with the desire to emulate these Yogis in attaining spiritual perfection." — Unity, Kansas City, Dec, 1902. Religion of Vedanta. Pamphlet printed for free distribution. l2mo, 8 pages. $1.00 for 150. Publications of The Vedanta Society. BY SWAMI ABHEDANANDA. Divine Heritage of Man. I2mo, 215 pages. Portrait of author, frontispiece. Cloth, $1.00. Postage, 8 cents. Contents. L Existence of God. II. Attributes of God III. Has God any Form? IV. Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. V. Relation of Soul to God. VI. What is an Incar- nation of God? VII. Son of God. VIII. Divine Principle in Man. " The Swami Abhedi-tnanda^ writings are also companionable and read- able. . . . The Philosophy of India, being the bringing together of the best thoughts and reasonings of the best men for the thousands of preced- ing years, had under consideration the self-same problems that are to-day vexing - the souls of our philosophers. The Swami's book is therefore not so radical a departure from accepted thought as might at first be imagined. ... It is not meat for babes, but rather will it give new lines of thought to the brightest intellects." — Transcript, Boston, Aug. 1903. "His method of dealing with these fundamental questions is peculiarly free both from dogmatic assertion and from pure metaphysical specula- tion." — Inter-Ocean, Chicago, Aug. 1903. " He bases his arguments, not on theological hypotheses, but on scientific facts." — Cleveland Plain Dealer, Aug. 1903. ** It is written in a plain and logical style, and cannot fail to interest all who are anxious for information concerning the philosophy of which the author is such an able exponent." — Times Pittsburg, June, 1903. " A glance over a few of its pages would be sufficient to convince the reader that he is in the presence of an intellect of high order, more thoroughly conversant with the philosophies and sciences of the Occi- dental world than most Europeans or Americans. . . . The "Divine Heritage of Man " gives a rare insight into the religious views of educated Hindoos and in its argumentation furnishes an intellectual treat." — Chronicle, San Francisco, Aug. 1903. "Fully cognizant of modern scientific discoveries, the author treats his subject broadly." — Bookseller, Newsdealer, and Publisher, New York, Aug. 1903. *'The student of religions will find much of value in the discourses, since they are full of historical information concerning the origin and growth of certain ideas and beliefs dominant in Christianity."— Republi- can, Denver, July, 1903. " There is no disposition on the part of the author to assail any of the Christian principles, but he simply presents his subject with calmness, not attempting to reconcile religion and science, for to him they are oae." — Washington Post, June, 1903. Publications of The Vedanta Society. WORKS BY SWAMI ABHEDANANDA. Spiritual Unfoldment. I. Self-control. II. Concentration and Meditation. III. God- consciousness. Paper, 35 cents. Cloth, 50 cents. Postage, 2 and 6 cents. " This attractive little volume comprises three lectures on the VedSnta Philosophy. The discourses will be found vitally helpful even by those who know little and care less about the spiritual and ethical teachings of which the^SwSmi is an able and popular exponent. As the Ved&nta itself is largely a doctrine of universals and ultimates, so also is this book of common utility and significance among all races of believers. Its precepts are susceptible of application by any rational thinker, regardless of relig- ious predilection and inherited prejudices. The principles set forth by this teacher are an excellent corrective of spiritual bias or narrowness, and as such the present work is to be commended. It has already awakened an interest in Oriental literature that augurs well for the cause of human brotherhood, and it merits a wide circulation among all who cherish ad- vanced ideals."— Mind y April, IQ02, Reincarnation. I. Reincarnation. II. Evolution and Reincarnation. III. Which is Scientific, Resurrection or Reincarn- camation ? Paper, 2fJ cents. Cloth, 40 cents. Postage, 2 and 5 cents. **|In these discourses the Sw&mi Abhed^nanda considers the questions of evolution and the resurrection in their bearing npon the ancient teach- ing 1 of rebirth, the truth, logic and justice of which are rapidly permeating the best thought of the Western world. For the preservation of this doc- trine mankind is indebted to the literary storehouses of India, the racial and geographical source of much of the vital knowledge of Occidental peoples. Reincarnation is shown in the present volume to be a universal solvent of life's mysteries. It answers those questions of children that have staggered the wisest minds who seek to reconcile the law of evolution and the existence of an intelligent and just Creator, with the proposition that man has but a single lifetime in which to develop spiritual self-con- sciousness. It is commended to every thinker."— .1/7 ^f, February^ igoo. Orders received and filled promptly by the vedAnta publication committee, 62 West 71st Street, New York. Agents for Europe — Messrs. LUZAC & CO., London, W. C, 46 Great Russell Street. Publications of The Vedanta Society. WORKS BY SWAMI ABHEDANANDA. Philosophy of Work. I. Philosophy of Work. II. Secret of Work. III. Duty or Motive in Work. Paper, 35 cents. Cloth, 50 cents. Postage, 2 and 6 cents. * ' In this volume the Vedanta Society presents three lectures by the leader of the Hindu religious movement that is making; much head- way among philosophic minds throughout the United States. The book is an excellent antidote to the gospel of selfism now popular in many quarters, and a copy should be in the hands especially of every ambitious seeker after the loaves and fishes of material desire. It shows the folly of slavery to sense and the means of escape from the thraldom of egoism, while elucidating the Hindu concept of many things that are ' race problems' because of individual igno* ranee of spiritual principles. These discourses merit a wide circula- tion among unprejudiced minds." — Mind, February, 1903. Single Lectures. The Way to the Blessed Life. Scientific Basis of Religion. Cosmic Evolution and its Purpose. The Philosophy of Good and Evil. Does the Soul Exist after Death? Spiritualism and Vedanta. The Word and the Cross in Ancient India. Simple Living. Why a Hindu is a Vegetarian. Religion of the Hindus. Divine Communion. Who is the Saviour of Souls? Woman's Place in Hindu Religion. Why a Hindu accepts Christ and Rejects Churchianity. Christian Science and Vedanta. 10 cents each. Postage, I cent each. What is Vedanta? Pamphlet printed for free distribution containing a short exposition of the fundamental teachings of the Vedanta Philos- ophy. i2mo, 8 pp. $1.00 for 150. Publications of The Vedanta Society. The Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna. COMPILED BY SWAMI ABHEDANANDA. 234 pages. Flexible cloth, gilt top, 75c. net. Postage, 4c. Ramakrishna was a great Hindu saint of the nineteenth century who has already had an influence on the religious thought of America and England through the teachings of his disciples, Sw^mi Vivek&nanda, SwSmi Abhedananda, and others. His Say- ings are full of broad, practical, non-sectarian instructions concern- ing the spiritual life which cannot but give help and inspiration to the followers of all creeds. The present volume contains a larger number of Sayings than has yet appeared in any one English collection. For the first time also they have been classified into chapters and arranged in logical sequence under marginal head- ings, such as "All creeds paths to God," " Power of Mind and Thought," "Meditation," "Perseverance." As an exposition of the universal truths of Religion and their application to the daily life this book takes its place among the great scriptures of the world. My Master. BY SWAMI VIVEKANANDA. I2mo, 90 pages. Cloth, 50 cents. Postage, 6 cents. 14 This little book gives an account of the character and career of the remarkable man known in India as Paramahamsa Srimat Ramakrishna, who is regarded by a great number of his country- men as a divine incarnation. It is not more remarkable for the story it tells of a holy man than for the clear English in which it is told, and the expressions of elevated thought in its pages."— Journal % Indianapolis, May 13th, 1901. *' The book, besides telling the life of Sri Ramakrishna, gives an insight into some of the religious ideas of the Hindus and sets forth the more important ideals that vitally influence India's teem- ing millions. If we are willing to sympathetically study the relig- ious views of our Aryan brethren of the Orient, we shall find them governed by spiritual concepts in no way inferior to the highest known to ourselves, concepts which were thought out and prac- tically applied by those ancient philosophers in ages so remote as to antedate history." — Post, Washington May 13th, 1901. Sent on receipt of price and postage by the VEDANTA PUBLICATION COMMITTEE, 62 West 71st Street, New York. Agents for Europe— Messrs. LUZAC & CO., London, W. C, 46 Great Russell Street. Publications of The Vedanta Society. LAST WORK BY SWAMI VIVEKANANDA. Jnana Yoga. i2mo. 356 pages. Cloth, $1.50. Postage, II cents. "One of the great thought challengers of the day is this work by the Sw&mi Vivekftnanda. The book goes deep and treats of startling things, but when analyzed and viewed from the author's standpoint, they are found to be links in the great chain of truth. He alone will deny who is out of sympathy or limited in vision." — Transcript ', Boston, Sept. 24, 1902. " Students of religion will find much of interest in it ; those who care for India in any -way will be glad to receive an indication of high Hindu thought in one of the most striking religious move- ments of the day ; while the orthodox Christian will derive some information from the work regarding the attitude of cultured Hindus toward Christianity and its Founder. After reading the book one is inexcusable if his ideas concerning Vedanta are hazy." — New York Saturday Review of Books, July 12, 1902. *' The lectures show a wonderful insight into great truths which underlie all religious aspiration." — Courier-Journal, Louisville, July 5, 1902. "The altruism with which his preaching is permeated attracts and inspires, The love of humanity which he inculcates harmonizes with the spirit of the age. His English is good, his style easy to read, his sincerity unquestionable. Merely as an intelligent pre- sentation of what is best in the ancient Hindu Scriptures, the Swami VivekSnanda's book is deserving of attention at the bands of religious students." — Record-Herald, Chicago, Aug. 19, 1902. " The lectures are all extremely interesting, the style brilliant, the reasoning often subtle. Whether the philosophy advanced is satisfactory or not to those whose theories are the outgrowth of a different system of thought, his method of presenting it affords an intellectual pleasure."— -Journ al, Indianapolis, Oct. 13, 1902. '* It is a book which appeals to the intellectual, and no one could be the worse for reading it, since it contains much of truth even as Christians measure truth." — Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 15, 1902. "The Vedanta Philosophy as explained by Vivek&nanda is interesting. ... As given by him and his followers, no more lofty teachings can be found. The work is a valuable addition to the literature of religions." — Toledo Blade, Oct. n, 1902. Vedanta and Sankhya 114 pages. Paper, 35 cents. Postage, 3 cents. Works on The Vedanta Philosophy. BY SWAMI VIVEKANANM. Raja Yoga. 376 pages. Cloth, $1.50. Postage, 11 cents. Portrait of author, frontispiece. Besides lectures on RSja Yoga the book contains Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms with Commentary, a copious Sanskrit Glossary, a lec- ture on Immortality, and the Swiimi's lectures on Bhakti Yoga. "The whole spirit of the book is candid in the extreme. It appeals to what is best and noblest in man. It makes no foolish mysteries and demands no blind belief. It puts forth its system in a plain and simple manner. It is able to present its own method without in any way attacking the method of others. It manifests a charity that it is usual to call Christian, but ?.hich Vivekananda proves is equally the property of the Hindu. If this little book had nothing to teach but the beautiful toleration it advocates, it would be well worth reading; but many will find in it valuable suggestions to aid in reaching the higher life. " — Arena, March, 1897. " A large part of the book is occupied with that method of attaining perfection known as Raja Yoga, and there are also trans ■ lations of a number of aphorisms and an excellent glossary." — Living Age, August 5th, 1899. " A valuable portion of the volume to students is the glossary of Sanskrit technical terms. This includes not only such terms as are employed in the book, but also those frequently employed in works on the Vedanta philosophy in general." — New York Times, July 22nd, 1899. ** A new edition witrfenlarged glossary, which will be welcomed by students of comparative religion, who are already familiar with the author's lectures in this country." — Review of Reviews, Oct., 1899. 41 The methods of practical realization of the divine within the human are applicable to all religions, and all peoples, and only vary in their details to suit the idiosyncrasy of race and individ- uals." — Post, Washington, D. C, June 12th, 1899. Sent on receipt of price and postage by the VEDANTA PUBLICATION COMMITTEE, 62 West 71st Street, New York. Agents for Europe— Messrs. LUZAC & CO., London, W. C, 46 Great Russell Street. V