CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Corneir University Library BL 2001.M74R3 Reloious thouaht and life in India :an 3 1924 023 004 793 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023004793 RELIGIOUS THOUGHT AND LIFE IN INDIA. AN ACCOUNT OF THE RELIGIONS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLES, BASED ON A LIFE'S STUDY OF THEIR LITERATURE AND ON PERSONAL INVESTIGATIONS IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY. BY MONIER WILLIAMS, M.A., CLE., HON. D.C.L. OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, HON. LL.D. OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALCUTTA, HON. MEMBER OF THE BOMBAY ASIATIC SOCIETY, HON. MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY, BODEN PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, ETC. PART I. VBDISM, BRAHMANISM, AND HINDUISM. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1883. [All rights reserved ] ! i 1 [ cornellX university, V LIBRARY ^y ^dc / R3 ©itorK PBllfTED BY E. MCKAED HALL, M.A., AND HOBACB EABT PEINTEES TO THE tJNIVEESITY PREFACE. My aim in the following pages has been partially stated in the introductory observations. It has been my earnest endeavour to give such an account of a very dry and complex subject as shall not violate scholarlike accuracy, and yet be sufficiently read- able to attract general readers. The part now published only deals with one half of the whole programme, but it will be found to consti- tute a separate and independent work, and to comprise the three most important and difficult phases of Indian religious thought — Vedism, Brahmanism, and Hin- duism. That the task, so far completed, has been no easy one will be readily admitted, and I have given the best proof of my sense of its difficulty by not ventur- ing to undertake it without long preparation. It is now exactly forty-three years since I began the study of Sanskrit as an undergraduate at Balliol College, Oxford ; my teacher, at that time, being my illustrious predecessor in the Boden Chair, Horace Hayman Wilson; and it is exactly forty-two years since I addressed myself to Arabic and Persian under the tuition of the Mirza Muhammad Ibrahim, one of the ablest of the Oriental Professors at the East India a a iv Preface. College, Halleybury — then the only training-ground for the Indian Civil Service probationers. In 1875 I published the first edition of Indian Wis- dom^;' and it may be well to point out that, as the present volume deals with the principal phases of the Hindu religion, so the object of the former work was, to give a trustworthy general idea of the character and contents of the sacred literature on which that religion is founded. Since the publication of ' Indian Wisdom ' I have made two journeys to India, and travelled through the length and breadth of the Queen's eastern empire, I felt that for a writer to be competent to give a trustworthy account of the complicated religious systems prevalent among our Indian fellow-subjects, two requisites were needed : — first, that he should have made a life-long study of their literature, and, secondly, that he should have made personal inves- tigations into the creeds and practices of the natives of India in their own country, and, as far as possible, in their own homes. Even the most profound Orientalists who have never come in contact with the Indian mind, except in books, commit themselves to mischievous and mis- ' A very energetic and useful Missionary, the late Rev. James Vaughan, in his work called ' The Trident, the Crescent, and the Cross,' copied from ' Indian Wisdom ' a large number of my translations from Sanskrit literature, and interspersed them everywhere throughout his account of Hinduism without asking my leave, and without any marks of quo- tation or references in his foot-notes. It is true he mentions my name eulogistically in his Preface, but as many readers systematically slur over prefatory remarks, and as some of my translations are reproduced in the present volume, it becomes necessary to shelter myself from the charge of literary larceny which might be brought against me by those who know his book but have not read ' Indian Wisdom.' Preface. v leading statements, when, leaving the region of their book-learning, they venture to dogmatize in regard to the present condition — religious, moral, and intel- lectual — of the inhabitants of India; while, on the other hand, the most meritorious missionaries and others who. have passed all their lives in some one Indian province, without acquiring any scholarlike acquaintance with either Sanskrit or Arabic, — the two respective master-keys to the Hindu and Muhammadan religions, — are liable to imbibe very false notions in regard to the real scope and meaning of the religious thought and life by which they have been surrounded, and to do serious harm by propagating their mis- apprehensions. And, as bearing on the duty of studying Indian religions, I trust I may be allowed to repeat here the substance of what I said at a Meeting of the ' National Indian Association,' held on December 12, 1877, under the presidency of the Earl of Northbrook, late Viceroy of India : — ' I am deeply convinced that the more we learn about the ideas, feelings, drift of thought, religious develop- ment, eccentricities, and even errors and superstitions of the natives of India, the less ready shall we be to judge them by our own conventional European stand- ards ; the less disposed to regard ourselves as the sole depositaries of all the true knowledge, learning, virtue, and refinement existing on the earth ; the less prone to despise, as an inferior race, the men who compiled the Laws of Manu, one of the most remarkable literary productions of the world ; who thought out systems of vl Preface. ethics worthy of Christianity ; who composed the Ramayana and Maha-bharata, poems in some respects outrivalHng the Iliad and the Odyssey ; who invented for themselves the science of grammar, arithmetic, astronomy, logic, and who elaborated independently six most subtle systems of philosophy. Above all, the less inclined shall we be to stigmatize as "be- nighted heathen " the authors of two religions, which — however lamentably antagonistic to Christianity — are at this moment professed by about half the human race. ' We cannot, of course, sympathize with what is false in the several creeds of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Muslims. But we can consent to examine them from their own point of view, we can study their sacred books in their own languages — Sanskrit, Palij Prakrit, Zand, and Arabic — rather than in imperfect English translations. We can pay as much de- ference to the interpretations of their own commen- tators as we expect to be accorded to our own interpretation of the difficulties of our own Sacred Scriptures. We can avoid denouncing in strong language what we have never thoroughly investigated, and do not thoroughly understand. ' Yes, I must speak out. It seems to me that the general ignorance of our fellow-countrymen in regard to the religions of India is often worse than a blank. A man, learned in European lore, asked me the other day whether the Hindus were not all Buddhists ? Of course ignorance is associated with indifference. I stayed in India with an eminent Indian civilian who Preface. vii had lived for years quite unconsciously within a few- hundred yards of a celebrated shrine, endeared to the Hindus by the religious memories of centuries. An- other had never heard of a perfectly unique temple not two miles from the gate . of his own compound. Ignorance, too, is often associated with an attitude of undisguised contempt. Another distinguished civilian, who observed that I was diligent in prosecuting my researches into the true nature of Hinduism, expressed surprise that I could waste my time in "grubbing into such dirt." The simple truth, however, is that we are all more or less ignorant. We are none of us as yet quite able to answer the question : — What are Brah- manism and Hinduism, and what relation do they bear to each other ? We have none of us yet suf- ficiently studied them under all their Protean aspects, in their own vast sacred literature, stretching over a period of more than three thousand years. We under-estimate -their comprehensiveness, their super- subtlety, their recuperative hydra-like vitality; and we are too much given to include the whole system under sweeping expressions such as "heathenism" or "idol- atry," as if every idea it contains was to be eradicated root and branch.' To these words spoken by me (nearly in the form given above) soon after my return from my second Indian journey I adhere in every particular. Let it not be supposed, however, that my sympathy with the natives of our great Dependency has led me to gloss over what is false, impure, and utterly deplor- able in their religious systems. The most cursory viii Preface. perusal of the following pages will show that what I have written is not amenable to any such imputation. Nor do I claim for the present work any unusual immunity from error. Mistakes will, probably, be found in it. The subject of which it treats is far too intricate to admit of my pretending to a more than human accuracy. Nor can any one scholar hope to unravel with complete success the complicated texture of Hindu religious thought and life. As to the second part of my task I am happy to say that it is already far advanced. But, as I am on the eve of making a third journey to India, I prefer delay- ing the publication of my account of other Indian creeds till I have cleared up a few obscure points by personal inquiries in situ. It is possible, I fear, that some who read the chapters of this volume consecutively, and are also acquainted with my previous writings, may be inclined to accuse me of occasionally repeating myself; but it must be borne in mind that all I have hitherto written— whether in books, newspapers, or Reviews — was, from the first, intended to lead up to a more complete and continuous work, and that the book now put forth abounds with entirely new matter. It remains to state that my friend Pandit Shyamaji Krishnavarma, B.A., of Balliol College, has aided me in correcting typographical errors, but is in no way re- sponsible for the statements and opinions expressed in the following pages. M. W. Oxford, November 12, 1883. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. PAGE Vedism, Brahmanism, and Hinduism defined. Three principal stages or phases of the Hindu religion. Origin and form of religion among the primitive Aryans i-6 CHAPTER I. Vedism. Four Vedas, Gods of the Veda. Ideas expressed by the term sacrifice. Soma plant. Introduction of animal-sacrifice. Remark- able hymns of the Veda. Social condition of the people . . 7-19 CHAPTER II. Brahmanism. Four phases. Ritualistic Brahmanism. Development of the idea of sacrifice. Philosophical Brahmanism. Upanishads. Sutras. Subtle and gross bodies. Sankhya philosophy. Vedanta philosophy. Tri-unity of entities. Three corporeal envelopes. Vedanta and Sankhya systems compared. Nyaya philosophy. Mythological Brah- manism. Buddhism. Tri-miirti. Descents of Vishnu. Nomistic Brahmanism. Three codes of law 20-53 CHAPTER III. Hinduism. General Observations. Distinction between Brahmanism and Hinduism. The philoso- pher Sankara. Inter-relationship and distinction between Saivism and Vaishnavism. Six principal sects. Doctrine of incarnation. Saiva and Vaishnava marks. Rosaries. Symbols and images . S4~72 CHAPTER IV. Saivism. Definition of Saivism. Worship of Rudra-Siva. Description of Siva. Saiva sects. Ceremonies performed at Walkesvar temple. Ceremonies performed at Bhuvanesvara temple . . . 73-94 X Contents. CHAPTER V. Vaishnavism. PAGE Chief characteristics of Vaishnavism. Tolerance. Religious credu- lity. Incarnations of Vishnu. Vaishnava sects. Initiation. Sect founded by Ramanuja. Two antagonistic parties. Privacy in eating. Sect founded by Madhva. Common ground with Christianity. Sect founded by Vallabha. Profligacy of Vallabha Maharajas. Sect founded by Caitanya. Four leaders. Ceremonies at a Vaishnava temple, Poona 95-^45 CHAPTER VI. Vaishnavism. Minor Sects and Reforming Theistic Movements. Sects founded by Nimbarka ; by Ramananda; by Svami-Narayana. Interview between Bishop Heber and Svami-Narayana. Temples at Wartal and Ahmedabad. Precepts from the Directory. Theistic sect founded by Kabir. Examples of his precepts. Sikh sect founded by Nanak. Features of his teaching. Antagonism between Sikhs and Muhammadans. Govind founder of Sikh nationality. Deification of the Sikh bible. Examples of precepts. Metempsy- chosis. Govind's shrine at Patna. Golden temple at Amritsar 146-179 CHAPTER VII. Saktism, or. Goddess-worship. Doctrine of the Tantras. Two systems of Saktism. Matris or Mothers. Description of Kali. Initiation. Wine-drinking. Mantras, Bijas, spells. Mystic diagrams. Amulets, gestures. Tantras . 180-208 CHAPTER VIII. Tutelary and Village Deities. Ganesa and Su-brahmanya. Ayenar. Hanuman. Mother- worship. Brahmanism a kind of Pantheism. Specialities of the Mothers of Gujarat 209-229 CHAPTER IX. Demon-worship and Spirit- worship. Seven upper and seven lower worlds. Nature and organization of Hindu demons. Two grand divisions of demons. Triple classifica- tion of devils. Methods of neutralizing evil influences of demons. Structures and observances connected with devil-worship. Extract from Bishop Caldwell's account of the rehgion of the Shanars. Belief in demoniacal influences and their counteraction . . 230-256 Contents. xi CHAPTER X. Hero-worship and Saint-worship, PAGE No limit to deification of great men. Examples of local deifica- tions. Vithoba ; Tuka-rama ; Khando-ba ; Jnanesvara. Other ex- amples. Parasu-rama, or Rama with the axe. Five Pandava princes 257-273 CHAPTER XI. Death, Funeral Rites, and Ancestor-worship. Main object of a Hindu funeral. Funeral ceremonies in Vedic times. Funeral rites as prescribed by Asvalayana. Other rules for domestic rites. Bone-gathering ceremony. Sraddha ceremonies. Modern practice of Sraddha and funeral ceremonies. Character and functions of Yama, god of death. Description of the career and history of a deceased mortal subject to Yama. Performance of observances and ceremonies to secure immunity from future punish- ment. Description of bone-gathering ceremony at Bombay. Sraddha ceremonies. Sraddhas distinguished under twelve heads. Sraddha performed for a recently deceased parent. Sraddhas performed at Gaya 274-312 CHAPTER XII. Worship of Animals, Trees, and Inanimate Objects. Motives for worshipping animals. Metempsychosis. Worship of cows ; of serpents. Race of Nagas.- Snake superstitions. Worship of various animals ; of trees and plants ; of the Tulasi ; of the Pippala ; of the Bilva tree ; of material and natural objects ; of the sun, moon, planets, water, mountains, rocks, and stones . . 313-350 CHAPTER XIII. The Hindu Religion in Ancient Family-life. Twelve purificatory rites. Bjrth^fjj;onj__Subsequent ceremonies. Initiation. Four"stages of a Brahman's life. Ancient marriage- ceremonial. Idea of fire. Periodical religious observances . 351-369 CHAPTER XIV. The Hindu Religion in Modern Family-life. Name-giving ceremony. Horoscope translated. Shavmg^as a reli- gious duty. Betrothal. Initiation^ Mamage__£eremonies^ Wed- ding of Sir Mangaldas Nathoobhai's sons. Indian girls. Three objects of human life. The model wife 370-389 xii Contents. CHAPTER XV. Religious Life of the Orthodox Hindu Householder. PAGE Description of a modem Hindu house. Some Vedic rites main- tained. A Brahman's daily duties. Dress. Sacredness of the kitchen. Omens ; auspicious and inauspicious sights. Rehgious status of women. Teeth-cleaning. Application of ashes. Morning Sandhya service. Brahma-yajna service. Tarpana service. Panca- yatana ceremony. Vaisvadeva ceremony. Bali-harana ceremony. Dining. Prayer before eating 390~425 CHAPTER XVI. Hindu Fasts, Festivals, and Holy Days. Hindu powers of fasting. Special fasts. Makara-sankranti. Va- santa-pancaml. Siva-ratri. Holi. Rama-navami. Naga-paii6aml. Krishna-janmashtaml. Ganesa-caturthi. Durga-puja. Kali-puja. Rama-lila. Divall. Illuminations. Karttika-purnima . . 426-433 CHAPTER XVII. Temples, Shrines, and Sacred Places. Benares described. Tanjore temple. Madura temple. Ramesvara. Trichinopoly. Jambukesvara. Kanjivaram. Tinnevelly temples. Sri-rangam. Temple girls. Courtezans 434-451 CHAPTER XVIII. Caste in relation to Trades and Industries. Caste, trade, and industry part of religion. Poverty and potential wealth of India. Village communities. Tillers of soil. Village functionaries. Trades. Delicacy and beauty of Indian hand-work. Advantages and disadvantages of caste 452-474 CHAPTER XIX. Modern Hindu Theism. Rammohun Roy. Theism no new doctrine in India. Life of Rammohun Roy. His death at Bristol 475-490 CHAPTER XX. Modern Hindu Theism. Rammohun Roy's successors. Dwarkanath Tagore. Debendra-nath Tagore. Adi Brahma- Samaj. Keshab Chandar Sen. Brahma-Samaj of India. Sadha- rana Brahma-Samaj. Other Samajes. Conclusion . . . 491-520 RELIGIOUS THOUGHT AND LIFE IN INDIA. Introductory Observations. The present work is intended to meet the wants of those educated Englishmen who may be desirous of gaining an insight into the mental, moral, and religious condition of the inhabitants of our Eastern empire, and yet are quite unable to sift for themselves the confused mass of information — accurate and inaccurate — spread out before them by innu- merable writers on Indian subjects. Its aim will be to present trustworthy outlines of every important phase of religious thought and life in India, whether Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Zoroastrian, or Muhammadan. Even Indian Chris- tianity will receive a share of attention ; for it must be borne in mind that the existence of at least a million and a half of native Christian converts — Roman Catholic and Protestant — ^justify the inclusion of Christianity among the religious systems permanently established on Indian soil. Having been a student of Indian sacred literature for more than forty years, and having twice travelled over every part of India, from Bombay to Calcutta, from Cashmere to Ceylon, I may possibly hope to make a dry subject fairly attractive without any serious sacrifice of scientific accuracy, while at the same time it will be my earnest endeavour to hold the scales impartially between antagonistic religious systems and 2 Introductory Observations. as far as possible to do justice to the amount of truth that each may contain. The Hindu religion may justly claim our first consideration, not only for the reason that nearly two hundred millions of the population of India are Hindus, but because of the in- tricacy of its doctrines and the difficulty of making them intelligible to European minds. With a view, then, to greater perspicuity I propose making ; use of the three words Vedism, Brahmanism, and Hinduism i as convenient expressions for the three principal stages or 1 phases in the development of that complicated system. '^ I. Vedism was the earliest form of the religion of the Indian branch of the great Aryan family— the form which was represented in the songs, invocations, and prayers, col- lectively called Veda, and attributed to the Rishis, or sup- posed inspired leaders of religious thought and life in India. It was the worship of the deified forces or phenomena of Nature, such as Fire, Sun, Wind, and Rain, which were sometimes individualized or thought of as separate divine powers, sometimes gathered under one general conception and personified as one God. II. Brahmanism grew out of Vedism. It taught the merging of all the forces of Nature in one universal spiri- tual Being — the only real Entity — which, when unmanifested and impersonal, was called Brahma (neuter) ; when manifested as a personal creator, was called Brahma (masculine) ; and when manifested in the highest order of men, was called Brahmana (' the Brahmans '). Brahmanism was rather a 1 philosophy than a religion, and in its fundamental doctrine was spiritual Pantheism. III. Hinduism grew out of Brahmanism. It was Brah- manism, so to speak, run to seed and spread out into a confused tangle of divine personalities and incarnations. The one system was the rank and luxuriant outcome of the other. Yet Hinduism is distinct from Brahmanism, and chiefly in Introductory Observations, 3 this — that it takes little account of the primordial, impersonal Being Brahma, and wholly neglects its personal manifestation Brahma, substituting, in place of both Brahma and Brahma, the two popular personal deities Siva and Vishnu. Be it noted, however, that the employment of the term Hinduism is wholly arbitrary and confessedly unsatisfactory. Unhappily there is no other expression sufficiently comprehensive to embrace that all-receptive system, which, without any one common Founder, was the product of Brahmanism multiplied by contact with its own offspring Buddhism, and with various pre-existing cults. Hinduism is Brahmanism modified by the creeds and superstitions of Buddhists and Non-Aryan races of all kinds, including Dravidians, Kolarians, and per- haps pre-Kolarian aborigines. It has even been modified by ideas imported from the religions of later conquering races, such as Islam and Christianity. / I propose to trace briefly the gradual development of the Hindu religion through these three principal phases which really run into each other. In so doing I shall examine it, as in fairness every religion ought to be examined, not only from the point of view of its best as well as its worst side, but in the light- thrown upon it by its own interpreters, as well as by European scholars. And for the sake of clearness, it will be necessary to begin by repeating a few facts which to many educated persons are now a thrice-told tale. The original home of our progenitors as members of the great Aryan or Indo-European family was probably in the high land surrounding the sources of the Oxus, somewhere to the north of the point connecting the Hindu Kush with the Himalaya range. The highest part of this region is called the Pamir plateau, and, like the table-land of Tibet, with which it . is connected by a lofty ridge, it well deserves the title of 'the roof of the world' (bam-i-dunyd). The hardy inhabit- ants of these high-lands were a pastoral and agricultural race, and soon found themselves straitened for room within B a 4 Introductory Observations. the limits of their mountain tracts. With the increase of population they easily spread themselves westwards through the districts sloping towards Balkh, and southwards, through the passes of Afghanistan on the one side and Cashmere on the other, into Northern India. They were a people gifted with high mental capacities and strong moral feelings. They possessed great powers of ap- preciating and admiring the magnificent phenomena of nature with which they found themselves surrounded. They were endowed with a deep religious sense — a profound conscious- ness of their dependence on the invisible forces which regu- lated the order of the world in which they found themselves placed. They were fitly called 'noble' {dry a), and they spoke a language fitly called 'polished' or 'carefully con- structed ' {Sanskrita). To trace the origin of religion among such a people requires no curious metaphysical hypotheses. We have only to ask ourselves what would be the natural working of their devo- tional instincts, unguided by direct revelation. Their material -welfare depended on the influences of sky, air, light, and sun (sometimes fancifully imaged in the mind as emerging out of an antecedent chaotic night) ; and to these they naturally turned with awe and veneration. Soon all such phenomena were believed to be animated by intelligent wills. At first the relationship between spirit, mind, and matter was im- perfectly apprehended. Whatever moved was believed to possess life, and with life was associated power. Hence the phenomena of nature were thought of as mysterious forces, whose favour required propitiation. Next they re- ceived homage under the general name of Devas, 'luminous ones.' Then, just as men found themselves obliged to submit to some earthly leader, so they naturally assigned supre- macy to one celestial being called the 'light-father' (Dyu- pitar, Zeis irmrip, Jupiter). Or, again, a kind of pre-eminence was sometimes accorded to the all-investing sky or atmo- Introductory Observations. 5 sphere (Varuna, Oipavo's), the representative of an eternal celestial Presence watching men's actions, and listening to their words by night as well as by day. Of course another principal object of veneration was the orb of the Sun called Mitra, often connected with another aspect of the Sun, Aryaman, whose influences fertilized lands, enriched pastures, and fructified crops. Then other kindred natural phenomena, such as fire (Agni, Latin Ignis), and the dawn (Ushas, 'Hwy, Aurora), and Ida or Ira (Iris), were by degrees regarded with varying degrees of veneration. They all had names which still exist under different modifications among different branches of the Aryan stock, leading us to infer that they were among the most ancient objects held sacred in the original abode of the Aryan race, before the several members of the family separated. There is even ground for conjecturing that triads of natural objects, such as Sky, Atmosphere, and Sun, or three forms of the Sun, called Aryaman, Varuna, and Mitra, were asso- ciated together and worshipped by the primitive Aryans in the earliest times. It is certain that the Aryan race, from the first development of its religious sense on the soil of India, has shown a tendency to attach a sacred significancef to the number three, and to group the objects of its adoration! in triple combinations. Not that the nascent religious ideas of a people naturally devout were regulated or circumscribed in ancient times by any definite rules or precise limitations. The objects and forces of nature received homage in different ways — some- times singly, as if impelled by separate and independent wills ; sometimes in groups, as if operating co-ordinately ; sometimes collectively, as if animated and pervaded by one dominating Spirit, the maintainer of law and order in the Universe. As to the form of worship, that, too, was a natural process not yet burdened by tedious ceremonial observances. When 6 Introductory Observations. men had personified and deified the forces with which they were surrounded, they gave them characters like their own. They attributed to them human tastes, likings, and predilec- tions. They propitiated them by praise and flattery, accom- panying their hymns and invocations with such presents and offerings of food and drink as would be deemed acceptable among themselves, and would be needed for the maintenance of their own vigour and vitality. Perhaps the earliest and commonest offerings were rice and clarified butter. Then the exhilarating juice of the Soma plant, afterwards an essential ingredient in both Aryan and Iranian sacrifices, was used as a libation. But the form of worship, like the creed of the worshipper, was unfettered by precise rule or ritual. Each man satisfied his own religious instincts, according to his own conception of the character of the supernatural being or beings on whose favour his welfare was thought to depend. CHAPTER I. Vedism. So much has been of late years written and spoken about the Veda, that to go minutely into this subject would be, according to a Hindu saying, ' to grind ground corn.' When the Indian branch of the Aryan family settled down in the land of the seven rivers (Sanskrit Sapta Sindhu, Zend Hapta Hendu), now the Panjab, about the fifteenth century B. c, their religion was still nature-worship. It was still adoration of the forces which were everywhere in operation around them for production, destruction, and reproduction. But it was physiolatry developing itself more distinctly into/ forms of Theism, Polytheism, Anthropomorphism, and Pan-/ theism. The phenomena of nature were thought of as some- thing more than radiant beings, and something more than powerful forces. To the generality of worshippers they were more distinctly concrete personalities, and had more personal attributes. They were addressed as kings, fathers, guardians, friends, benefactors, guests. They were invoked in formal hymns and prayers {mantras), in set metres (thandas). These hymns were composed in an early form of the Sanskrit language, at different times — i)erhaps during several centuries, from the fifteenth to the tenth B. C. — by men of light and leading (Rishis) among the Indo-Aryan immigrants, who were afterwards held in the highest veneration as patriarchal saints. Eventually the hymns were believed to have been directly revealed to, rather than composed by, these Rishis, and were then called divine knowledge ( Veda), or the eternal word heard {sruti), and transmitted by them. 8 Vedism. These Mantras or hymns were arranged in three principal collections or continuous texts {Samhitas). The first and earliest was called the Hymn-veda {Rig-veda). It was a collection of 1017 hymns, arranged for mere reading or re- citing. This was the first bible of the Hindu religion, and the special bible of Vedism. We might imagine it possible to have collected the most ancient hymns and psalms of our own Sacred Scriptures in the same manner. The second, or Sacrificial vt.A.^X^jijur\ belongs to a later phase of the Hindu system. It was a liturgical arrangement of part of the same collection of hymns, with additions^ for intoning in a peculiar low tone at sacrificial ceremonies. Be it noted, however, that some of the hymns of the Rig-veda (for example, the horse-sacrifice hymn, I. 162) presuppose a ritual already definite and systematized. The third, or Chant-veda {Sdma), was another liturgical arrangement of some of the same hymns for chanting at par- ticular sacrifices in which the juice of the Soma plant was the priricipal offering. A fourth collection — which might suitably be called the Spell-veda — was added at a later period. It was a collection of hymns — some of them similar to those of the Rig-veda, but the greater part original — ^by a particular class of priests called Atharvans"^. Many of the texts and formularies of this Atharva-veda were ultimately used as charms and spells, and are still so used in various parts of India. By some of the earliest hymn-composers the gods continued to be regarded as one family — children of the old pre-Vedic heavenly father (Dyu or Dyaus), while Earth (Prithivl) was fabled as a divine mother. To other sacred poets the pre- ^ Certain passages in prose were added, which were especially called Yajus. ^ This was a generic name for a class of priests, descended from a man named Atharvan, who appears to have been the first to institute the worship of fire, before the Indians and Iranians separated. It is certain that particular priests both in India and Persia were called Atharvans. Vedism. 9 Vedic deification of the Sky (Varuna, Ovpavoi) remained a principal object of adoration. He was still occasionally exalted to the position of a Supreme Being. A well-known hymn in the Atharva-veda (IV. 16). describes him as ruling the world, as penetrating the secrets of all hearts, as detecting the plots of wicked men, as sending down countless messengers who for ever traverse the earth and scan its inmates, as num- bering every wink of men's eyes, as wielding the whole universe in the manner of a gamester handling dice. But the true gods of the Veda constituted a trinity of deities. They were the Fire-god (the earth-born Agni), the Rain-god (the air-born Indra), and the Sun-god (the sky-born Surya or Savitri) — one for each of the three worlds, earth, air, and sky {bhur, bhuvah, svar). These three gods were the special objects of worship of the early Indo-Aryan colonists. All their other principal deities were either modifications of, or associated with, one or other of the members of this Vedic trinity. For example, the wind (Vayu) and the storm-gods (Maruts), led by the destroying god (Rudra), were regarded as intimate associates of the Rain-god Indra, and were really only forms and modifications of that god. On the other hand, the ancient Aryan deities, Varuna and Mitra, with Vishnu, were all mere forms of the Sun (Surya or Savitri, also called Piishan). Of course the Dawn (Ushas) was also connected with the Sun, and two other deities — the As'vins, probably personifications of two luminous points in the sky — were fabled as his twin sons, ever young and handsome^ travelling in a golden car as precursors of the Dawn. As to the Fire-god (Agni), he had various attributes sig- nificant of his interest in the world of human beings. He was Ggd- on. the^arth and therefore more accessible than other deities. He was manifested by the friction of the two pieces of the sacred fig-tree called Arani, and consequently always to be found at hand. He was visibly present in every house- hold. He was man's domestic friend, the father of the sacrifice. io Vedism. the mediator between men and gods, the bearer of hymns and prayers from every family altar upwards towards heaven. Fire, in fact, may be regarded as the next god to the Rain- god in the estimation of Vedic worshippers ; and certainly he takes precedence over every other god in connection with sacrificial rites. Even the Sun-god, who is generally first in all Pagan systems, is held to be a form of heavenly fire. Fire has always been an object of veneration among all nations. A conjecture may even be hazarded that the three letters, A, U, M, which combine to form the sacred syllable Om — afterwards typical of the Brahmanical trinity — were originally the initial letters of the trinity of gods, Fire, Wind, and Sun (Agni, Vayu or Varuna for Indra, and Mitra). It must not jbe forgotten, however, that both Indra and Agni were, like j Varuna, often addressed as if each deity were supreme. Moreover, the god of fire was sometimes held to possess a kind of trinity or triple essence in himself, consisting of terres- trial fire, celestial lightning, and solar heat. Sometimes he represented a simple creative energy, which evolved all things out of its own eternal essence. It may be observed, too, that there are allusions in the Rig- veda to thirty-three gods (I. 34. ii ; 1. 45. 2), or three groups of gods — the Rudras, the Vasus, and the Adityas. Their names are given variously, but they are little more than modi- fications of the three leading divine personifications. Only two or three instances occur of Vedic deities who appear to stand alone. One of the most remarkable is Yama, god of departed spirits. It is noteworthy that the spirits of departed ancestors (Pitris) who have attained to heavenly bliss, are believed to occupy three different stages of blessedness, — the highest inhabiting the upper sky, the middle the intermediate air, and the lowest the atmospheric region near the earth. Adoration is to be offered them, and they are presided over by Yama, leader of the spirits of the dead, both good and bad. The earliest legends represent him as the first' of created Vedism. II ( ( men (his twin-sister being Yami) and the first of men who died. Hence he is supposed to guide the spirits of other men who die to the world of spirits. Sometimes Death is said to be his messenger, he himself dwelling in celestial light, to which the departed are brought, and where they enjoy his society and that of the ancient patriarchs. In the later my- thology he is God of death and punisher of the wicked. In the Veda he has no such office, — but he has two terrific dogs, with four eyes, which guard the way to his abode (see p. i6). In brief, enough has been said to show that the early religion of the Indo-Aryans was a development of a still I / earlier belief in man's subjection to the powers of nature I and his need of conciliating them. It was an unsettled systejn- -which at one time assigned all the phenomena of the universe to one first Cause ; at another, attributed them to several Causes operating independently; at another, sup- posed the whole visible creation to be animated by one universal all-pervading spirit. It was a belief which, ac- cording to the character and inclination of the worshipper, was now monotheism, now tritheism, now polytheism, now pantheism. But it was not yet idolatry. Though the forces of nature were thought of as controlled by divine persons, such persons were not yet idolized. There is no evidence from the Vedic hymns that images were actually worshipped, | though they appear to have been occasionally employed ^. The mode of divine worship continued to be determined from a consideration of human likings and dislikings. Every worshipper praised the gods because he liked to be praised himself. He honoured them with offerings because he liked to receive presents himself. He pretended to feed them be- \ cause he required food ^liimself. This appears to have been ; the simple origin of the sacrificial system — a system which was \ afterwards closely interwoven with the. whole Hindu religion. ^ For example, in Rig-veda II. 33. 9 an image of Rudra is alluded to ; and in I. 25. 13, V. 52. 15, visible forms of some kind seem implied. 12 Vedism. What, then, were the various ideas exp/essed by the term sacrifice? In its purest and simplest form it denoted a dedi- cation of some simple gift as an expression of gratitude for blessings received. Soon the act of 'making sacred' became an act of propitiation for purely selfish ends. The favour of celestial beings who were capable of conferring good or in- flicting harm on crops, flocks, and herds, was conciliated by off'erings and oblations of all kinds, and especially of the products of the soil. With this idea the gods were invited to join the every-day family meal. Then they were invoked at festive gatherings, and offered a share of the food consumed. Their bodies were believed to be composed of ethereal particles, dependent for nourishment on the invisible elementary essence of the substances presented to them, and to be furnished with senses capable of being gratified by the aroma of butter and grain offered in fire {homo) ^ ; and especially by the fumes arising from libations of the exhilarating juice ex- tracted from the Soma plant. This plant — botanically known as Sarcostema Viminalis, or Asclepias Acida, a kind of creeper with a succulent leafless stem — which was indigenous in the ancient home of the Aryans, as well as in the soil of India and Persia, supplied an invigorating beverage supposed to confer health and immortality, and held to be the vital sap which vivified the world. Hence its juice became an important ingredient at every sacrifice, and was the subject of constant laudation in numerous Vedic hymns. It was beheved to be peculiarly grateful to the Rain-god (Indra), while oblations of butter were specially presented to the god of fire. Eventually the great esteem in which the Soma plant was held led to its being itself personified and deified. The god Soma was once the Bacchus of India. The whole ninth Book of the Rig-veda is devoted to his praise. ^ Compare Gen. viii. 21. Vedism. 1 3 And yet it is remarkable that this sacred plant has fallen into complete neglect in modern times. When I asked the Brahmans of Northern India to procure specimens of the true Soma for me, I was told that, in consequence of the present sinful condition of the world, the holy plant had ceased to grow on terrestrial soil, and was only to be found in heaven ^- Nor were these the only offerings. In process of time, animal sacrifice was introduced. At great solemnities goats and other animals were killed by hundreds. Portions of the flesh were consumed in the fire, and portions were eaten. Gods, priests, and people feasted together. Of course all offerings and libations were accompanied with hymns of praise. A certain amount of ceremonial was gradually added. The whole sacrificial service was called Yajna. ' I close this sketch of Vedism by citing portions of transla- tions of a few remarkable hymns in the Rig-veda, as given by me in ' Indian Wisdom.' One hymn (Mandala X. 129) at- tempts to describe the origin of creation thus : — In the beginning there was neither nought nor aught ; Then there was neither sliy nor atmosphere above. What then enshrouded all this teeming universe ? In the receptacle of what was it contained? Was it enveloped in the gulf profound of water ? Then was there neither death nor immortality ; Then was there neither day, nor night, nor light, nor darkness. Only the Existent One breathed calmly, self-contained. Nought else but he there was — nought else above, beyond. Then first came darkness hid in darkness, gloom in gloom ; Next all was water, all a chaos indiscrete, In which the One lay void, shrouded in nothingness. Then turning inwards, he by self-developed force t Of inner fervour and intense abstraction, grew. / First in his mind was formed Desire, the primal germ Productive, which the Wise, profoundly searching, say Is the first subtle bond, connecting Entity And Nullity. * A creeper, said to be the true Soma, was pointed out to me by the late Dr. Burnell in Southern India, and is still, I believe, used by those orthodox Brahmans in the Maratha country who attempt to maintain the old Vedic worship. 14 Vedism. In the foregoing hymn we detect the first dim outline of the later philosophical theories, both Sankhyan and Vedantic. The idea of the female principle as necessary to the act of creation is also, it may be seen, vaguely implied— an idea which.gathered such strength subsequently that every princi- pal deity in the later mythology has his feminine counterpart, who shares the worship paid to the male god, and who some- times receives the greater homage of the two. That this idea is not fully developed in the Rig-veda is proved by the fact that the wives of the chief gods, such as IndranI, Agnayi, etc., are not associated with their husbands as objects of worship, and even Lakshml and Sarasvatl, though named, are not adored. The next example from the I2ist hymn of the tenth Mandala is often quoted to furnish an argument for main- taining that the original faith of the Hindus was monotheistic. The hymn is addressed to Hiranya-garbha, a form of the ; Supreme Being, no doubt originally a personification of the Sun. In the Vedanta philosophy, Hiranya-garbha represents the third condition of the Supreme Spirit (see p. 34). In the later system he must be regarded as related to the God Vishnu. What god shall we adore with sacrifice ? Him let us praise, the golden child that rose In the beginning, who was born the lord — The one sole lord of all that is — who made The earth, and formed the sky, who giveth life, Who giveth strength, whose bidding gods revere, Whose hiding-place is immortality. Whose shadow, death ; who by his might is king Of all the breathing, sleeping, waking world. Where'er let loose in space, the mighty waters Have gone, depositing a fruitful seed. And generating fire, there he arose Who is the breath and hfe of all the gods. Whose mighty glance looks round the vast expanse Of watery vapour — source of energy, Cause of the sacrifice^the only God Above the gods. Vedism. IS The following is a portion of a well-known hymn to the Sky-god (Varuna) from the Atharva-veda (IV. i6) :— The mighty Varuna, who rules above, looks down Upon these worlds, his kingdom, as if close at hand. When men imagine they do aught by stealth, he knows it. No one can stand, or walk, or softly glide along, Or hide in dark recess, or lurk in secret cell. But Varuna detects him, and his movements spies. Two persons may devise some plot, together sitting, And think themselves alone ; but he, the king, is there— A third— and sees it all. His messengers descend Countless from his abode, for ever traversing This wor-ld, and scanning with a thousand eyes its inmates. Whate'er exists within this earth, and all within the sky. Yea, all that is beyond, king Varuna perceives. The winkings of men's eyes are numbered all by him : He wields the universe as gamesters handle dice. Here follow portions of hymns addressed to the Vedic triad. First, the Rain-god (Indra) : — Indra, twin-brother of the god of fire. When thou wast bom, thy mother, Aditi, Gave thee, her lusty child, the thrilling draught Of mountain-growing Soma — source of life And never-dying vigour to thy frame. Thou art our guardian, advocate, and friend, A brother, father, mother — all combined. Most fatherly of fathers, we are thine. And thou art ours. Oh ! let thy pitying soul Turn to us in compassion when we praise thee. And slay us not for one sin or for many. Deliver us to-day, to-morrow, every day. Vainly the demon' dares thy might, in vain Strives to deprive us of thy watery treasures. Earth quakes beneath the crashing of thy bolts. Pierced, shattered lies the foe — his cities crushed, His armies overthrown, his fortresses Shivered to fragments ; then the pent-up waters, Released from long imprisonment, descend In torrents to the earth, and swollen rivers. Foaming and rolling to their ocean-home. Proclaim the triumph of the Thunderer. ' The demon Vritra, who is supposed to keep the waters imprisoned in thick clouds. .1 6 Vedism. Secondly, the Fire-god (Agni) : — Agni, thou art a sage, a priest, a king, Protector, father of the sacrifice. Commissioned by us men, thou dost ascend A messenger, conveying to the sky Our hymns and offerings. Though thy origin Be threefold, now from air, and now from water. Now from the mystic double Arani, Thou art thyself a mighty god, a lord, { Giver of life and immortality, ' One in thy essence, but to mortals three ; Displaying thine eternal triple form. As fire on earth, as lightning in the air, As sun in heaven. Thou art the cherished guest In every household— father, brother, son, Friend, benefactor, guardian, all in one. Deliver, mighty lord, thy worshippers, Purge us from taint of sin, and when we die, Deal mercifully with us on the pyre, I Burning our bodies with their load of guilt. But bearing our eternal part on high To luminous abodes and realms of bliss, For ever there to dwell with righteous men. Thirdly, the Sun-god (Surya) : — Behold the rays of Dawn, like heralds, lead on high The Sun, that men may see the great all-knowing God. The stars slink off like thieves, in company with Night, Before the all-seeing eye, whose beams reveal his presence, Gleaming like brilliant flames, to nation after nation. Surya, with flaming locks, clear-sighted god of day. Thy seven ruddy mares bear on thy rushing car. With these thy self-yoked steeds, seven daughters of thy chariot, Onward thou dost advance. To thy refulgent orb Beyond this lower gloom, and upward to the light Would we ascend, O Sun, thou god among the gods. The thoughts contained in various hymns addressed to the 'god of departed spirits' (Yama) are so remarkable that a few are here given : — To Yama, mighty king, be gifts and homage paid. He was the first of men that died, the first to brave Death's rapid rushing stream, the first to point the road To heaven, and welcome others to that bright abode. No power can rob us of the home thus won by thee. Vedism, 17 O king, we come ; the born must die, must tread the path That thou hast trod — the path by which each race of men, In long succession, and our fathers, too, have passed. Soul of the dead ! depart ; fear not to take the road — The ancient road — by which thy ancestors have gone ; Ascend to meet the god — to meet thy happy fathers, Who dwell in bliss with him. Fear not to pass the guards — The four-eyed brindled dogs— that watch for the departed. Return unto thy home, O soul ! Thy^ sin and shame Leave_JliQu_lieMnd^on earth ; assume a shining form — Thy ancient shape— refined and from all taint set free. I add a few verses from the celebrated Purusha hymn (Rig- veda, Mandala X. 90, translated by me in ' Indian Wisdom,' p. 24). It illustrates the intertwining of polytheism, mono- theism, and pantheism. It also foreshadows the idea of sacri- fice, as well as the institution of caste \ which for so many centuries has held India in bondage. The one Spirit is sup- posed to take a body and then allow himself to be sacrificed. The embodied spirit has a thousand heads, A thousand eyes, a thousand feet, around On every side enveloping the earth. Yet filling space no larger than a span. He is himself this very universe ; He is whatever is, has been, and shall be ; He is the lord of immortality. All creatures are one-fourth of him, three-fourths Are that which is immortal in the sky. From him, called Purusha, was born Viraj, And from Viraj was Purusha produced, Whom gods and holy men made their oblation. With Purusha as victim, they performed A sacrifice. When they divided him. How did they cut him up ? What was his mouth ? What were his arms ? and what his thighs and feet ? The Brahman was his mouth, the kingly soldier Was made his arms, the husbandman his thighs. The servile Sudra issued from his feet. For further examples and a fuller account of the Veda I must refer the reader to the first part of ' Indian Wisdom ' ^ This hymn (generally admitted to be a comparatively modern pro- duction) is the only hymn in the Rig-veda which alludes to the distinctions of caste. C 1 8 Vedism. (Lectures I and II) i. Let me warn him, in conclusion, that the above examples would, if taken alone, encourage a false estimate of the merits of the Vedic hymns. Although the majority of the Hindus believe that the four Vedas contain all that is good, great, and divine, yet these compositions will be found, when taken as a whole, to abound more in puerile ideas than in lofty conceptions. At the same time it is clear that they give no support to any of the present objectionable usages and customs for which they were once, through ignorance of their contents, supposed to be an au- thority. The doctrine of metempsychosis or transmigration 'of souls, which became an essential characteristic of Brah- j manism and Hinduism in later times, has no place in the i rehgion of the Veda 2. Nor do the hymns give any sanction to the prohibition of widow-marriages, the general prevalence of child-marriages, the tyrannical sway of caste, the interdic- tion of foreign travel, and the practice of idolatry. The social condition of the people was by no means low. They had attained to considerable civilization. They were rich in flocks and herds ; they well understood the principles of agriculture ; they were able to build towns and fortified places ; they had some knowledge of various arts and of working in metals; they engaged in philosophical speculations ; they had rulers, and a political system ; they were separated into classes, though they were not yet divided off by iron barriers of caste ; polygamy existed, though mono- gamy was the rule; they killed animals for sacrifice; they were in the habit of eating animal food, and did not even object to the flesh of cows ; they were fond of gambling, and indulged in intoxicating beverages. ^ The last edition of this work (originally published by Messrs. W. H. Allen and Co.) is nearly exhausted, but copies may still be had by applying to Mr. Bernard Quaritch, of 15 Piccadilly. '' It is true that in Mandala I. 164. 32 bahu-prajah is explained by bahu-janma-bhak, 'subject to many births;' but it really means 'having abundant offspring.' Vedism, 19 And it is to be observed that, just as the children of Israel found the land of Canaan pre-occupied by Hittites, Perizzites, arid Philistines, so the Aryan immigrants, when they advanced into India, found the soil held by previous races, variously called Dasyus, Anaryas, Nishadas, and Dra- vidas, and even by more primitive aboriginal tribes, contact and intercourse with whom very soon affected them socially, morally, and religiously. Monsieur A. Earth, whose work on the religions of India is a most meritorious production \ comes to the conclusion that the Vedic hymns give evidence of an exalted morality,) and draws attention to the fact that they acknowledge no; wicked divinities. Worship of the gods was performed by sacrifice (yajna), invocation (avahana), prayer (prarthana), praise (stuti), and meditation (upasana) ; and, as we shall see in the next chapter, the name Brahman (nom. Brahma), which was ultimately applied to the one Universal Spirit, was often identified with Prayer. Finally be it observed that the most sacred and the most universally used — even in the present day— of all Vedic prayers is that composed in the Gayatri metre, and thence called Gayatri, or, as addressed to the Vivifying Sun-god, Savitri : — ' Let us meditate on that excellent glory of the Divine Vivifier; may he enlighten our understandings^' (see pp. 403, 406 of this volume). Yet the author, or, as a Brah- man would say, the Seer (Rishi), of this celebrated prayer was Visvamitra — a man originally of the Kshatriya or mili- tary caste, once opposed to the Brahmanical. ^ Some of the opinions of this scholar are quite new. He sees no 'primitive natural simplicity' in the hymns, and denies that the Vedas represent the general belief of a race. ^ Tat Savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhlmahi, Dhiyo yo nah pracodayat (Rig-veda III. 62. 10). In my opinion the Sandhya (p. 401) derives its name from the root dhi for dhyai, 'to meditate,' in this prayer. C 2 CHAPTER II. Brahmanism. The second phase of the Hindu religion may be suitably- called Brahmanism. The Brahmans themselves would pro- bably call both phases Arya-dharma, 'the system of the Aryas ' (or perhaps Vaidika-dharma , or, according to Patanjali I. i. i, Rishi-sampradayo dharmah). As Brahmanism was the outgrowth of Vedism, so it cannot be separated from it by any hard line of demarcation. Its development was gradual, and extended over many centuries — perhaps from the eighth century before Christ to the twelfth century after Christ. The crystallization of its cardinal doctrine into definite - shape is clearly traceable. In Vedic times there was, as we have seen, a perpetual feeling after one Supreme Being, if haply He might be found in sky or air. The hymn-com- posers constantly gave expression to man's craving for some perception of the Infinite. For the satisfaction of this craving they turned to personifications of the Sky, Sun, Fire, Air, Water, Earth. What the deepest thinkers, even at that early period, felt with ever-increasing intensity was that a Spirit (Atman), beyond the cognizance of sense, permeated and breathed through all material things. They bethought them with awe of this same Spirit vivifying their own bodies with the breath of life — of this mysterious Presence enshrined in their own consciences. Then they identified this same Spirit with the divine afflatus thrilling through the imaginations of their own hymn-composers — with the spiritual efficacy of the hymns themselves, with the mystic power inherent in divine knowledge and prayer. This mysterious, all-pervading. Ritualistic Brahmanisnt, 21 vague spiritual. Power and Presence, which was wholly un- bound by limitations of personality and individuality, became at last a reality. This Breath of Life (Atman) received a name. They called it Brahman (nominative neuter Brahma, from the root brih^ ' to expand '), because it expanded itself through all space. It was a pure essence which not only diffused itself everywhere, but constituted their own being. Men and gods were merely manifestations of that Spirit. Such was the fundamental doctrine of Brahmanism. Such was Brahmanism in its earliest origin. As a complex system it may be regarded as possessing four sides, or, more properly speaking, four phases which run into each other and are nowhere separable by sharply defined lines. These four phases may be called (i) Ritualistic, {%) Philosophical, (3) Mythological, (4) Nomistic. Ritualistic Brahmanism. This phase of the Brahmanical system has for its special, bible the sacred treatises called BrahmanaSj added to the Mantra or Hymn portion of each Veda (for example, the Aitareya, Satapatha, Tandya, and Gopatha Brahmanas added to the Rig, Yajur, Sama, and Atharva Vedas respect- ively). They consist of a series of rambling prose con ipg- sitions, the oldest of which may have been written seven or eight centuries B. C. Their relationship to the Vedic hymns resembles in some respects that of the book of Leviticus to the Psalms in our own sacred Scriptures. They i are an integral portion of the Veda, and are supposed to contain that portion of divine knowledge or revelation par- ticularly adapted to serve as a directory for the Brahmans in the conduct of the compHcated sacrificial ceremonies. For if it was deemed necessary in the early Vedic period to propitiate and maintain the energies of nature by means of invigorating offerings of food, it was not likely that such 22 Ritualistic Brahmanism. offerings would be dispensed with when these same energies were personalized as divine manifestations of the one Spirit. In fact the necessity for sacrificial acts {karman) to secure ;the favour of the gods became ingrained in the whole Brah- manical system. Not even Jewish literature contains so many words relating to sacrifice as the literature of the Brah- mans. The due presentation of sacrificial offerings formed :the very kernel of all religious service. Hymn, praise, and prayer, preaching, teaching, aji^ repetition of the sacred words of scripture were only subsidiary to this act. Every man throughout his whole life rested his whole hopes on con- tinually offering oblations of some kind to the gods in fire, and the burning of his body at death was held to be the last offering of himself in fire (antya ishti or antyeshti). But the idea of the great efficacy of sacrifice was developed gradually. In the Brahmanical, as in the earlier system, the ' first aim of sacrifice was to present a simple thank-offering. 1 The second great aim was to nourish the gods with the essence of the offered food, and so strengthen them for their daily duty of maintaining the continuity of the universe. The next idea was that of making these oblations of food ^ the means of wresting boons from the invigorated and grati- fied deities, and so accomplishing some specific earthly object, such, for example, as the birth of a son. A still more am- bitious idea was that of employing sacrifice as an instrument ^ for the attainment of superhuman powers and even exaltation to heaven. All this involved the elaboration of a complicated ritual, and the organization of a regularly constituted hierarchy. To institute a sacrificial rite (such as the Asvamedha, Jyoti- shtoma, Agnishtoma, Aptoryama, Vajapeya, 'strengthening drink '), and to secure its being carefully conducted with the proper repetition and intonation of innumerable hymns and texts from the Veda, and the accurate observance of every detail of an intricate ritual by a full complement of perhaps Ritualistic Brdkmanism. 23 sixteen different classes of priests, every one of whom received adequate gifts, was the great object of every pious Hindu's highest ambition. The whole course of prayer, praise, ritual, .and oblation — sometimes lasting for weeks and even years — ■ though called, as in Vedic times, Yajna, ' sacrifice,' was very inadequately expressed by that term. It was a protracted religious service which could only be compared to an intricate piece of mechanism. It was a chain of which every link required to be complete and perfect in all its parts. It could then effect anything in this world or the other. It was the great preservative from all evil, the great maintainer of the energies of the Universe, the great source of all benefits. It could procure a whole line of sons and grandsons ^ or secure the attainment of the highest heaven, or even raise the sacri- ficer to the level of the highest deities. It was even believed ■■■ that the gods themselves had attained their celestial position ■: by performing sacrifices. ' By saqrifices,' says the Taittirlya- brahmiana, ' the gods obtained heaven.' The most preposterous of all the ideas connected with the sacrificial act was that of making it the first act of creation. In the Purusha hymn of the Rig-veda (X. 90) the gods are i represented as cutting up and sacrificing Purusha, the pri- ; meval Male, and then forming the whole Universe from his head and limbs (see p. 17). The Tandya-brahmana makes the lord of creatures offer himself up as a sacrifice. Even Sacrifice (Yajna) itself was sometimes personified as a god. Lastly, the shedding of blood was believed by some to atone for sin. The limb of the victim consigned to the fire was thought to be an expiation for sins committed by the gods, by the fathers, and by men. The innocent was sup- posed to be killed for the guilty ; but this belief never became general. ^ An uninterrupted line of sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons was needed for the due perforniiance of funeral rites, through which alone the heavenly bliss of departed spirits could be secured. 24 Ritualistic Brahmanism. Indeed it is evident that human sacrifice was once part of the Brahmanical system. The Aitareya-brahmana (VII. 13) has a well-known story — the jtory of Harisc'aadra and Sunahsepa — which points to its prevalence. The same Brahmana records the substitution of the sacrifice of four kinds of animals — horses, oxen, sheep, and goats — for that of men. Sometimes immense numbers of animals were tied to sacrificial posts {yupa), some being killed and some liber- ated at the end of the ceremony. One of the most noteworthy ideas to be found in the Brahmanas is that the gods were merely mortal till they conquered Death by sacrifices. Death is thereupon alarmed lest men should also be victorious over him and deprive him of all his rights ; but the gods promise that those who perform sacrifices should not become immortal without first offering him their bodies, and that all who omit to- sacrifice should be born again, and present him their bodies in innu- merable successive births. This proves that the doctrine of transmigration was beginning to be developed at this period. The following free translation of a passage of the Sata- patha-brahmana is from ' Indian Wisdom,' p. 34 : — The gods lived constantly in dread of Death — The mighty Ender — so with toilsome rites They worshipped and repeated sacrifices Till they became immortal. Then the Ender Said to the gods, ' As ye have made yourselves Imperishable, so will men endeavour To free themselves from me ; what portion then Sha;ll I possess in man?' The gods replied, ' Henceforth no being shall become immortal In his own body ; this his mortal frame Shalt thou still seize ; this shall remain thy own, This shall become perpetually thy food. And even he who through religious acts Henceforth attains to immortality ^ Shall first present his body. Death, to thee.' I It is certainly remarkable that the idea of sacrifice as an Philosophical Brahmanism. 25 atonement for sin seems never to have taken firm hold of the Hindu mind. Goats were generally sacrificed by Vaidika Brahmans at their Somaryagas, but only in connexion with the central offering of the Sgma__or_liquor of immortality, and only under the idea of nourishing the gods with strengthening food. Fire was the chief god, not only because he was visibly present, but because he carried up the essence of the oblation to the other gods. In later times sacrifice changed its cha- racter and its name. It was called Bali. Goats and buffaloes are now immolated by Pauranikas and Tantrikas, but only with the view of appeasing and satisfying their bloodthirsty goddess Kali, and certainly not with any idea of effacing guilt or making a vicarious offering for sin. For the ordinary Hindu wholly rejects the notion of trusting to anything for salvation but his own self-righteousness. Philosophical Brahmanism. The second phase of Brahmanism, called Philosophical Brahmanism, cannot be marked off by any decided line from the other phases of Hindu religious thought. Its rudimentary ideas are found running through the earlier system, and even had their germ in Vedism. It is the purely spiritual doc- i trine of a universally diffused essence (Brahma), divested of. all ritualistic incrustations, and carried into lofty regions of transcendental speculation. In fact, a reaction from an overdone ritual was inevitable. People became wearied with sacrifices and sacrificers. The minds of thinking men found no rest in external rites and turned away with disgust from every form of sacerdotalism. It only remained to take refuge in speculative inquiries and, metaphysical investigations. If every man was a part of God, what necessity was there that God should propitiate himself.? If a portion of the one self-existent Spirit chose for a time to ignore itself, to invest itself with a body, to 26 Philosophical Brahmanism. fetter itself with actions and their inevitable results, the consequences could only be borne by itself in its passage through numberless births. Nor could there be any final emancipation from a continued succession of corporeal ex- istences, till action ceased and the consciousness ofvidentity with the one universal Spirit returned. The result of this introspective process was the excogitation of the Upanishads or hidden spiritual doctrine of the Veda. The Upanishads are the special bible of this phase of Brahmanism. Many treatises so called were added to the Mantra and Brahmana portion of the Veda (such as the Isa, (fhandogya, Katha, Mundaka, and Brihad-aranyaka Upani- shads). The aphorisms (sutras) of the three systems of philo- sophy with their three branches (that is, the Nyaya with Vaiseshika; Sankhya with Yoga; Vedanta with Mimansa) were founded on these writings. They were compositions which expressed the desire of the personal soul or spirit {jiva or jlvdtman) for deliverance from a long series of sepai'ate existences and from liability to pass through an infinite variety of bodies — gods, men, animals, plants, stones — and its longing for final union with the Su- preme Soul or Spirit of the Universe {Atman, afterwards called Brahman). And here it may be noted that Philosophical Brah- manism was not philosophy in the European sense of the word. It was no mere search for truth, for truth's sake. It /Vas rather a form of mystical religious speculation. Nor was it an expression of the soul's desire to be released from the burden of sin. It was rather an inquiry into the best method of escape from the troubles of life, and of deliver- ance from the necessity of transmigration ; the dread of continued metempsychosis being the one haunting thought which colours the whole texture of Indian philosophy. If an Indian metaphysician sets himself to inquire into the nature of spirit and matter, and their relation to each other, his investigations are sure to be conducted with the sole Philosophical Brahmanism. 27 object of liberating the spirit of man from the bondage of\ repeated bodily existence, and reuniting it with the Supreme J Spirit as a river is reunited with the ocean. This is called the way of knowledge {jndna). This constitutes the right measure {pramd) of all difficulties. This is the summum bonum of Brahmanical philosophy. What, then, are the articles of a Hindu philosopher's creed.? They are the doctrines which to this day underlie the religious belief of the majority of thinking Hindus, to whatever sect or system they may nominally belong. Most Hindu thinkers agree that spirit or souP is eternal, both retrospectively and prospectively. The Spirit of God and the spirit of man must have existed and must continue to exist from all eternity. The two spirits are not really distinct; so says the Vedantist. The living spirit of man(jlva) —the human Self (Atman)— is identical with God's Spirit. It is that Spirit limited and personalized by the power of Illusion ; and the life of every living spirit is nothing but an infinitesimal arc of the one endless circle of infinite existence. Again, Hindu philosophers agree that mind (manas) is distinct from spirit or soul. Mind is not eternal in the same way. It is an internal organ, standing between the five organs of perception and the five organs of action^ belonging to both, regulating the functions of both and re-! ceiving the impressions conveyed by both. These functions' are perception (buddhi) and volition (sankalpa, vikalpa) respectively. Hence the spirit cannot exercise perception, consciousness, thought, or will, unless joined to mind and invested with a bodily covering or vehicle. And of actual bodily coverings there are two : — first, the ^ It is generally better to translate the philosophical terms Atman, Brahman, and Purusha by 'spirit' rather than by 'soul,' because the expression 'soul' is liable to convey the idea of thinking and feeling, whereas pure Atman, Brahman, and Purusha neither think, nor feel, nor are conscious. The translation ' Self is sometimes more suitable. 28 Philosophical Brahmamsnt. subtle bodyi {linga or sukshma-sarlra or dtivakika), which incloses a portion of the universal spirit in a kind of subtle or tenuous envelope 2, constituting it a living individual per- sonal soul {jtvdtman), and carrying it through all its corpo- real migrations till its final reunion with its source ; secondly, the gross body {sthula-sanraj, which surrounds the spirit's subtle vehicle, and is of various forms in the various stages and conditions of existence through animate or inanimate, organic or inorganic life. And mark that the gross body is of three kinds — divine, earthly, and intermediate — the latter being that peculiar frame with which the departed spirit, along with its subtle frame, is invested after the burning of the earthly gross body, and during the interval preceding the assumption of another earthly gross body. This intermediate body (com- monly called preta-sarira, the dead man's body) serves, as it were, to support and, as it were, to clothe the departed ' spirit during its several residences in the world of spirits [pitri-loka) ; whence its philosophical name Adhishthana- deha. It is of the same nature, though inferior to the divine body of the gods ; and, though, like that divine body, really composed of gross (sthula) particles, is of a more ethereal substance than the earthly body. Without it the spirit would be incapable of enjoying bliss or suffering misery in the inter- mediate temporary paradise, or purgatory 2, through which all spirits have to pass before assuming new terrestrial bodies. And be it noted that the union of spirit with a successiori of bodily forms is dreaded as the worst form of bondage. The spirit, so united, commences acting, and all actions, ' In the Vedanta system there are threebodily coverings, the Causal body (Karana-sarlra) coming first ; but this is merely another name for Ajnana (see p. 35), and can scarcely be regarded as a material substance. '^ Its minuteness is denoted by its being described as ' of the size of a thumb ' {angushtha-matrd), though sortie apply this expression to the in,termediate body. J \ ' The heaven and hell of orthodox Brahmanism are only temporary. \X\ Philosophical Brahmanism. 29 good or bad, lead to consequences, and these consequences must have their adequate rewards or punishments. It is on this account that the spirit must of necessity be removed to temporary heavens or hells. Thence it must migrate into higher, intermediate, and lower corporeal forms, according to its various degrees of merit or demerit, till it attains the great end — entire emancipation from the bondage of repeated bodily existence, and reabsorption yito the one Spirit of the "Universe. With regard to the external world, it is a fixed dogma of every Hindu philosopher that ex nihilo nihil fit — nothing is produced out of nothing. Therefore, the external world is eternal. But according to one view, the external world is evolved out of an eternally existing productive germ united to eternally existing individual Spirits. According to another, it is evolved out of the Illusion which overspreads the one eternal Spirit, and becomes one with it, though having no real existence. These two theories in regard to the creation of the world — the first represented in the Saiikhya system, the second in the Vedanta system — are both of great antiquity. The first shadowing forth of the mystery of the creation of male and female, and of the living world through their union, is traceable in some of the Vedic hymns. The well-known^ hymn of the Rig-veda (X. 129, 4), already quoted, asserts that first ' in that One Being arose Desire, which was the primal germ of Mind, and which the wise, searching out in their thoughts, discovered to be the subtle bond connecting Entity with Non-entity.' Again, the Satapatha-Brahmana (XIV. 4. %. 4, etc.) and Brihad-aranyaka Upanishad (I. 3) declare that ' the Supreme Being was not happy, being alone. He wished for a second. He caused his own self to fall in twain, and thus became husband and wife. He approached her^ and thus were human beings produced ' (see p. i8a). In this latter passage is the first clear statement of a duality 30 Philosophical Brahmanism. in the divine unity— an idea ingrained in the Hindu mind quite as strongly as the, doctrine of a Trinity in Unity is in the mind of Christian theologians— an idea, too, which had been previously adumbrated in the supposed marriage of Heaven and Earth for the production of gods, men, and all creatures. The idea was expanded in the mythical cosmogony of Manu, Book I. 5, etc. There it is said that the universe, first existed only in darkness as" if immersed in sleep. Then the Self-existent (Svayam-bhu) still undeveloped (A-vyakta), having willed to produce various beings from his own sub- stance, first with a mere thought created the waters, and placed on them a productive seed or egg (blja). Then he himself was born in that egg in the form of Brahma. Next he caused the egg to divide itself, and out of its two divisions framed the heaven above and the earth beneath. Afterwards, having divided his own substance, he became half male, half female (I. 33), and from that female produced Viraj, from whom was created Manu, the secondary progenitor of all- beings. The order of the creation of the five elements is I. Ether (Akasa) ; a. Air (Vayu) ; 3. Fire (Tejas or Jyotis); 4. Water (Apah, pi.) ; 5. Earth (Prithivl or Bhumi); but these resulted from a previous creation of five subtle elements (tanmatra). The Nyaya-sutra reverses the order. So again in the Sahkhya philosophy, there are two eternal principles — the Producer and the Spirit. The former is an eternal productive germ or Creative Force which is called Prakriti (feminine), because it produces (prakaroti) twenty-four products. It is also called Pradhana, because it is the fixed material cause of everything except the Spirit — which is twenty-fifth in the series. This infinitely subtle elementary productive germ, though one, is supposed to be made up of a trinity of co-eternal primordial qualities in perfect equipoise ; (samya). These are called Gunas, not because they are simply qualities, but. because they act like' ' cords ' to bind Philosophical Brdhmanism. 31 the spirit with triple bonds. They are, i. Sattva, 'purity' or 'goodness;' 2. Rajas, 'passion' or 'activity;' and 3. Tamas, ' darkness ' or ' indifference ; ' sometimes regarded as equivalent to pleasure, pain, and indolence respectively. The Spirit or second eternal principle called Purusha (the Male or Self) is not, hke Prakriti, one; nor does it produce anything. It is multitudinous. Spirits are innume- rable, each separate Spirit being co-eternal with Prakriti, but doing nothing and creating nothing. When human beings or any other beings are created, the creation is always effected through evolution out of Prakriti, which is nevertheless a merely blind and dark force ; no creation at all being apparent unless this force brings itself into union with some one eter- nally existing separate spirit. Prakriti, in short, unites itself with the Spirit or Self and binds it with the triple bond of the three above-named Gunas^ in order that this Spirit may reflect or illumine the evolved world as a clear river reflects dark trees, or as a bright crystal vase illumines a flower, while the flower itself colours the crystal. The first step in the evolution out of Prakriti is the pro- duction of Intellect or intelligent perception (Buddhi). Next comes the faculty of Self-consciousness or personality, called the I-maker (Aham-kara), and then the five subtle and five gross elements, the latter being the product of the former. Last in the series come the five organs of perception, the five organs of action and the internal organ, mind (Manas), which holds a position between the ten other organs, mediating between them as the instrument of both perception and volition^. These constitute the twenty-five principles of the Sankhya system. ^ The Spirit before its association with these Gunas is called Nirguna ; and when bound by them, Saguna. '^ In this and in the Nyaya system Buddhi, ' intellect,' is anterior and superior to Manas, ' mind,' which is merely the instrument of thought. It governs the mind, and causes it to decide. Manu's theory is a] combination of Sankhya and Vedanta. In Book 1. 14, etc. it is said that 32 Philosophical Brahmanism. The noteworthy point is that consciousness, cognition, will, and thought do not belong to the creative force Prakriti and its creations. Intellect, the I-maker, and Mind (Buddhi, Aham-kara, Manas) when existing separately, nor to the spirit (Purusha) when existing separately, but only to the two , when united. In short, two factors — the active, creative but blind force, and the inactive, passive but illuminating spirit — ■ ' must come together before there can be even any conscious- ness or sense of personality. And yet the creation is not supposed to take place for the sake of the two together, but only that it may be illuminated and observed by each separate individual spirit or soul, which nevertheless is a wholly apathetic, isolated, and indifferent spectator of the act. It is clear from this how easy it became to confuse Purusha with Prakriti and to regard either the one or the other or the union of both as the source of the external world ^. Of course when any being is created the three primordial qualities. Purity, Passion, and Darkness, are no longer equally balanced as they are in the creative germ, Prakriti. Creation is a result of the disturbance of this equilibrium. One or other quality is then in excess, making a being unselfish and good, selfish and energetic, bestial and ignorant, according as either purity, passion, or darkness may happen to prepon- - derate. I need not point out that this remarkable theory of innu- Brahrna, when born from the egg deposited by the Self-existent, drew out the external world from pure spirit (Atman). The first product was the principle of thought (Manas = Buddhi or Mahat). Next came Personality (Ahatp-kara), and then the seven subtle elements (Tan^ matras). From these seven active principles (called 'the seven Puru- shas,' I. 19)— viz. Mahat or Buddhi (called Manas in I. 14, 74, 75), Aham-kara, and the five subtle elements — were evolved the five gross or material elements {maha-bhiita), the organs of sense, and the whol^ world of sense. _ ^ Professor A. E. Gough in the ' Calcutta Review' has thrown great; light on the Sankhya and Vedanta systems and their close connexion with each other. Philosophical Brdhmanism. 33 merable personal creations by individual souls is not without its counterpart in European systems ^. In India the idea of a separate spiritual Self combining with a primordial force for the creation of all things was, as we have seen, of great antiquity. And notwithstanding the physical and metaphysical subtleties with which it was connected, the notion of the universe proceeding from a male principle regarded as a generator, and a female principle regarded as an eternal energy or capacity {sakti), commended itself to the popular mind as harmonizing with the operations and phenomena everywhere apparent in nature. To this day it is symbolized all over India by temples dedicated to the male and female organ (called Linga and Yoni). It is clear that in such a system there can be no need for the existence of a supreme eternal Spirit as distinct from the personal spirit, even though such a supreme Being be theoretically admitted (as in the Yoga branch of the Sahkhya). The so-called pantheistic theory of the Vedanta philosophy is even more attractive to the majority of Hindu thinkers. It is true that the Sahkhya and Vedanta together underlie Brahmanism; but the Vedanta is the more, orthodox. It is a belief in the non-duality and non-plurality of Spirit — that is to say, in one eternal Spirit called Atman^ (nom. Atma) or Brahman (nom. Brahma, see p. 43) instead of in many, — a belief ' in the identification of the human spirit and of all the pheno- mena of nature with that one Spirit, when enveloped in illusion. In other words, the separate existence of man's soul and of all natural phenomena is only illusory. This doctrine is said to rest on another well-known hymn of the Veda (X. 90) called the Purusha-sukta. There the one embodied Spirit is called Purusha (see p. 17), and is said to be ' everything, whatever is, has been, and shall be.' The same doctrine is briefly formulated in three ^ The Sankhya has much incommon with the Idealism of BerkeleyJ^ * One etymology given for Atman is an, to breathe. Compare p. 20. D 34 Philosophical Brahmanism. words (from the (^handogya Upanishad) used as .a creed in the present day by Indian Theistic as well as Pantheistic ^&cts—Ekam eva advitlyam, 'there is but one Being, no second.' Nothing really exists but the one impersonal Spirit, called Atma or Brahma ( = Purusha). From him is everything born; in him it breathes; in him it is dissolved (tajjalan). He, in the illusion that overspreads him, is to the external world what yarn is to cloth, what milk to curds, what clay to a jar; but only in that illusion i- As ether contained in various vessels and as the sun reflected on various mirrors is one but apparently many, so is the spirit one and many. As the potter by the help of clay makes a pot, so the Spirit itself causes its various births. As an actor paints his body with colours and assumes various forms, so the Spirit assumes the bodies caused by its deeds. This eternal impersonal Atma or Brahma is absolutely One (unlike the Sankhyan Spirit or Purusha, which is multitudinous) ; yet it is made up of a trinity of co-eternal essences — to wit, pure unconscious Ex- istence (Sat), pure Thought ((^it)^ and pure BHss (Ananda). ' And here let me observe that more than one Christian writer has pointed out how remarkably this tri-unity of Entities corresponds with the Trinitarian doctrine of God the Father, who is the Author of all Existence ; God the Son, who is the Source of all Wisdom and Knowledge ; and God the Holy Spirit, who is the Source of all Joy. But we must bear in mind that, with the Vedantist, Brahma is only Exist- £nce in the negation of non-existence, only Thought in the negation of non-thought, only Bliss in the negation of nonr bliss and of all the miseries of transmigration, r When this impersonal unconscious Spirit assumes con-f ' He is not the actual material cause of the world as day of a jar, but the illusory material cause as a rope might be of a snake ; see p. 37, 1. 7. _ " (fit, ' pure unconscious thought ' alone, or its equivalent daitanya, is often used for Brahma. Brahma is also described in the Upanishads as Truth, Knowledge, Infinity. Philosophical Brahmanism. 35 Sciousness and personality — that is, when it begins to exist in any object, to think about anything or be joyful about any- thing—it does so by associating itself with the power of Illusion 1 (Maya) and investing itself with three corporeal envelopes. ' First, the causal body (karana-sarira) identified with Ajnana or Ignorance 1; secondly, the subtle body (linga-sarira) ; and thirdly, the gross material body (sthula-sarira). In this way the impersonal Spirit is converted into a personal God who can be worshipped, and so becomes the Supreme Lord (Isvara, Paramesvara) and Ruler of the world. To be strictly accurate, however, it should be stated that the Vedanta theory makes the assumption of these three bodies involve the assumption of three distinct divine personalities, each of which is supposed to invest a particular condition of spirit. Thus, with the first or causal body, the impersonal Spirit becomes the Supreme Lord, Paramesvara, supposed to represent and embody the mystical totality of dreamless spirits ; with the second or subtle body the impersonal Spirit becomes Hiranya-garbha (or Sutratman, or Prana), supposed to represent the aggregate of dreaming spirits, connecting them like the Sutra or thread of a necklace ; with the third or gross body it becomes Viraj (or Vaisvanara, Prajapati, Purusha), supposed to represent and embody the aggregate of waking spirits (compare p. a8). This third condition of spirit or that of being wide awake, though with us considered to be the highest state, is by Hindu philosophers held to be the lowest, because farthest removed from unconscious spirit. In fact, beyond and underlying all three conditions of spirit is the fourth (turlya) or pure abstract impersonal Spirit (Brahma) itself. Of course these hyper-subtleties are beyond th'e scope of ' The Karana-sarira is not only identified with Ignorance (Ajnana or Avidya), but also with Illusion (Maya). It is, therefore, no real body. Both Ignorance and Illusion are the sole cause of the separation of the personal God and the personal human soul from the universal Soul. In the same way they are the cause of every existing thing. D 3 36 Philosophical Brdhmanism. ordinary philosophic thought; but they show how great is the difference between the Pantheism of India and that of Europe. A Vedantist believes in one impersonal Spirit, who, by association with Illusion, becomes one Supreme personal God (Paramesvara). And it is this personal God who, when he engages in the creation, preservation, and dissolution of the Universe, is held to be dominated by one or other of the three Qualities (Gunas) which are the supposed constituents of his causal body, identified, as it is, with Ignorance^ These three Qualities or conditions are the same as those which in the San- khyan system are the constituents of Prakriti — namely, Activity, Goodness, and Indifference (Rajas, Sattva, Tamas)^. They are those which in the later doctrine of the Puranas are held to separate the one Supreme personal God into the three divine personalities of Brahma (nom. case), Vishnu, and Rudra-Siva, each accompanied by his own consort^. Dominated by Activity (Rajas), the Supreme Being is Brahma, the Creator; by Goodness (Sattva), he is Vishnu, the Preserver; by Indifference (Tamas), he is Rudra, the Dissolver. Pure Ved.antism, then, is not only a belief in one un- conscious, impersonal Spirit made up of three essences. It is a belief that a kind of threefold trinity — to wit, three spiritual essences, three corporeal envelopes, and three do- minating qualities — together constitute one personal God, as well as every human personality. ^ In other words, the Karana-sarira — consisting of Ignorance, and therefore made up of the three Gunas^s the illusory corporeal disguise (upadhi) or investing envelope or triple bond of the impersonal Spirit Brahma, by which it becomes the personal God Paramesvara, who is thence called Saguna (associated with the Gunas). In its impersonal state the Spirit is Nirguna. ^ Sometimes regarded as equivalent to Passion or Pain, Purity or Happiness, and Apathy or Ignorance. ' In the later mythology the expression Sakti is substituted for Maya, Prakriti, and Ajnana, as representing the wife of the personal God. Philosophical Brahmanism. 37 It is by reason, then, of association with Illusion or Ignor- ance (made up of the three Qualities), that the Supreme Spirit (Paramatman) enshrined in the personal God, and the living spirit (jivatman) enshrined in the heart of man, believe in their own individuality, mistaking it and the surrounding world for realities, just as a rope in a dark night might be mistaken for a snake. The moment that the personalized spirit sets itself free from the power of Illusion or Ignorance, its identity and that of the whole phenomenal universe with the one impersonal Spirit, Atman ( = Paramatman, Brahma), is re-established. Strange to say, this Illusion or Ignorance is held to have an eternal existence equally with the one eternal Brahma^, though, owing to the fact that such existence is unreal, and the whole evolved world unreal too, it follows that nothing really existent is left but Brahma. In other words, all that really exists is identical with Brahma. In fact, the more evidently physical and metaphysical speculations are opposed to common sense, the more favour do they find with some Hindu thinkers. Common sense tells an Englishman that he really exists himself, and that everything he sees around him really exists also. He cannot abandon these two primary convictions. Not so the Hindu Vedantist. Dualism is his bugbear, and common sense, when it maintains any kind of real duality, either the separate independent existence of a man's own Spirit and of God's Spirit or of spirit and matter, is guilty of gross deception. And yet, after all, when the Vedantist theory, as held at present, is closely examined, it turns out to be virtually as dualistic, in regard to spirit and matter, as the Sankhya ; the only difference being that the source of the material worid (Prakriti or Maya) in the Sankhya is held to have a real eternal existence instead of a merely illusory eternal ' Maya-cid-yogo 'nadih, 'the union of (fid and Maya is from all eternity.' See Professor Cough's articles on the Philosophy of the Upanishads. 38 Philosophical Brakmanism. existence^ Brahma and Maya 'Illusion' in the Vedanta system must be united in the act of creation. The external world is the product of two eternal principles (virtually comparable to Light and Darkness in the Sankhya, and to Knowledge and Ignorance in the Vedanta). The chief differ- ence between the two systems lies in the plurality of Spirits as distinguished from the unity of Spirit. Yet the Vedantist, while asserting the latter, virtually beheves in three conditions of being, real, practical, and illusory. He affirms that the one Spirit Brahma alone has a real (paramarthika) existence ; yet he allows a practical (vyavaharika) separate existence to human spirits, to the world, and to the personal God or gods, as well as an illusory (pratibhasika) existence. Hence every object is to be dealt with practically as if it were really what it appears to be. A god is practically a god ; a man, a man ; a beast, a beast ; so that when a man feeds a horse he does not feed him as a portion of God, but as an animal kept for riding. The Vedanta theory, like the I Sankhya, has taken deep root in the Indian mind. Both are I the real source of the popular religion and mythology of 1 the Hindus. Both permeate their literature and give a colour to every thought and feeling of their daily lives. And hence it is not difficult to understand how a people imbued with the idea that the world is an illusion should be destitute of any t taste for historical investigations. No such thing as a genuine history or biography exists in the whole of Sanskrit literature. Historical researches are to a Hindu simple foolishness. The third philosophical system, called Nyaya — or the act of going into any subject analytically (opposed to Sankhya ^ Perhaps the only true monistic theory is that of the Buddhist, who affirms that nothing exists but the self-creative Universe, which, however, he also calls Maya, ' Illusion.' A Vedantist is Brahma-vadi, ' one who affirms that Brahma is the only reality;' a Buddhist is Sunya-vadi, 'one who affirms a blank for God ;' and a Sankhya is Pradhana-vadi, one who affirms that all things proceed from Pradhana (Prakriti). Philosophical Brahmanism. 39 or synthetic enumeration) — is not so closely connected with religion and religious speculation as the Sahkhya and Ve- danta. Yet it offers more interesting parallels to European philosophical and scientific ideas. It is much studied in modern Sanskrit schools of learning, as an analytical inquiry into all the objects and subjects of human knowledge, in- cluding, among others, the process of reasoning and logic. In regard to the subject of reasoning, the Nyaya proper, as I have shown in ' Indian Wisdom ' (p. 73), propounds in its first Sutra sixteen topics, the first of which is Pramdna^ that is, the means or instrument by which knowledge or the right measure (prama or pramiti) of a subject is to be obtained^ These means are four — perception by the senses (pratyaksha) ; inference (anumana) ; comparison (upamana) ; verbal or trust- I worthy authority (sabda or aptopadesa), including revelation^. Of these four processes, ' inference ' is divided into five members (avayava). i. The pratijnd, or proposition (stated hypothetically). 3. The hetu, or reason. 3. The uda- harana, or example ( = major premiss). 4. The upanaya, or application of the reason (= minor premiss). 5. The niga- mana, or conclusion, i. e. the proposition restated as proved. Thus: I. The hill is fiery; 3. for it smokes; '3. whatever smokes is fiery, as a kitchen-hearth ; 4. this hill smokes ; 5. therefore this hill is fiery. Here we have a clumsy combination of enthymeme and syllogism, which must be regarded not as a syllogism, but as a full rhetorical statement of an argument. The most noticeable peculiarity in the Indian method, stamping it as an original analysis of the laws of thought, is the employment of the terms 'invariable concomitance or pervasion' (vydpti), 'invariable pervader' {vydpaka), and " The Saiikhya rejects the third of the four Pramanas, and the Vedanta adds two others to the four, viz. negative proof (an-upalabdhi, abhava) and inference from circumstances (arthapatti). 40 Philosophical Brahmanism. 'invariably pervaded' [vycipya). Fire is the pervader, smoke the pervaded. The argument is thus stated : 'The mountain has invariably fire-pervaded smoke ; therefore it has fire.' The Nyaya, like the Sahkhya, believes the individual souls of men {jlvatman) to be eternal, manifold, eternally separate from each other, and distinct from the body, senses, and mind, infinite, ubiquitous, and diffused everywhere throughout space, so that a man's soul is as "much in England as in Calcutta, though it can only apprehend, and feel, and act, where the body happens to be. Its idea of the mind {manas), which it calls an internal instrument or organ, is that it is like the spirit or soul, an eternal substance {dravya). Instead, however, of being dif- fused everywhere like spirit, it is atomic, like earthy water, fire, and air, and can only admit one perception or volition at a time. In its cosmogony the Nyaya is dualistic in assuming -the existence of eternal atoms, side by side with eternal souls. Atoms are not like Prakriti one, but innumerable. We know that the true Sankhya (as distinct from the Yoga) recognized no Supreme Spirit, and it is probable that the true Nyaya was in this respect like the Sankhya. In any case neither of these systems admits the absolute unity of one omnipresent all-pervading Spirit. If they acknowledge a Supreme presiding Spirit at all, it can only be as forming one of innumerable other spirits — though superior to them — and as co-eternal and (in the case of the Nyaya) as co- omnipresent with them.. The foregoing three systems, with their thrge sub-systems, together constitute the philosophical phase of Brahmanism. Clearly the one great aim of this branch of Indian religious thought is to teach men to abstain from action of every kind, good or bad — as much from liking as from disliking, as much from loving as from hating, as much from earnest as* from listless effort. Mythological Brahmanism. 41 The whole external world is an illusion. Actions and feelings of all kinds are a grand mistake. They are the fetters of the soul which bind it as with bonds of iron to a continual succession of bodies. Transmigration or Metempsychosis is the great bugbear — the terrible nightmare and daymare of Indian philosophers and metaphysicians. All their efforts are directed to the getting rid of this oppressive scare. ' As the embodied soul,' says the Bhagavad-glta, 'moves swiftly on through boyhood, youth, and age, so will it pass through other forms hereafter.' The question is not. What is truth .? The one engrossing problem is. How is a man to break this iron chain of repeated existences ? How is he to shake off all personality ? How is he to return to complete absorption (sayujya) into pure un- conscious Spirit? Or, if this highest object of ambition is beyond his reach, how is he to work his way through 8,400,000 successive births to any of the three inferior conditions of bliss — I. living in the same sphere with the personal God (salokya) ; z. close proximity to that God (samipya) ; 3. assimilation to the likeness of that God (sarupya)? Mythological Brahmanism. The Mythological phase of Brahmanism has for its bible the two great legendary heroic poems (Itihasa) called Maha-bharatal and Ramayana. Its development was probably synchronous with that of Buddhism. Buddhism, like philosophical Brahmanism, was a disbelief in the efficacy of ritual, and, like it, taught the uselessness of sacrificial ceremonies and even of austerities for the attain- ment of true knowledge. It taught that knowledge was only to be obtained through self-suppression. It substituted a blank for God ; it denied the existence of soul or spirit, whether per- sonal or supreme, and of everything but body, mind, and sensations, — of everything but earth, heavens, and hells, which, 42 Mythological Brdhmdnism. according to the Buddha, are always, through the force of works, tending to disintegration and re-integratibn in perpetual cycles. But while it repudiated priestcraft and sacrificing priests, it supplied the people with an object of venera- tion in its own founder Gautama— afterwards styled 'the Enlightened ' (Buddha). Its success was in a great measure due to the reverence the Buddha inspired by his own personal character. He was the ideal man— the perfection of hu- manity. He practised faithfully what he preached effectively. Adherents gathered in crowds around his person, and Gautama, himself became the real god of his own popular faith. Everywhere throughout India thousands were drawn towards his teaching. His doctrines of universal charity, liberty, equality, and fraternity were irresistibly attractive. The only hope of arresting the progress of the Buddhistic move- ment lay in inventing human gods and a system of mytho- logy equally attractive, equally suited to the needs and capacities of the mass of the people. In all probability the Brahmans commenced popularizing their pantheistic doctrines about the time of the rise of Buddhism in the fifth century B. c. The Buddha died, and, according to his own teaching, became personally annihilated, but the remains of his body were enshrined as relics in various parts of India, and his memory was worshipped almost as earnestly as his person had been revered. The Brahmans saw this. They knew that the religious cravings of the mass of the Hindu people could not long be satisfied either with propitiation of the elements or with their own cold philosophy, or with homage paid to a being held, like Buddha, to be nowhere existent. They therefore addressed , themselves to the task of supplying the people with personal 1 and human gods out of their own heroic poems, the Rama- ; yana and Maha-bharata. They proceeded to Brahmanize 1 the popular songs of a people who, when they first spread themselves over India, were warriors not priests. The prin- Mythological Brahmctnism, 43 cipal heroes, whose achievements were the subject of epic song and recitation, underwent a process of deification. The great warrior dynasties were made to trace back their origin, through Brahmanical sages, to the sun-god and the moon- god. Myths and legends confirmatory of the divine origin of every great hero were invented and foisted into the body of the poems. In this manner a kind of anthropomorphic mythology, well adapted to the popular mind, was devised. Nor was any amount of polytheism, anthropomorphism, poly- ' demonism, and even fetishism incompatible with their own pantheistic doctrines. The Brahmans in their popular teach- ing were simply carrying out their own doctrine of evolution. The only problem they had to solve was : how could any theory of evolution be made to comprehend existing super- stitions and be best applied to the development of a popular mythology } Nothing, then, was easier for them than to maintain that the one sole, self-existing Supreme Self, the only real exist- ing Essence, exercises itself, as if sportively (lllaya), in infinite expansion, in infinite manifestations of itself, in infinite crea- tion, dissolution, and re-creation, through infinite varieties and diversities of operation. The very name ' Brahma ' (de- rived from the root brih, 'to increase'), given, to this one eternal Essence, was expressive of this growth, this expansive power, this universal development and diffusion. Hence all visible forms on earth, said the Brahmans, are emanations from the one eternal Entity, like drops from an ocean, like sparks from fire. Stones, mountains, rivers, plants, trees, and animals — all these are traceable upwards as pro- gressive steps in the infinite evolution of his being. The highest earthly emanation is man, and the emanation of men is in classes and also traceable upwards according to a graduated scale, the highest class being that of the Brahmans. Fitly, too, are the highest human manifestations of the 44 Mythological Brahmanism. eternal Brahma called Brahmans : for they are the appointed mediators between earth and God. None of these emana- tions can alter their condition in each separate state. Ac- cording to their acts, they sink into lower or rise into higher grades of being on the dissolution of each bodily frame. Then be it observed that a series of higher forms of exist- ence above the earth, such as demigods, supernatural beings, inferior gods, superior gods, is traceable upwards from man to the primeval male god Brahma — the first personal product of the purely spiritual Brahma when overspread by Maya or illusory creative force — this male god Brahma standing at the head of creation as the first evolution and hence the apparent Evolver of all the inferior forms. To draw any line of separation between stocks, stones, plants, animals, men, j demigods, and gods is, according to the theory of Brahmanism, : impossible. They are all liable to run into each other \ j and the number of gods alone amounts to 330 millions. But the act of creation necessarily involves the two other acts of preservation and dissolution. Hence the god Brahma is associated with two other personal deities, Vishnu, the Preserver, and Rudra-Siva, the Dissolver and Reproducer. These three gods, concerned in the threefold operation of integration, maintenance, and disintegration of being (srishti- sihiti-laya), are typified by the three letters composing the mystic and profoundly significant syllable Om (AUM), — three letters originally typical of the earlier Vedic trinity, and, in the mysticism of the Upanishads, of three personaliza- tions of the Universal Spirit (Paramesvara, Hiranya-garbha, and Viraj2). Like the earlier Vedic gods, the three later deities were not only personifications of the three forces of ' The whole series of evolutions is sometimes spoken of as Brahmadi- stamba-paryantam, extending from Brahma to a stump (or tuft of grass). See p. 35, and see Mandukya Upanishad, which makes the whole monosyllable Om stand for the impersonal Brahma. Mythological Brahmanism. 45 integration, disintegration, and reintegration, but also of three principal objects in nature, Earth, Water or Sun, and Fire ; or of the three worlds, Earth, Air, and Sky ; or of the three forms of matter, Solid, Liquid, and Gaseous '^. They consti- tute the well-known Tri-murti, or triad of forms which characterizes mythological Brahmanism, and their bodies, like those of human beings, are composed of gross material particles though of a divine and ethereal character (see p. a8). These three deities, too, are often, as we have seen (p. 36), connected with the Gunas of philosophy, the idea being that when the one Universal Spirit is dominated by activity (Rajo- guna) he is Brahma, the Creator ; when dominated by good- ness (Sattva-guna) he is Vishnu, the Preserver; when dominated by indifference (Tamo-guna) he is Siva, the Dissolver. Properly, according to the true theory of Brahmanism, no one of these three ought to take precedence over the other two. They are equal, and their functions are sometimes inter- changeable, so that each may represent the Supreme Lord (Paramesvara), and each may take the place of the other, according to the sentiment expressed by the greatest of Indian poets, Kalidasa (Kumara-sambhava, Griffith, VIL 44) : — In those three Persons the one God was shown — Each first in place, each last — not one alone ; Of Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, each may be First, second, third, among the blessed Three. There is a well-known Tri-miirti sculptured out of the rock in the caves of Elephanta, at Bombay. Three majestic heads are represented springing out of one body. The triangle {Trikona) is also used to symbolize this triune co-equality. In the later mythology this co-equality was denied, the difference in the characters of the three gods being well illustrated by a story from Bhagavata-purana, X. 89 : — A dispute once arose among the sages which of the three gods was greatest. They applied to the greatest of all sages— Bhrigu— to ' Compare p. 10. 46 Mythological Brahmanism. determine the point. He undertook to put all three gods to a severe test. He went first to Brahma, and omitted all obeisance. The god's anger blazed forth, but he was at length pacified. Next he went to the abode of Siva, and omitted to return the god's salutation. The irascible god was enraged, his eyes flashed fire, and he raised his Trident weapon to destroy the sage. But the god's wife, Parvati, in- terceded for him. Lastly, Bhrigu went to the heaven of Vishnu, whom he found asleep. To try his forbearance, he gave the god a good kick on his breast, which awoke him. Instead of showing anger, Vishnu asked Bhrigu's pardon for not having greeted him on his first arrival. Then he declared he was highly honoured by the sage's blow. It had imprinted an indelible mark of good fortune on his breast. He trusted the sage's foot was not hurt, and began to rub it gently. ' This,' said Bhrigu, ' is the mightiest god ; he overpowers his enemies by the most potent of all weapons — gentleness and generosity.' These three gods differ from, and are superior to, all other ^divine and human organisms, in that they are not subject to jtransmigrations. They are beings who have attained the highest condition possible, short of absorption into Brahma. And of these three, Vishnu, the Pervader and Preserver of all nature, is the most human, as he is also the most humane, in his character, attributes, and sympathies, and therefore the most popular. He has four arms, symbolical of the power he exerts in the deliverance of his worshippers. Portions of his divine nature have descended in earthly incarnations to deliver the earth in times of danger and emergency. They are still continually descending in good men and living teachers. Whether, in fact, Vishnu be connected with light, with heat, with air, or with water, it is evident that his function is that of a divine Pervader, infusing his essence for special purposes into created things, animate and inanimate ; for example, into stones, such as the black Salagrama ; into rivers, such as the Ganges; into trees and plants, such as the Tulasi; into animals, such as a fish, a tortoise, a boar ; and lastly, into men. And here be it noted that the idea of incarnation, like every other idea in religion, morality, and science, when Mythological Brahmanism. 47 manipulated by the Brahmans, was by them subtilized and exaggerated. Hence the incarnations of Vishnu are really descents (avatara) on earth of portions of the essence of a divine person already possessing a material form (see P- ^3)- These descents were undertaken, reasonably enough, for preserving the world when in pressing emergencies, espe- cially when its safety was imperilled by the malice of evil demons; and they are of four kinds and degrees. First, the full descent, as in Krishna, one of the heroes of the Epic poem called Maha-bharata ; secondly (though chronologically anterior), the partial descent, consisting of half the god's nature, as in Rama, hero of the other Epic called Ramayana ; thirdly, the quarter descent, as in Rama's brother Bharata ; fourthly, the eighth-part descent, as in Rama's two other brothers, Lakshmana and Satrughna. Distinct from these is the constant infusion of the divine [ essence into ordinary men, animals, and inanimate objects.' It is well known that men whose lives have been made remarkable by any peculiar circumstances, have been held by the Hindus to be partial incarnations of the divine nature,/ and have been worshipped accordingly. A description of Vishnu's other incarnations will be given hereafter (see the chapter on Vaishnavism). It will be sufficient to note here that Krishna and Rama are the only two in- carnations universally worshipped at the present day. The other two members of the Indian triad, Brahma and Siva, have no such human incarnations as those of Vishnu, though the god Brahma is, as it were, humanized in his representatives the priests, called Brahmans. It is true that certain incarnations of both Brahma and Siva are sometimes mentioned (as, for example, the form of Siva called Virabhadra), and there are local manifesta- tions of these deities and local descents of Siva in human form. Moreover, Brahma and Siva resemble Vishnu in having wives (called respectively Sarasvati and Parvati), and 48 Mythological Brahmanism. it may be noted that Siva has two sons, Ganesa, lord of the demon hosts, and Subrahmanya (also called Skanda and Karttikeya), general of the celestial armies, whereas Vishnu has no sons except in- his human incarnations ^ But it would be a great mistake to suppose that many deities and divine manifestations are generally worshipped. The gods of the Hindu Pantheon to whom temples are reared and prayers offered are not numerous. Forms of Vishnu, Siva, and their consorts, with the two sons of Siva (Ganesa and Subrahmanya), and Hanuman are the chief temple- deities of India. But there are an infinite number of divine and semi-divine beings, good and evil demons, every one of which is held in veneration or dread, and every one of which, from the highest to the lowest, is, like all the others, subject to the universal law of re-absorption into the one divine universal Essence (Brahma). Indeed, at the end of vast periods, called days of Brahma, each lasting for 4,320,000,000 human years, the whole universe is so re-absorbed, and after remaining dormant for equally long periods, is again evolved. Here, then, lies the motive for that self-knowledge and self-discipline, which, on the theory of universal identity of being, would at first view appear useless and absurd. Though every man is really God (Brahma)," yet God, as if for His own diversion, ignores Himself and submits to the influence of an illusory creative force. Under that influence He permits the unity of his nature to be partitioned into an infinite number of individual personal souls. And no such soul can recover the condition of ideiitity with the Supreme Soul except by raising itself, through a process of self-knowledge and self-discipline, to a state of complete apathy (vairagya) and cessation from action. In fact, a condition of entire mental vacuity (citta-vritti-nirodha) or trance (samadhi) is of all states ^ Nor were Vishnu's incarnations prolific. The only one represented as having children is the Rama of the Ramayana, whose twin sons were KuSa and Lava, bom when Sita had been banished to the hermitage. Mythological Brahmanism. 49 the most desirable as leading to complete identification with the one universal Spirit or Self. Not that a man need aim at immediate union with that Spirit. Such union may be beyond his present powers. The work of liberation may be the labour of many successive lives of the personal soul in body after body. Nor need a man's aspirations ever rise as high as re-absorption into the one eternal absolute im- personal Spirit. He may simply aim at achieving union with Brahma, Vishnu, or Siva, and become, like them, only one degree removed from such re-absorption, and incapable of further transmigrations (compare p. 41, 11. 11-20). And here, too, lies the motive for religious worship ad- dressed to personal gods and visible forms. For one means of attaining liberation is by paying homage to the Supreme Spirit as manifested in persons and objects. And, indeed, it is a cardinal feature of the Brahmanical system, that the Universal Spirit can never itself be directly or spiritually worshipped, except by turning the thoughts inwards. No shrine or temple to Brahma is to be found throughout all India. The one eternal Spirit can only become an object of meditation or knowledge. The Spirit is to be known by the spirit ; for he is enshrined in every man's heart ; and this internal meditation is regarded- as the highest religious act, I leading as it does to perfect spiritual knowledge. In short, the supreme Brahma is properly only an object of internal knowledge (jtieyam), never an object of external worship (upasyam), except through secondary manifestations. And here mark the vast difference between the Hindu and Christian idea of a Trinity. Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva have only derived or secondary existences, but the Supreme Being may be worshipped through the worship of these three or of any one of the three, supposed for a time to be superior to the others. It is even possible for the members of this trinity to worship the One Spirit through the worship of each other, each being in turn regarded as inferior (see p. 45). E 50 Mythological Brahmanism. J Then, in the next place, homage may be paid to the 1 Universal Spirit by and through the worship of the inferior ■: gods, goddesses, departed ancestors, living Brahmans, heroes, animals, and plants. Even stocks, stones, and images may represent the divine presence, and so become media through which the great Eternal Spirit may become an object of adoration. Nay, the very demons and fiends may receive worship both from gods and men, if by self-mortification and abstract meditation they attain nearness to re-absorption into the great Spirit of the Universe. I once asked a Brahman, residing at Thana (Tanna) near Bombay, to give me some explanation of the fact that even Indians of cultivated intellect who assert the unity of God, appear to us Europeans to be worshippers of many gbds. His answer was to the following effect : — ' All orthodox Hindus believe in one Universal Spirit, who becomes Supreme Lord over all (Paramesvara). At the same time they believe that this one God has taken various forms, all of-which may be worshipped ; just as gold is one every- where though it may take different forms and names in dif- ferent places and countries. Every man chooses his favourite j god or divine object to which he pays especial homage. Thus Agnihotri-Brahmans regard fire as their favourite form of the deity. They call him Agni-narayana. Vedic Brahmans make a god of the Veda, calling it Veda-narayana. Different places have also their favourite presiding deities. Benares is specially watched over by a form of Siva (called Visvesvara) ; Pandharpur, by a form of Krishna (called Vithoba). Here in Thana we have temples of Vishnu, Rama, Krishna, Viththal, Hanuman, Siva, Ganesa, and Devi. The oldest and most sacred of all is one of Siva, in the character of Kaupinesvara. We may propitiate every one of these gods with ceremonies and sacrifices, but the Supreme Being present in them is the real object of all our offerings and religious services. At the end of each we say: "By this act may the Supreme Lord be Nomistic Brahmanism. 5 i gratified!" Hence, though to you we appear Polytheists, we are really Monotheists. Nor are we Pantheists in your sense of the term. Only our deepest thinkers look beyond the personal God to the impersonal Spirit which underlies everything. We educated Brahmans are practically Theists.' Even the Rig-veda asserts that the gods are one Being under t different names (I. 164. 46 ; VIII. 58. %). ' Nomistic Brahmanism. The fourth phase of Brahmanism, like the third, probably had its origin in the need of organized resistance to the growth of rationalistic thought and liberal opinions. It may be called Nomistic Brahmanism, because it represents that period in Indian religious history when the Brahmans composed codes of law [smriti-sdstra, dharma-sdstra) and laid down precise rules for the constitution of the Hindu social fabric, for the due co-ordination of its different orders, and for the regulation of every-day domestic life. Indeed, in proportion to the laxity and liberty allowed by Brahmanism in regard to all forms of religious and philoso- phical thought, is the unbending rigidity of the rules and ordinances by which every act of a man's social and domestic life is fettered and controlled. These rules are contained in three principal codes — (1) the code of Manu; (2) that of Yajnavalkya; (3) that of Parasara. The first is held to be the most sacred of the three, and is certainly one of the most remarkable literary works that the world has ever produced. It was originally a mere local code, embodying rules and precepts — perhaps by different authors, some of whom may have lived in the fifth century B.C., or even earlier. It was current • among a particular tribe of Brahmans called Manavas, who probably occupied; part of the North-western region between the rivers Sarasvatii and Drishadvatl. The name of the real author of this re- markable work (the present form of which is now held to be E a 52 Nomistic Brahmanism. less ancient than was once supposed) is concealed under the title Manu'. The code of Yajnavalkya is founded on that of Manu, but introduces many additional rules, some of which are probably as late as the first or second century of our era. It is always associated with its commentary, the Mitakshara. The code of Parasara is a still more modern work. It enacts special laws adapted to the fourth or most depraved age of the world (called KaH). The three 'codes together constitute a kind of bible of Nomistic Brahmanism, much in the same way as the Brahmanas of the three Vedas are the exponent of Ritualistic Brahmanism. But the Brah manas are concerned with public Vedic ritual and sacrifice {sruti-karman), the law-books with domestic ceremonies (smriti'karman). In short, the three chief codes are mirrors of Indian domestic manners, little aff"ected as these have been by the lapse of more than two thousand years. They illustrate very strikingly! the close intertwining of law, politics, and social life with re- ligion and religious ordinances. ' The root of all law,' says Manu, ' is the Veda and the traditions of those who know the Veda.' Accordingly we find that in Manu's code the rules of judicature and of caste are mixed up with the dogmas of religion and philosophy and with high religious and moral precepts — many of them worthy of Christianity — while the punishment assigned to every kind of offence is carried beyond the grave into future states of earthly existence, the doctrine of transmigration of souls through celestial and ter- restrial bodies from gods to stones being implied throughout. The superiority of the Brahmans is the hinge on which! the whole social organization turns. They form the great ^ Manu is supposed to speak as far as I. 60, and after that another sage called Bhrigu. The entire code is fully analysed and described in my 'Indian Wisdom,' pp. 211-294. The late Dr. A. Burnell's opinion was that the date of the work as we now possess it must be placed in the fourth century of our era. Nomistic Brahmanism. 53 central body around which all other classes and orders of beings revolve like satellites. Not only are they in- vested with divine dignity, but they are bound together by the most stringent rules, while the other , castes are separated from them and from each other by insurmount- able barriers. The doctrine of Manu was that the deity created distinct kinds of men, as he created varieties of animals and plants ; and that Brahmans, soldiers {Ksha- triyas), agriculturists {Vaisyas), and servants {Sudras) were born and must remain from birth to death as distinct from each other as elephants, lions, oxen, and dogs, wheat, barley, rice, and beans. A Brahman, however, could have four wives, and marry a woman belonging to any of the three lower castes. Inter-marriage could also take place between mem- bers of all the four classes, or, again, between the castes which resulted from such intercourse. Hence arose an almost end- less number of mixed castes, every one of which is theo- retically restricted to its own occupation and bound by its own rules. So long, then, as a man holds to the rules laid down byl the ancient law-givers and assents to the great Vedanta doc- 1 trine that the one all-pervading impersonal Spirit Brahma 1 underlies everything in existence, and that the spirit of man 1 is identical with that Spirit, he is at liberty to hold any other religious opinions he likes, and may even assent to j the truths of Christianity. Perfection is attained by him | alone who is a strict observer of the duties of his caste and accepts the above doctrine. Those Brahmans who are sound in the faith with regard to Brahma, and are obedient to Brahmanical caste-law and tradition (smriti), especially as handed down by the great Vedantist Saiikaracarya, are called Smartas. Such is Brahmanism — such is the creed, which, as it has no one special founder, is called 'the system of law and religion prevalent among the Aryas' (Arya- dharma). CHAPTER III. Hinduism. General Observations. We now pass on to the third and by far the most complex stage of Hindu rehgious thought. And at the very outset we are called upon to take note of a fact illustrated by the whole history of religious thought from the earliest times, namely, that a merely spiritual and impersonal religion is quite incapable of taking hold of the masses of mankind or satisfying their religious requirements. Something more was needed for vast populations naturally craving for personal objects of faith and devotion, than the merely spiritual pan- theistic creed of Brahmanism. The chief point, then, which characterizes Hinduism and distinguishes it from Brahmanism is that it subordinates the purely spiritual Brahman (nom. Brahma) with its first mani- 1 festation Brahma, to the personal deities Siva and Vishnu ' or to some form of these deities ; while it admits of numerous ,' sects, each sect exalting its own god to the place of the Supreme. Yet we must guard against the idea that Hinduism ' has superseded Brahmanism, or that they are mutually an- tagonistic. The latter system is pantheistic, whereas Hinduism is theistic ; but in India forms of pantheism, theism, and polytheism are ever interwoven with each other. At any rate it is certain that the worship of personal gods was a part of pantheistic Brahmanism long before Siva and Vishnu became the exclusive favourites of par- ticular sects. This I have already pointed out in explaining the principal doctrines of orthodox Brahmanism. Perhaps Hinduism. General Observations. 55 the most trustworthy exponent of the Arya-dharma or Brah- manical system was the great teacher Sankara (commonly called Sahkara(