There are two great sects that worship Vishnu as especially manifested in the human form of Krishna. But, as distinguished from the philosophical Ramaite, the Krishnaite is not satisfied with a declaration of faith in the man-god, and in fact his chief cult is of the child-god Krishna, the B[=a]la Gop[=a]la or Infant Shepherd. This recalls the older Krishna (of the Harivança), whose sporting with the milk-maids is a favorite topic in later Krishnaite literature. As a formulated cult, consisting for the most part of observances based on the mystic side of affection for the personal saver of man (the bhakti principle of 'devotion,' erotically expanded[80]), this worship obtains both among C[=a]itanyas and Vallabhas, sects that arose in the sixteenth century.[81]
C[=a]itanya, born in Bengal in 1485, of whom it is fabled that wise men came and gave homage to him while he was yet a child, was active in Bengal and Orissa, where his sect (named after him) is one of the most important at the present day. C[=a]itanya preached a practical as well as a theoretical reform. He taught the equality of all worshippers of whatever caste, and the religious virtue of marriage. At the present day caste-feeling and religious profession are somewhat at variance. But a compromise is affected. While in the temple the high-caste C[=a]itanyas regard their lowly co-religionists as equals; when out of it they become again arrogantly high-caste, Making a virtue of marriage instead of celibacy caused the sect to become popular with the middle and lower classes, but its adherents are usually drawn from the dregs of the populace.[82] The principle of love for God (that is, for Krishna) is especially dwelt upon by C[=a]itanya. The devotee should feel such affection as is felt by a young man for a girl. To exercise or inspire this rapt and mystic devotion, recourse is had to singing, dancing. and other familiar means of arousing religious fervor. If the dancing devotee swoons it is a sign that God accepts his love. At the present day C[=a]itanya himself is regarded as the incarnate deity. He and his two chief disciples, who (like all Gosains, religious Teachers) are divine, form a little sub-trinity for the sect.[83] This sect, like so many others, began as a reform, only to become worse than its rivals.
Vallabha or Vallabh[=a]e[=a]rya, 'Teacher Vallabha,' was also of the sixteenth century, but his sect belongs especially to the Northwest, while the sphere of C[=a]itanya's influence was in the Northeast. He lived near the Ganges, is said to have been a scholar, and wrote a commentary on the early life of Krishna in the tenth book of the Bh[=a]gavata Pur[=a]na, and on the Divine Song. In Bombay and Kutch his disciples are most numerous, the Epicureans of Vishnuism. For their precept is 'eat and enjoy.' No mortification of the senses is allowed. Human love typifies divine love.[84] The teachers acquired great renown and power, assuming and maintaining the haughty title of mah[=a] r[=a]jas ('great kings'). They are as gods, and command absolutely their devotees.[85] Here the worship of the Infant Krishna reaches its greatest height (or depth). The image of the infant god is daily clothed, bathed, anointed, and worshipped. Religious exercises have more or less of an erotic tendency, and here, if anywhere, as one may learn from Wilson, Williams, and other modern writers on this sect, there are almost as great excesses as are committed among the Çivaite sects. As a sect it is an odd combination of sensual worship and theological speculation, for they have considerable sectarian literature. The most renowned festival of the Infant Krishna is the celebration of the stable-birth of Krishna and of the Madonna (bearing him on her breast), but this we have discussed already. Besides this the Jagann[=a]th procession in Bengal and Orissa, and the great autumnal picnic called the R[=a]s Y[=a]tra, are famous occasions for displaying Krishnaite, or, indeed, general Vishnuite zeal. At the R[=a]s Y[=a]tra assemble musicians, dancers, jugglers, and other joy-creating additions to the religious feast, the ostensible reason for which is the commemoration of Krishna's dances with the milk-maids. The devotees belong chiefly to the wealthy middle classes. These low sects worship Krishna with R[=a]dh[=a] (his mistress, instead of Lakshm[=i], Vishnu's wife). Here, too, as Krishnaites rather than as Vishnuites, are found the 'left-hand' worshippers of the female power.[86]
This sensual corruption of Vishnuism, which is really not Vishnuism but simple Krishnaism, led to two prominent reforms within the fold. Among the Vallabhas arose in protest the Caran D[=a]s[=i]s, who have taken from the M[=a]dhvas of the South their Ten Commandments (against lying, reviling, harsh speech, idle talk, theft, adultery, injury to life, imagining evil, hate, and pride); and evolved for themselves the tenet that faith without works is dead. The same protest was made against the Vallabhas by Sv[=a]mi N[=a]r[=a]yana. He was born about 1780 near Lucknow, and advocated a return to Vallabha's purer faith, which had been corrupted. Probably most of the older reformers have had much the same career as had Sv[=a]mi N[=a]r[=a]yana. Exalted by the people, who were persuaded by his mesmeric eloquence, he soon became a political figure, a martyr of persecution, a triumphant victor, and then an ascetic, living in seclusion; whence he emerged occasionally to go on tours "like a bishop visiting his diocese" (Williams). He is worshipped as a god.[87] The sect numbers to-day a quarter of a million, some being celibate clergy, some householders.
In contrast to Vishnuism the following points are characteristic of orthodox Brahmanism (Çankara's Vedantism): The orthodox believe that there is one spirit in three forms, co-eternal impersonal essences—being, knowledge, and joy. When it wills it becomes personal, exists in the object, knows, rejoices, associating itself with illusion. In this state it has three corporeal forms, causal, subtile, gross. With the causal body (identified with illusion, ignorance) it becomes the Supreme Lord, that is, the totality of dreamless human spirits. With the subtile form it becomes the golden seed, or thread-spirit (dreaming spirits); with the gross form it becomes V[=i]r[=a]j, V[=a]içv[=a]nara, the waking spirit. The lowest state is that of being wide awake. The personal god (Brahm[=a], Vishnu, Çiva, of the sectaries) is this it as influenced by the three qualities, rajas, sattva, tamas (passion, truth, and ignorance), respectively. Three essences, three corporeal forms, and three qualities constitute, therefore, the threefold trinity of the orthodox, who are called Sm[=a]rtas, they that 'hold to tradition.'[88] What the sectary rejects, namely, the scriptures (Veda and Upanishads, etc.) and the caste system, that the orthodox retains; what the sectary holds, namely, R[=a]m[=a]nuja's qualified non-duality, and absolute godhead in Çiva or Krishna, that the orthodox rejects (although he may receive the sectary's god into his pantheon). Some of the sects still keep respect for caste, excusing their respect on the ground that "it is well enough for God to ignore social distinctions, but not for man." But caste-distinctions are generally ignored, or there is positive hate of the Brahman. In antithesis to the orthodox, the sectaries all hold one other important tenet. From the idea of bhakti, faith or devotion, was developed that of love for Krishna, and then (as an indication of devotion) the confession of the name of the Lord as a means of grace. Hence, on the one hand, the meaningless repetition of the sect's special kirttan or liturgies, and mantra, or religious formula; the devotion, demanded by the priest, of man, tan, dhan (mind, body,[89] and property); and finally, the whole theory of death-bed confessions. Sinner or heretic, if one die at last with Krishna's name upon the lips he will be saved.[90]
Of the sub-divisions of the sub-sects that we have described, the numbers often run into scores. But either their differences are based on indifferent matters of detail in the cult and religious practice; or the new sect is distinguished from the old simply by its endeavor to make for greater holiness or purity as sub-reformers of older sects. For all the sects appear to begin as reformers, and later to split up in the process of re-reformation.
Two general classes of devotees, besides these, remain to be spoken of. The Sanny[=a]sin, 'renouncer,' was of old a Brahman ascetic. Nowadays, according to Wilson, he is generally a Çivaite mendicant. But any sect may have its Sanny[=a]sins, as it may have its V[=a]ir[=a]gins, 'passionless ones'; although the latter name generally applies to the Vishnuite ascetics of the South.
Apart from all these sects, and in many ways most remarkable, are the sun-worshippers. All over India the sun was (and is) worshipped, either directly (as to-day by the Sauras),[91] or as an incarnate deity in the form of the priest Nimba-[=a]ditya, who is said to have arrested the sun's course at one time and to be the sun's representative on earth. Both Puranic authority and inscriptional evidence attest this more direct[92] continuance of the old Vedic cult. Some of the finest old temples of India, both North and South, were dedicated to the sun.
DEISTIC REFORMING SECTS.
We have just referred to one or two reforming sects that still hold to the sectarian deity. Among these the M[=a]dhvas, founded by (Madhva) [=A]nandat[=i]rtha, are less Krishnaite or R[=a]maite than Vishnuite,[93] and less Vishnuite than deist in general; so much so that Williams declares they must have got their precepts from Christianity, though this is open to Barth's objection that the reforming deistic sects are so located as to make it more probable that they derive from Mohammedanism. Madhva was born about 1200 on the western coast, and opposed Çankara's pantheistic doctrine of non-duality. He taught that the supreme spirit is essentially different to matter and to the individual spirit.[94] He of course denied absorption, and, though a Vishnuite, clearly belonged in spirit to the older school before Vishnuism became so closely connected with Ved[=a]nta doctrines. It is the same Sankhyan Vishnuism that one sees in the Divine Song, that is, duality, and a continuation of Ç[=a]ndilya's ancient heresy.[95]
Here ends the course of India's native religions. From a thousand years B.C. to as many years after she is practically uninfluenced by foreign doctrine, save in externals.
It is of course permissible to separate the reforming sects of the last few decades from the older reformers; but since we see both in their aim and in their foreign sources (amalgamation with cis-Indic belief) only a logical if not an historical continuance of the older deists, we prefer to treat of them all as factors of one whole; and, from a broader point of view, as successors to the still older pantheistic and unitarian reformers who first predicated a supreme spirit as ens realissimum, when still surrounded by the clouds of primitive polytheism. Kab[=i]r and D[=a]d[=u], the two most important of the more modern reformers, we have named above as nominal adherents of the R[=a]m[=a]nand sect. But neither was really a sectarian Vishnuite.[96] Kab[=i]r, probably of the beginning of the fifteenth century, the most famous of R[=a]m[=a]nand's disciples, has as religious descendants the sect of the Kab[=i]r Panth[=i]s. But no less an organization than that of the Sikhs look back to him, pretending to be his followers. The religious tenets of the Kab[=i]r Panth[=i]s may be described as those of unsectarian Unitarians. They conform to no rites or mantras. Kab[=i]r assailed all idolatry, ridiculed the authority of all scriptures, broke with Pundit and with Mohammedan, taught that outer form is of no consequence, and that only the 'inner man' is of importance. These Panth[=i]s are found in the South, but are located chiefly in and about Benares, in Bengal in the East, and in Bombay in the West. There are said to be twelve divisions of them. Kab[=i]r assailed idolatry, but alas! Discipline requires subordination. The Guru, Teacher, must be obeyed. It was not long before he who rejected idolatry became himself a deity. And in fact, every Teacher, Guru, of the sect was an absolute master of thought, and was revered as a god.[97]
In the fifteenth century, near Laho[.r]e, was born N[=a]nak (1469), who is the nominal founder of the Sikhs, a body which, as N[=a]nak claimed, was a sect embodying the religion of Kab[=i]r himself, of whom he claimed to be a follower. The Granth, or bible of the Sikhs, was first compiled by the pontiff Arjun, in the sixteenth century. Besides the portions written by N[=a]nak and Arjun himself, there were collected into it extracts from the works of 'twelve and a half' other contributors to the volume, Kab[=i]r, R[=a]m[=a]nand, etc.[98] This Granth was subsequently called the [=A]digranth, or First Book, to distinguish it from the later, enlarged, collection of several books, one of which was written by Guru Govind, the tenth Sikh pontiff. The change from a religious body to a church militant and political body was made by this Govind in the eighteenth century.[99] The religious sect settled in the Punj[=a]b, became wealthy, excited the greed of the government, was persecuted, rose in revolt, triumphed, and eventually ruled the province. One of the first to precipitate the uprising was the above-mentioned Arjun (fourth pontiff after N[=a]nak). He played the king, was accused of rebellion, imprisoned, and probably killed by the Mohammedans. The Sikhs flew to arms, and from this time on they were perforce little more than robbers and plunderers. Govind made the final change in organization, and, so to speak, at one blow created a nation, for the church at his hands was converted into the united militant body called Kh[=a]ls[=a] under the Guru as pontiff-king, with a 'council of chiefs.' They were vowed to hate the Mohammedan and Hindu. All caste-distinctions were abrogated. Govind instituted the worship of Steel and Book (sword and bible). His orders were: "If you meet a Mohammedan, kill him; if you meet a Hindu, beat and plunder him." The Sikhs invoked the 'Creator' as 'highest lord,' either in the form of Vishnu or R[=a]ma. Their founder, N[=a]nak, kept, however, the Hindu traditions in regard to rites. He was a travelled merchant, and is said to have been in Arabia. As an example of the Sikh bible may serve the following extracts, translated from the original dialect by Trumpp and Prinsep respectively:
From Trumpp:
True is the Lord, of a true name,
But the import of (this) language is Infinite.
They say and beg, give, give!
The Liberal gives presents.
What may again be put before (him)
By which his court may be seen?
What word may be spoken by the mouth,
Which having heard he may bestow love?
Early reflect on the greatness of the True Name.[100]
From his beneficence comes clothing,
From his look the gate of salvation.
N[=a]nak (says): Thus it is known,
That he himself is altogether truthful.
From Prinsep:
Thou art the Lord, to thee be praise;
All life is with thee.
Thou art my parents; I, thy child.
All happiness is from thy mercy.
No one knows God.
Highest Lord among the highest,
Of all that is thou art the regulator,
And all that is from thee obeys thy will,
Thy movements, thy pleasure; thou alone knowest.
N[=a]nak, thy slave is a free-will offering unto thee.[101]
The religious side of this organization remained under the name of Ud[=a]sis,[102] or Nirmalas ('spotless ones'). The [=A]digranth was extended by other additions, such as that of Govind (above), and now constitutes a large heterogeneous collection of hymns and moral rules. Seven sub-sects of the religious body were developed in course of time. The military body has a well-known history. They were complete masters of the Punj[=a]b in 1764, and remained there as an independent race till that province was occupied by the British in 1848. Both Kab[=i]r and his follower N[=a]nak were essentially reformers. They sought for a religion which should rest on the common truths of Hinduism and Mohammedanism.[103] As a matter of form the political party of Govind, the Govind Singhs, or Simhis, worshipped the Hindu gods, and they showed respect for the Brahman priests for a long while; but they rejected the Vedas and caste—the two most essential features of orthodoxy.[104]
D[=a]d[=u], the second great reformer, who shows Mohammedan influence quite as plainly as does Kab[=i]r, also claimed R[=a]m[=a]nand as his teacher. The sects that revert to D[=a]d[=u], D[=a]d[=u] Panth[=i]s, now number more than half an hundred. Some of the votaries are soldiers; some are mendicants. The founder lived about the end of the sixteenth century. The outward practices of the sects differ somewhat from those of other sects. Like Persians, they expose their dead. They are found about [=A]jm[=i]r and other districts of the North, in the seats of the Jains. Their faith and reformatory tendency may be illustrated by the following extract, as translated by Wilson:[105]
"He is my God who maketh all things perfect. O foolish one, God is not far from you. He is near you. God's power is always with you. Whatever is to be is God's will. What will be will be. Therefore, long not for grief or joy, because by seeking the one you may find the other. All things are sweet to them that love God. I am satisfied with this, that happiness is in proportion to devotion. O God, Thou who art truth, grant me contentment, love, devotion, and faith…. Sit ye with humility at the feet of God, and rid yourselves of the sickness of your bodies. From the wickedness of the body there is much to fear, because all sins enter into it. Therefore, let your dwelling be with the fearless, and direct yourselves toward the light of God. For there neither sword nor poison have power to destroy, and sin cannot enter. The greatest wisdom is in preventing your minds from being influenced by bad passions, and in meditating upon the One God. Afford help also to the poor stranger. Meditate on Him by whom all things were made."[106]
This tradition of reform is maintained by others without intermission down to the present century, and the M[=a]dhvas and Sv[=a]mi N[=a]r[=a]yana, of whom we have spoken above as being more directly connected with sectarian bodies, are, in fact, scarcely more concerned with the tenets of the latter than were Kab[=i]r and D[=a]d[=u]. Thus the seventeenth century sees the rising of the B[=a]b[=a]l[=a]ls and S[=a]dhus; and the eighteenth, of the Satn[=a]mis, 'worshippers of the true name,' who, with other minor bodies, such as the N[=a]ngi Panthis, founded by Dedr[=a]j in this century, are really pure deists, although some of them, like the Vi[t.]h[t.]hals, claim to be followers of Kab[=i]r. And so they are, in spirit at least.
THE DEISM OF TO-DAY.[107]
And thus one arrives at modern deism, not as the result of new influences emanating from Christian teaching, but rather as the legitimate successor of that deism which became almost monotheistic in the first centuries after our era, and has ever since varied with various reformers between two beliefs, inclining now to the pantheistic, now to the unitarian conception, as the respective reformers were influenced by Ved[=a]nta or S[=a]nkhya (later Mohammedan) doctrine.
The first of the great modern reformers is R[=a]mmohun Roy, who was born in 1772, the son of a high-caste Krishnaite Brahman. He studied Persian and Arabic literature at Patna, the centre of Indic Mohammedan learning. When a mere boy, he composed a tract against idolatry which caused him to be banished from home. He lived at Benares, the stronghold of Brahmanism, and afterwards in Tibet, the centre of Buddhism. "From his earliest years," says Williams, "he displayed an eagerness to become an unbiassed student of all the religions of the globe." He read the Vedas, the P[=a]li Buddhist works, the Kur[=a]n, and the Old Testament in the original; and in later years even studied Greek that he might properly understand the New Testament. The scholastic philosophy of the Hindus appeared to him, however, as something superior to what he found elsewhere, and his efforts were directed mainly to purifying the national faith, especially from idolatry. It was at his instigation that the practice of widow-burning was abolished (in 1829) by the British. He was finally ostracized from home as a schismatic, and retired to Calcutta, uniting about him a small body of Hindus and Jains, and there established a sort of church or sect, the [=A]tm[=i]ya Sabh[=a],'spiritual society' (1816), which met at his house, but eventually was crushed by the hostility of the orthodox priests. He finally adopted a kind of Broad-church Christianity or Unitarianism, and in 1820, in his 'Precepts of Jesus' and in one of his later works, admits that the simple moral code of the New Testament and the doctrines of Christ were the best that he knew. He never, however, abjured caste; and his adoption of Christianity, of course, did not include the dogma of the trinity: "Whatever excuse may be pleaded in favor of a plurality of persons of the Deity can be offered with equal propriety in defence of polytheism" (Final Appeal). Founded by him, the first theistic church was organized in 1828 at Calcutta, and formally opened in 1830 as the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j; ('the Congregation of God'). In doing this he wished it to be understood that he was not founding a new sect, but a pure monotheistic worship. The only creed was a confession of faith in the unity of God. For himself, he abandoned pantheism, adopted the belief in a final judgment, in miracles, and in Christ as the 'Founder of true religion.' He died in 1833 in England. His successor, Debendran[=a]th T[=a]gore,[108] was not appointed leader of the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j; till much later; after he had founded a church of his own ('the Truth-teaching Society'), which lasted for twenty years (1839-1859), before it was united with the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j. In the meantime Debendran[=a]th become a member of the latter society (1841). He established the covenant of the Sam[=a]j, a vow taken by every member to lead holy lives, to abstain from idolatry, to worship no created object, but only God, the One without a second,[109] the Creator, Preserver, Destroyer, the Giver of Emancipation.
The church was newly organized in 1844 with a regularly appointed president and minister, and with the administration of the oath to each believer. This is the [=A]di Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j, the First Congregation, in distinction from the schism which soon took place. The first quarrel in this church was due to a difference of opinion in regard to the authority of the Vedas. Some members rejected them, others maintained their infallibility; while between these extremes lay various other opinions, some members questioning the infallibility of the Vedas but maintaining their authority. By a majority vote it was eventually decided that the Vedas (and Upanishads) were not infallible.
In the meantime in other provinces rival Sam[=a]jas had been formed, and by 1850 there were several of these broad-minded Congregations, all trammelled by their environment, but doing their best to be liberal.
We pause here in the compilation of the data recorded in this paragraph to assert, independently of Professor Williams, who has given us the historical facts, but would doubtless not wish to have imputed to himself the following judgment which we are led to pass, that the next step of the Sam[=a]j; placed it upon the only ground where the objects of this church can be attained, and that in the subsequent reform of this reform, which we shall have to record below, a backward step has been taken. For Debendran[=a]th changed the essential character of the Sam[=a]j from pantheistic theism to pure deism. The inner circle of the society had a narrower declaration of faith, but in his Br[=a]hma Dharma, published about 1850, Debendran[=a]th formulated four articles of faith, to subscribe to which admitted any one into the Sam[=a]j. These articles read as follows: (t) Brahma (neuter) alone existed in the beginning before the universe; naught else existed; It [He] created all the universe. (2) It [He] is eternal, intelligent, infinite, blissful, self-governed (independent), without parts, just one (neuter) without a second, all-pervading, the ruler (masculine noun) of all, refuge of all, omniscient, omnipotent, immovable, perfect, without parallel (all these adjectives are neuter). (3) By worship of this One alone can bliss be obtained in the next world and in this. (4) The worship of this (neuter) One consists in love toward this (One) and in performing works pleasant (to this One).
This deism denies an incarnate God, scriptural authority, and the good of rites and penance; but it teaches the efficacy of prayer and repentance, and the belief in God as a personal Creator and Heavenly Father.[110] Intellectual—anything but emotional—it failed to satisfy many worshippers. And as a church it was conservative in regard to social reforms.
In 1858 Keshub Chunder Sen, a Vishnuite by family, then but twenty, joined the Sam[=a]j, and being clever, young, eloquent, and cultivated, he, after the manner of the Hindus, undertook to reform the church he had just entered, first of all by urging the abolition of caste-restrictions. Debendran[=a]th was liberal enough to be willing to dispense with his own thread (the caste-mark), but too wisely conservative to demand of his co-religionists so complete a break with tradition and social condition. For the sacred thread to the Hindu is the sign of social respectability. Without it, he is out of society. It binds him to all that is dearest to him. The leader of the older Sam[=a]j; never gave up caste; the younger members in doing so mix religion with social etiquette, and so hinder the advance they aim at. Sen urged this and other reforms, all repugnant to the society in which he lived, changes in the rite at the worship of ancestors, alterations in the established ritual at birth-ceremonies and funerals, abolition of polyandry and of child-marriages, and, worst of all, granting permission to marry to those of different castes. His zeal was directed especially against caste-restrictions and child-marriages. Naturally he failed to persuade the old Sam[=a]j to join him in these revolutionary views, to insist on which, however sensible they seem, cannot be regarded otherwise than as indiscreet from the point of view of one who considers men and passions. For the Sam[=a]j, in the face of tremendous obstacles, had just secured a foot-hold in India. Sen's headlong reforms would have smashed to pieces the whole congregation, and left India more deeply prejudiced than ever against free thought. Sen failed to reform the old church, so in 1865 he, with some ardent young enthusiasts, reformed themselves into a new church, ceremoniously organized in 1866 as the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j; of India, in distinction from the Calcutta Sam[=a]j, or [=A]di Sam[=a]j. A futile effort was made to get all the other local congregations to join the new Sam[=a]j, the last, of course, to be the first and head of the organization.
The new Sam[=a]j renounced caste-restrictions and Brahmanism altogether, but it was tainted with the hysterical bhakti fervor which Sen inherited from his childhood's religion, and which (if one may credit Williams' words) "brought the latest development of Indian Theism into closer harmony with Christian ideas." The chief leader of this Sam[=a]j besides Sen was his cousin Prot[=a]p Chunder Mozoomdar, official secretary of the society. Its literary organ is the Indian Mirror.
The reform of this reform of course followed before long. The new Sam[=a]j was accused of making religion too much a matter of emotion and excitement. Religious fervor, bhakti, had led to "rapturous singing of hymns in the streets"; and to the establishment of a kind of love-feasts ('Brahma-feasts' they were called) of prayer and rejoicing; and, on the other hand, to undue asceticism and self-mortification.[111] Sen himself was revered too much. One of the most brilliant, eloquent, and fascinating of men, he was adored by his followers—as a god! He denied that he had accepted divine honors, but there is no doubt, as Williams insists, that his Vishnuite tendency led him to believe himself peculiarly the recipient of divine favors. It was charged against him that he asserted that all he did was at God's command, and that he believed himself perennially inspired.[112] If one add to this that he was not only divinely inspired, but that he had the complete control of his society, it would appear to be easy to foresee where the next reformer might strike. For Sen "was not only bishop, priest, and deacon all in one," says Williams, "he was a Pope, from whose decision there was no appeal." But it was not this that caused the rupture. In 1877 this reformer, "who had denounced early marriages as the curse of India," yielded to natural social ambition and engaged his own young daughter to a Koch (R[=a]jbanshi) prince, who in turn was a mere boy. The Sam[=a]j protested with all its might, but the marriage was performed the next year, withal to the accompaniment of idolatrous rites.[113] After this Sen became somewhat theatrical. In 1879 he recognized (in a proclamation) God's Motherhood—the old dogma of the female divine. In 1880 he announced, in fervid language, that Christianity was the only true religion: "It is Christ who rules British India, and not the British Government. England has sent out a tremendous moral force in the life and character of that mighty prophet to conquer and hold this vast empire. None but Jesus, none but Jesus, none but Jesus, ever deserved this bright, this precious diadem, India, and Jesus shall have it…. Christ is a true Yogi." He accepts Christ, but not as God, only as inspired saint (as says Williams). More recently, Sen proposed an amalgamation of Hinduism, Mohammedanism, and Christianity as the true religion.
Meanwhile the Sam[=a]j was rent by discord. Sen's opponents, the new reformers, were unable, however, to oust the brilliant leader from the presidency. Consequently they established a new church, intended to be a General Congregation, the fourth development (1878) of the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j. And so the fight has gone on ever since. At the present day there are more than a hundred deistic churches, in which the devotional exercises consist in part of readings from the Vedas, Bible, Kur[=a]n, and Avesta. The [=A]rya Sam[=a]j is one of the most important of the later churches, some of which endeavor to obtain undefiled religion by uniting into one faith what seems best in all; others, by returning to the Vedas and clearing them of what they think to be later corruptions of those originally pure scriptures. Of the latter sort is the [=A]rya Sam[=a]j. Its leader, Day[=a]nanda, claims that the Vedas are a true revelation. The last reformer of which we have knowledge is a bright young high-caste Hindu of upper India, who is about to found a 'world-religion,' for which task he is now making preliminary studies. He has visited this country, and recently told us that, if he had time, he could easily convert America. But his first duty lies, of course, in the reformation of India's reformations, especially of the Sam[=a]jas!
The difficulty with which all these reformers and re-reformers have to contend is pitifully clear. Their broad ideas have no fitting environment. Their leaders and thinkers may continue to preach deism, and among their equals they will be heard and understood. They are, however, not content with this. They must form churches. But a church implies in every case an unnatural and therefore dangerous growth, caused by the union either of inferior minds (attracted by eloquence, but unable to think) with those that are not on the same plane, or of ambitious zealots with reluctant conservatists. Many join the church who are not qualified to appreciate the leader's work. They overload the founder's deism with the sectarian theism from which they have not really freed themselves. On the other hand, younger men, who have been educated in English colleges and are imbued with the spirit of practical reform, enter the church to use it as an instrument for social progress. So the church is divided, theists and reformers both being at odds with the original deists; and the founder is lucky if he escapes being deified by one party and being looked upon by the other as too dull.[114]
India is no more prepared as a whole for the reception of the liberal views of the Sam[=a]j; than was the negro for the right to vote. Centuries of higher preliminary education are needed before the people at large renounce their ancestral, their natural faith. A few earnest men may preach deism; the people will remain polytheists and pantheists for many generations. Then, again, the Sam[=a]jas have to contend not only with the national predisposition, but with every heretical sect, and, besides these, with the orthodox church. But thus far their chief foe is, after all, their own heart as opposed to their head. As long as deistic leaders are deified by their followers, and regard themselves as peculiarly inspired, they will preach in vain. Nor can they with impunity favor the substitution of emotion for ideas in a land where religious emotion leads downwards as surely as falls a stone that is thrown.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: In the following we keep to the practice we have adopted in the early part of the work, giving anglicized words without distinction of vowel-length, and anglicizing as far as possible, writing thus S[=a]nkhya but Sankhyan, Ved[=a]nta but Vedantist. In modern proper names we have adopted in each case the most familiar form.]
[Footnote 2: Rig Veda, II. 12. Compare X. 121. We omit some of the verses.]
[Footnote 3: See note, p. 20, above.]
[Footnote 4: Metaphor from earthly fire-making; cloud and cliff (Ludwig); or, perhaps, heaven and earth.]
[Footnote 5: 'Made low and put in concealment' the D[=a]sa color, i.e. the black barbarians, the negroes. 'Color' might be translated 'race' (subsequently 'caste').]
[Footnote 6: D[=i]ce, vijas, literally 'hoppers' (and so sometimes, interpreted as birds). The same figure occurs not infrequently. Compare AV. iv. 16. 5, ak[s.][=a]n iva. 'Believe,' çr['a]d-dhatta, i.e., cred-(d)[=i]te, literally 'put trust.']
[Footnote 7: Sometimes rendered, "a true (laudation) if any is true."]
[Footnote 8: viii. 100. 3-4. The penultimate verse is literally 'the direction(s) of the order magnify me,' the order being that of the seasons and of seasonable rites.]
[Footnote 9: Compare the 'devil-worship of Uçanas,' and the
scoffs at P[=u]shan. The next step in infidelity is denial
of a future life and of the worth of the Vedas.]
[Footnote 10: In the Buddhistic writings Indra appears as
the great popular god of the Brahmans (with Brahm[=a] as the
philosophical god).]
[Footnote 11: His body is mortal; his breaths immortal, Çat.
Br. x. 1. 4. 1; xi. 1. 2. 12.]
[Footnote 12: On these curious pocket-altars, double
triangles representing the three gods and their wives, with
Linga and Yon[=i], see JRAS. 1851, p. 71.]
[Footnote 13: In the Tantras and late Pur[=a]nas. In the
earlier Pur[=a]nas there is as yet no such formal cult.]
[Footnote 14: Embodied in the tale of Agni's advance, IS. i.
170.]
[Footnote 15: Çat Br. ix. 3.1. 18.]
[Footnote 16: On this quasi deity in modern belief compare IA. XVIII. 46. It has happened here that a fate Providence has become supreme. Thus, too, the Mogul Buddha is realty nothing more or less than Providence.]
[Footnote 17: 7. I. 2.]
[Footnote 18: In RV. X. 90. 9, chandas, songs, incantations, imply a work of this nature.]
[Footnote 19: Unless it be distinctly good magic the epic heroes are ashamed to use magical rites. They insist on the intent being unimpeachable.]
[Footnote 20: [=A]p. I. II. 30, 20, etc. Compare Weber,
Omina p. 337, and see the Bibliography.]
[Footnote 21: T[=a]itt. S. VI. I. 1, 2, 3,
t[=i]rthesn[=a]li.]
[Footnote 22: Compare Weber's account of the R[=a]jas[=u]ya, p. 98; and, apropos of the Daçapeya, ib. 78, note; where it is stated that soma-drinking for the warrior-caste is still reflected in this (originally independent) ceremony.]
[Footnote 23: The list given above (p. 464) of the 'thrice three names' is made eight by suppressing Kum[=a]ra, and the 'eight names' are to-day the usual number.]
[Footnote 24: Ç[=a]nkh. (K[=a]nsh.) Br. vi. 1.]
[Footnote 25: The Brahmanic multiple by preference is (three and) seven (7,21,28,35), that of the Buddhist, eight. Feer, JA., 1893, p. 113 ff., holds the Svargaparva of the epic to be Buddhistic on account of the hells. More probably it is a Çivaite addition. The rule does not always hold good, for groups of seven and eight are sometimes Buddhistic and Brahmanic, respectively.]
[Footnote 26: Leumann, Rosaries.]
[Footnote 27: Friederich,; JRAS. viii. 157; ix. 59. The only established reference to Buddha on the part of Brahmanism, with the exception of late Pur[=a]nas of uncertain date, is after Kshemendra (1066 A.D.). Compare Holtzmann, s. Geschichte, p. 103.]
[Footnote 28: Na tat parasya sandadhy[=a]t pratik[=u]la[.m] yad [=a]tmanas. This is a favorite stanza in the epic, and is imitated in later literature (Sprüche, 3253, 6578, 6593).]
[Footnote 29: Burnell in the Indian Antiquary, second and following volumes; Swanston, JRAS. 1834; 1835; Germann, Die Kirche der Thomaschristen.]
[Footnote 30: Above, cited from Hardy.]
[Footnote 31: Some of the multitudinous subcastes occasionally focus about a religious principle to such an extent as to give them almost the appearance of religious devotees. Thus the Bhats and Ch[=a]rans are heralds and bards with the mixed faith of so many low-caste Hindus. But in their office of herald they have a religious pride, and, since in the present day they are less heralds than expressmen, they carry property with religious reverence, and are respected in their office even by robbers; for it this caste that do not hesitate to commit traga, that is, if an agreement which they have caused to be made between two parties is not carried out they will kill themselves and their families, with such religious effect that the guilt lies upon the offending party in the agreement, who expiates it by his own life. They are regarded as a sort of divine representative, and fed themselves to be so. A case reported from India in this year, 1894, shows that the feeling still exists. The herald slew his own mother in the presence of the defaulting debtor, who thereupon slew himself as his only expiation.]
[Footnote 32: As, for example, between the D[=a]d[=u] Panth[=i]s and the Jains in Ajmir and Jeypur. The last was a chief Digambara town, while Mathur[=a] (on the Jumna) was a Çret[=a]mbara station. For a possible survival of Buddhism, see below, p. 485, note.]
[Footnote 33: The Sarcadarça[n.]asa[=n.]graha of S[=a]yana (fourteenth century) and the Ça[=n.]kara-vijaya, or 'Conquest of Çankara.']
[Footnote 34: Thus the Dabist[=a]n enumerates as actual sects of the seventeenth century, 'moon-worshippers,' 'star-worshippers,' 'Agni-worshippers,' 'wind-worshippers,' 'water-worshippers,' 'earth-worshippers,' 'trip[=u]jas' (or worshippers of all the three kingdoms of nature), and 'worshippers of man' (manu[s.]yabhakt[=a]s), "who recognise the being of God in man, and know nothing more perfect than mankind" (ii. 12), a faith which, as we have shown, is professed in the Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata.]
[Footnote 35: Religious Thought and Life.]
[Footnote 36: The Kashmeer Çivaites claim Çankara as their teacher. The sect of Basava started in the south, Mysore. They have some trashy literature (legends, etc.) which they dignify by the name of Pur[=a]nas. Bühler has given an account of the Kashmeer school. For further details see Barth, pp. 184, 206.]
[Footnote 37: Brahmanism and Hinduism, p.62 ff. To this and to the same author's Thought and Life, we are indebted for many facts concerning the sects as they appear to-day, though much in these books is said after Wilson or other scholars, whose work is now common property, and calls for no further acknowledgment.]
[Footnote 38: It is, perhaps, necessary to keep repeating that Hindu monotheism does not exclude other gods which, at the hands of the one god, are reduced to sprites, angels, demons, etc. But it ought not to be necessary to insist on this, for an American monotheist that believes in angels and devils is the same sort of monotheist. The Hindu calls the angels 'gods' or 'divinities,' but they are only attendant hosts of the One.]
[Footnote 39: Some of the Çivaite sects are, indeed, Buddhistic in origin, a fact which raises the question whether Buddhism, instead of disappearing from India, was not simply absorbed; much as Unitarianism in New England has spent its vitality in modifying the orthodox creed. Thus the karma of Buddhism may still be working in the person of some modern Hindu sects. See the next note below.]
[Footnote 40: Most of the Yogi jugglers are Çivaites (when they are not Buddhistic), and to-day they share with the (Mohammedan) fakirs the honor of being not only ascetics but knaves. The juggler Yogi is, however, a figure of respectable antiquity. The magical tricks practiced on the epic heroes are doubtless a reflex of the current mesmerism, which deceives so cleverly to-day. We have shown above a Buddhistic strain of Mah[=a]tmaism in an early Buddhistic tract, and Barth, p. 213, suggests a Buddhistic origin for the K[=a]naph[=a]ts. See also Holtzmann, loc. cit. The deistic Yogis of Gorakhn[=a]th's sect are respectable enough (see an account of some of this sort in the Dabist[=a]n, II. 6), but they are of Buddhistic origin. The K[=a]naph[=a]ts of Kutch (Danodhar) were once a celibate brotherhood. JRAS. 1839, p. 268.]
[Footnote 41: See JAOS. xi. 272. To ascribe this verse to the 'older Manu' would be a grave slip on the part of a Sanskrit scholar.]
[Footnote 42: i. 1. 76.]
[Footnote 43: The Dabist[=a]n, without any animus, reports of the Ç[=a]ktas of the seventeenth century that "Çiva is, in their opinion, with little exception, the highest of the deities" (II. 7). Williams calls Ç[=a]ktaism "a mere offshoot of Çivaism" Religious Thought and Life, p. 184.]
[Footnote 44: The Dabist[=a]n rather assumes as a matter of course that a body of Yogis would kill and eat a boy of the Mohammedan faith (II. 12); but here the author may be prejudiced.]
[Footnote 45: The present sect of this name consists only of a few miserable mendicants, particularly savage and filthy (Wilson).]
[Footnote 46: All of them now represent Çakti, the female principle. Linga-worship has also its counterpart, Bhaga-worship (here Yoni), perhaps represented by the altar itself. Compare the Dabist[=a]n, II. 7, on the Çivaite interpretation of the Mohammedan altar. To Durga human beings were always sacrificed. After mentioning a gold idol of Durg[=a] (to whom men were sacrificed yearly), the author adds: "Even now they sacrifice in every village of the Kohistan of Nandapur and the country adjacent, a man of good family" (ib.). Durg[=a] {above, p. 416) is Vishnu's sister.]
[Footnote 47: The sexual antithesis, so unimportant in the earliest Aryan nature-hymns, becomes more and more pronounced in the liturgical hymns of the Rig Veda, and may be especially a trait of the older fire-cult in opposition to soma-cult (compare RV. X. 18. 7). At any rate it is significant that Yoni means the altar itself, and that in the fire-cult the production of fire is represented as resulting from the union of the male and female organs.]
[Footnote 48: Nevertheless the Brahmanic, and even the Hinduistic, law-codes condemn all intoxicating liquors except in religious service. To offer such drink to a man of the lower castes, even to a Ç[=u]dra, is punishable with a fine; but to offer intoxicating liquor to a priest is punishable with death (Vishnu, V. 100).]
[Footnote 49: Formerly performed by the Kar[=a]ris. "The
Ç[=a]ktas hold the killing of a man to be permitted,"
Dabist[=a]n, II. 7. "Among them it is a meritorious act to
sacrifice a man," ib.]
[Footnote 50: Hence the name of K[=a][=n]culiyas
[ka[=n]culi, a woman's garment).]
[Footnote 51: This has no parallel in Vishnuism except among some of the R[=a]dh[=a] devotees. Among the R[=a]dh[=a] Vallabh[=i]s the vulgarities of the Çivaites are quite equalled; and the assumption of women's attire by the Sakh[=i] Bh[=a]vas of Benares and Bengal ushers in rites as coarse if less bloody than those of the Çivaites.]
[Footnote 52: Of course each god of the male trinity has his Çakti, female principle. Thus Brahm[=a]'s Çakt[=i] is S[=a]vitr[=i] (in the epic), or Sarasvat[=i], or V[=a]c; that of Vishnu is Çr[=i], or Lakshm[=i], or R[=a]dh[=a]; that of Çiva is Um[=a], Durg[=a], K[=a]l[=i], etc. Together they make a female trinity (Barth, p. 199); So even the Vedic gods had their (later) wives, who, as in the case of S[=u]ry[=a], were probably only the female side of a god conceived of as androgynous, like Praj[=a]pat[=i] in the Brahmanic period.]
[Footnote 53: Historically, Thags, like Panj[=a]b, Santh[=a]ls, etc, is the more correct form, but phonetically the forms Thugs, Punj[=a]b, Sunth[=a]ls or Sonth[=a]ls, are correct, and [=a], the indeterminate vowel (like o in London), is generally transcribed by u or o (in Punj[=a]b, Nep[=a]l, the [=a] is pronounced very like au, and is sometimes written so, Punjaub, etc).]
[Footnote 54: The Jemidar, captain, gives the order to the Buttoat, strangler, who takes the rumal (yard of cotton) with a knot tied in the left end, and, holding his right hand a few inches further up, passes it from behind over the victim's head. As the latter falls the strangler's hands are crossed, and if done properly the Thugs say that "the eyes stand out of the head and life becomes extinct, before the body falls to the ground" (Notes on the 'Thags, Thugs, or Thegs,' by Lieutenant Reynolds; of whom Lieutenant-Colonel Smythe says that he knew more than any other European about the Thugs, 1836). The Buttoat received eight annas extra for his share. Each actor in the scene had a title; the victim was called Rosy. For their argot see the R[=a]maseeana.]
[Footnote 55: Thugs (defined as 'knaves' by Sherwood, more probably 'throttlers') must be distinguished from Decoits. The latter (Elphinstone, i. 384) are irreligious gangs, secretly bound together to sack villages. Peaceable citizens by day, the Decoits rise at night, attack a village, slay, torture, rob, and disappear before morning, 'melting into the population' and resuming honest toil. When the police are weak enough they may remain banded together; otherwise they are ephemerally honest and nocturnally assassins. The Thugs or Ph[=a]ns[=i]gars (ph[=a]ns[=i], noose) killed no women, invoked K[=a]li (as Jay[=i]), and attacked individuals only, whom the decoys, called Tillais, lured very cleverly to destruction. They never robbed without strangling first, and always buried the victim. They used to send a good deal of what they got to K[=a]li's temple, in a village near Mirz[=a]pur, where the establishment of priests was entirely supported by them. K[=a]li (or Bhav[=a]n[=i]) herself directed that victims should be strangled, not bled (so the Thug legend). Their symbol was a pick, emblem of the goddess, unto whom a religious ceremony was performed before and after the murder was committed. Local small bankers often acted as fence for them.]
[Footnote 56: This is called either
P[=u]rva-m[=i]m[=a]ms[=a] (Karma-m[=i]m[=a]ms[=a]) or simply
M[=i]m[=a]ms[=a].]
[Footnote 57: Or Ç[=a]r[=i]raka-m[=i]m[=a]msa, or
Brahma-m[=i]m[=a]ms[=a] (m[=i]m[=a][=m.]sa, reflexion,
philosophy).]
[Footnote 58: Kapila's system, usually known as the
S[=a]nkhya.]
[Footnote 59: And attributed to Pata[=n.]jali. Compare
Deussen, System des Ved[=a]nta, p. 20.]
[Footnote 60: Born In 788. But some scholars refer him to
the seventh century. See IA. xiii. 95; xvi. 41. His name, a
title of Çiva, indicates his nominal sect.]
[Footnote 61: For the meaning of Ved[=a]nta (whether 'end of
Veda,' or 'goal of Veda') compare Deussen, loc. cit. p. 3,
note (above, p. 253, note).]
[Footnote 62: The Supreme Spirit or All-Spirit is either purely non-dualistic or qualifiedly non-dualistic; in the latter event he is, says the sectary, identical with Vishnu, who may be represented either by Krishna or R[=a]ma (sub-sects). Pure non-duality (unconditioned [=a]tm[=a]) was taught by Çankara.]
[Footnote 63: Gough, Philosophy of the Upanishads.. Compare Williams, loc. cit. In our own view the unsystematic Upanishads teach both doctrines (above, p. 228, note).]
[Footnote 64: Before K[=a]m[=a]nuja it was taught by Ç[=a]ndilya that brahma (and the individual spirit) was conditioned, a doctrine supposed to be that of the old Bh[=a]gavatas or P[=a][.n]car[=a]tras; but this is quite uncertain. The Ç[=a]ndilyan chapter of the Ch[=a]ndogya Upanishad (above, p. 221) may be thus interpreted, vis, that the (conditioned) individual spirit is identical with brahma.]
[Footnote 65: Thibaut, Introduction to the Ved[=a]nta
S[=u]tras, SBE. XXXIV. p. XXXI; Deussen, System des
Ved[=a]nta, p.469.]
[Footnote 66: Philosophical illusion, m[=a]n[=a], appears
first in late Upanishads.]
[Footnote 67: The author of the Dabist[=a]n (seventeenth century) tells a Berkeleyan story in regard to Çankara's doctrine of illusion. His enemies wished to test his belief in his own philosophy; so they drove an elephant at him, on which the philosopher ran away. "Ho!" they jeered, "Did you not maintain that all was a mere illusion? Then an elephant is illusion. Yet you take to flight before it." "Yes," replied the philosopher, "all is illusion; there was no elephant, and there was no flight" (II. 4).]
[Footnote 68: The Sm[=a]rta (orthodox) Brahman believes, on the other hand, that Vishnu, Çiva, and Brahm[=a] are all mere forms of the Supreme [=A]lm[=a].]
[Footnote 69: If Mohammed were regarded as one with Allah
there would be an Occidental parallel to the Krishna and
R[=a]ma sects.]
[Footnote 70: Whether the Hindu trinitarianism derives from the Occident or not (the former view being historically probable, but not possible to prove) the importance of the dogma and its place in Hindu theology is very different to the condition of things in the Christian church. In India trinitarianism is merely a convenience in adjusting the claims of two heterodox sects and orthodoxy, each believer being willing to admit that the god of the other is his own god, only with the understanding that the last is a superior manifestation. In late Çivaism both Vishnu and Brahm[=a] are indeed called the 'sons of God' (Çiva). but in the sense that they are distinctly subordinate creatures of Çiva (JAOS. iv. 147).]
[Footnote 71: But some Hindus worship both Vishnu and Çiva without insisting that one is higher than the other. Moreover, there is a Mahratta sect of Vishnuites who complacently worship Buddha (Vishnu's ninth avatar) as Vi[t.]h[t.]hala or P[=a]ndura[.n]ga. These are simply eclectic, and their god is without or with quality. Buddha is here not a deceiver, but an instructor (JRAS. 1842, p. 66; IA. XI. 56, 149).]
[Footnote 72: The Çivaites, too, are divided on the questions both of predestination and of free grace. The greater body of them hold to the 'monkey doctrine'; the Paçupatas, to the 'cat.']
[Footnote 73: Sanskrit kal[=a], school (marka[t.]a-ny[=a]ya and m rj[=a]ra-ny[=a]ya). The Southern school has its own Veda written in Tamil. Williams, JRAS. xiv. 301. According to the same writer the Ten-galais hold that Vishnu's wife is finite, created, and a mediator; the Vada-galais, that she is infinite, and uncreated.]
[Footnote 74: All Vishnuites have the vertical sign;
Çivaites have a horizontal sign (on the forehead).]
[Footnote 75: Proceed. AOS. 1894, p. iii. The Vada-school
may be affected by Çivaism.]
[Footnote 76: A divine monkey appears in the Rig Veda, but
not as an object of devotion.]
[Footnote 77: The teachers of the Ramaites are generally Brahmans, but no disciples are excluded because of their caste. R[=a]m[=a]nuja adopted the monastic system, which Çankara is said to have taken from the Buddhists and to have introduced into Brahmanic priestly life. Both family priests and cenobites are admitted into his order.]
[Footnote 78: What the Linga is to Çivaite the Ç[=a]lagr[=a]ma is to the Vishnuite (who also reveres the tulas[=i] wood). The Ç[=a]lagr[=a]ma is a black pebble; the L[=i]nga is a white pebble or glass (Williams). The Çivaites have appropriated the d[=u]rv[=a] grass as sacred to Ganeça. Sesamum seeds and d[=u]rv[=a] are, however, Brahmanically holy. Compare Çat. Br. iv. 5-10, where d[=u]rv[=a] grass is even holier than kuça-grass. The rosaries used by the sects have been the subject of a paper by Leumann, and are described by Williams. Thirty-two or sixty-four berries of eleocapus ganitrus (rudr[=a]ksha) make the Çivaite rosary. That of the Vishnuite is made of lotus-seeds or of tuls[=a] wood in one hundred and eight pieces.]
[Footnote 79: For an account and list of the works of Tulas[=i]d[=a]s[=a] (Tuls[=i]d[=a]s), compare IA. xxii. 89, 122, 227. Jayadeva (twelfth century), the author of the G[=i]ta Govinda (translated by Jones, Lassen, and Ruckert), is sometimes reckoned falsely to the adherents of R[=a]m[=a]nand, but he is really a Krishnaite.]
[Footnote 80: The bhakti doctrine is that of the extant Ç[=a]ndilya S[=u]tras, which make faith and not works or knowledge a condition of salvation. They are modern, as Cowell, in his preface to the work, has shown. Cowell here identifies K[=a]çyapa with Ka[n.][=a]da, the V[=a]içeshika philosopher, his school holding that the individual spirits are infinite in number, distinct from the Supreme Spirit.]
[Footnote 81: The infant-cult is of course older than these sects. For an account of the ritual, as well as its intrusion into the earlier cult of the Pur[=a]nas, with the accompanying resemblances to Madonna-cult, and the new features (the massacre of the innocents, the birth in the stable, the three wise men, etc.) that show borrowing from Christianity, compare Weber's exhaustive treatise referred to above, the K[=r.][=s.][n.]ajanm[=a][=s.][=t.]am[=i], Krishna's Geburtsfest.]
[Footnote 82: Williams, loc. cit.]
[Footnote 83: 'Gosain' means shepherd, like Gop[=a]la. Some of the sects, like the Kart[=a]bh[=a]js, recognize only the Teacher as God. Williams states that in Bengal a fourth member has been added to this sect-trinity. On Dancing-girls see IA. XIII-165.]
[Footnote 84: The philosophical tenet of this sect 'pure adv[=a]ita' (non-duality) distinguishes it from the qualified duality taught by R[=a]m[=a]nuja. This is a reversion to Çankara. The C[=a]itanya sect teaches not absorption but individual existence in a heaven of sensuous (sensual) pleasure.]
[Footnote 85: "In the temples where the Mah[=a]r[=a]jas (priests) do homage to the idols men and women do homage to the Mah[=a]r[=a]jas…. The best mode of propitiating the god Krishna is by ministering to the sensual appetites of his vicars upon earth. Body and soul are literally made over to them, and women are taught to deliver up their persons to Krishna's representatives," Williams, loc. cit. p. 309.]
[Footnote 86: On these sects see Wilson, Hunter (Statistical Account), Williams, JRAS. xiv. 289. The festival verses in honor of the Madonna are: "Honor to thee, Devak[=i], who hast borne Krishna; may the goddess who destroys sin be satisfied, revered by me. Mother of God art thou, Adit[=i], destroying sin. I will honor thee as the gods honor thee," etc. (Weber, Janm[=a][s.][t.]am[=i], p. 286). The birth-day celebration is not confined to Krishnaites; but in the R[=a]ma sect, though they celebrate the birth, they do not represent the man-god as a suckling. In other respects this feast is imitated from that of Krishna (Weber, p. 310, note). The R[=a]macandra celebration takes place in the spring. The birth-day of Ganeça is also celebrated by the Çivaites (in August-September).]
[Footnote 87: He himself claimed to be an incarnate god. He adopted the qualified non-duality of R[=a]m[=a]nuja. See Williams' account of him and of the two great temples of the sect, loc. cit.]
[Footnote 88: From Williams, loc. cit. p. 291 ff. The three qualities (sometimes interpreted as activity, purity, and indifference) are met with for the first time in the Atharva Veda, where are found the Vedantic 'name' and 'form' also; Muir, v. p. 309. The three qualities that condition the idealist Vedantist's personal Lord in his causal body are identical with those that constitute the 'nature,' prak[=r.]ti, of the S[=a]nkhya dualist.]
[Footnote 89: Among the Vallabhas (above, p. 505). The
Teacher is the chief god of most of the Vallabhas (Barth, p.
235}. For the Vi[t.]h[t.]hal view of caste see 1A. XI.152.]
[Footnote 90: It is true of other sectaries also, Ramaites and Çivaites, that the mere repetition of their god's name is a means of salvation.]
[Footnote 91: Now chiefly in the South. The Dabist[=a]n gives several divisions of sun-worshippers. For more details see Barth, p. 258. Apollonius of Tyana saw a sun-temple at Taxila, JRAS. 1859, p. 77.]
[Footnote 92: More direct than in the form of Vishnu, who at first is merely the sun. Of the relation with Iranian sun-worship we have spoken above.]
[Footnote 93: They brand themselves with the Vishnu-mark, are generally high-caste, live in monasteries, and profess celibacy. They are at most unknown in the North. They are generally known by their founder's name, but are also called Brahma-Samprad[=a]yins, 'Brahma-adherents.']
[Footnote 94: So the P[=a]çupata doctrine is that the individual spirit is different to the supreme lord and also to matter (p[=a]ça, the fetter that binds the individual spirit, paçu, and keeps it from its Lord, paçupat[=i]). The fact is that every sectary is more a monotheist than a pantheist. Especially is this true of the Çivaite. The supreme is to him Çiva.]
[Footnote 95: Wilson gives a full account of this sect in the As[=i]atick Researches, xvi, p. 100.]
[Footnote 96: Of the Kab[=i]r Panth[=i]s Wilson says: "It is no part of their faith to worship any Hindu deity." A glance at the Dabist[=a]n will preclude the possibility of claiming much originality for the modern deism of India. This work was written in 1645, and its Persian author describes, as a matter of every-day occurrence, religious debates between 'Jews, Nazarines, Mussulmen, and Hindus,' who meet more to criticise than to examine, but yet to hear explained in full the doctrines of their opponents, in just such tourneys of argument as we showed to be popular among the priests of the Upanishads and epic. Speaking of the Vedas, the author says that every one derives from them arguments in favor of his own creed, whether it be philosophical, mystical, unitarian, atheistic, Judaic, or Christian. Dabist[=a]n, vol. II, p. 45.]
[Footnote 97: Before election the Guru must be examined. If the faithful are not satisfied, they may reject him. but, having elected him, they are bound to obey him implicitly. He can excommunicate, but he may not punish corporally. This deification of the Guru was retained by the Sikhs, and the office was made hereditary among them (by Arjun), till Govind, the tenth pontiff, who left no successor, declared that after his death the Granth (bible) should be the sole authority of the church.]
[Footnote 98: The 'half' contributor was a woman, and hence was not reckoned as a complete unit.]
[Footnote 99: The word Sikh means 'disciple' (of N[=a]nak). The name the Sikhs assumed as a nation was Singhs (si[.m]has), 'Lions of the Punj[=a]b.']
[Footnote 100: The 'true name,' sat n[=a]m, is the
appellation of God.]
[Footnote 101: JRAS. 1846, p. 43, Prinsep's compilation
(Wilson). Compare Trumpp, ib. V. 197 (1871); and
[=A]digranth, 1877.]
[Footnote 102: This sect was founded by a descendant of
N[=a]nak.]
[Footnote 103: It was not till Mohammedan persecution influenced them that the religious Sikhs of N[=a]nak became the political haters and fighters of Govind.]
[Footnote 104: It is said that Govind sacrificed to Durg[=a] the life of one of his own disciples to prepare himself for his ministry. Trumpp, [=A]digranth; Barth, p. 204. The lives of the later Gurus will be found in Elphinstone's history and Prinsep's sketch (a résumé by Barth, p. 248 ff.).]
[Footnote 105: With some small verbal alterations.]
[Footnote 106: The conclusion of this extract shows the narrower polemic spirit: "Pundits and Q[=a]z[=i]s are fools. What avails it to collect a heap of books? Let your minds freely meditate on the spirit of God. Wear not away your lives by studying the Vedas."]
[Footnote 107: For the data of the following paragraphs on the deistic reformers of to-day we are indebted to an article of Professor Williams, which first appeared in the thirteenth volume of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, and has since been published in the same author's Brahmanism and Hinduism.]
[Footnote 108: Born in 1818.]
[Footnote 109: ekam[=a]tr[=a]dvit[=i]ya (masculine); with this form contrast below, in the Br[=a]hma Dharma (religion) of Debendran[=a]th, the neuter ekam ev[=a]dvit[=i]yam. The only God of the first Sam[=a]j; is a person; that of the reform is exoterically Nature.]
[Footnote 110: But, as will be noticed in the four articles (which are in part a compilation of phrases from the Upanishads) the personality of Brahm[=a] is not insisted on for the outer church. For this reason, although the inner church doubtless understands It as He, yet this neuter should be preserved in the translation. The articles are so drawn up as to enable any deist to subscribe (without Vedantic belief as a condition of acceptance) to the essential creed of the Congregation. One or two sentences in the original will reveal at a glance the origin of the phraseology: brahma (being) v[=a] ekam idam-agra [=a]s[=i]t; tad ida[.m] sarvam as[r.]jal; tad eva nityam, ekam ev[=a]dvit[=i]yam; tasmia pr[=i]tis … tadup[=a]sanam. Compare Ch[=a]ndogya Upanishad: sad (being) idam agra [=a]s[=i]d ekam ev[=a]dvit[=i]yam; and the V[=a]jasaney[=i]-Br[=a]hmana Upanishad: brahma v[=a] idam-agra [=a]s[=i]t, etc.]
[Footnote 111: It is interesting to see this fervor, or ecstatic delirium, surviving from the time of the Rig Veda, where already (albeit only in the latest hymns, which are quite Brahmanic) flourishes the mad muni: and fervid ascetism ('heat,'tapas) begins to appear as a means of salvation. RV. x. 109, 136.]
[Footnote 112: "I regard myself as Christ and C[=a]itanya," reported by Sen's own missionary as the words of the former. Sen's disciples deny some of these assertions, but they seem to be substantiated, and Sen's own language shows that he claimed miraculous powers. Compare the discussions on this point, JRAS. xiii. 281 ff.]
[Footnote 113: This was afterwards excused on the ground that the marriage would not have been legal without these rites. But Sen presumably was aware of this in advance. From the performance of the rites he had the decency to absent himself. It should be said, however, in Sen's behalf, that the marriage itself had nothing revolting about it, and though in consenting to it Sen violated his faith, as is evident from the protest of the Sam[=a]j, yet was the marriage not an extreme case of child-marriage, for both the 'children' were sixteen. Sen's own excuse (he thought excuse necessary) was that he was inspired when he consented to the nuptials.]
[Footnote 114: The theistic tendency in the Hindu mind is so exaggerated that even now it is with the greatest difficulty that the vulgar can be restrained from new idolatry. Not only priests, but even poets are regarded as gods. Jñ[=a]ndev and Tuk[=a]r[=a]m, the hymn-makers of the Mahratta Vi[t.]h[t.]hals, are demi-gods to-day (IA. xi. 56. 149). A few striking examples are almost requisite to make an Occidental reader understand against what odds the deism of India has to contend. In 1830 an impudent boy, who could train snakes, announced that he could also work miracles. The boy was soon accepted as Vishnu's last avatar; hymns, abhangs, were sung to him, and he was worshipped as a god even after his early demise (from a snake-bite). A weaver came soon after to the temple, where stood the boy's now vacant shrine, and fell asleep there at night. In the morning he was perplexed to find himself a god. The people had accepted him as their snake-conquering god in a new form. The poor weaver denied his divinity, but that made no difference. In 1834 the dead boy-god was still receiving flowers and prayers. Another case: In the eighties some Englishmen on entering a temple were amazed to see revered as an avatar of Vishnu the brass castings of the arms of the old India Co. This god was washed and anointed daily. Even a statue of Buddha (with the inscription still upon it) was revered as Vishnu. In 1880 a meteorite fell in Beh[=a]r. In 1882 its cult was fully established, and it was worshipped as the 'miraculous god.' A Mohammedan inscription has also been found deified and regularly worshipped as a god, JRAS. 1842, p. 109; 1884, pt. III, pp. I, LIX.]