Volume 1 — CHAPTER XVII. (continued 2)

[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.]

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